A JUDY BOLTON DAY MYSTERY 2

THE MIDNIGHT PHANTOM

Copyright 2003 Stratomiker Syndicate
A Julie Kane mystery set in Potter County PA at the annual Judy Bolton Day weekend

read chapter 1 here

The Haunted Attic!

Chapter Two: ALLEGHENY AMBUSH

"Shhh! Shhh!"

The red-haired girl giggled ebulliently as she put a finger to her lips. "Don't let everyone hear you!"

She looked around warily. Then, when she was assured no one had overheard Julie, she turned back with a grin. "They'll attack us if they know I'm me! I nearly caused a riot in Erie last week. I was shopping with my mom at the mall and someone recognized me, a girl I went to elementary school with. She made a big fuss, right outside the entrance to Sears. Then everyone heard it was me and there was this totally huge mob. I had to run into the Ladies' Room for cover until the police came."

Julie had been to the huge Millcreek Mall just outside of Erie by Interstate 90 many a time. Jamestown had its own Chautauqua Mall, but it was small, and area residents often drove over to Erie for serious shopping. But she couldn't imagine being mobbed by frenzied fans at your hometown mall.

"Did the police have to escort you home?" she asked.

Gina nodded, pushing the dark glasses into place. "Yes, but that was later. I'd never be so uncool as to abandon fans. Once the police arrived, they escorted me out to the food court and I signed autographs and chatted with everyone for a couple hours. It's really fun to hang out with fans. People are so interesting and, to me, 'regular' people are the ones to be really admired. Then one of the police cars followed us home. It was all pretty weird. Our house is only two miles from the mall and I can't even go there without getting mobbed!"

Julie leaned forward, laughing. "One of the shortcomings of being the hottest star in the world, eh?"

The teen queen grinned with a shrug of her shoulders. "Well, I wasn't exactly the pop princess that day. I had this very same garb on and my hair in rollers. And no make-up. Hoping no one would recognize me. But, hey, it's my neighborhood and they're always on the lookout for me."

Julie could understand that. "I'll bet Gina Sabreen sightings are a big deal in Erie."

The girl nodded. "One day I went to the Barnes and Noble bookstore across from the mall to buy the latest Harry Potter book. My mom was with me and I actually wore a flight attendant outfit I got out in Hollywood, complete with a cute little cap and a brunette wig - just to go to Barnes and Noble!" Her fist pounded on the table. "I love to spend hours browsing for books, but right away several people recognized me. I had to take the wig off and hold court in the cafe and chat with everyone. Some of them bought my CDs and I signed them. One lady had me inscribe a book she bought - The Da Vinci Code! Imagine that! Sitting in a cafe dressed as a stewardess signing CDs and a book I didn't even write. Well, at least it wasn't a mob scene, and they do have Starbuck's coffee!"

Julie was chuckling. "Gina, you are really funny." She held her hand out to the girl. "I am very happy to meet you."

"Likewise," the Sabreen girl said, shaking Julie's hand vigorously. "Do people recognize you often?"

"As a matter of fact, they do. You're the second person today to recognize me. Of course," Julie added, "I'm not that well-known as to cause a mob scene. And even though my life certainly is exciting, I'm sure it's nowhere near as exciting as yours."

"I do have a blast-o-rama," Gina admitted. "And it's huge to be able to travel the world. But I'm always chaperoned and guarded. You're only a couple years older than me, but you're all about going off alone like a girl James Bond and having real adventures. Solving mysteries! That is so large! You rule, Julie Kane. I want to be just like you. On my own."

Julie picked up her Big Mac and took a bite, chewing thoughtfully. "Are you flattering me to get on my good side because I'm going to write about you?"

Gina was like, "No way! I really mean it. I know I have an awesome life and I'm very grateful for all of it, but I'm never alone. Mom and Dad are always with me, or Boom Boom, my bodyguard. I can't remember the last time I was alone except to go to the bathroom, and not always that!"

Julie found she couldn't stop laughing. "No wonder you were such a hit on Family Values. You really have a wacky sense of humor. Is that man you were sitting with your bodyguard?"

Gina snorted and began to giggle. "Totally no! That's my dad."

"You're dad? Wow, what a hunk he is. And I love hunters. He looks great in that camouflage gear."

"Boom Boom is my bodyguard," Gina told her. "He's even bigger than my dad, about six-two and 240 pounds. He's huge and strong and tough, like The Rock. And he's black. He watches over me like a hawk and won't let a soul get near me. He's been visiting his mom in Philadelphia and will meet me in Coudersport this afternoon. They absolutely loved him there when we were filming the movie this summer. He's such an oddity to them, that town is so completely white."

"So your dad is driving you to Coudy?" Julie asked.

"Yep. He'll drop me off at the motel and then double back this way and down south to Tionesta Dam. We have a hunting camp there, a cozy little cabin. It's bow hunting season, you know. He's just gotta get himself a buck!"

"Right. I know all about that," Julie agreed. "I've been on dozens of hunting trips with my mom, dad, and brother. It gets to be like a religion. Where is your mom?"

"At home in Erie. She broke her arm a couple weeks ago. Slipped and fell while we were covering up the swimming pool for the season. So she's just staying home this weekend to relax. Boom Boom will take me back to Erie on Sunday."

Julie's brows knit in thought. "You can ride with me to Coudersport. That way your dad can go right down to Tionesta Dam from here. He won't have to drive all the way out to Potter County and then double back."

Gina's mouth went agape. Then, "Julie, that'd be so cool. I'd love it. On my own with a girlfriend! What a treat. And it'd sure save Dad a lot of time."

She turned and sent a loud "Pssst!" over to the booth her dad was sitting in. When he looked over, she whispered, "Come on over here!"

Mr. Sabreen picked up his coffee cup and squeezed his beefy frame out of the booth. Julie checked him out as he walked over, pleased at what she saw. He was a tall husky man in his forties with muscular arms and broad shoulders, and a slim waist. He was handsome, and Gina looked a lot like him. She had his cool blue eyes and blond hair, too, when she wasn't sporting the 'dye job'.

He sat down next to Gina, giving Julie a friendly smile.

"Dad, we were right. This is Julie Kane. Julie, this is my dad, Eddie Sabreen."

Julie shook the man's hand. "Great to meet you, Eddie. Wow! What's it like to be the father of this amazingly talented daughter of yours?"

The man grinned from ear to ear, obviously very proud. "It's wonderful. Gina is a great talent and she's also a wonderful girl. We all worked hard for the astounding success she's achieved, and we haven't lost sight that we're a very blessed family. There are so many who don't make it, and we're sure grateful that Gina has."

Julie was impressed by the man's attitude of gratitude. Her parents had instilled that value in her and her brother, and always expressed it themselves. It always pleased her to hear it from others.

"She brings a great deal of pleasure to millions of people with her acting and singing," Julie said. "Earlier, on my way down here, I heard Wings to Fly on the radio and, wow, it really sent me. I almost flew off the road!"

Gina giggled. "Wait till you hear the club version. Six minutes and thirty-two seconds of it with a techno-pop dance beat and background vocals by Justin Timberlake and a rap riff by Kanye West."

