Ghost Town Mystery (2 page)

“Until Duncan Payne came along,” Mrs. Harrington said. “Duncan started a mine. Soon a town was built near the mine. It was called Tincup after the gold Duncan found in his tin cup.”

“I have a cup,” said Benny. “It’s old, too. I used to drink milk out of it.”

Mrs. Harrington went on with her story. “The town of Tincup grew. Singers and dancers and actors came to entertain the miners. One night during an opera, Duncan fell in love with a singer. Her name was Rose. She had beautiful blue eyes and black hair down to her knees.”

Jessie hugged herself with delight. “This is so romantic!”

“Then what happened?” Violet asked eagerly.

Mrs. Harrington smiled. “Duncan and Rose married and built a mansion above Tincup, near the mine. They had a daughter named Seraphina. Seraphina went to eastern schools. They traveled all over Europe. They were rich and happy. And then” — she lowered her voice — “trouble struck.”

At that moment, the door to the dining hall opened. Two men came in.

One had sandy hair and gray eyes that crinkled at the corners. His shirt was crisply ironed and his jeans were neat.

The other man was nearly bald and wore glasses. He wore a tattered vest with mesh pockets and fishing hooks poked through loops. He scowled when he saw the others at the table.

Henry wondered why the second stranger seemed so sour when no one had even said anything to him yet. At first Henry thought the two men were together, but they sat at opposite ends of the table.

The first man said, “Adele, do you have any iced tea?”

“Sorry,” said Mrs. Harrington. “Just water. Marianne, fetch the gentlemen some water.”

Marianne, who had been quietly folding worn napkins, got up to pour the newcomers glasses of water.

“Everybody,” announced Mrs. Harrington, “this is Victor Lacey.” The sandy-haired man smiled and raised his glass in a friendly way. “And our other guest is Robert Williams,” added Mrs. Harrington.

Robert Williams nodded formally. Now Henry knew the two men had not come to Eagles Nest together. They were so different, they couldn’t possibly be friends. Henry also noticed that Victor Lacey called the motel owner by her first name. Mr. Lacey must have been staying here awhile.

“They are here to try their luck at trout fishing,” said Mrs. Harrington. She introduced the two men to the Aldens, and told them that the Aldens were visiting to see the land and the town that they owned.

Benny wanted to get back to the story. “What happened to Duncan and Rose?”

“It’s so sad,” said Mrs. Harrington mournfully. To the newcomers she said, “I’m telling the story of the old town at the bottom of the canyon. You might have seen it.”

Mr. Lacey gazed over his glass with round gray eyes. “There’s an old town around here?”

“You’ll see it if you go hiking,” said Grandfather.

“Tincup wasn’t the only silver-mining town,” Mrs. Harrington went on. “The West was full of them. But too much silver was being used for money. So President Cleveland lied to the silver-mine owners and told them gold would be used for money instead.”

“What happened to the silver mines?” asked Jessie.

“They closed,” replied Grandfather. “Overnight the mines shut down.”

“The miners had to leave,” Mrs. Harrington said, taking up the story again. “Soon towns like Tincup were empty. They became ghost towns because no one lived in them.”

Now even Corey was interested. “So what became of Duncan and Rose?”

“Duncan was suddenly broke,” answered Mrs. Harrington. “The men who abandoned the mines had to start over. Most of them didn’t have much money. They built rafts and floated down rivers to big cities to find work. Duncan, who was not a young man, joined a group on a homemade raft. There was a storm on the Colorado River one night. The raft broke up and he was killed.”

The dining room was silent.

“Poor Rose,” said Violet. “What did she do?”

Mrs. Harrington leaned forward. “Before he left, Duncan told her he would be back someday and to look for him at sundown. Rose Payne stayed in the mansion above Tincup. Every day she sat in her chair, watching until the sun began to drop over the cliff wall. Then she’d take the trail down to Tincup and walk toward the setting sun.”

“What was she doing?” asked Benny.

“Going to meet her husband,” Mrs. Harrington said dramatically. “Even after she knew he’d been killed, Rose Payne left her house and walked toward the sunset every single day.”

Grandfather had a question. “We didn’t see the mansion. Where is it?”

“Gone,” said Mrs. Harrington with a wave of her hand. “It was built near the mine on top of the mountain. Rose refused to leave or let anyone fix it. So the mansion fell to pieces around her.”

“But the town is still there,” said Corey. “Cool!”

“Wow!” exclaimed Victor Lacey. “That’s some yarn! What are you going to do with your ghost town, Mr. Alden?”

Grandfather shook his head. “I have no idea.”

Benny was excited about the idea of owning a town. “Can I be the police chief?”

Everyone laughed, breaking the spell of Rose and Duncan Payne’s tragic story.

The “snack” over, Marianne hustled over to clear away the glasses.

“You’ve lived near a ghost town all your life,” Jessie said to the young woman. “What’s it like?”

Marianne bent down. “Mother didn’t tell you the
whole
story,” she said mysteriously.

“What didn’t she tell us?” asked Jessie.

But Marianne whisked away Jessie’s glass, saying only, “You’ll find out soon enough.”

“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.