The Smoky Corridor

78

It was incredible!

Daphne DuBois stood beside the grave of John Lee Cooper, marveling at Zack Jennings as the young ghost seer, like Seth Donnelly before him, conversed with her deceased ancestor—the first Southerner to come north to retrieve the Confederacy’s stolen gold.

Bringing the boy’s dog along for the field trip turned out to be an excellent idea.

The dog could see ghosts, too!

Daphne DuBois could tell, just by studying the angle of the dog’s unblinking stare, that the spirit of John Lee Cooper was standing in front of his headstone.

“I understand,” Zack said to the empty air.

Then, of course, there was a pause as John Lee Cooper spoke to the boy.

“Yes, sir. I’ll show them where Captain Pettimore put his special marker.”

This was amazing!

“You say there are no more booby traps in the tunnels? No more guards?”

Of course not, Daphne thought. Pettimore had died a century earlier. Any guards he had hired had long since abandoned their posts.

“What? The message on the stone is written in code? Can you tell me how to crack it? Good. Thank you, sir.”

Daphne looked at her brother, Eddie. He still had the .44-caliber Colt revolver aimed at Zack.

“Oh, put that thing away, Edward! Zack’s doing exactly what we told him to do.” Then she whispered, “I think he has a crush on me. I think all the boys do.”

Eddie lowered the gun, moved closer.

“But what about the girl?” he whispered.

Right.

She had nearly forgotten. The warning scribbled on Madame Marie’s spirit slates: Find the boy. Beware the girl.

“Hurry back to the school,” she said to her brother. “Find Azalea. Put her out of our misery.”

Eddie smiled. “One lead ball to the head is all it should take!”