Julie's eyes widened. "Yo! How did you manage that?"

Gina shrugged. "They're my friends. They wanted to do something with me."

Julie shook her head in wonder. "That's awesome. I'm taking mental notes for my article about you. I can't wait to hear it - Wings to Fly, a dance version, with JT singing and dude himself rapping!"

"Boom Boom will have CD copies of it in Coudersport," Gina told her. "It was remixed at a studio in Philly by one of our DJ friends, not far from his mom's house."

"Speaking of Coudersport," Julie said, looking at Mr. Sabreen. "I'm headed there myself right now. Gina can come with me. That way you can go right down to Tionesta Dam to start your hunting and save a lot of time."

There was a quick gleam of interest in the man's eyes. He looked at Gina. "Do you think it'd be okay, honey? I'd sure like to get started hunting that buck on a beauty day like this."

Gina nodded eagerly. "Of course it'll be okay, Daddy. I'd be safer with Julie than with the President. She travels all over the world, solves mysteries and fights crime. Like a super hero."

Julie was all, "Hey, I don't fly faster than a speeding bullet or leap over tall buildings with a single bound!"

Eddie Sabreen winked at her. "From what I've read in LifeStyles, you do just about everything else but that."

"Not exactly," Julie chided him with a smile. "But Gina will be plenty safe with me. The only thing between here and Coudy is the Allegheny National Forest, and nothing is likely to happen in there."

Gina nodded, flitting a grim expression at her dad. "Right. No crazed fans or stalkers in there!"

"Stalkers?" Julie asked, looking from one to the other.

Mr. Sabreen shrugged, the corners of his mouth tightening. He jutted his chin toward Gina. "Some guy out in Hollywood was stalking her in August. A real creep, too. Boom Boom and I had to be with her every minute, even on a couple publicity dates. We had to sit and have dinner from a couple tables away."

Gina rolled her eyes and chuckled. "And I was with that dreamy Chace Crawford! Had to have my dad and bodyguard ten feet away! That's why we're staying home in Erie for a while now. We completed some interior scenes for The Vanishing Shadow movie in Hollywood and then hightailed it back home. It's totally creepy having one of those weirdos after you!"

Julie shivered. "Ughh! It must be awful. You haven't seen or heard from him since you've been home?"

Eddie Sabreen shook his head. "Nothing so far. It appears to have been just a Hollywood thing. It happens a lot out there. But we're still being cautious."

Talk about the stalker had gotten to Gina, Julie could see, but the girl forced a smile. "Can I go with Julie, Dad? We'll be okay. And Boom Boom will be there waiting in Coudy."

Her father nodded. "All right, but don't tell your mother. I'll never hear the end of it!"

Gina was obviously thrilled and sent Julie a triumphant smile. "Mom totally won't here about it from me," she assured her dad, grinning happily.

Julie was awed by the fact that a two-to-three hour car ride with a friend was such a treat for this girl who was an international star and entertained people all over the world. But, after all, she had to remind herself, it was Pennsylvania and it was October and they'd be driving through the Allegheny National Forest to Judy Bolton Country. That was indeed pretty special, even to a girl like Gina who had it all.

Julie finished her lunch and the three of them went back outside. The day seemed even brighter than before; there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Gina's dad was driving a big silver Dodge truck with a tonneau cover over the back bed. He unsnapped the part by the tailgate and pulled the tailgate down, revealing suitcases and hunting gear that were stashed underneath. He pulled out two cloth suitcases, both packed tight and looking like they might explode.

Julie pointed at her car parked about forty feet away. "That's me. The black Jaguar."

Eddie Sabreen nodded. "Hot car, Julie. But will these big lumpy suitcases fit?"

"No fear. There's plenty of room. Just toss them in the back seat."

Gina's dad walked over to the car and did exactly that, then hugged his daughter and kissed her on the cheek. "Have a good time, honey. And listen to Boom Boom. Don't try sneaking off away from him!"

Gina blushed guiltily, glancing sideways at Julie. "Oh, Dad! I only did it that one time. You know how he watches over me like a mother hen. Sometimes it creeps me out!"

Mr. Sabreen sighed with long-suffering patience. "Creeped out or not, honey, you need a bodyguard. Good luck with the video. I'll be back home on Monday or Tuesday, depending on how the hunting goes."

He turned to Julie. "If you should need me, Gina has my cell phone number. If you don't get an answer, keep trying. You know how hit-and-miss reception can be in these mountains."

Julie nodded and grinned. "That guy on TV who keeps walking around and asking 'Can you hear me now?' should be checking it out here in Appalachia, huh? It's a pleasure to have met you, Eddie, and don't worry about Gina. I'll keep an eye on her. She's my big story this weekend, so I won't let anything happen to her for sure!"

Gina was all "Sa-weeet!" and "Ohmygod!" when they had climbed into the Jaguar and pulled out of the parking lot. Julie headed east and the car purred across the bridge that spanned the Allegheny River.

"This is such a total wow!" Gina was carrying on. "No mother, father, bodyguard, agent, producer, director, fans or stalker! Just me alone, on my own. No one in my space. I love it!"

Julie glanced at the girl with a laugh. "I'm here, Gina. Right in the same space next to you."

Gina chuckled happily and was like, "But you are so majorly awesome and, to tell the truth, I feel safer with you than any of the others. This is so cool!"

Julie had to admit, yes it was! She didn't usually get to take a lengthy car ride with her interview subjects and Gina was indeed the hottest entertainer in the world right now. This set-up was offering Julie a very intimate one-on-one with the girl that everybody but everybody wanted.

She turned east after the bridge onto route 6 North which curved its way through the hills south of Warren. But not a minute later she made a quick left turn onto route 59, which led east through the northern part of the Allegheny National Forest.

"I love this road so much," Gina said, as the forested hills closed in on them. "We drove it a lot earlier this summer back and forth to Erie when we were filming The Vanishing Shadow movie in Potter County. Boom Boom prefers the northern route that goes up to Interstate 86 in New York and then Interstate 90 to Erie. He likes the freeways. But I'd rather be on these remote country roads and in the hills and woods."

"Me too," agreed Julie. "This route is so major the way it  follows the river all the way to the reservoir and the dam, then goes up into the really high country before meeting up with route 6 again in Smethport.  Once I had to stop because there was a bear in the road. That was freaky. Another time, this same weekend in early October, there was a blizzard on my way back home from Coudy."

"There won't be any snow this weekend," Gina predicted. "Not even any cold. It's supposed to be sunny and warm. I totally love it. Look at how beautiful it all is!"

Julie had to agree. The hills were all ablaze in their fall palette of color, the river alongside the winding road smooth and glistening in the dazzling sunlight. One couldn't ask for more lovely scenery through which to drive. The car hugged the road and purred like a cat as it swooshed around the curves in the breathtaking high country.

"So tell me about when you sneaked away from Boom Boom," Julie asked the girl. "What made you do it? Where did you go?"

Gina grinned and rolled her eyes. "It was in Coudersport this summer while we were making the movie. Benneto Franchi had come from Cleveland to spend a few days."

