CHAPTER XXXI THE SECRET ROOM

“What shall we do?”

“Let’s run!”

“Oh, if—the boys were only here!”

Thus three voices whispered. Natalie was so busy listening at the chimney, turning her head this way and that, to better catch the sound that came down the flue, that she did not speak.

“Girls, be sensible!” commanded Mrs. Bonnell in a low voice. “It isn’t anything but the wind in the chimney.”

“It is not the wind,” said Natalie, softly. “Listen!”

Overcoming their natural eerie¹ fears the Camp Fire Girls did listen. The sobbing² was fainter now.

“Girls!” exclaimed Natalie firmly, seeming to become imbued³ with a new courage, “that’s some poor creature in trouble. We’ve got to help!”

“But—but suppose it’s one of those criminals,” suggested Alice, giving a glance over her shoulder.

“Criminals don’t cry—that way,” declared Natalie. “They aren’t sorry enough to cry—until after they’re arrested.”

“But how can we help this—this person when he is up the chimney?” asked Mabel.

“How do you know it’s a ‘he’?” asked Marie.

“Well, call it the ghost, then,” admitted Mabel. “How are we going to rescue the ghost from the chimney.”

“It isn’t in the chimney,” went on Natalie, who seemed to have assumed charge of matters. “Only the sound comes down that way. I understand it all now. The secret room is near the chimney. The ghost is in the secret room.”

“She will have that secret room!” murmured Marie.

“There is some poor person in trouble,” went on Natalie. “Maybe he fell and sprained⁴ its ankle and she can’t walk, just as I did.”

“Oh, what a beautiful mixture of personal pronouns!” laughed Alice, and the laugh seemed to relieve the strain on the nerves of all of them. “Well, Nat, what are your plans?”

“We must find that secret room.”

“Yes; but how?”

“Listen, girls. It must be near the chimney. Probably some stovepipe hole leads into this flue, and the draught⁵ carried the sound downward. All we have to do is to make another search upstairs near where the chimney passes through.”

“Simple as a problem in geometry,” murmured Alice, who detested⁶ the study. “Lead on, Nat!”

“Will you come?” asked breath-of-the-pine-tree, looking at her companions.

“Well, I suppose it might be some one in trouble,” agreed Mrs. Bonnell. “But— Oh, well, I guess there are enough of us,” and she picked up from the floor a stout⁷ cudgel. “We had better arm ourselves,” she added. “There may be——”

“Rats!” broke in Marie.

“She is fined a pound of candy for saying that!” exclaimed Natalie. “Come on,” and she led the way.

Now that they had some definite plan of searching they felt more assured of success. There were two upper stories to the old mill, but the girls had given only a casual glance around the third one, as it was so dark and gloomy that they did not fancy remaining in it. Now it became practically certain that, if there was a secret room, it would be on the third floor, for a look around the place where the big chimney passed through the second floor, showed that there was no room for a hidden recess⁸.

“We’ve got to go up there,” said Natalie firmly, as they came to a pause at the foot of the second flight of stairs.

“Hark!” cautioned Marie.

As they listened they heard again the sound of the crying voice.

“Who is there?” called Mrs. Bonnell sharply.

There was no answer.

Natalie said afterward⁹ that she did not know how she got the courage to do it, but she started up the stairs, and the others, after a moment of hesitation¹⁰, followed. Natalie hurried on. She saw a small window, through which the light streamed, filtering in between cracks in the ancient shutter¹¹.

With the stick she carried, she shoved this back, letting in a beam of sunlight. There was a flutter of wings, and something flew around the heads of the Camp Fire Girls.

“Oh!” screamed Mabel and Alice.

“They are only bats!” called Mrs. Bonnell.

“Oh, but if they get in our hair!” murmured Mabel, crouching¹² down.

“It’s gone out of the window,” the Guardian¹³ assured them.

Natalie was busily scanning the wall near the chimney. The girls stole to her side.

“Listen!” commanded Natalie in a whisper.

Faintly they heard a moan. It seemed to come from inside the big chimney. Natalie took a step toward it. Her eyes roved over the ancient paneling. One section seemed to be darker colored than the rest.

Natalie pressed on this, hardly knowing why, for it bore no semblance¹⁴ to a door. But she nearly stumbled and fell as the panel unexpectedly gave way, and there was disclosed the secret room they had been looking for.

1 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

2 sobbing   

<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的

参考例句：

• I heard a child sobbing loudly. 我听见有个孩子在呜呜地哭。
• Her eyes were red with recent sobbing. 她的眼睛因刚哭过而发红。

3 imbued   

v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等）

参考例句：

• Her voice was imbued with an unusual seriousness. 她的声音里充满着一种不寻常的严肃语气。
• These cultivated individuals have been imbued with a sense of social purpose. 这些有教养的人满怀着社会责任感。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 sprained   

v.&n. 扭伤

参考例句：

• I stumbled and sprained my ankle. 我摔了一跤，把脚脖子扭了。
• When Mary sprained her ankles, John carried her piggyback to the doctors. 玛丽扭伤了足踝，约翰驮她去看医生。

5 draught   

n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计

参考例句：

• He emptied his glass at one draught.他将杯中物一饮而尽。
• It's a pity the room has no north window and you don't get a draught.可惜这房间没北窗，没有过堂风。

6 detested   

v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They detested each other on sight. 他们互相看着就不顺眼。
• The freethinker hated the formalist; the lover of liberty detested the disciplinarian. 自由思想者总是不喜欢拘泥形式者，爱好自由者总是憎恶清规戒律者。 来自辞典例句

8 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

9 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

10 hesitation   

n.犹豫，踌躇

参考例句：

• After a long hesitation, he told the truth at last.踌躇了半天，他终于直说了。
• There was a certain hesitation in her manner.她的态度有些犹豫不决。

11 shutter   

n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置

参考例句：

• The camera has a shutter speed of one-sixtieth of a second.这架照像机的快门速度达六十分之一秒。
• The shutter rattled in the wind.百叶窗在风中发出嘎嘎声。

12 crouching   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• a hulking figure crouching in the darkness 黑暗中蹲伏着的一个庞大身影
• A young man was crouching by the table, busily searching for something. 一个年轻人正蹲在桌边翻看什么。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

13 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

14 semblance   

n.外貌，外表

参考例句：

• Her semblance of anger frightened the children.她生气的样子使孩子们感到害怕。
• Those clouds have the semblance of a large head.那些云的形状像一个巨大的人头。