Read Online Within That Room! by John Russell Fearn - Free Book Online Page A

something.”
    â€œMaybe you let your imagination run away with you last night. There’s nothing there now, anyway.”
    â€œBut I tell you—”
    â€œNo use, darling. Can’t deny the evidence of our own eyes. Let’s get along to the library.”
    Frowning worriedly, Vera walked with Dick to the library. He felt for his lighter.
    â€œThis oil lamp business gets on your nerves! I keep groping round for switches.”
    With his lighter in flame he hunted for the lamp chandelier, found it and vaulted on to the big desk in the center of the room. In another moment a yellow glimmer was augmenting the dying daylight through the ivy-edged windows.
    â€œHmmm,” he remarked. “A lot of books here.”
    â€œPlenty of insects, too,” Vera said, nodding to the eight specimen cases with glass tops standing on tables. “My uncle was an entomologist and botanist, you know. Pretty famous in his way, I believe.”
    Dick deserted the books to look at the specimens.
    â€œI’m not very much up on lepidoptera myself,” he confessed, “but there are some pretty valuable things here, obviously. The South American leaf insect, the African locust, the orthoptera of Central Asia, the South African glow-worm, the Ceylon scorpion, the South European gossamer-spider.... Say, the old boy got around a bit, didn’t he?”
    Vera nodded as she also studied the cards under the specimens; then she said dryly:
    â€œI think you’re wrong with your ‘lepidoptera.’ Unless my memory of natural history fails me, that refers to butterflies and moths.”
    â€œWell, never mind—insects anyway—and plants, too!” Dick added, moving to an adjoining set of showcases.
    â€œUncle, as I told you, was a botanist of high repute. I believe he dabbled in all sorts of flora and fauna. I seem to remember that his treatise on the heads of the western Asiatic ibexes was enough to knock your eye out. Here we have the flora.”
    They studied the various odd-looking specimens. There were dried leaves, curiously shaped ferns, bits of bark, preserved brilliant-hued flowers, blades of grass that looked as though they needed a shave, and some big chunks of brownish stuff not unlike coltsfoot rock.
    â€œBrazilian hair-leaf fern,” Dick murmured, eyeing the cards. “Javanese oracle flower, Scandinavian xipod bark, West African pedis diaboli root.... Your uncle must have covered half the earth, Vera!”
    â€œHe pretty nearly did,” she agreed. “He used to vanish for months at a time. He took his insect and leaf hunting as seriously as a big game hunter does his tigers or elephants. Anyway, he was always hopping about.”

CHAPTER NINE
    NO PSYCHIC PHENOMENA
    Dick looked again at the plant specimens, a frown crossing his face.
    â€œSomething wrong?” Vera questioned, at which he looked at her and smiled.
    â€œNo—nothing wrong. Just a passing thought.... Now, what about the book department?”
    They turned to the shelves, and after a general survey they glanced at each other and registered the same reaction.
    â€œNot so hot,” Dick sighed. “Most of them seem to be about plants, animals or insects. Doesn’t look as though your uncle went in for thrillers, Vera?”
    â€œDon’t be too sure,” she said slowly, stooping to look at several books on a lower shelf. “There are about twenty detective stories here.”
    â€œEvidently uncle had his lighter moments after all,” Dick decided. “There is none here that is any good to me, though. I’ve read ’em all—mostly when I was in the R.A.F.”
    â€œI’ve read them, too,” Vera said.
    Then suddenly Dick pulled down a heavy volume.
    â€œSay, what’s this? The History of Sunny Acres , including all about the legend, together with maps of the district! Looks as if it might be interesting. To judge from the dog-ears,