"I met him and interviewed him last week," Julie interposed. "What a guy, huh?"

"He's totally fab, for sure. I talked to him a couple nights ago and he said he'd had lunch with you. But Boom Boom won't let him or any guy get near me! He is such the king of protecting my virtue. My dates are so phony!" She shook her head and laughed. "Of course, that's what he gets paid for. It's his job. But sometimes it's just a little too much. One night in Rome Justin Timberlake and I wanted to be alone, but Boom Boom wouldn't allow it. Justin got sort of peeved."

"Sure can't blame him," Julie commented. "But if Boom Boom can say no to him, he's really good at his job."

"That he is! Anyway,"Gina went on, "I made friends with a lot of the high school kids in Coudy. They were extras in the movie. The town had a big teen dance one night at the Consistory there, this big old mansion that's now a Masonic Lodge and party center. It's right across the street from the Farringdon-Pett mansion from the Judy Bolton books. The kids begged me to come, so I snuck out of the hotel and Benneto and I went to the dance. It was a blast to hang out with those kids like that!"

She paused a moment, grimaced, took a deep breath, then went on. "But then Boom Boom showed up, having figured out where we went. I thought he was going to strangle Benneto! He was so angry. But he managed to calm down because the kids were instantly all over him. They knew him from being on location, and he's so big and hunky and has such a great personality, they just wouldn't leave him alone. He was the hit of the dance. Benneto and I were able to have a good time without his hovering all over us every minute. It was great, almost like a real date! Like now, just being off away with you without everyone who is usually on my back is so cool!"

"Exactly what do you have to do for the music video?" Julie  asked.

"Just the parade scene. Speaking of which ....," Gina fished around in her shoulder bag, now on the console between them, and pulled out a CD case. She opened it and slipped the disc into the car's CD player. "This is the new single, It's No Mystery. I wrote it myself! I hope it's a hit. It'd be so insanely major to have a hit that I wrote myself!"

Julie jumped when a sound like a sonic boom exploded in the car. A rapid dance beat followed, backed by a rack of synthesizers that took off as if for outer space. Julie was tempted to floor the accelerator and take off with it. Gina's vocals joined the melange in an infectious hook that was repeated over and over again in one key and then the next, then followed by a melodic bridge that led into an instrumental riff and then a rap solo.


"Gina!" Julie looked at her in surprise. "Is that you?"

The girl nodded happily. "Yes! Totally! I love it. I just had to rap on a record. Do you like it? I think it is so insane!"

"It's great, Gina. You really sound terrific!"

Julie knew that rapping was not the easy thing a lot of people thought it was. It was a real art form of its own, and for a girl pop star like Gina to rap on her own record instead of having a rapper join her and do it was really taking a risk. But she sounded just right, that exact mix of tough and sexy and sweet that girl rappers strove for.

She was like, "The kid's will love this song, Gina! That beat is fantastic and the melody is so catchy. Wow, another huge hit it's gotta be! And I love the way the words tie in with the movie - so cool. Right, 'Life is no mystery when you live it with someone you love!' Awesome!"

"There's a parade on Saturday for Judy Bolton Day," Gina told her, "and I'll be on a special float and they'll film me lip-syncing this song. Then they'll mix it in with the rest of the shoots. We did the other footage in Hollywood and they'll be using a lot of scenes from the movie."

Gina patted her upswept hair. "That's why my hair is still red. I'm still playing Judy Bolton! What a thrill. I started reading the Judys when I was a kid and I've never stopped."

"Same with me," Julie said, and she chuckled as the song came to an end. "But I never imagined rapping ever having anything to do with Judy Bolton! Does Philly Cable intend to film more of the books?"

"They're talking about it, and waiting to see the response to this one."

The song ended and Gina popped out the CD. "So you really like it?"

"You bet, girlfriend! Perfect to lead off your new CD and tie-in with the movie."

"Wings To Fly will be on the new CD too," Gina said. "It's No Mystery will be released in early January, the movie aired later in the month, and the CD released the first week in February. It's so exciting! Then they want me to do a world tour. That's scary!"

Julie nodded. "Yikes! That's a lot of hard work, kiddo. I've interviewed Madonna, Cher, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain, and many of the male singers too. They all agree that the tours are the hardest work in the music business. They love doing it, of course. But it's tough."

Gina looked pensive for a moment, then, "We'll figure something out. Probably a limited tour here at home and a few international shows, sort of like Cleveland, Philly, Pittsburgh and New York for starters, and maybe Toronto, London, Hong Kong, Melbourne. I'm big all over the world! I actually got a fan letter from Timbuktu. My mom, who takes care of all of that, made sure I read it. I don't even know where that is!"

Julie laughed. "Somewhere in Africa. One of those really exotic places."

Gina grinned and gazed happily out the window. "I've been to so many fabulous places but, let me tell you, I just adore Pennsylvania! To death! My eyes are so huge just looking at the scenery. I guess because it's home, no other place can really compare."

Julie gently punched the girl's shoulder. "We're just a couple of Allegheny Girls at heart, you know? They say that north-central PA is the ultimate nature getaway and that its color show in the fall is unparalleled anywhere else in the country because of all the maples, sumac, and oaks. They give it all the fabulous oranges and deep reds."

Julie let her eyes leave the road for a moment to glimpse the brilliant foliage. "It's hard to believe that this right here is almost all second-growth forest. A hundred years ago clearcutting had just about devastated this area, which was supplying the whole USA with wood for housing and furniture. Thank goodness they stopped the destruction and made this a National Forest. It's all grown back and now the environment is protected!"

"My dad and I made a canoe trip down the Allegheny several years ago," Gina said. "We started out from the marina at the reservoir, right by the bridge up ahead. We paddled all the way, camped two nights on islands in the river and one night on shore. It was so ultra! We canoed all the way down to Tionesta Dam, to the cabin there. My mom met us, having driven over from Erie, and we spent a few more days there.

"Then," Gina's eyes widened and she snorted a laugh, "after we got home, Mom and I flew to Hollywood and I filmed some Mickey Mouse Club episodes. I was about ten or eleven then. It was so fantastically weird to me - one day living on the river in the wilderness, the next singing and dancing on a sound stage in Hollywood!"

Julie looked at her with amused wonder. "Talk about diversity, huh? You're an Allegheny girl, a mouseketeer, a sexy hip-hop recording star and rapper, girl vocalist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Grammy Award winner, .... ummmm ...., and Judy Bolton actress too. Can't forget that! You're a movie star now, too, sweetie."

Then Julie's smile turned up a notch. She was all, "Oh don't mind me, Gina. I'm just writing out loud, making mental notes. All this stuff about you is so interesting. I want to use it all in my article, like how the girl mouseketeer canoed down the river with her dad. So awesome! Tell me more!"

As they drove along through the blazing forest Gina continued to talk about herself, her family, and her life in the entertainment industry. Julie stored it all away in the files of her mind. It was like she had a special memory chip embedded in there. She was always able to remember everything, which sure came in handy for all the times important information was forthcoming and she was in a situation where she couldn't write it down.

