Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost by John Bellairs

Author:John Bellairs
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Copyright 1985 by John Bellairs. All rights reserved.
Published: 1984-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Fergie played the strong beam of his red searchlight around the enormous, dark church. Above them was a vaulted stone ceiling, and two rows of pointed arches marched down the nave toward the altar at the eastern end. Several tall scaffolds made of iron pipes and boards stood throughout the room. And there were whitewash buckets, bags of cement, and tool chests, signs that work had been going on. Fergie looked around in awe, but the professor was in a brisk and businesslike mood. Handing the tool bag to Fergie, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a dog-eared booklet—it was the guide to the Windrow estate.

"Now then!" barked the professor as he trained the beam of his flashlight on the book. "It seems that this church is not an exact replica of Salisbury Cathedral. There is no crypt in the original church, but there's one in this building, and as you well know, that's where we're going. Hrumph! The entrance to the crypt is behind the main altar at the eastern end of the church. Come on!"

They walked down the middle of the dark church and up a short flight of steps to the altar, which consisted of an oblong block of stone with a bronze cross and two candlesticks on it. Behind the altar Fergie and the professor found a gaping hole in the floor. Near it lay a stone slab and the crowbar that had been used to pry the stone out.

The professor chuckled grimly as he swung the flashlight's beam down into the blackness. "Well, well, well!" he said. "These workmen have been extremely helpful to us, so far. Maybe they had work to do down there. There are stone steps too! How very convenient! Look out below, you ghosts and goblins! We're coming down!"

Fergie glanced skeptically at the professor. He knew why his friend was being so loud and joking. He was scared. But Fergie said nothing. He just got a firm grip on the handle of his searchlight and followed the professor down into the blackness. Fergie counted thirty-nine steps until they reached the bottom and walked onto a slippery marble floor. It was very dark, but the searchlight showed a long whitewashed tunnel that stretched away into the distance. Slowly they began to move along. After every few steps the professor would stop and play the beam of his small flashlight over the walls on both sides of them. Fergie saw that there were white marble tablets set in the walls. Each one was about three feet square and had a name carved on it. Fergie didn't need to be told that there was probably a coffin behind each slab. He read some of the names: ULYSSES THEODORE WINDROW l858-l9l0; SYMPHOROSA WINDROW l882-l920; UTHER TINTAGEL WINDROW 1858-1900.

"Here they all sleep, the members of the nasty and sinister Windrow clan," muttered the professor. "As you can see, some of them died before this church was built, sometime between 1900 and 1909.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.