“I wonder what she meant by that?” Violet asked when Jessie told the others about Marianne’s strange remark.
“She said we’d find out soon enough,” Henry said, glancing around. “Talk about the Payne mansion. This place is falling apart. I wonder why Mrs. Harrington doesn’t make any repairs.”
Jessie stopped in front of the cabin she was sharing with Violet. “Grandfather told me earlier he thinks Mrs. Harrington has fallen on hard times. She probably can’t afford to have the repairs made.”
Henry unlocked the door to his and Benny’s cabin. “I can see why. It’s the middle of summer and hardly anybody is staying here.”
“We’ll see you guys after we’ve unpacked and cleaned up,” Jessie said to the boys. “Then Grandfather is taking us back to see the town.”
“I still can’t believe we own our very own town!” Benny exclaimed. “I want to be fire chief and police chief!”
Violet giggled. “I don’t think there are fires or criminals, Benny. Nobody lives there!”
She and Jessie went inside their cabin. The place had been cute once but now was shabby. Faded red-checked curtains hung at the single window. The knotty pine bunks were covered with Indian blankets, the holes darned many times. Dusty pictures of the Rockies hung on the walls.
The girls stowed their clothing in the small dresser, then Jessie decided to take a quick shower.
She came right out of the bathroom. “We have no towels.”
“I saw Marianne put some in there before she made up the beds,” Violet answered.
“Well, there aren’t any now.” Jessie went over to the phone on the pine stand between the bunks and picked up the receiver. A frown crossed her face as she jiggled the connector button.
“What’s wrong?” asked Violet.
“The phone isn’t working,” replied Jessie. “We’ve got to have towels. I’ll borrow some from the boys.”
But Henry and Benny didn’t have towels, either.
“This is weird,” said Violet. “I’ll go up to the main office and get some.”
She came back a few moments later with a stack of threadbare towels. “Mrs. Harrington gave me a funny look. She said all the cabins are supplied with linens.”
“Why would we fib about towels?” asked Jessie. “Surely she doesn’t think we stole them?” She held up one. “These barely make good rags.”
Henry took half of the towels for his and Benny’s bathroom. “Eagles Nest is weird, don’t you think?”
As Violet waited for Jessie to take her shower, she thought Benny might be right. Eagles Nest was odd — and so were the people who ran it. Dead phones, missing towels ... what would happen next?
“I’ll never get used to this road!” Henry yelled as the Jeep tore up the mountain.
The Aldens were glad when the road finally ran out and Grandfather parked the Jeep. Early evening sunlight dappled the trail. Now that they were aware of the altitude, they didn’t try to climb so fast.
“What are you going to do with your property?” Henry asked his grandfather.
Grandfather pondered the question. “I really don’t know yet. What do you children think I should do with it?”
“Aldenville?” Jessie chuckled.
“No! Bennytown!” If Benny had a town named after himself, he could be mayor, police chief, and fire chief.
Before the trail ended at the canyon, where they had first glimpsed the ghost town, another trail branched off, an old unused road. Mrs. Harrington had told the Aldens to take this road down into the canyon.
They found the fork in the path and soon were walking down the dirt road, now overgrown with weeds.
“This is the old wagon road,” Grandfather said. “It seems steep and twisty, but a team of horses could get down into the canyon on it.”
“I bet that ride would be wilder than in our Jeep!” Benny exclaimed, running ahead.
The road took one more turn, then straightened to become the main street of the ghost town. A wooden sign with faint letters announced the town of Tincup.
Benny waited for the others before entering the town.
“All right,” said Grandfather firmly. “No one is to enter any buildings unless I go, too. Remember, these buildings are more than a hundred years old. The flooring could be rotted. Consider them dangerous.”
The children nodded. Stores and other buildings lined either side of the street. Many had wooden awnings.
“We’ll just stroll down Main Street first,” Grandfather went on. “Then we’ll explore indoors.”