At length the river alongside the road began to widen as they approached the Kinzua Dam and Allegheny Reservoir. The mountains began to spread apart as a wide valley folded out before them.

"This part ahead always gives me goosebumps," Gina said, sitting forward in excitement. "Like when you take off in an airplane. It's like the whole world is totally opening up and you are flying wild away through it!"

Julie had to agree. Driving by the big dam and over the reservoir bridge was always thrilling. The sudden openness seemed like outer space itself after the deep closeness of the mountain forest.

"Lookit!" she cried as the car drove past the widest section of river, the immense dam hovering over it like a monolithic concrete creature. "You can see soldiers up on the top of the dam. And there," she pointed as they passed parking lots for workers and tourists, "tanks and hum-vees in the parking lots. More soldiers, too!"

Gina bent down to the dash, looking up at the huge dam with eyes popped wide. "Boom Boom and I noticed the increased security this summer when we kept driving by. What's it for?"

Julie slowed the car down a little so that they could look at the dam and the huge reservoir ahead that it was holding back from gushing down the river. "It's part of the increased homeland security instituted last year after nine-eleven. The dam is one of the top ten high-security sites in the country.  If it was bombed, the city of Pittsburgh would be flooded within the hour."

Gina shuddered. She was all, "Ohmygod! That quick? And Warren and all those cool little towns along the way? And Tionesta, too? Yobs! They'd all be underwater in no time. Look at the size of the reservoir!"

The hills had fallen away behind them and ahead, and spread out on both sides, lay an immense valley lake, miles wide in spots. The sun-splashed colorful mountains, reaching out like fingers,  surrounded the smooth glistening waters giving the scene a Wagnerian magnificence that was as splendid as it was startling after coming from the darkness of the hills.

Julie felt a thrill of excitement course through her. Then she was like, "I love this part, too. You're right. It's just like flying!"

The road began to descend lower into the valley to the bridge that crossed the lake to the other side, about a mile's length at this point. With the wide open spaces and the speed of the car, and the sudden change in altitude, it was indeed like flying, and both girls started to laugh out loud.

"Yikes! It's like we're gonna go right into the water!" Gina cried.

Julie responded by pressing harder on the accelerator, the muffled swoosh of the engine sounding like a jet.

She was all, totally, "Never fear! We'll fly right over it!"

"Talk about 'Wings To Fly'," Gina piped, holding her arms out to her sides.

The low-slung car shot out onto the bridge that crossed the blue sparkling waters. It was four lanes wide, but the immensity of the open valley and lake surrounding it made it seem tiny and insignificant, as if the car, too, was just a tiny speck in an overwhelming vastness of an endless universe.

"Yahoo!" Gina cried, as they sped on over the waters. "Julie! You are such a total ball!"

Julie laughed. "And I'm going slow because you're with me! You should see me whiz over this bridge when I'm alone!"

"Well don't cramp your style because of me!"

"Hey, I promised your dad to look after you, not place you in harm's way."

"Screw harm's way," Gina shot back. "This is just way too cool. Oh, look down there, the marina we canoed from!"

They were quickly approaching the opposite shore and near the end of the bridge could be seen the marina that served the reservoir, a multitude of colorful boats and sails sparkling in the sun. A moment later the car shot off the bridge back onto the roadbed that now climbed steeply up the forested hill back into the highlands. Julie had to accelerate again to keep up her speed as they were suddenly plunged into the colorful darkness of the densely covered high country once again.

A sign on the right proclaimed that the Rimrock Overlook was only a half mile ahead.

"Oh Julie, that was fun!" the Sabreen girl cried, plopping back in her seat. "Can you stop at the overlook ahead? There are some outhouses there. I have to pee!"

"Of course I'll stop.  I seldom don't. We can walk to the overlook and catch the view. It's awesome, especially on a fall day like today."

At the top of the hill, under the shelter of the tall trees, Julie pulled into the parking lot for the Rimrock Overlook tourist site. There were several outhouses stationed along the gravel area that led to the path to the overlook and, after alighting, the girls availed themselves of the facilities.

Julie smiled happily as she stepped back out of the outhouse she'd used, and she drew in a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. It was cool and crisp and intoxicating, filled with the myriad scents of the forest. Tall pines and huge maples, oaks, and birch surrounded her in their various shades of fall colors. There were a couple other cars in the parking lot and beyond it was an access road leading up into the hills for hiking, biking, and snowmobiling activities. Julie gazed up the track, longing to hike up that way and spend the day on a high country trail idling away the hours far far away from the real world.

"Oh, I'm just bonkers!" Gina was going as she stepped out of a nearby outhouse, slamming the door behind. "This is so totally fab!"

She stretched out her arms and shivered her shoulders happily, the words PENN STATE on her sweatshirt elongating sideways  on each end. Then she walked over and locked her arm with Julie's.

"What a team we make, Julie Kane. We rule!"

Julie's smile grew into a chuckle. "I know that you rule the pop charts, Gina. But exactly what do I rule?"

Gina smirked happily, going, "The newstands! And together we are going to be a huge world-wide hit!"

Julie certainly did hope that her story about Gina and Judy Bolton Day  weekend would be a popular one, but her really big stories that had gained world-wide attention had all involved mystery and peril. And there was just no chance of that happening in Potter County, thank goodness. She certainly didn't want anything untoward to mar the beautiful weekend ahead.

The girls walked through the woods down the dirt path arm in arm gaily chatting away until, at length, the tall trees thinned and they walked out onto a large stone-flagged terrace that overlooked the man-made lake below. They walked over to the stone wall that surrounded the overlook on its outer edge.

"Wow! Check out this view," Julie said, leaning against the rail atop the stone, perched there high above the valley. "It's like being ontop of the world!"

Gina looked back and forth with wonder in her eyes. She was totally, "Hey, we should have filmed the video for Wings to Fly up here instead of in the studio. The Cleveland Orchestra could've fit on this big terrace. I could've been standing on this wall lip-syncing. And there could've been helicopter shots of me sweeping and up and down the hills and valley!"

"What an awesome video that would be," Julie agreed, her eyes sweeping the valley reservoir of the damned-up Allegheny. "Beautiful Waters, the native Senecas call this lake. It's twenty-four miles long with ninety-one miles of shoreline. This section here is the widest with these amazing expansive views. Don't you just love how the hills reach into the waters like long spindly fingers of color?"

Gina giggled, all, "Love it! And the sheer beauty of it, and the heights up here, make me dizzy! I wanted to stop here a couple times with Boom Boom this summer, but he's afraid of bears. Oh laugh out loud, and he's bigger than any of them! We did pull into the parking lot and use the outhouses but he wouldn't hike over here to the overlook."

Julie laughed along with the girl, finding it amusing that a big tough bodyguard was that much afraid of bears. "They usually stay away from the people areas like this anyway. There really isn't anything to fear in these woods!"

Thwack!

Both Julie and Gina jumped at the sudden unexpected noise.

Thwack! Thwack!

Then it came again, and ... again!

Thwack! Thwack!

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

A dozen seconds passed before Julie realized what was happening.

"Ohmigod, Gina! Arrows! Someone is shooting at us!"

