1960’s-1970’s YA mystery short story–people search a castle for a missing keep or room wherein may be hidden a fortune. Many people search. They decide to put a cloth in each window as they search; then they can see from the outside which window has no cloth and is therefore the hidden room. The story is possibly from one of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents Anthologies. It certainly had that feel. Although many others are searching this castle for a missing keep or a room in a keep, only one person finds it. There is some sort of secret entrance, I recall. When the finder discovers the entrance and room, another character (the bad guy) goes with him and murders him there and “hides” the secret entrance to the room again.
I recall (or believe I recall) a line at the end—part of the thoughts of the skeptical castle groundskeeper, I think– “there was no Norman keep.”
Other stories in this anthology may have included:
The Ghost of Ticonderoga by ?
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
One about a boy who collects butterflies and one of the butterflies comes back and gets him?
Linda, You DID IT! I’ve been looking for many, many years for the right story, and this is the right collection!
Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, “The Curse of the Seven Towers” is the short story I’ve been looking for. I now own a copy. I had forgotten that I’d ever read a Rod Serling collection (I read so many short story collections when I was young), but your suggestion led to a solution. I had almost given up hope.
By the way, the line I mentioned in my original post was nearly the last line of the story, but I did remember it correctly.
Thank you for your help.
Linda, You DID IT! I’ve been looking for many, many years for the right story, and this is the right collection!
Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, “The Curse of the Seven Towers” is the short story I’ve been looking for. I now own a copy. I had forgotten that I’d ever read a Rod Serling collection (I read so many short story collections when I was young), but your suggestion led to a solution. I had almost given up hope.
By the way, the line I mentioned in my original post was nearly the last line of the story, but I did remember it correctly.
Thank you for your help.