Chapter 84 Section fifteen

The wind blew harder.As I closed the door, dust blew in through the shattered glass windows and holes below.I was very anxious, but I could only move in slowly.As I passed the dining table in the kitchen, my experience as an architect reminded me that the archway on the left was the only entrance to the kitchen.It doesn't make sense. There should also be a door directly ahead, making it easier to get to the stairs that lead to the second floor.The rooms on the ground floor were designed so that after coming down from the second floor, you had to go around the vestibule, go through the rooms on the other side of the house, and finally reach the kitchen.Mrs. Warren was too old for such trouble.The wall directly ahead is useless, a door would be easy and appropriate there.Then why not?Maybe there used to be a door there, I thought.I took a closer look and noticed that the ceiling pattern on the top of the wall in front of me was slightly different from the wall to my left, which was reversed.The white paint on the front wall also looks brighter than on the left, and the plaster is smoother to the touch.Someone had put a wall in the passage, blocking the way in from the vestibule.

Did Patty do it?Why?Even for a young man, the detour into the kitchen was troublesome.Why did he deliberately make this trouble?The only answer I can think of is that Patty wants to make the intruder take a long detour through the house, and he has other traps on the road. Of course, the kitchen doesn't have a door to the basement.The entrance to the basement must be in the vestibule, and the intruder would have to pass through those other rooms in order to get there. The wind howled, and my eyes peered through the archway to the room to my left.I saw a broom leaning against the refrigerator, so I picked it up and stretched it out through the archway and shook it up and down, side to side, to see if there were any other mechanisms (such as light waves) connected to the weapon.

nothing. I pressed the stiff end of the broom against a rug under the archway. The floors are solid.I entered the dining room and inspected the long table, chairs, and sideboards, but there was no obvious sign of a trap.I walked toward another archway through which I could see what Mrs. Warren might have called the parlour, with some old upholstered chairs and a sofa. I checked another part of the carpet and headed for the front room. Crack! It was the sound from the floor.My internal organs suddenly hung up.I sprang forward and fell sharply, the edge of the trapdoor squeezing my chest hard.The pistol flew out of my hand from the broom, and I gripped the wooden floor, my hand slipping, my fingers hooked to the edge of the floor, hanging there.I stared frantically at the exposed part of the basement, and there were a lot of knife points sticking out of a wooden case below me, four inches in each direction, and if you fell on it you were bound to get hurt.One end of the hanging rug was tied to the floor so that it wouldn't fall over the point of the knife, which was sure to pierce me.If I didn't die quickly, I would have bled to death too.

My arms hurt so bad trying to pull myself up.I checked the floor! Damn, how could I be so stupid?There must be a certain weight on the trapdoor to open it.Patty had to step over the archway.With another effort, I managed to put my elbows on the edge of the trapdoor, and moved slowly into the drawing-room.I lay on the floor, took a few deep breaths, and tried to calm myself down.I heard the wind. Patty might come back any minute, I thought. I reached for the pistol and broom that flew out as I fell.My mind was full of thoughts of being more careful and more careful.I struggled to control my shortness of breath, carefully observing the faded furniture, the ceiling, every corner of the room.There seemed to be no danger.Through the front window, I looked down the path that led into the windswept woods, but there was no sign of Patty's truck.Keep going! I said to myself.I put a chair in front of me and pushed it along the sides of the room, watching out for other traps.

To the right of the front window is an arch leading to a hallway with stairs to the second floor.There was another shotgun attached to a ledge above the front door, like the previous one, with a cord attached to the trigger.The rope goes around two pulleys and attaches to a hook on the upper end of the door.The door is opened, and when someone comes in, the shotgun will blast the intruder in two.It was easy for Patty to hang the rope on the hook when the door was closed, and when he came back he could open the door just enough to reach in and unhook the rope.However, for the unsuspecting, death is only a momentary matter.

Have I found all the pitfalls?I squeezed my eyes open and surveyed the corridor, my eyes fixed on a door at the bottom of the stairs.I'm pretty sure it's the door to the basement.Kate and Jason were only a few hundred yards away. There was no carpet on the floor and it looked solid.In any case, I moved forward inch by inch along the edge of the corridor.At the door under the stairs, I tried the knob and it turned easily, but there might be another trap behind it.So, I took out the flashlight from my waist, gently opened the door a small gap of an inch, and used the flashlight to shine up and down to see if there was any rope.

It was pitch black where the flashlight missed.I carefully opened the door a little wider, and there was a smell, like camphor. It's a hygiene ball. I opened the door wide, and with a flashlight, I saw a lot of coats and suits hanging on a wooden pole. a wardrobe.No, I poked at those clothes angrily with the end of my broom, knocked on the floor, on the walls, and there was no hollow sound.Where exactly is the entrance to the basement?Gotta hurry! I thought. I remembered the night before when I watched Patty's shadow through the window while he was cooking.Then his shadow disappeared, and I thought he was eating somewhere in the kitchen that I couldn't see.

But what if he had delivered meals to Kate and Jason?in the kitchen?how come?There is no door leading to the basement. A thought struck me, and I tried not to let eagerness make me careless.I walked back the way I had come, stopping only once to look out the front window, past the windswept bushes, to see if Patty's truck was back.Then I stepped through the trap door that opened between the drawing room and the dining room, and rushed into the kitchen. pantry.I tapped on the wall behind the canned goods on the shelf and it sounded solid.I looked down at the floor and realized what Petty had done.I grabbed the workbench holding the shotgun and dragged it away.I saw traces of another trap door.This door has a bell.I pulled the door open and stared down at the wooden stairs leading into the darkness.