Thwack! Thwack!

Two more hunting arrows slammed the wall inches from the girls, bouncing back to the flagged floor to join the others that had preceded them.

Julie grabbed Gina's arm. "Quick! over to that corner!"

She pulled the younger girl to the far corner of the terrace hoping to evade the flying missiles, but they only followed, banging into the farther wall inches aside them.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

They scrunched down into the corner, terrified.

Suddenly the whole glorious world around them had turned into a  nightmare!

"Somebody's up there!" Julie hissed, pointing to the woods high above them. "A hunter! It's gotta be! It's bow-hunting season! And ... it's crazy ... totally ... but  he's shooting at you and me!"


Read Chapter 3 here!



      





 

RICK BRANT GOLDEN DRAGON 11

RICK BRANT GOLDEN DRAGON 11

 All chapters through chapter 11 are now available on this alternate site:

THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON https://sites.google.com/site/rickbrantfanfiction/dragon

THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON or THE SOUTH SEAS CITY OF DEATH MYSTERY

Chapter Eleven: IN THE CAVES OF WAR
     A stir of excitement crept into Rick Brant’s blood as they entered the labyrinth of caves on Coastwatchers Hill. The native boys led the way through a concrete bunker entrance, each holding a flashlight. Thrilled at the idea of such a marvelous tool, they flashed them about the cave, darting here to there as quick as lightning.

     Jimmy and Scotty followed behind them with the lanterns and Rick took up the rear, his spine tingling as he looked around in wonder.

     He had parked the jeep in a short dead end cave a couple dozen yards down the hillside, then they had stolen through the jungle bush over to this entrance which the native boys claimed led into the main chambers of the underground.

     The floor was soft with ash and it was dry and spacious within. The flashing light beams exposed the height of the walls and ceilings, which appeared to be fifteen feet or so. They were, for the most, shored up by thick wooden beams and the enhancement of the caves by the Japanese was obviously an engineering marvel. It was much cooler in the caves, but very dark. Rick wondered how the kanaka boys played inside here without light.

     A moment later his question was answered.

     The older boy, whose name they had learned was Chtupa, aimed his flashlight beam at the ground and started chattering expressively.

      “Torches!” Rick exclaimed, looking at the wooden club-like items on the floor next to a bunch of wooden crates filled with supply items.

     “They used them in here during the occupation,” Jimmy said, after Chtupa had stopped speaking. “The kids use them now. Everything they need is here – fuel, tar, pitch, wooden matches. Ha! Instant underground playground!”

     “All kids love caves,” Scotty remarked, holding his lantern high as he peered around. “And it’s roomy in here. Nice. I wonder if there are bats?”

     Jimmy asked the boys the question as they moved along and the younger boy, Butubu, answered with a waving of his arms, flashlight beam swirling crazily.

     “He says there are a lot of them,” Jimmy translated. “Hundreds. Thousands. But you don’t see them very often. There are even big furry ones, like flying foxes. Of those he is afraid.”

     Rick shuddered. “I don’t blame him. We heard about those down in New Caledonia. Let’s hope we don’t run into any!”

     The cave floor was well-trod, as if thousands of men had made their way back and forth across it. Other tunnels led off here and there, winding away into darkness, Some had stairs cut into them, leading up and down to different levels. Trash of all kinds was strewn along the way, individual pieces here and there and crates filled with it stacked haphazardly along the sides.

     “They left quite a mess,” Rick commented.

     Jimmy nodded. “There were over a hundred thousand men in these caves at the height of the occupation. It’s staggering to think how they fed them, kept them clean and safe, and doctored them. Especially when they were so cramped in here for such a long time.”

     “It had to be sheer insanity,” Scotty said. “And they probably weren’t concerned with taking proper care of anyone.” Then, raising his lantern, he added, “Lookit! We’re coming to a big cavern now.”

     The native boys’ lights showed the tunnel ending and a large cavern ahead. They quickened their pace and surged on, Chtupa and Butubu talking in excited animation. Rick realized that the young boys found no reason to be quiet in the eerie caves.

     “This is the main big cave in this area of the underground,” Jimmy told them as they stepped into it. “It must have been a command post. The boys say it’s filled with radio equipment and other electronic equipment, and lots of munitions.”

     They found this to be true as they looked around, aiming the flashlight beams and raising the lanterns. There was a central area of desks, counters and alcoves filled with radio and other electronics equipment. Desk drawers were open, some broken and hanging. Chairs were tipped over and much of the equipment was strewn around. Beyond this area was a galley with all the usual appliances and rows of tables and chairs, like a cafeteria, all of it in similar disarray.

     “You could seat several hundred people here,” Scotty said, raising his lantern high. The rows of tables seemed to go on forever.

     Rick shuddered, feeling a chill creep up his spine. He could feel the ghosts of war all around them. It boggled his mind that this underground had been teeming with such an astounding number of men caught up in the most vile of activity during the war and that now, only a few years later, it was completely empty and devoid of any kind of human activity. Just a few kids coming in now and then to play, and a crazy old man who had made it his home.

     He drew his lips into a tight line. “Tell the boys to take us to the madman’s cave.”

     Jimmy addressed the boys in their native tongue and they both responded eagerly with pidgin commands that even Scotty and Rick could understand as ‘Come this way!’ and ‘Follow me!’

     “We have to go carefully now and watch our step,” Jimmy advised, as they followed the boys to even darker regions. “They buried explosive mines in some of these caves near the end of the war in case the enemy crept in. Chtupa says that every now and then someone steps on one and sets it off, resulting in injury or death.”

     “Oh, great!” rapped Scotty with a sharp voice. “Next they’ll tell us that the place is filled with dinosaurs!”

     “So what’s one more danger?” Rick chuckled. “Just watch those big clodhopper feet of yours.”

     Scotty’s voice fell to a hissing whisper. “Don’t worry about me,” he gloated. “I learned how to do a toe dance in a minefield during the war. It’s you guys who don’t have any experience!”

     They moved on into a smaller cave that led slightly upward. Off of it were many small caves filled with caches of arms and other munitions, and what looked like aircraft parts and shipping supplies. There was an infirmary in one cave, completely set up with medical equipment and supplies, a machine shop in another, and vast areas of sleeping quarters.

     But they didn’t stop long to linger in these lonely, haunted places. They briefly checked them out and then moved on, watching their step in the booby-trapped labyrinth. At length they followed Chtupa and Butubu up a set of stairs cut into the floor of an ascending cave and they came upon a holding area, a large cavern filled with cells, some made of wood, others metal bars. The cells loomed on as far as they could see in their meager light.

     “We should have taken torches,” Scotty grunted. “This place is too big and too weird to have such little light.”

     “It’s totally creepy,” Jimmy muttered, following the young native boys down the rows of cells. “I can’t imagine being imprisoned in this horrible place!”

     “It had to be a nightmare,” Rick agreed, trying not to peer into the empty cells but unable to control his curiosity. “This place reeks of death and anguish.”

     Scotty made a sympathetic gesture. “You said it, man. It’s so thick you can cut it with a knife.”

