Within That Room! by John Russell Fearn

the road towards sunny Acres. Abruptly his emotions seemed to have performed an about-turn.
    â€œTo heck with the ghost!” he said. “I’m sick and tired of it—for the moment, anyway. There are other things I want to know.”
    â€œSuch as?”
    â€œAbout you, for instance. All I know about you is that you come from Manchester, own a castle with a spook, and are mighty independent. What other information have you got?”
    They settled under the shadow of a giant oak and Vera said:
    â€œMy parents are dead, the Blitz took care of that.”
    â€œOh! I’m sorry, Vera. I’m in the same boat. The Southampton air raids got my people.... Well, anything else? Is there any genuine boy friend hanging about who is keeping me out?”
    â€œNo,” Vera answered. “I’m quite truthful about that, Dick. You are the only boy with whom I’ve ever had such close acquaintance—and for a first attempt, it’s pretty satisfactory. I’m the kind of girl, though, who likes to weigh things up, and for that reason I prefer you on...on approbation, so to speak.”
    â€œAll right—but don’t forget that it works both ways. All the time you are summing me up, I’m returning the compliment. I’m not looking for an angel, because I know they don’t exist—but I was looking for a girl who behaves like a girl without making an idiot of herself. Far as I can see, I’ve found her!”
    Vera glanced at her watch and switched the conversation.
    â€œI think it’s about time we started back,” she decided. “Just in case your feelings run away with you....”
    Dick smiled and got to his feet, held down his hand to help her up.
    * * * * * * *
    It was nearly five o’clock when they reached Sunny Acres again, and they decided to stroll around the grounds. The further they moved into the unkempt jungle of weeds and massive trees, the more they could appreciate Sunny Acres’ imposing outline.
    â€œAll else apart, Vera, you’ve got a nice property here.” Dick commented, surveying the gray battlements and stained-glass windows. “These grounds, too, properly cultivated, could be made very beautiful. I’ve got plenty of ideas about landscape gardening which I could turn to account.”
    â€œYou are expecting to be around a lot!” Vera murmured, slanting a provocative blue eye.
    â€œI hope to earn the right—as the fruits of the victory we shall achieve!” Dick said. Then he ceased his banter while he studied the castle.
    â€œLet’s see now. Which is the haunted room?”
    They surveyed the east wing of the great place from the driveway.
    â€œThat empty west wing takes up a good deal of space too,” Dick mused. “As you remarked, the place would make a first-class institution of some sort. Say, isn’t that the ghost room?”
    He pointed up to a recess in the castle’s outlines, where a massive stained-glass window lay in the shadows of the watch tower opposite to it, a parapet running round the outjutting section of stonework. It was this watchtower, they remembered, that contained the bathrooms.
    â€œYes,” Vera assented, “that’s it. And precious little it tells us. Ivy all the way up the wall and a sheer drop of about thirty feet to the drive.”
    â€œYes. In the shadow, too—at present. Wonder if that means anything?”
    â€œSuch as?”
    â€œI don’t know—but June 21 is the longest day in the year, and the 20 th and 22 nd are only slightly different. It might mean something.”
    Vera thought it out but arrived at no conclusion. She sighed.
    â€œThe ideas you get!” Vera said. “After dinner we’ll see if we really can discover something about that confounded room.”
    They went inside and once upstairs separated to their respective rooms. When they met again in the dining hall, Mrs. Falworth was present as