As anxious as Henry had been to reach the old town, he found himself walking cautiously down the dusty road. Signboards flapped in the rising wind. Creak! Creak! went the barbershop shingle. Tincup was creepy.
Jessie was thinking the same thing. Not a living soul stays here. Mrs. Harrington’s whispered words came back to her.
Grandfather finally broke the eerie silence. “See the raised sidewalks?” He pointed to the shallow wooden platforms built in front of the stores and the two hotels. “They didn’t have concrete back in those days. So they made sidewalks out of wood. Women wouldn’t get the hems of their long dresses muddied or dusty.”
Violet had also been under the spooky spell of the empty old place. She was glad to picture real people in Tincup.
“I bet their dresses were really pretty,” she said.
Jessie nodded. “But those gowns were hard to move around in. I’d rather wear jeans any day!”
Benny pointed to wooden poles in front of the dry goods shop. “What are those for?” he asked.
“Those are hitching posts,” answered Henry. “When a rider came into town on his horse, he looped the reins over the hitching post so his horse wouldn’t wander off.”
“Like parking a car,” Benny said.
Jessie giggled. Benny could always make them laugh. “Yes, the cowboys parked their horses!”
“Can we go into one of the buildings now?” Benny asked Grandfather. “Like that one?” He pointed to the dry goods shop.
“Let me check it out first,” Grandfather replied. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
“You be careful, too,” said Violet. She worried about Grandfather, even though he was healthy and fit.
The children waited as he opened the door, which hung off a broken hinge, and disappeared inside.
The sun was sinking below the rim of the canyon, high above the town. The wind picked up, tumbling twigs and leaves down the deserted street.
Just as the sun touched the edge of the canyon, like a fireball in the sky, Violet noticed something.
A figure was standing at the end of town.
Violet gasped, and the others looked, too.
The figure was clearly a woman, dressed in a long, plain gray dress. Her back was turned to the children. A light gray shawl was wrapped tightly around the woman’s shoulders. Stringy gray hair blew in the wind.
“Who is that?” Jessie whispered.
“I don’t know,” said Henry. “But I think we should tell Grandfather.”
Just then the sun sank over the ledge, leaving a purple haze over Tincup.
“Grandfather!” Benny called. “Come quick!”
James Alden hurried through the door. “What is it?”
“There’s a lady — ” Violet began.
But the woman had vanished.
“What lady?” quizzed Grandfather. “I don’t see anybody.”
“She was here,” Jessie insisted. “We all saw her. She had on a long dress.”
Grandfather stared at them. “I believe you saw something. The altitude can play tricks on your eyes.”
“It wasn’t a trick,” Violet said. “We saw a lady.”
“We’d better go back to Eagles Nest,” said Grandfather. “Maybe Mrs. Harrington knows about this mysterious lady.”
Everyone was silent as they climbed the wagon road and then the trail back to the Jeep.
At Eagles Nest, dinner was about to be served. Mrs. Harrington urged the Aldens to sit down at the large table. Mr. Lacey, Mr. Williams, and Corey were already seated.
“How was your trip into Tincup?” asked Mrs. Harrington.
“My grandchildren saw someone,” Grandfather replied. “A woman. By the time I got there, she was gone.”
“Was the woman walking toward the sunset?” asked Mrs. Harrington.
“Yes!” answered the Alden children at once.
“But then she disappeared,” added Benny.
“Right as the sun went down?” Mrs. Harrington prompted.
“Yeah,” said Benny. “How’d you know?”
Mrs. Harrington nodded sagely. “You children saw someone very special.”
“Who?” asked Jessie, her spine already tingling.
“Rose Payne.”
Grandfather’s eyebrows lifted. “Duncan Payne’s wife? But Rose Payne is long dead.”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Harrington. “But the ghost of Rose Payne is still here. Mr. Alden, you bought a ghost town that comes with its very own ghost!” |