     The native boys led them down an aisle off a row of cells and it brought them into a low-ceilinged cave with what turned out to be just one cell in it, room-sized and filled with odd pieces of furniture.

     Chtupa had quite a bit to say about it.

     “This is the old Chinese man’s house,” Jimmy said, following him. “He lives in here and it looks like he’s made it pretty comfortable.”

     They flashed their lights through the bars into the cell and the glow helped to illuminate it. Inside was a bed topped with an array of blankets, two desks, a couple chairs, and a chest-like wardrobe. The iron-barred door was ajar and Rick pulled it open, causing it to squeal loudly in the intense quiet of the caves.

     “He must have dragged all this furniture in here to have a cozy nook for himself,” Rick mused. His keen eyes gazed around as they all stepped into the cell. “Not bad considering it’s in the caves of war inside a mountain on a jungle island!”

     “Let’s look for a sign of my dad and Dr. Warren,” he added.

     Scotty opened the wardrobe and saw a few pieces of ragged clothing hanging over the bar. Below were boxes of ammunition and ammunition belts, and he eagerly picked them up exclaiming happily.

     Chtupa grabbed him by the arm and pointed to the wall next to the big chest, saying, “Coocoo man’s shootem guns belongem him!”

     Scotty moved closer to see several rifles leaning against the wall and three revolvers set on a low bench beside them.

     “All right! Found the guns and ammo, chums!” he shouted back to the others. “At least now we’ll be armed if those tong idiots try to come after us.”

     Setting his lantern on the floor, he squatted down and began inspecting the firearms.

     There was an oil lamp on one of the desks and a torch jammed into a holder on the wall. Rick sparked a wooden match and lighted them both, bathing the cell in light. The place was filled with all kinds of useless items a madman might gather, including weapons and electronics parts, journals and books, dishes, bowls, and glasses, and many items that must have been personal belongings of the soldiers. They were stacked on surfaces, shoved into overflowing boxes and crates, and leaning against the walls.

     “The old guy sure is a packrat,” Jimmy said, looking through books and journals. “These are all wartime records in Japanese. Not very interesting reading, that’s for sure.”

     “Probably the only kind of books they allowed in here,” Rick chuckled, pulling open a desk drawer. “I doubt if the Japs actually supplied their troops with a lending library.”

     He looked in all the drawers in one desk but found nothing of any interest, then hurried over to the other.

     “There must be something here somewhere to give us a clue to the old man’s identity,” he said. “Something to hook him up with Dad and Dr. Warren.”

     “No sign of a struggle in here,” Jimmy was saying. “Of course, hard to really tell, it’s such a mess. If the tong captured them in here – well, it doesn’t show. They could have come upon them anywhere in these caves.”

     Rick had been looking through the second old wooden desk but had not found anything but odds and ends office supplies and pages of correspondences that probably would have proved interesting to him had they not been in Japanese. He slammed shut the last drawer and grunted in discouragement when Butubu came over to him. The boy set his flashlight down on the desktop and said in a very proud and grand manner:

     “Watchem dis fella!”

     The boy pushed at a piece of the wooden trim along the bottom of the desk’s top where it overlapped the front, and a hidden door popped out above the row of drawers, exposing a cavity. The seam had cleverly been hidden in the scrollwork design in that area and Rick would never have noticed it without intense scrutiny.

     Butubu thrust his hand into the dark space and pulled out a bright object. Grinning widely with great importance, he displayed it to Rick in his palm.

     The boy chuckled, “Howzabouts, mon?”

     Rick gasped. Butubu held in his hand a small golden dragon similar to the one he had received in the package from the black schooner at Lateela Island. It shone warmly in the lantern glow and lights glinted and danced upon it from the flickering torch on the cave wall.

     Chtupa saw the golden dragon and scurried over to his brother, exclaiming in a know-it-all manner to Jimmy about the sudden appearing object.

     “It’s another dragon, Rick!” he cried, rushing over to look at it as Butubu proudly showed it off. “Chtupa says it belongs to the old Chinese man. He sometimes shows it to them, but always makes sure to put it back in the secret compartment afterward.”

     Rick took the dragon from the boy’s hand and turned it over in his. A flush of excitement leaped into his cheeks. “It’s exactly the same as mine! Do you know what this means, Jimmy? The old madman has got to be Johnny Fang! Who else would have one of these dragons but the leader of the tong himself who had been to the lost island and seen the treasure in person?”

     Jimmy stood there with his mouth agape. “Then it’s true. Oh man, man …. he didn’t die on Palua Pae! Somehow he survived and got off the island, took one of these dragons with him from the treasure trove.”

     Scotty had risen to his feet to watch the intense scene unfold. “Johnny Fang went nuts on that island, but got here to Rabaul somehow and came up to these caves to live. During the war he hid away in the farthest reaches of them, I’ll bet. But since then he’s taken over this cell and is not only the madman of Coastwatchers Hill, but also the king of the whole darn hill, too!”

     “And then dad and Dr. Warren came here to get him, for whatever their reason is,” Rick continued. “And they took him away with them. Or the tong followed and got them all.”

     Rick tossed the golden icon to Jimmy, who caught it firmly in hand.

     “You keep it,” he told him. “It belongs to your grandfather. Hopefully we’ll be meeting up with him soon.”

     Scotty pulled an old shirt from the wardrobe and began cleaning the guns. “Now if we only had a clue to where they went from here!”

     Rick playfully roughed up Butubu’s mop of curly hair. “I think this little guy here got that clue for us. This whole mystery started out with the golden dragon and that’s where it will end, on that lost island in that big cavern of light beyond the big golden dragon, the keeper of the treasure of Palua Pae.

     “I’m betting everything on it,” he continued resolutely. “Dad and Dr. Warren and Johnny Fang either went there on their own or they were abducted by the tong and taken there. We need to get out to that island quick. And I mean like … tomorrow!”

     “Then let’s get going,” Jimmy said, pocketing the dragon, which had caused an undercurrent of stirring emotion in him. “We can be in Storms End by morning and out to the island by late afternoon maybe, or the very next day.”

     “You mean if we can get a boat to take us out there,” Scotty reminded him.

     Jimmy grunted. “Puh! Don’t worry, we’ll get one. We could get a hundred. All I have to do is announce that I know the way to Palua Pae, and they’ll be lining up begging for the chance!”

     Just then, Chtupa grabbed Jimmy by the leg and let out a frightened whisper, pointing out the cell door down the aisleway into the large cavern.

     Everyone immediately tensed as Jimmy looked and, with a startled note in his voice, breathed a ragged, “Lights coming!”

     “Oh, cripes,” Scotty groaned. “It’s gotta be the tong guys … again!”

     Rick growled in frustration. “It’s like having monkeys on our backs!”

     They quickly turned off the lanterns and flashlights but it was impossible to put out the torch without some kind of extinguisher, and there was no time to look for one now. Several lights could be seen bobbing their way down toward them.

     Two things happened at the same time in the rush of confusion. First, Scotty threw one of the rifles at Rick who barely caught it due to the suddenness of the movement.

