Adventures of Pudge

THE HAUNTED HOUSE

There was only one week left of summer vacation and then back to school for 12 year old Pudge. He had hoped to

spend the time with his friend, Dan, at Miller’s Pond, or playing baseball at the park. Instead, he was going with his mom

and dad to spend most of this last week in Hartford, Connecticut. He understood the reason for the trip, it was his

grandparents’ 50^th wedding anniversary and the entire family was getting together to help them celebrate. Still, why did it

have to be now?

Pudge was in his room packing when his dad knocked at the door and then entered. “I thought I should tell you

something about Wendell, this cousin of mine we’ll be staying with,” said Mr. Hammond. “When he was a boy everybody

thought he was a little strange. Wendell didn’t want to play games like the rest of us did, all he wanted to do was work on

cars and other machinery. If he wasn’t fixing something he was taking it apart to see how it worked and putting it back

together to make it work even better. He must have been good at it, he’s now one of the leading automotive engineers in the

country.

“Anyhow, the reason I’m telling you all this is that he has a son, Wendell Jr., who, from what I’ve been told, is like his

father. Junior is about your age but he might not be much of a companion to you. We’ll understand if you and he don’t get

along.”

It was about an hour’s drive to Hartford from their home in Wayland, Massachusetts. When they arrived later that

morning Pudge was impressed by what he saw. The house was a huge colonial type structure with many ells and wings;

Pudge wondered if they provided maps to help guests find their way around The grounds also were spacious; a large tree

shaded lawn extended for several hundred feet in each direction. In back of the house Pudge detected more lawn sloping

off in the distance to a lake or a river.

From his room, in what was called the East Wing, Pudge could look out at another expanse of lawn, this one with a

croquet game set up in the middle of it. Near the house were a half dozen or so tables, each shaded by a large umbrella.

Three adults were sitting at one of the tables apparently enjoying a cocktail.

After unpacking his suitcase Pudge decided to wander through the house; it might be interesting if he got lost As he

wandered he again marveled at the size of the place, he had had no idea he had such rich relatives. Occasionally, as he

turned a corner into a new section of the house, he heard a bell chime softly. Once, when he opened a door to a dark

stairway, a light suddenly went on at the top of the stairs. Pudge glanced around to see if someone had turned it on but no

one was to be seen. Strange, thought Pudge.

As he turned one corner to return to the main part of the house he almost ran into a tall, slender boy his own age. The

boy looked like a mad scientist to Pudge. His uncombed hair stuck out in all directions, he wore thick lensed glasses and a

strange looking apron.

“Hi, I’m Wendell,” said the boy and stuck out his hand for Pudge to shake. “You must be Paul, cousin Ken’s son. Did

you have fun exploring? I kept track of where you were with my burglar alarms. You did hear the bells, didn’t you?”

Wendell had been talking so fast Pudge had to interrupt. “Whoa, slow down. You’re talking too fast for me. Yes, my

name is Paul but everyone calls me Pudge. And what are you talking about, your burglar alarms?”

“I invented them and I installed them,” replied Wendell with a grin. “Wanta see my lab?”

“Sure,” Pudge answered.

Wendell led Pudge through a labyrinth of passages and up a flight of stairs to another wing of the house. When they

arrived at a door set deeply in a wall Wendell pressed a button on a small device he had taken out of his pocket and the

door opened. All electronically operated, explained Wendell. Pudge was mystified.

When they entered Wendell’s lab Pudge was overwhelmed by what he saw. It was a very large room, each wall had

either glass doored cabinets with large drawers at their base, or wall to ceiling bookcases. Every shelf and every cabinet

was crammed to overflowing with books or magazines or some type of laboratory equipment or supply. It was mind

boggling to Pudge.

“Is this all yours?” he stammered. “Can you come here on your own and mess around with this stuff?”

“Sure,” answered Wendell. “I’m usually alone in here, nobody bothers me. Oh, once in a while Dad comes in to try an

experiment of his own. Otherwise, I have it all to myself. Would you like the grand tour?”

All Pudge could do was nod. Wendell led him through the lab and showed him various pieces of equipment. Pudge

was soon lost as Wendell made technical explanations of what things were and how they were used.

“I’m afraid all of this is beyond me,” he finally mumbled. “I’m sure you understand it, but I don’t. Where do you get all this

stuff anyway?”

“Dad buys it for me. He knows I’m going to be a scientist some day so he says he wants to help me get started.”

“Doesn’t it cost a lot of money?”

“Sure. But Dad has plenty of money and he considers it a good investment in the future. Besides, there’s nothing else

I’m interested in doing. What do you like to do?”

“I guess play baseball and go fishing,” was Pudge’s answer. Pudge had had enough of the lab and was ready to go

back to the main part of the house. He had also had enough of Wendell; he thought Wendell was kind of stuffy. Before he

left Pudge had to ask one more question. “This house reminds me of haunted houses I’ve seen in the movies. Is it

haunted?”

