儿童英语读物 Disappearing Staircase Mystery CHAPTER 8 The Disappearing Staircase Appears

The Aldens tiptoed into the hallway behind Henry. They stood under the secret ceiling panel.



Jessie beamed her flashlight upward. “Hey look. Whoever was up here didn’t close the panel all the way. It’s hanging open partway. I think we can reach it from the stepladder. Bring it over.”



Jessie was right. Even though she was two inches shorter than Henry, she easily reached the knob from the top of the stepladder. The panel made a springy sound and came down a couple of feet. “All I have to do is unfold the steps the rest of the way,” Jessie said, doing just that.



Henry caught the steps before they landed on the floor. He didn’t want to make any extra noise.



The disappearing staircase filled the hallway. The Aldens got in line, eager to go up.



“I’ll stay down here to keep a lookout 1 in case that person comes back,” Henry said. “We could solve two mysteries at the same time—finding some missing treasures and whoever knows about them. Good luck.”



As Henry stood by, the other children carefully climbed the wooden steps.



“I hope this attic 2 is filled with treasures,” Violet whispered when she reached the top step.



Violet wasn’t disappointed. “There’s another playroom above the nursery! Only smaller,” she said in a whisper.



The children flashed their flashlights around the room. The child-sized space had low ceilings and shelves. Everywhere their flashlight beams landed, the children saw toys—heaps of them. Beautiful old dolls and stuffed animals stared back at the Aldens from the shelves. Toy trucks, wagons 4, old-fashioned roller skates, and even a train track filled another side of the room.



“Wow, that train set is huge!” Benny said in a loud whisper. “Too bad the electricity isn’t on to make all those train cars go around.”



Jessie opened the doors of a cabinet. “Look! More old trucks—lots of them,” she said.



Violet and Soo Lee went over to a large dollhouse displayed on its own special table.



“It’s a miniature model of the Bugbee House,” Violet said in her soft voice, “only the way it must have looked when the Bugbee children lived here. It even has a secret playroom just like the one we’re standing 5 in.”



The Aldens gathered around the dollhouse. It was completely furnished right down to many of the very toys the children could see in the actual playroom. For a few seconds, no one spoke 6. The dollhouse, all furnished and complete with a family of little plastic people, looked like such a happy place. To the Aldens, the real Bugbee House now seemed empty and sad.



Jessie noticed something else about the dollhouse. “Look. There’s a tiny skylight just like the one we saw where the tree branch fell down.”



The children looked up at the playroom ceiling.



“But there’s no skylight in here,” Violet said. “In the dollhouse, the skylight is in a different space—in a room that’s behind the third-floor bathroom.”



“You’re right, Violet,” Jessie said. “But I didn’t notice any other entrances in the bathroom before. We’d better go back and check.”



“Oh, dear, one other thing.” Violet pointed 3 to something else in the dollhouse. “Look, there’s a miniature music box in the dollhouse playroom with a tiny bear on it! Maybe that means…” She turned around to face the actual shelf in the actual playroom.



“My music box!” she said in an excited whisper. She picked it up. “It’s the very one I bid on. There’s even a price sticker on it.”



“Then take it,” said Jessie. “We’ll tell Mabel we found it after all, then you can pay for it. We have to let her know about this room and all these valuable old toys. Whoever was up here is keeping it a secret, so it’s up to us to tell her.”



Violet picked up the music box with the dancing bear. “I won’t play it right now. Someone might hear the music just like we did. I wonder who was up here.”



“That’s what we need to find out.”



The children took one last look around the hidden playroom. Then, one by one, they climbed down the disappearing staircase to the bottom, where Henry was still keeping a lookout.



“Okay,” he said after everyone was back down in the hallway again. “Let’s push these stairs back up into the ceiling. Benny and Soo Lee, you two be my lookouts 7 in case anyone comes up here.” Henry folded the steps, then gave the panel a firm push. “Abracadabra. Staircase, disappear.” And so it did!



“Violet has something special to show you,” Jessie whispered to Henry.



“The attic up there is really a secret playroom full of old toys,” Violet explained to Henry. “Somebody hid my music box there.”



“Wow!” Henry said. “So it was stolen.”



“Just like I said,” Benny cried, excited about that idea.



The children examined the music box but didn’t play it. They weren’t taking any chances.



“It must be valuable,” Jessie said. “Otherwise, why did someone go to all the bother of hiding it up in the hidden playroom?”



“What I wonder is, who knows about that playroom?” Henry asked.



“A person with big, wet feet,” Soo Lee answered.



The children tried not to laugh too hard.



“That could be a lot of people in this house tonight. If I get a chance, I’d like to go up there and look around another time,” Henry said. “Well, at least we figured out where the skylight is.”



Jessie smacked 8 her forehead. “Wait! We were so excited about finding Violet’s music box, we almost forgot to tell you: The skylight isn’t in the playroom at all. We think there’s a hidden space behind the bathroom.”



Henry couldn’t get over this. “Wow! Well, I guess you’re too tired to go looking around for it, right, guys?” he asked Soo Lee and Benny.



“I’m not too tired,” Benny whispered right back.



Henry laughed. “Just kidding. Let’s go.”



By now the Aldens knew where all the squeaky parts of the floor were. They reached the bathroom without so much as a creak.



“There’s the linen 9 closet,” Jessie said. “I don’t see any openings or anything in here, though.”



“Maybe the secret room was blocked off a long time ago.” Henry pushed hard on the wall behind the shelves. Nothing budged 10. “Hey, Soo Lee, what are you doing?”



Soo Lee, the shortest Alden, saw something the other children had missed. Looking straight ahead, she pointed below the shelf right at her eye level. “Look, Henry. There’s a little door under this shelf. You have to be little like me and Benny to see it.”



Henry crouched 11 down. “Good job, Soo Lee.” He lifted the two bottom shelves. “They aren’t attached. Now we can get through that door easier, even though it’s only about three feet tall. Ready?”



By this time, Benny planted himself right by Soo Lee. “Can I look—I mean, after Soo Lee gets her turn?”



Soo Lee backed away. “You can go first, Benny. Then me.”



Benny had to stoop down a little to open the door. He pushed it gently just a crack.



“What do you see?” Henry asked.



“There’s a room full of boxes and stuff,” he said. “And it’s got a skylight, just like in the dollhouse. Uh-oh.” He backed out suddenly.



Benny put his finger to his lips. “Shhh.” He pulled the door gently to close it. He pointed to the bathroom door.



The Aldens went into the hallway where they could talk.



“What did you see?” Jessie whispered. “Did someone come?”



“Mr. Gardiner! He’s in there,” Benny whispered. “He was putting things into cardboard boxes, but I couldn’t tell what.”



“One thing we need to find out,” Henry said, “is how George got into that room. Did you notice an exit in the dollhouse room?”



Jessie shook her head no. Then she had a thought. “Maybe the passageway came later—after someone built the dollhouse.”



“There’s another way to get into that room, and it has something to do with the garage,” Henry said. “We just haven’t figured it out yet.”