At dinner Julie told the rest of the family what had happened, though she didn’t tell what Jan had said to her. Even so, Jan could see she was mad. Julie didn’t get angry very easily, but Jan had really been mean. She knew it too, but she didn’t care. She was still too angry herself.
“Well, I hope you’re wrong about Quang,” Mother said.
Julie nodded. But Jan looked at her plate. She knew he had done it.
Now Dad said, “It’s hard to be blamed for something you didn’t do. That is just what happened to Jesus though. He took the blame for our sins.”
Dad opened the Bible and read, “‘But He was wounded for our transgressions [our sins], He was bruised for our iniquities [the evil we do]: the chastisement [or punishment] of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:55But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)).
“Jesus took the punishment for our sins so we won’t have to. But we must believe in Him. We have to receive Him and what He did for us.
“If you children were willing to take the punishment for setting the fire, what would happen to Quang?”
“Why nothing, Dad,” Steve answered.
“Right, Son, Quang would go free. It is the same with God. He has punished Jesus to put away sin. Now we can be free of the punishment. “Suppose Quang insisted that he did it. Then what?” Dad asked.
“I guess then he would be punished,” Julie answered.
“Probably so,” said Dad, “and if you or I refuse what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross, it is the same. God will give us the punishment we deserve. We will be away from God forever in ‘outer darkness’. A terrible punishment when we could be with Him in heaven.”
While Dad was talking, Jan felt a prick somewhere inside. But she wouldn’t listen. She was still too angry with Quang.
Bible time over, Jan and Julie began to clear the table.
“Jan,” Mom said gently, “I know you are very disappointed. I am too. I’m almost as anxious as you are to get into that cellar. But be patient. It isn’t going anywhere. Soon you’ll be able to go back and open that trap door.”
Jan nodded, but in fact she hadn’t given up. A plan was forming in her mind.
Fred gave her the chance to carry out her idea. When dishes were done, he came to the door. “Jan, Julie, let’s play softball,” he invited. “No jokes tonight.”
“All right,” said Julie. “Want to, Jan?”
Julie was trying to patch up the quarrel, but Jan wasn’t ready yet so she shook her head. “Not tonight,” she mumbled.
She saw Fred and Julie exchange glances. Let them, she thought. She hoped her growing excitement couldn’t be read on her face.
She waited until Fred and Julie had been gone about five minutes. Then she called, “Mom, guess I’ll go down to the corner after all. I won’t play, I’ll just watch.” She said she would watch in case later someone wanted to know if she had been there. Probably no one would be certain if she had watched a long or short time.
It was not really a lie, she reasoned. She was just leaving out the first part. After awhile she would go and watch the game. But first ... first she was going to the barn.
She walked slowly toward the corner. Then looking around to make sure neither Steve nor Candy were nearby, she ran between two houses. She raced down the hill and crossed the creek. Making sure no one had seen her, she followed the path to the barn.
As she hurried along, she looked at her watch. Just seven o’clock. She would have over an hour yet of daylight.
At the barn she bent low and rushed inside. She didn’t think anyone from Gramp’s house had seen her. Being sneaky bothered her a bit, but she put those feelings out of her mind.
It was dim in the barn. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she saw she was right about one thing. Fred had forgotten the lanterns and crow bar. There sat everything just as they had left it.
She knew it was a risk to turn on the lantern. But she had no choice. She hoped nosy Mrs. Ray wasn’t looking out the back windows.
Fitting the crow bar under the groove the children had found earlier, Jan leaned hard. The boards creaked but didn’t give. She felt a bit desperate. What if it wouldn’t open? This thought gave her strength. With a big push, suddenly the door opened.
Once she had it up, it was easy to see why it had been so hard to open. The hinges were very rusty. In fact the door would only open so far. She wondered how she could keep it up while she went down into the hole.
Holding the door open with one hand she held the lantern over the hole. She shivered. It certainly was dark down there. She gave herself a shake. This is what you came for, she thought. You can’t chicken out now.
She found she could prop the door open with the crow bar. Then putting the lantern into the hole, she could see a wooden ladder going down. But she couldn’t see much beyond that. If she wanted to know what was down there, she would have to go down and look.
Taking a deep breath, she started down the ladder. Suddenly, bang, the trap door slammed shut. Jan let out a tiny scream and hurried back up. She wished very much for the other FACT Club members.
The door pushed open. Jan breathed a sigh of relief. She had been afraid it was stuck again.
In the end she laid the crow bar across the top of the hole. Then she let the door be propped on it just that much. It made it even darker below. But the door just would not stay open.
As she once more went down the ladder, it seemed to her that the rungs bent under her weight. But once down she forgot that.
She didn’t know exactly what she had expected to find, but here she was in a good sized room. Against one wall stood an old table and two broken chairs. On another side of the room were the remains of what must have been a bed. When she looked closer she could see only pieces of wood and cloth. The rest had rotted away.
Small wonder. It was very damp and musty in the room. The stone wall was slimy wet. She suddenly thought that she was probably the first person to be in it in well over a hundred years.
It gave her an eerie feeling. Quickly she flashed the lantern on the far wall. It didn’t take her long to find what had fallen through that day. It was a small metal box. But when she tried to open it, she found it was locked. Fooey, she thought.
Then the lantern flashed over a scrap of paper on the floor. She bent and picked it up. When she tried to open it, it fell apart into three pieces. By laying it carefully on the table, she could just make out the words. It said: Mr. Joseph Greene: Please forward immediately the U.G. baggage this day sent to you.
Yours truly,
Newton Roberts
Roberts. The name might have been written in red. Mr. Roberts had written the note. But what did it mean? What was he sending to Mr. Joseph Greene? Something he had stolen? Some kind of baggage the note said.
She was puzzled. She had solved one mystery only to find two more. A box that wouldn’t open and a note that she couldn’t understand.
With a start she thought she better go home. Flashing the lantern on her watch she saw it was after eight o’clock. “Oh dear, now I’ll have to explain where I’ve been. Well, no help for that now. Anyway, there is this box and note. I can’t leave them here,” she said aloud to herself.
Quickly she started up the ladder. It was hard to hold the box, the paper, and the lantern plus keep her balance. So when half-way up one of the rotten rungs on the ladder cracked under her weight, she could not catch herself. She felt herself falling and reached out her left arm to catch herself. The lantern flew out of her hand and smashed.
Her arm was hurting so badly. She felt lightheaded. There seemed to be pinpoints of light and then darkness.