“Tell me, Bob, have you remembered yet what you did with the silver spider? It has not been found in the courtyard.”
Bob shook his head. He felt terrible not being able to remember.
“If we had the spider,” Jupiter asked, “would that help Prince Djaro any?”
“It might,” Elena put in. “The Minstrels could issue a proclamation in the prince’s name, asking the citizens of Varania for help in overcoming the tyrant, Duke Stefan.
The silver spider would be a symbol that the proclamation really came from the prince. It would carry great weight — it might possibly turn the tide. Though we’d probably be arrested before we got very far.”
“In any case,” Jupiter said, “we ought to have the silver spider. So before we leave the castle, I propose we hunt for the silver spider along the ledges and in our room. We may yet find it where Bob dropped it.”
“It will be terribly dangerous,” Rudy said. “But there is the possibility we might find it. That would help. And anyway, your room is the last place anyone would expect to find you. So we’ll do it.”
“We have waited long enough,” he said. “I have two extra flashlights here, small ones. I’ll give one to you, Jupiter, and one to Pete. Use them only if you have to. I’ll lead and Elena will bring up the rear. Now let’s go.”
In single file they crossed the roof to the door leading to the stairs. The sky was dark with heavy clouds, and big drops of rain had begun to fall.
Once inside, they went cautiously down the narrow stairs, pausing often to listen. No sounds reached them. They felt their way along, aided only by the glow of Rudy’s flashlight which went on and off like a firefly.
They went down the dark corridor and then down more stairs and along another corridor. The boys were lost, but Rudy seemed to know exactly where they were.
Presently he led them into a room and bolted the door.
“Now we can rest a moment,” he said. “So far so good, but this has been the easiest part. From now on there is danger. I do not think they are still looking for you in the castle, so surprise is on our side. First we must hunt for the spider. Then, whether we find it or not, we must get down to the cellars. From there we go through the dungeons and make our way to the storm sewers. We will travel through the sewers — Elena and I have already planned that part of the trip — and emerge near the American Embassy.
There you will take refuge and when you are safe, the Minstrels will paste up posters all over the city proclaiming that Prince Djaro is in danger and Duke Stefan is trying to usurp the throne. After that — well, we do not know what will happen, we can only hope.
“Now we will go out the window and down to the balcony below. I have a rope around my waist. Elena has another rope, but we will save hers for an emergency.”
He fastened the rope tightly and slipped out the window. When a cautious whisper told them he had reached the balcony below, Pete and Jupiter followed.
Bob and Elena peered out the window. Below them the flashlight flickered back and forth across the balcony. The boys were hunting for the silver spider, in case it had popped out of Bob’s pocket when he had fallen the previous night.
At last the light went out. Rudy’s whisper reached them. “Come on down.”
Bob and Elena climbed down the rope, leaving it hanging so they could come back the same way.
“The spider’s not here,” Rudy whispered tensely as they gathered close together in the darkness. “Of course, it could have slipped through and into the river, but I don’t think so. My idea is that Bob dropped it when he rushed out on the balcony outside your room.”
They started edging along the ledge that ran to the corner. The lip of it was rounded, and an incautious step would send them plunging into the river that rushed below, silent and black. But they could move safely if they hugged the wall. Rudy stopped every few feet to scan the ledge with the flashlight, just on the off chance of finding the silver spider, but they reached the next balcony without discovering it.
This was the balcony outside their room. Rudy peered carefully in the window to make sure no one was in the room. Then, while the boys and Elena perched on the balcony rails, he went over every inch of the balcony with the light.
Nothing. The silver spider was not on the balcony.
“What do we do now?” Pete whispered.
“Go inside.” It was Jupiter who answered. “We have to search the room.”
One by one they slipped in through the window and stood in a silent row, listening. The castle seemed to be held in a deep hush. Only the sound of a cricket that had somehow found its way inside broke the quiet.
“A cricket in your room means good luck,” Pete whispered. “Anyway, I hope so. We can use some.”
“You said Bob was running around the room with the silver spider in his hand,” Elena murmured. “He might have dropped it then. We have to search the whole room.
We’ll go on our hands and knees and use all the flashlights. We can’t be seen from outside now.”
Each took a section of the floor and on hands and knees began to cover it. Bob had no light, so he crawled beside Pete.
The light glinted on something bright. They had it!
Then, as Bob picked up the bright object, disappointment was so strong he could taste it. The bright thing was just a bit of aluminum foil from a roll of film they had opened.
After this false alarm, they continued the search. Bob even crawled under the bed, while Pete held the flashlight so he could see. A small dark creature leaped anxiously out of his way.