Wendell laughed uproariously at this. “No, it isn’t, although at times I’ve been tempted to make it seem haunted. But I

know where there’s a real haunted house. Want to go there? It’s not far from here.”

Now Pudge was curious. “Yeah, I’d like to see it, but first tell me what you meant about making this house seem

haunted.”

“Well,” Wendell answered. “Like those alarm bells you heard when you were walking around a while ago. I set them up

and I could also set up electrical contraptions to make sounds, or open and close doors, things like that. That’s my hobby,

electronics. But let’s go see the real haunted house.” After saying this Wendell hung up his apron in a closet near the door

and opened the door to the hall.

Wendell led Pudge through the halls to the kitchen where he suggested they pack themselves a lunch and showed

Pudge where to find the various food items to make lunch with. While Pudge was getting lunch together Wendell picked up

a telephone that was in the kitchen and talked for a while on it. After he hung up he explained that they had an in-house

phone system as well as a regular system for outside calls.

“I just called my mom and told her where we were going; she’ll tell your parents. I’ve got bicycles in the garage if you

want to ride, or we could walk; it’s about a mile away.”

Wendell led the way to the garage where Pudge chose a bike and soon they were on their way. The lunches were

stowed in a small pack Wendell wore on his back. As they approached the “haunted house” Wendell described it to Pudge.

“ If you think my house looks haunted wait till you see this one. This really looks like a haunted house. Dad told me it

was built before the Civil War and was used to hide runaway slaves. I haven’t found any yet but there are supposed to be

secret rooms and secret passages. Maybe we can find them.”

In a short time Wendell turned off the pavement onto a gravel driveway that passed between two large cement pillars to

which were attached the two halves of a rusty iron gate. The grass and shrubs along the edge of the drive looked as if they

had not been cut for years, until they got close to the house. In the area nearest the house someone had recently cut the

grass and trimmed the shrubs. In front of the house was a large “FOR SALE” sign.

“That’s new,” declared Wendell. “Maybe, after all these years, someone is trying to sell the place.”

As Wendell had said, Pudge soon noticed that this house most certainly appeared more of a “haunted” type house than

Wendell’s house did. It wasn’t as large as Wendell’s house but there were many wings extending off in each direction. At

each wing junction stood a tower with a turret on top as if the builder had tried to copy a European castle. All that was

missing was a moat. Pudge had never seen so many windows. Even the smallest wall or highest pinnacle had at least one

window. With all those windows it shouldn’t be dark and gloomy inside, thought Pudge. After they hid the bikes in the

shrubbery Pudge followed Wendell around to the back of the house where Wendell approached a door to the cellar.

“This door is always unlocked,’ Wendell stated. When he tried to open it, however, it would not budge. Together the two

boys tried two other cellar doors and found each one locked securely.

“Any other way we can get in?” asked Pudge.

“Let’s try some of the other doors and windows.” To their chagrin , each door and window was locked.

“I guess we’ll have to try something else,” said Wendell. “I think the first cellar door we tried look the easiest. Let’s go

back there.”

When they arrived back at the cellar door Wendell reached into his pocket and pulled out a gadget that looked like a

long, thin key.

“Always come prepared,” said Wendell. Wendell inserted his “key” in the lock and in a few seconds succeeded in

unlocking the door. Pudge was amazed.

“Can you open a bank vault with that thing?” he asked.

“Not quite,” was the reply. “But you would be surprised at how many doors it will open.” He held the tool out for Pudge to

look at. “It’s a lock pick. I made it from the description I read in a story.”

Pudge shook his head in wonder. Was there no limit to Wendell’s talent? Before entering the house they decided to eat

their lunch.

Inside, the cellar was very dark. Fortunately, Wendell had remembered to bring a flashlight. This helped them find their

way to the bottom of a flight of stairs. As they walked through the many small rooms in the cellar Wendell commented that

the cellar looked cleaner than the last time he was here.

“I guess the people who are trying to sell the place must be cleaning it up as well as doing some gardening,” he

remarked.

Indeed there was little to see in the cellar. The boys stopped at the top of the stairs to listen for sounds of any activity in

the house before they opened the door. They entered into a long, narrow hallway with a window at one end and another flight

of stairs , going up, at the other. Several doors opened off the hallway. When Pudge opened the first door to their right he

looked into an old fashioned kitchen containing an old cast iron stove but nothing else. The next room appeared to be a

maid’s closet or perhaps a pantry. Many shelves were built into one wall and cabinet doors on another. Two more rooms,

on the opposite side of the hallway, were empty, with no signs of their usage

“I think we’re in the servants’ quarters,” said Wendell. “Let’s try another part of the house.”

“Nothing spooky so far,” replied Pudge. “Where do you think the secret passages might be?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll try every room.”