     “Use it,” Scotty rapped, rushing up to the front bars with a rifle of his own.” These babies are fresh and loaded!”

     And, as Rick clambered up to the front of the cell, the two native boys began jabbering excitedly and pulling at Jimmy. They literally dragged him over to the wardrobe by the cave’s wall.

     “Hey, we can get out of here!” Rick vaguely heard Jimmy hiss as he and Scotty both pulled the triggers.

     Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!

     The gunfire cracked out in high-pitched screeches and echoed wildly in the caves like booms of thunder. The lights ahead, flashlights and torches, fell to the ground. Rick heard Scotty grunt in satisfaction, then he shot a quick glance behind at Jimmy who was, along with the boys, pushing aside the wardrobe.

     “Rick! Scotty! We can get out of here. There’s a secret passage to some other caves. Come on!”

     Rick had just turned back to look out toward the big cavern when return fire rained out at them. Bullets pinged off the cave walls and nipped by in the air, one twanging as it hit an iron bar on the front of the cell. A wild roar of echoes filled the caves and Scotty stooped down, firing back.

     “They found a secret passageway”, Scotty hissed over to Rick. “Take that rifle with you and go! I’ll follow up the rear.”

     “I’m not leaving you here alone!” Rick threw back at him.

     Scotty growled. “Get your butt outta here, buddy, before I beat you over the head with this rifle’s butt!”

     “Okay! Okay!”

     Rick nerved himself for the effort of leaving Scotty behind and, clutching the rifle, swooped around to find Jimmy and the boys gone. There was a gaping dark hole in the wall where the wardrobe had stood.

     Jimmy popped his head out of the darkness. “Come on, Rick! We got the extra guns and lights. Just get that lantern there.”

     Rick bounded over, picked up the lantern by its handle, and rushed dead on into the black hole as Jimmy pressed up against the stone wall to give him room.

     “Go on,” he urged to Rick, who could see the native boys ahead with the flashlights. “I’ll get Scotty.”

     “Good luck,” Rick harrumphed, darting forward. “He probably thinks he’s still shooting at Japs!”

     He ran on toward the boys with his senses reeling. A broken cry came to his lips and he wanted to turn around and go back into the cell and fight whatever enemy was upon them. The truth struck him hard. He couldn’t bear leaving Scotty behind, facing such danger alone.

     He tried to grasp on to saner thoughts. Scotty was an experienced fighter. He had made it through the war here in the South Pacific without even being wounded.  He’d take care of himself. Meanwhile, these young boys …

     Right. He had to get them out of here to safety!

     Chtupa and Butubu were loaded down with lights and revolvers. Jimmy had to have the third rifle, and that made Rick feel a little better. But he could still hear the roar and rumble of gunfire from back in the cell, and the horror of the situation began to appall him. They could all be killed in this dark labyrinth of terror, left here to rot and none of them ever seen again!

     “Bosh!” Rick told himself out loud. “No time for that kind of thinking now!”

     In a flash he had stooped down and struck a match. He lighted the lanterns as the boys cried out and gestured forward frantically.

     “Okay. I know we gotta go. Here, give me those guns. Each of you take a lantern and a flashlight. We’ll get the heck outta here, brotha kiddos!”

     Somehow they understood him. Rick jumped back up to his feet, belted the three revolvers. He followed behind the boys as they ran ahead jabbering excitedly in their native tongue that he couldn’t understand one word of.

     The cave they were in was roomy enough but it twisted and turned like a coiled snake. It was quiet behind them now. Rick couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to stop the gunfire. Were Scotty and Jimmy out of the madman’s cell and on their way in the tunnel? Were they okay, had they been wounded? Or worse ….?

     He steeled himself again not to think about it and watched the flashlight beams and the lantern glow light up the cave ahead, wishing he knew where it led to. But if the boys had known about it, he reasoned, they must have been in it before and would know where it went. Hopefully outside and, he thought, real quick!

     A moment later he could hear running footsteps coming from behind. He turned and his heart began to hammer in anticipation. Was it Scotty and Jimmy? Was it … the tong members?

     The suspense was killing him. He followed the boys around another turning and then threw himself against the wall, rifle aimed in the ready. Chtupa and Butubu, having heard the onrushing efforts behind, followed suit and pressed back too, aiming their flashlight beams back the way they had just come, big-eyed fearful expressions on their young faces.

     The next moment, Rick let out a sigh of relief.  Scotty and Jimmy came crashing around the corner looking like a couple of French Foreign Legion gangbusters.

     “Ah … light!” Scotty cried, eyeing the flashlights and lantern greedily. “Running in a cave in the dark is not easy, chums. I ran into the wall so many times I feel like I just went ten rounds with the World Champ!”

     “Are you guys okay?” Rick asked.

     Jimmy nodded. “Not a scratch! Just a lot of bumps from bangin’ in the dark. We staved them off pretty good and were able to pull the wardrobe back in place. It might take them a few minutes to find the passage.”

     “That must be why the madman chose that cell to live in,” Scotty said, breathing heavily. “It had a secret way out.”

     “I wonder if they used it when your dad and his friend came here to see him?” Jimmy said to Rick. “It’s possible they could have escaped the tong.”

     Rick shrugged, relieved to have his friends back with him. Both okay and in one piece. “I guess we won’t know the answer to that until we meet up with them. Come on, let’s go!”

     Chtupa and Butubu had been nervously standing by during this exchange and Jimmy, after taking one of their flashlights, helped them lead the way again down the twists and turns.

     “This cave leads to a big cavern,” Jimmy said after conversing with the boys a couple minutes. “These kids have been there only once, the day the old man showed them the trolley and gave them a ride. That cave leads outside nearby where we parked the jeep.”

     “Perfect!” Rick cheered. “Great! We can jump in the jeep and get the heck out of here.”

     “The trolleys must’ve been used to haul stuff in and out of here,” Scotty reasoned. “What a production, building an underground like this!”

     “It was nothing to the Japanese,” Jimmy said. “Remember, they wanted to take over the whole world. It was utterly mad, the idea. But digging these caves was part of the plan and served its purpose.”

     They rounded another corner and then the native boys stopped dead, looking ahead at two branching tunnels and making cries of consternation.

     Jimmy groaned. “They don’t remember which way to go!”

     He questioned them as they all stood there uncertainly, but the boys could do little more than fidget nervously and groan in confusion.

     Jimmy shrugged as he turned back to Rick and Scotty. “Sorry, they just don’t remember.”

     Rick grunted, He looked back behind them and then he heard the dread noise he’d been listening for the last few minutes – angry voices and running footsteps. He moved ahead of the others and took the flashlight from Chtupa. “Those guys are coming after us. We’ve got to make a choice. I’ll do it! Let’s take the cave on the left!”

     A moment later they were rushing down the passage, all in a frenzy now, hoping they had chosen the right way and that the tong hoodlums would take the other way and not catch up with them.

     It was like rushing headlong into some strange surreal nightmare. The flashlight beams zigzagged about like lightning strikes, the glowing orbs from the lanterns swayed in big circles up and around the cave walls. Suddenly the grade began to ascend and then turned into steps cut into the stone, and all five of them were huffing and puffing as they clambered upward, ears straining to listen for noise from behind.