“Krikk!” it went. “Krikk!”
They had disturbed the cricket. Pete followed it with his light and they saw it bound from under the bed smack into the spider web which still hung in the corner of the room.
Desperately the cricket struggled to get free, but it only got entangled more tightly in the web. Two spiders were watching from the crack where the wainscoting didn’t quite meet the floor. One of them ran out, skimmed over the web and began to wrap sticky threads around the cricket. In a moment it was a helpless prisoner.
Bob felt an impulse to set the cricket free, but he restrained it. That would mean destroying the spider web, and maybe killing the spider, and the spider, after all, was Varania’s good-luck symbol.
“You said a cricket in the room was lucky,” he muttered to Pete. “But it wasn’t lucky for the cricket. I just hope the same thing doesn’t happen to us.”
Pete was silent. He and Bob backed out from under the bed and joined the others in front of the wardrobe, which Jupiter and Rudy were searching.
“Maybe Bob actually did hide the silver spider,” Jupiter whispered. “He couldn’t have dropped it or we’d have found it, if those soldiers last night didn’t.”
“It was not found.” Rudy’s voice was low. “Duke Stefan is in a rage. If it had been found he would be all smiles. So maybe Bob did hide it after all. Can you remember perhaps hiding it, Bob?”
Bob shook his head. He just couldn’t remember a thing about the silver spider.
“Well, we’ll look,” Rudy said. “Let us examine the suitcases. Elena, you look under the mattress and the pillows — Bob might have hidden it there, not seeing any better place.”
Pete and Jupiter examined the suitcases. Elena felt under the mattress, the sheets, the pillows.
The result was still nothing.
They gathered again in the middle of the room.
“It isn’t here,” Rudy said, his voice puzzled. “We didn’t find the spider, the soldiers didn’t find the spider, yet it is gone. I am afraid that when Bob ran out on the balcony, he still had it. As he climbed over the side to get to the ledge he must have dropped it. Though I still cannot think why it was not found in the courtyard.”
“What shall we do now, Rudy?” Jupiter asked. Usually Jupe was the leader in anything they did, but now Rudy, being older and knowing his way about the ancient palace, was definitely in charge.
“Get you to safety,” Rudy murmured. “That is all we can do. So we must go back and — ”
At that moment the door burst open. Electric lights blazed on. Two men in the scarlet uniforms of palace guards rushed in.
“Stay where you are!” they shouted. “You are under arrest! We have caught the American spies!”
There was a moment of great confusion. Rudy hurled himself at the two men.
“Elena!” he shouted. “Get them to safety! Leave me!”
“Come on!” Elena cried, darting to the window. “Follow me.”
Bob tried to move toward the window. As Rudy grappled with the first man, attempting to seize his legs, the second man got Jupiter by the collar. The two struggling groups fell, with Bob between them. Heavy bodies thudded down on top of him. As he fell, he hit his head again. The carpet softened the blow, but it was a solid thump.
For the second time, Bob blacked out.
“Well,” Jupiter said gloomily, “here we are, caught like that cricket in the spider web. I never guessed there would be men on guard outside the door of our room.”
“Neither did I,” Rudy said, equally gloomy. “I thought that since it was empty they’d forget about it. Well, at least Pete and Elena got away.”
“But what can they do?” Jupiter asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing, except tell our plight to my father and the others. It is doubtful that my father can rescue us, but he can go into hiding to avoid Duke Stefan’s vengeance.”
“Which leaves us and Djaro in the soup,” Jupiter muttered. “We came over here to help Djaro but we certainly have been washouts.”
“Washouts? I do not understand the word.”
“Flops. Failures,” Jupiter told him. “Look, I think Bob is waking up. Poor Records, he’s had two bad bumps.”
Bob opened his eyes. He was lying on a rude cot covered with a blanket. He blinked in the dim light. Slowly his eyes focused on a flickering candle, a stone wall beside him and a stone roof above. Across the room was a solid door with only a small peephole. Jupe and Rudy were bending over him. Bob sat up, his head throbbing.
“Next time I come to Varania, I’m going to wear a football helmet,” he said, and tried to smile.
“Good, then you’re all right!” Rudy exclaimed.
“Bob, do you remember?” Jupe asked urgently. “Think hard now.”
“Sure I remember,” Bob said. “Those guards busted into the room and you and Rudy tangled with them and I got knocked down and bumped my head. I remember that much. Now I guess we’re in jail someplace.”
