The Smoky Corridor

79

“Edward Cooper DuBois?” the ghost snarled. “You come back here with that pistol!”

“Yes,” said Zack. “I understand.”

“Consarn it all! Tell him to turn around, boy!”

John Lee Cooper was probably the angriest, most spiteful, meanest-tempered ghost Zack had ever encountered, a sour-faced man with a long, curly beard, a bird beak for a nose, and two tiny black eyes.

“Boy, you tell Edward Cooper DuBois to come back here and put a bullet in your fool brain!”

Zack nodded. “So all we need to know is how to convert Roman numerals to crack the code?”

“What? I didn’t say that. Consarn it, boy! You’ve not spoke one true word of what I told you! Tell Daphne she must be careful. There be a ferocious voodoo zombie standing guard in that tunnel.”

“And once we find the stone, we have nothing to worry about?”

“Why, you little Yankee coot! Where’s that Donnelly boy? Him I could talk to. You’re nothin’ but a sockdologizing young whippersnapper!”

“Thank you, sir. Is that everything?”

“No, dagnabit! There’s booby traps and danger around every corner! Captain Pettimore was clever and cunning! Spent years building his fortifications. You go down the wrong tunnel, the wrong staircase, that zombie of his will rip the flesh right off your bones!”

“Okay. Thanks. Hope to talk to you again soon, sir.”

Zack turned away from the headstone and snicked his tongue so Zipper would quit staring at the ghost, too.

Zipper turned toward the teacher.

“Consarn it! Don’t you turn your back on me, boy. I’ll knock you into a cocked hat, you no-account hornswoggler!”

Zack smiled at Ms. DuBois. Zipper wagged his tail.

“All set? I know where we need to go.”