Jane and the Fire – Part XXVIII
Jane is back! In 1958, young Jane has just moved to the city of Chicago, Illinois with her parents and cousins. While going for a walk with the new puppy and 
her cousins, Jane is drawn back to the abandoned house. Tommy the puppy seems to know something about the house, encouraging her brightly to explore more. There seems to be something of especial interest in the dark, dingy dining room…
She pushed the panel aside gently. The little cupboard space was dark but spotless, contrasting sharply from the dusty hardwood around them. As Jane glanced about, noting the texture of the floor around them, Tommy nudged the panel farther away. The fading light from the dining room window fell on a pile of papers. The topmost paper was the very drawing Mr. Peele had been holding such a short time before. Jane reached in slowly, taking the top paper off the pile and glancing more closely at the drawing. It was a blueprint, drawn up precisely, showing what seemed to be… “A tunnel?” Jane wondered aloud, flipping the paper, “What could they want with a tunnel?”
She looked back into the cupboard, blinking as the light shifted and grew dimmer. Below the blueprint had been the false newspaper the Three Thugs had been reading on that first day in The Hungry Eagle. She picked it up, looking carefully at the picture of the building. At that moment, she heard the creak of a step on the front porch.
Feeling guilt, the blood rushing to her face, and a prickle of fear, Jane crashed the little door shut and jumped to her feet. Tommy yapped and leapt around her ankles, irked that she had closed the door already. He seemed to think there was more to be seen.
“Hush, Tommy!” whispered Jane urgently. “If it’s the Three Thugs out there, we’re 
done for! They’re almost certainly doing something dangerous, and we’ll be in terrible trouble if they catch us!”
Tommy stopped barking, and meekly allowed Jane to pick him up and hurry to the back door.
She was about to open the door when she froze. The light, she thought, horrified. She had left the dining room light on. The thugs already suspected that some funny business was afoot. If they noticed a superfluous light on, they would know for certain that someone was poking about their business.
She hesitated for a moment, then, very cautiously, took a half-step back into the house.
There was silence. It seemed that the person on the front porch was hesitating- so, holding Tommy (who was silent as a mouse) tightly in her arms, Jane hurried back to the dining room and flicked off the light. She’d barely taken another three steps out of the room when the wooden floor of the front hall creaked. The fading evening light spilled into the hall as the person on the porch entered the house. Jane froze, and nearly passed out with relief as she heard Don’s piercing whisper.
“I think the house is empty!”
Heart still thudding, she turned back to the front hall. “Well, then, you think wrong. What are you doing here?”
Paige and Don stood gaping in the front hall. “What are you doing here?”
As they walked home, Jane described the blueprint in the hidden panel cupboard. “The tunnel blueprint was what they were hiding that day at The Hungry Eagle!”
“Be more careful next time,” Don said sagely. “We wanted to see what was happening because the dining room light lit up half the road outside.” Jane shook her head, grinning.
“Maybe you should consider moderating the volume of your whisper!”
The story doesn’t end here- obviously! Keep reading next month!