“I don’t mean that,” Jupiter said. “Do you remember what you did with the silver spider? Sometimes if one bump gives you amnesia, another bump will bring back your memory.”
“No.” Bob shook his head. “It’s all still a blank.”
“Perhaps it is just as well,” Rudy said darkly. “Then Duke Stefan cannot force you to tell him anything.”
At that moment, keys rattled outside. The heavy iron door swung inward. Two men in the uniform of the Royal Guard tramped in, shining powerful electric lanterns at them. In their right hands they carried swords.
“Come,” growled one of the men. “Duke Stefan wants you in the room of questioning. On your feet. Walk between us. Try no tricks or it will be the worse for you.”
He waved his sword threateningly.
The boys got slowly to their feet. With one soldier ahead of them and one behind, they tramped out into a damp stone corridor. Behind them the corridor led downward into unguessed realms of darkness. Ahead of them it sloped upward. They went past other closed doors, and up a flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs, two more guards stood at attention.
The two men hustled the boys through a doorway into a long room lit with lanterns. Bob gave a little gasp and even Jupiter turned pale. They had seen this kind of room a couple of times in horror movies. It was a torture room dating from centuries ago. And it was real.
At one side was an ugly rack where a victim was tied to have his bones stretched by heavy weights. Beyond was a huge wheel to which a victim was tied to have his arms and legs smashed by hammers. There were other devices, made of massive timbers, which they preferred not to guess about. And in the center of the room was a tall figure of a woman made of metal. The figure was just a shell, and the front was hinged so it would open. It was open now. Inside were rusty spikes sticking straight out. The idea was that someone stood inside the shell of the Iron Maiden, as it was called, and the front half was slowly closed until those rusty spikes — but neither Jupe nor Bob cared to think about that.
“The room of questioning!” Rudy whispered, and his voice trembled a little. “I’ve heard of it. It dates back to the reign of Black Prince John, a bloody tyrant of the Middle Ages. It hasn’t been used since, that I know of. I think Duke Stefan had us brought here just to scare us. He wouldn’t dare use torture on us!”
Maybe Rudy was right, but just the same, the rack, the wheel, the Iron Maiden and other devilish devices made Bob and Jupe’s stomachs feel queer.
“Silence!” a guard roared at Rudy. “Duke Stefan comes!”
The guards at the door sprang to attention. Duke Stefan strode into the room, followed by Duke Rojas. On Duke Stefan’s face was a look of ugly pleasure.
“So the mice are in the trap!” Duke Stefan said to the three boys. “And now it is time for them to squeal. You are going to tell me what I want to know, or it will be the worse for you.”
The guards brought a chair from a corner, dusted it off, and placed it before the wooden bench where the boys were seated. Duke Stefan sat down and tapped his fingers on the chair arm.
“Ah, young Rudolph,” he said to Rudy. “So you are in this. It shall go hard with your father and your family, I promise you. Not to mention yourself.”
Rudy clamped his lips tightly and said nothing.
“And now you, my young Americans,” Duke Stefan purred. “I have you. At least I have two of you. I will not ask you why you are here in this country. The cameras you left behind in your flight tell us everything. They prove you are agents of the American government — spies! You came here to plot against Varania. But you have committed a greater crime than that. You have stolen the silver spider of Varania.”
He leaned forward, his face darkening.
“Tell me where it is,” he said, “and I will be easy with you. I will assume you are just young and foolish. Come, speak!”
“We didn’t steal it,” Jupiter said boldly. “Someone else stole it and hid it in our room.”
“So!” Duke Stefan said. “You admit you had it. That in itself is a crime. But I am tender-hearted. I feel sympathy for your youth and folly. Just tell me where it is — return it to me — and I will forgive you much.”
Bob waited for Jupiter to speak. Jupe hesitated. But he could see no harm in telling the truth.
“We don’t know where it is,” he said. “We haven’t any idea.”
“You defy me, eh?” Duke Stefan scowled. “Let the other one speak. If you wish mercy, my little mouse, tell where the silver spider is.”
“I don’t know,” Bob said. “I haven’t any idea.”
“But you had it!” Duke Stefan roared at them. “That you have admitted. So you know where it is. Did you hide it? Did you give it to someone? Answer or it will be the worse for you!”
“We don’t know where it went,” Jupiter said. “You can ask us all night, and we won’t be able to tell you anything else.”
“So. You are being stubborn.” Duke Stefan drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “We can cure that. We have instruments in this room that have made grown men, far braver than you, scream to be allowed to speak. How would you like to stand within the Iron Maiden there and have her slowly embrace you, eh?”