Sylvia's face went dead white for an instant, and then lighted up with that wonderful inner radiance that made her seem like a glowing lamp.

"Am I?" she gasped faintly, catching hold of Hinpoha's arm with tense fingers.

"You certainly are," said Hinpoha, in a convincing tone. "Nyoda said you could be cured. The specialist is coming in a day or two to arrange the operation. O dear, now I've told it!" she exclaimed. "We were going to save it for a birthday surprise."

"Oh-h-h-h!" breathed Sylvia, and sank back in her chair unable to say another word. Her eyes burned like stars. To walk again! Not to be a burden to Aunt Aggie! The sudden joy that surged through her nearly suffocated her. To walk! Perhaps to dance! The desire to dance had always been so strong in her that it sometimes seemed to her that she must die if she couldn't dance. All the joy that was coming to her whirled before her eyes in a wild kaleidoscope of shifting images.

"Then I can be a Camp Fire Girl!"

"You're going to be a Winnebago!"

"Oh-h-h!"

"You can go camping with us!"

"Oh-h-h!"

"You will be a singer, and go on the stage, maybe!"

"Oh-h-h-h-h-h!"

"Maybe you'll even--" Hinpoha's sentence was suddenly interrupted by a mighty uproar from the bas.e.m.e.nt. First came a crash that rocked the house, followed by a series of lesser thumps and crashes, mingled with the racket of breaking gla.s.s. The Winnebagos, rushing out into the hall from Uncle Jasper's study, were brushed aside by Sherry and Justice and the Captain, tearing down the attic stairs. Sherry s.n.a.t.c.hed up his revolver from his dresser and went down the stairs three at a time, with the boys close at his heels.

"The burglars are in the bas.e.m.e.nt!" came from the frightened lips of the girls as they crept fearfully down the stairs. All felt that the mystery of the footprints on the stairs was about to be cleared up.

Sherry opened the cellar door and paused at the top. "Who's down there?"

he called, in a voice of thunder.

From somewhere below came a dismal wail. "Throw me a plank, somebody, I'm drowning. There's a tidal wave down here!"

"It's Slim!" cried Nyoda, recognizing his voice. "What's the matter?" she called.

She and Sherry raced down the cellar stairs, with the Winnebagos and the two boys streaming after.

They found Slim lying on the floor of the fruit cellar, nearly drowned in a pool of vinegar which was gushing over him from the wreck of a two-hundred-gallon barrel lying beside him. Around him and on top of him lay the debris of a shelf of canned fruit.

Sherry and the boys rescued him and finally succeeded in convincing him that he was not fatally injured. The stream of vinegar was diverted into a nearby drain, and Slim told his tale of woe.

He had been down in the cellar looking for the secret pa.s.sage. There was a place in the stone wall that sounded hollow when he struck it with a hammer, and he went around to see what was on the other side of that wall. It was the fruit cellar. While he was poking around in it a big stone suddenly fell down out of the wall and smashed in the head of the barrel, which tipped over almost on top of him, and nearly drowned him in vinegar, while the jars of fruit came down all around him.

"That loose stone in the wall!" exclaimed Sherry. "I forgot to warn you boys about it when you were sounding the walls with hammers. It's a mighty good thing it fell on the barrel and not on you."

He and Nyoda turned cold at the thought of what might have happened.

But the sight of Slim, dripping with vinegar and covered with canned peaches, drove all thoughts of tragedy out of their minds, and the cellar resounded with peals of helpless laughter for the next twenty minutes.

Justice tried to sweep up the broken gla.s.s, but sank weakly into a bin of potatoes and went from one convulsion into another, until the Captain finally poured a dipper of water over him to calm him down.

"O dear," gasped Justice, mopping his face with the end of a potato bag, "if Uncle Jasper could only have seen what he started with that diary of his, it would have jolted him clean out of his melancholy!"

CHAPTER X THE SECRET Pa.s.sAGE

"Oh, tell Aunt Aggie I think the Winter Palace is the most wonderful place in the whole world!" cried Sylvia enthusiastically. "Tell her that the ladies-in-waiting are the dearest that ever lived, and the three court jesters are the funniest. Tell her I'm so happy I feel as though I were going to burst! And be _sure_ and tell her that I'm going to get well!"