Floor by floor, room by room, the two adventurers explored every part of the house. Nothing appeared out of the

ordinary to them. Each room above the first floor, until they reached the attic, was a large open room with no closet or other

storage facility. The main floor had consisted of two very large rooms which apparently had been designed for entertaining,

plus two somewhat smaller rooms opening off the larger rooms. Each room on the first three floors, Pudge noticed, had

many large windows. They had found three old fashioned bathrooms on the first floor. Each of the other two floors had only

one bathroom. These were even more outdated than the ones on the main floor.

When they found a staircase leading to the attic Pudge made the comment, “If any place in this house is haunted it will

be up these stairs.”

Cautiously, they ascended. Each step creaked and groaned as soon as they stepped on it. When they reached the top

they needed to use the flashlight again. There were a few windows but they were tiny apertures compared to what they had

seen downstairs and were positioned under the eaves of the house. As a result, they did not provide mush light.

The section of the attic closest to the top of the stairs was a large open room with no walls or obstructions of any kind.

The other half had been divided into rooms with a hallway down the center. Pudge and Wendell approached these rooms

with trepidation. When Wendell opened the door to the first room he heard a sudden sound and something flew past his

head. This frightened Wendell so much that he slammed the door shut again.

“Did you hear that?” he stammered. “Something just flew past my head.”

“I heard it but I didn’t see it,” Pudge replied. “Maybe it was a bat. They make their homes in dark places.”

“You open the next door,” said Wendell.

The other three rooms seemed to be empty. There was no sign of any recent use or attempt at cleaning. Dust coated

every surface, even the floor. Cobwebs hung from the rafters above their heads.

“Now this looks spooky,” commented Pudge.

As they were preparing to leave the last room they heard voices coming from the wall at the end of the room. Wendell

put his finger to his lips to caution Pudge not to talk and pointed down to indicate the voices were coming from downstairs.

To Pudge the voices sounded as if they were coming from the next room but he knew that wasn’t possible. The wall the

voices were coming from was an outside wall; there wasn’t a next room.

“If someone finds us here we’re in trouble,” whispered Pudge. “What are we going to do?”

“We’ll have to find one of those secret rooms,” Wendell whispered back. “There has to be some reason we can hear

them so clearly, let’s take a closer look at that wall.”

When they examined the wall at the end of the room it appeared to be no different from the other walls in the room.

There was no sign of an entrance, or a secret panel. Wendell went to the door and looked out into the hall then stepped

back into the room and looked at the wall from the doorway.

“Come here, Pudge,” he whispered. When Pudge was standing next to him he continued, “Look at the wall inside the

room and then look at the wall at the end of the hall. See if you see what I see.”

Pudge did as Wendell suggested, first looking at the wall in the room and then at the hallway wall. He did this several

times but could not see what Wendell was referring to.

Finally, in exasperation, Wendell said, “Look at how far away the wall in the hallway is compared to the wall in the room.

Shouldn’t the distances be the same if they are both outside walls?”

When Pudge took another look he saw what Wendell meant. The room wall was much closer than the hallway wall.

“There’s a secret room there or I’ll eat my hat,” proclaimed Wendell. “If we can’t get into the secret room from the room

itself we should be able to get into it from the hallway.”

“We’d better find it in a hurry,” Pudge replied. “I think our visitors are coming upstairs.”

Following this comment Pudge and Wendell walked to the end of the hallway and began examining the wall. For the

next several minutes they tried pushing and sliding at various places on the wall, all to no avail. The wall wouldn’t budge.

In desperation, as the voices were getting closer, Pudge thumped his fist against the molding in the corner next to

window. As soon as he did this a section of the wall in front of them swung open. Behind the wall was a small windowless

room, about four feet by ten feet, with an opening on the floor at the far end through which extended the top steps of a ladder.

Quickly, the boys ducked into the room. When they pushed on the open wall it immediately returned to its closed position,

leaving them in darkness except for a small beam of light that came up through the ladder opening.

Wendell again put his finger to his lips and stood listening for sounds elsewhere in the house. When they again heard a

man talking they could hear everything that was said, as if he was in the same room with them. Wendell pointed to the

opening where the ladder was and made an upward motion with his hands to show that the sound came up through the

opening. Wendell mouthed the word “funnel” and Pudge nodded to show he understood.

Gradually the sound of the voices diminished as the visitors moved away from their location near the ladder. In a short

time the boys heard a car door closing and then the sound of a car engine being started. Soon, all was quiet.

“Whew!” said Pudge. “I was sure we would get caught up here. Who do you think they were?”

“Probably the real estate agent who’s showing the house to one of his customers.”

“What are we going to do now?”

“I think first we’d better see if we can open this wall from this side,” answered Wendell. “Then I’d like to see what that

ladder leads to.”

Pudge reached up and pushed on a section of molding at the edge of the wall. When he did the wall again swung open.

“I think it’s spring-loaded,” said Wendell. “I’ve done that myself with doors in my house. Let’s go down the ladder and

see where it leads us.”

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