ystery Room in the Castle

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

For the many years that the Baron was raised in Lilliland Castle, he thought he knew every inch of the castle. There was a story about the Baron's Uncle who sailed around the world in search of treasures of gold. He would try to find the places that famous pirates were said to have hidden their treasures. The story tells of the Baron's Uncle and the Earl of Wickham and how they would search for uncharted islands that might be deep enough to hide a pirate ship while the pirates buried their treasure.

When the Earl of Wickham retired from his explorations, he hid the treasures he had found, not in his own castle but in the castle of a relative. The relative was supposed to be the owner of Lilliland Castle.

But all the places where a treasure might be found were as yet undiscovered. There was no place in Lilliland Castle that could hide a treasure like the one that the Earl of Wickham was rumored to have.

One night the Baron was studying the expression on a portrait of the Earl. The face and expression seemed to direct the Baron toward a second large, unused fireplace at the opposite end of the great hall. Everyone thought that one fireplace in the great hall was enough and that the second fireplace was never used. The Baron looked into the hearth of the unused fireplace and found a secret room filled with the golden treasure of the Earl of Wickham. The Baron used the treasure to build the Lilliland Hospital's new wing for the health and well being of all the citizens of Lilliland.

He named the new wing after the Earl of Wickham.