Sylvia had not been able to conceal her rapture for a minute after Hinpoha had told her the news the day before. They all knew she knew it, and when they saw her rapture they did not scold Hinpoha for letting the cat out of the bag before the time set. To have given her those two extra days of happiness was worth the sacrifice of their surprise. All morning she had filled the house with her song and chattered happily of the time when she would go camping with the Winnebagos.

"We've made more plans than we can carry out in a hundred years!" she told Nyoda gleefully. "Oh, _please_ live that long, so you can help us do all we've planned." Nyoda smiled back into the starry eyes, and promised faithfully to live forever, if need be, to accommodate her.

"I'll give Aunt Aggie all your messages," she said now, stopping in the act of drawing on her gloves to pat the shining head.

"You're _so_ good to go and see Aunt Aggie!"

Nyoda patted her on the head again and then started cityward with her big box of delicacies for Mrs. Deane. With her went Migwan and Gladys and Hinpoha, who wanted to do some shopping in the city.

Sahwah and Katherine refused to give up their search for the pa.s.sage even for one afternoon. Sahwah had an idea that possibly there was a secret door in the back of one of the built-in bookcases in the library, and had Nyoda's permission to take out all the books and look. Justice and Slim and the Captain had promised to help take out the books. Sylvia was wheeled into the library where she could watch the proceedings, and the work of removing the books began. Sherry looked on for a while and then went out to tinker with the car.

Section by section they took the books from the cases and examined the wall behind them, but it was apparently solid. Sahwah and the Captain worked faithfully, taking out the books and replacing them, but Katherine would stop to read, and Slim soon fell asleep with his head against the seat of a chair. Justice spied Slim after a while and began to throw magazines at him. Slim wakened with an indignant grunt and returned the volley and then the two engaged in a good-natured wrestling bout.

"I know a new trick," said Justice. "It's for handling a fellow twice your size. A j.a.panese fellow down in Washington taught it to me. Let me practice it on you, will you? You're the first one I've seen since I learned it who was so much heavier than I."

Slim consented amiably enough and Justice proceeded with a series of operations that rolled his big antagonist around on the floor like a meal sack.

"Don't make so much noise, boys!" commanded Katherine, putting a warning finger to her lips. "Don't you see that Sylvia has fallen asleep? Go on out into the hall and do your wrestling tricks out there."

Slim and Justice removed themselves to the hall and continued their wrestling, and the Captain abandoned the books to watch them and cheer them on.

"Bet you can't back him all the way up the stairway!" said the Captain, as Justice forced Slim up the first step.

"Bet I can!" replied Justice, and then began a terrific struggle, science against bulk. Slim fought every inch of the way, but, nevertheless, went up steadily, step by step. Sahwah and Katherine, drawn by the Captain's admiring exclamations at Justice's feat, also abandoned the books and came out to watch.

Justice got Slim as far as the landing, and there Slim got his arms wound around the stair post and anch.o.r.ed himself effectively. One step above the landing was as far as Justice could get him. Justice leaned over him and tried another trick to break his grip on the post and the two were see-sawing back and forth when suddenly the Captain gave a yell that made Justice loosen his hold on Slim and ask in a scared voice, "What's the matter?"

"The landing!" gasped the Captain. "Look at the landing!"

Justice looked, and the others looked, and they all stood speechless with amazement, for the stair landing was doing something that they had never in all their born days seen a stair landing do before. It was sliding out of its place, sliding out over the bottom flight of stairs as smoothly and silently as though on oiled wheels. The five stood still and blinked stupidly at the phenomenon, unable to believe their eyes. The landing came out until there was a gap of about two feet between it and the wall, and then noiselessly came to a stop. In the opening thus made they could see the top of an iron ladder set upright against the wall below.

Sahwah rallied her stunned senses first. "The secret pa.s.sage!" she cried triumphantly.

"Daggers and dirks!" exclaimed the Captain.

"What made it open up?" asked Katherine curiously. "Where is the spring that works it?"

Justice and the Captain shook their heads.

"The post!" exclaimed Slim, mopping the perspiration from his brow. "I was pulling at it for dear life when all of a sudden something clicked inside of it. Then the Captain yelled that the stair landing was coming out. The spring that works it is in the landing post!"