The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene Page A

Drew.”
    The girl detective picked up the receiver and said, “Hello.” The caller was Helen Corning and her voice sounded frantic.
    “Oh, Nancy, something dreadful has happened here! You must come home at once!”
    “What it it?” Nancy cried out, but Helen had already put down the instrument at her end.
    Nancy told Captain Rossland of the urgent request and said she must leave at once.
    “Let me know if you need the police,” the officer called after her.
    “Thank you, I will.”
    Nancy drove to Twin Elms as fast as the law allowed. As she pulled up in front of the house, she was startled to see a doctor’s car there. Someone had been taken ill!
    Helen met her friend at the front door. “Nancy,” she said in a whisper, “Miss Flora may have had a heart attack!”
    “How terrible!” Nancy said, shocked. “Tell me all about it.”
    “Dr. Morrison wants Miss Flora to go to the hospital right away, but she refuses. She says she won’t leave here.”
    Helen said that the physician was still upstairs attending her great-grandmother.
    “When did she become ill?” Nancy asked. “Did something in particular bring on the attack?”
    Helen nodded. “Yes. It was very frightening. Miss Flora, Aunt Rosemary, and I were in the kitchen talking about supper. They wanted to have a special dish to surprise you, because they knew you were dreadfully upset.”
    “That was sweet of them,” Nancy remarked. “Please go on, Helen.”
    “Miss Flora became rather tired and Aunt Rosemary suggested that she go upstairs and lie down. She had just started up the stairway, when, for some unknown reason, she turned to look back. There, in the parlor, stood a man!”
    “A caller?” Nancy questioned.
    “Oh, no!” Helen replied. “Miss Flora said he was an ugly, horrible-looking person. He was unshaven and his hair was kind of long.”
    “Do you think he was the ghost?” Nancy inquired.
    “Miss Flora thought so. Well, she didn’t scream. You know, she’s really terribly brave. She just decided to go down and meet him herself. And then, what do you think?”
    “I could guess any number of things,” Nancy replied. “What did happen?”
    Helen said that when Mrs. Turnbull had reached the parlor, no one was in it! “And there was no secret door open.”
    “What did Miss Flora do then?” Nancy asked.
    “She fainted.”
    At this moment a tall, slender, gray-haired man, carrying a physician’s bag, walked down the stairs to the front hall. Helen introduced Nancy to him, then asked about the patient.
    “Well, fortunately, Miss Flora is going to be all right,” said Dr. Morrison. “She is an amazing woman. With complete rest and nothing more to worry her, I believe she will be all right. In fact, she may be able to be up for short periods by this time tomorrow.”
    “Oh, I’m so relieved,” said Helen. “I’m terribly fond of my great-grandmother and I don’t want anything to happen to her.”
    The physician smiled. “I’ll do all I can, but you people will have to help.”
    “How can we do that?” Nancy asked quickly.
    The physician said that no one was to talk about the ghost. “Miss Flora says that she saw a man in the parlor and that he must have come in by some secret entrance. Now you know, as well as I do, that such a thing is not plausible.”
    “But the man couldn’t have entered this house any other way,” Helen told him quickly. “Every window and door on this first floor is kept locked.”
    The doctor raised his eyebrows. “You’ve heard of hallucinations?” he asked.
    Nancy and Helen frowned, but remained silent. They were sure that Miss Flora had not had an hallucination. If she had said there was a man in the parlor, then one had been there!
    “Call me if you need me before tomorrow morning,” the doctor said as he moved toward the front door. “Otherwise I’ll drop in some time before twelve.”
    After the medic had left, the two girls ex changed glances. Nancy said, “Are you game to