"What's in there ?" "The billiard room." She was thinking hard.

"Jack! Perhaps Courtleigh Fleming's nephew would know where the blue-prints are!" He looked dubious.

"It's a chance, but not a very good one," he said.
"Well--" He led the way into the billiard room and began to rap at random upon its walls while Dale listened intently for any echo that might betray the presence of a hidden chamber or sliding panel.
Thus it happened that Lizzie received the first real thrill of what was to prove to her--and to others--a sensational and hideous night.

For, coming into the living-room to lay a cloth for Mr.Anderson's night suppers not only did the lights blink threateningly and the thunder roll, but a series of spirit raps was certainly to be heard coming from the region of the billiard room.
"Oh, my God!" she wailed, and the next instant the lights went out, leaving her in inky darkness.

With a loud shriek she bolted out of the room.
Thunder--lightning--dashing of rain on the streaming glass of the windows--the storm hallooing its hounds.