The red pickup truck was just where they had left it. But now it was tilted to one side, like a sinking ship.
“Look,” said Henry. “Both tires on one side are flat.”
“Great!” fumed Maris. “This is just great!”
“It’ll be okay,” said Jessie. “We can fix the tires.”
“Better yet, I’ll get Lulu the mechanic to come over from the gas station. She can patch and pump those tires in no time flat,” Bobcat said.
“Oh, okay,” Maris said grumpily.
While Bobcat was gone, the Aldens all examined the tires very carefully. But they couldn’t find a nail or a piece of glass or anything that would have made a hole in the tires so they would go flat.
“Someone must have let the air out of the tires,” said Henry at last.
“That’s what I think,” Maris agreed. She folded her arms. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think someone was out to get me.”
“But why would anyone do that?” asked Violet.
Just then, a big white tow truck pulled up. Lulu got out of the tow truck, along with Bobcat.
“Bad luck,” said Lulu, raising her eyebrows. With that, she went to work pumping air back into the tires. “No leaks,” Lulu reported when she finished. “Looks like someone played a mean trick on you, Maris, and just let the air out of those tires.”
Maris sighed. “Let’s get going,” she said.
“Or we won’t even be able to start today.”
“I just hope we don’t have any more bad luck,” said Violet in a low voice.
Jessie frowned. “Bad luck? No. I think it’s more than that. A dead battery. Two flat tires.”
“And all that talk about ghosts on Blizzard Mountain,” said Henry. “It’s almost like someone doesn’t want us to go to Blizzard Mountain.”
“Is it a mystery?” asked Benny eagerly.
“It might be, Benny,” said Henry. “It just might be a mountain of a mystery.”
Bobcat had picked up his truck at the park ranger office in town. Now he led the way in his truck, while Maris and the Aldens followed. The narrow winding mountain roads seemed to get bumpier and narrower with each passing mile. At last they came to a bare patch of dirt along one side of the road. Bobcat pulled over. So did Maris.
“Where’s the trail?” Benny asked.
“Right there,” Maris said, pointing.
Benny squinted and frowned. He didn’t see anything but trees.
They put on their packs and reknotted their hiking boots and they each took a drink of water. Then Maris led the way toward the trees. She stepped between two trees and over a small boulder, and there it was: a faint trail threading through the trees.
Jessie could see white blazes of paint on the trees before them now, marking the trail ahead.
“It’s almost like a secret trail,” said Violet.
“There’s been a rough trail here ever since I can remember,” Maris told them. She made a face. “People using it to look for Stagecoach George’s treasure, I guess.”
They were passing a spooky-looking group of twisted dead trees. Jessie couldn’t help asking, “Has anybody else ever seen the ghost of Stagecoach George? Besides Chuck?”
“People say they have,” said Maris.
“Like that couple that got lost on Blizzard Mountain a couple years back,” Bobcat said. “When the rescue team found them, they both said they’d seen a ghost.”
“They’d been lost in the woods for three long, cold days,” said Maris. “They were so scared they thought you were a ghost at first. Ghosts don’t exist, Bobcat. Keep that in mind.”
“Some of the other rangers have seen and heard strange things in these mountains,” Bobcat argued stubbornly.
“But not ghosts,” said Maris.
“I’d like to see a ghost,” said Benny. “Then we could catch it. And if it was Stagecoach George, we could make him help us find the treasure.”
Maris looked over her shoulder in surprise at Benny. “You’re not afraid of ghosts?”
“No!” said Benny. “Boo to ghosts!”
Everyone laughed.
“Well, I’m glad to hear it,” said Bobcat. “It’s always good to have brave company in the mountains.”
They walked quietly after that. Bobcat pointed out red squirrels that dashed up trees as they went by. Jessie saw a crow flapping heavily through the branches above them. Something slid into a stream with a splash when the hikers scrambled across the rocks in the streambed.
After a while, Violet said, “It’s so quiet. And empty!”
“Oh, animals are everywhere around us,” Bobcat said. “They can see us. Hear us, too, probably from miles away.”
“I haven’t seen any animals except squirrels and crows,” Benny said.
“But they see you,” said Bobcat. “Right now, they’re sitting back and saying, ‘Now, who do you suppose that is, walking right through our front yard?’”
Jessie laughed. “We’ll have to be good guests and not make a mess,” she said.
“Right,” Maris said over her shoulder.
They hiked, stopped for lunch by another stream, then hiked some more. It got later and later.
Benny’s feet began to hurt.
Suddenly Henry said, “I see a house!”
“The lean-to,” said Maris. “Good. We’ve got just enough daylight left to set up camp.” She led the way off the trail to a rough low building that looked like half of a triangle made of logs. A slanted log roof and log walls ran down to meet a log floor on the sides and in the back. The open front of the lean-to faced a stone fire pit.
“We’ll camp here tonight,” said Maris.
“Do we put our tent inside?” asked Benny.
Bobcat laughed. “Nope. The only things you put inside are balsam tree branches. You put those on the floor and put your sleeping bags on top. I’m going to put my tent right over there, and I’m going to put balsam tree branches in it, too.”
Henry shivered. “It’s getting colder,” he said. “Let’s build a fire right away.”
“We need to hurry,” Maris said. “It’s getting dark.”
Quickly everyone went to work. Soon the lean-to was piled with soft, sweet-smelling balsam and a fire was roaring in front of the lean-to. They sat down on the edge of the lean-to in front of the fire and made a dinner of soup mix cooked with boiling water over the fire, cheese, fruit, and bars of chocolate for dessert.
After dinner, the Aldens and Bobcat set out to explore the woods around their campsite. They had gone a little way when suddenly Jessie held out her hand. “Look! It’s snowing!” she cried.
“Time to get back to the lean-to,” Henry said.
They hurried back to camp. As they got closer, they saw Maris standing at the edge of the light cast by the fire. She turned a big flashlight in their direction and said, “Bobcat? Is that you?”
“It’s us,” said Bobcat.
“What is it?” Jessie asked. “You look worried.”
“We weren’t lost,” Benny said.
“It wasn’t that.” Maris smiled. “I thought I heard something.”
Everyone stopped to listen. They heard wind whispering in the trees. They saw shadows made by the fire leap up in the darkness. They felt the cold touch of snowflakes.
But nothing more.
At last Maris said, “It must have been an animal.”
“That’s about the only thing that would be up here,” Bobcat said.
“True,” said Maris. “Okay. Let’s get some rest.”
Maris banked the fire so it would stay hot through the night. Then everyone got into their sleeping bags on top of the sweet-smelling balsam branches.
The night grew still. Through sleepy eyes, Benny watched the snow falling through the dim firelight.
He was almost asleep when Violet sat straight up and cried, “What’s that?” |