this line.

"We talked that all over before. Good-by! I'm off! I've got the candle
lit." Cynthia suddenly surrendered.

"Oh, wait, wait! I'm coming!" She adopted Joyce's mode of ingress, but
found it scarcely as easy as it looked, and her feet swung in space,
groping wildly for the steps described.

"I'm stuck! I can't move! Oh, why am I so fat and clumsy!" she moaned.
Joyce laughed, placed her companion's feet on a ledge, and hauled her
down, breathless, cobwebby, and thoroughly scared.

[Illustration: A flight of stairs could be dimly discerned]

The lighted candle threw but a feeble illumination on the big, bare
space they stood in. The beams overhead were thick with cobwebs hanging
like gray portieres from every projection. Otherwise the inclosure was
clear except for a few old farm implements in a distant corner. As Joyce
raised the candle over her head, a flight of stairs could be dimly
discerned.

"This way!" she ordered, and they moved toward it cautiously. At that
moment, there came from behind them a sudden scratching and scrambling,
and then a thud. Both girls uttered a low, frightened shriek and clung
together. But it was only Goliath, disturbed in his hiding-place. They
turned in time to see him clambering through the window.

"Joyce, this is horrid!" gasped Cynthia. "My heart is beating like a
trip-hammer. Let's go back."

"It's lovely!" chuckled Joyce. "It's what I've always longed for. I
feel like Christopher Columbus! I wouldn't go back now for worlds! And
to think we've neglected such a mystery at our front doors, as you might
say, all these years!" And she dragged the protesting Cynthia toward the
cellar stairs.

CHAPTER II

IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE

They stumbled up the cellar steps, their eyes growing gradually used to
the semi-darkness. At the top was a shut door which refused to be moved,
and they feared for a moment that failure awaited them in this early
period of the voyage of discovery. But after some vigorous pushing and
rattling, it gave with an unexpected jerk, and they were landed
pell-mell into a dark hallway.

"Now," declared Joyce, "this is the beginning of something interesting,
I hope!" Cynthia said nothing, having, indeed, much ado to appear calm
and hold herself from making a sudden bolt back to the cellar window.
With candle held high, Joyce proceeded to investigate their
surroundings. They seemed to be in a wide, central hall running through
the house from fr