     Chtupa began to wail and grabbed Jimmy by the arm, a flood of words bursting from him in agonizing distress.

     “Darn it!” Jimmy let out. “He doesn’t remember stairs! The way the madman took them was all flat, he says. No up and no down!”

     Rick felt a sickening sense of disappointment. His voice hardened as he spoke. “We went the wrong way! Too late now to turn back. We’ll just have to follow this route and see where it takes us.”

     Still in the lead, he reached what appeared to be a top step and flashed his light ahead to see a vague murkiness. He stepped tentatively forward, to see if the ground was solid beneath his feet, and the others crowded up behind him, lanterns and flashlights lighting up the space before them.

     “It must be a really big cavern,” Scotty whispered as the lights darted about. “You can’t see any walls or ceiling.”

     And then, a roar came from up above like sudden thunder. A thousand screeching, crying voices descended upon them accompanied by a beating of wings that struck chills up and down their spines as they gaped above in horror.

     Like a thick cloud falling heavily from the sky, it was suddenly upon them. Dozens, scores, hundreds of beating wings, glistening gleaming eyes, open mouths with jagged fang-like teeth, all harshly profiled in horror by the flickering lights.

     Chtupa and Butubu started screaming and the older boys’ shouts weren’t far from different as they all cowered and stooped and swung and cried out at the flying menace from the unfathomable heights of the cavern.

     “Bats!” Scotty shouted, flailing at them with his rifle. “There must be thousands of them!”

     “They’re monsters, big as small dogs!” Rick yelled. “Jeez! Big and ugly and …. furry!”

     “The flying foxes!” Jimmy cried out, trying to protect Chtupa and Butubu as he himself was being attacked by several of the crazed beasts.

     Rick was gasping, half stupefied from this latest horror. He fell down to one knee and raised his rifle into the air, claws and beating wings and screeching cries all around him.

     “Cower down! I’m shooting!”

     He cried it out and let go a barrage of fire that echoed down upon them like pulsating thunder and caused the beating of wings and snapping of jaws and banshee cries to increase even more. The noise only served to frighten the already crazed monster bats.

     But they did rise up above the boys a little in their terror, and Scotty and Jimmy rushed from behind, grabbing Rick and the younger boys and pulling them on ahead. They ran and stumbled on, trying to direct the lights and find a way out of this cave from hell without tripping and falling down.

     “Good thinking, Rick,” Scotty grunted. “That scared them off a bit, those suckers! What a bunch of ugly customers!”

     “A bunch?” Rick let out a nervous laugh. “If there’s one, there’s a darn million! Oh, cripes now, Scotty. They’re comin’ back down!”

     “Jimmy, you go ahead with the kids,” Scotty shouted. “Rick and I will shoot up these creepy flying French poodles!”

     “They’re a heck of a lot uglier than that,” Rick snapped, dropping down to a shooting position. He forced a laugh. “And there ain’t nothin’ French that’s ugly like these things are!”

     Scotty dropped down next to him. “You’re right! Flying New Guinea poodles, then. I wish I could shoot every darn one of them down into a nice big pile!”

     In unison their rifles cracked numerous times, the loud reports echoing and reverberating throughout the big dark cavern. The big bats screeched and cried and beat their way back upward to the dark depths. Rick and Scotty then swooped around and began running stooped over toward the lights, now about thirty feet away. They caught up with Jimmy and the boys as they were running into a smaller cave that branched off ahead from the murky cavern.

     “Whew!” Rick wanted to lean against the wall for a breather but he didn’t dare stop. “Those hairy things are awful!”

     “You bet!” Jimmy tossed back. “And they bite, too. Vampire bats! They like to get your blood.”

     “Yechhhh!” Scotty made a sound of disgust. “Anybody get bitten?”

     But, fortunately, no one had, and they hurried on ahead, lights flashing to lead the way. Suddenly from behind, they heard shouts and yells coming from the big cavern, then gunfire, as if in a repeat performance of what they had just gone through in there themselves.

     “The tong!” Rick exclaimed. “They’re right behind us. Now it’s their turn with those bats!”

     “Come on, let’s vamanoose!” Scotty commanded, running ahead to take the lead. “Those suckers will be on top of us in a minute or two. Let’s get …”

     Scotty’ mouth dropped open as the lights began to shine ahead on objects that seemed to be floating in mid-air.

     “Hey, slow down, everybody,” he muttered, barring the way as he grabbed the lantern Chtupa was carrying. “What in the crazy heck is that up ahead?”

     He raised the lantern and stepped slowly on. The light glinted off of what looked like white sticks suspended weirdly in the air about twenty feet ahead.

     “What are they?” Rick wondered, following behind and squinting his eyes in an attempt to see better.

     “There’s more on the ground, too,” Jimmy pointed out as the cave broadened on each side. “Piles of them. White sticks … or tubes … or …”

     “Bones!” Rick gasped.

     Little Butubu screamed as they all realized at the same moment what was up ahead, and Chtupa shouted:

     “Dem bones! Dem bones! Skelton fella. Lots much!”

     Like a blurry picture suddenly coming into focus, they could now see the horror this cave was filled with. Skeletons. Hundreds and hundreds of them as far as the eye could see. They were hanging from the ceiling in rows and rows with bent broken necks. They were piled on the ground along the sides in huge rolling mounds.

     Astonished, they stopped dead in their tracks and gaped ahead,

     “Oh man, Scotty,” Rick said, feeling as if he’d just had the breath knocked out of him. “I think we just found all those prisoners of war that never made it back home to America from the war here in the South Pacific!”
    
    
    
     Chapter 12 to come soon!
    
    
    
    

JUDY BOLTON & THE HEADLESS FRENCHMAN

JUDY BOLTON:

THE SECRET OF THE HEADLESS FRENCHMAN

Any avid Judy Bolton fan would surely think that author Margaret Sutton had covered all the known mysteries in Potter County PA in her 38-volume Judy Bolton series. But the truth is, she only touched upon the voluminous mythology of what was once known as The Forbidden land, the Pennsylvania Black Forest region that includes Potter County and its bordering neighbor counties. Of the many legends and unsolved mysteries that Judy Bolton never met up with but surely would have, had she the time, one that stands out is the spooky legend of The Headless Frenchman of Twin Sisters Hollow.

Twin Sisters Hollow is located in the Susquehannock State Forest near Cross Forks on route 144, about 25 miles south of Coudersport. This location is only a few miles away from Ole Bull State Park, where a real-life Norwegian violinist built the castle that was Ms. Sutton's inspiration for the book The Clue in the Ruined Castle. In Twin Sisters Hollow on a small lake accessed by a trail that leads from the highway through the woods, stand the ruins of the Twin Sisters silver mine and smelter, built in the early 1600s by Frenchman Etienne Brule. This famed explorer is reputed to be the original coureur de bois, forest runner and fur trader/trapper, who first explored and helped to open up much of the Great Lakes regions of Canada and the USA.

Although Brule was friend and brother to almost all the Indians of the East and Midwest and had lived amongst them peacefully for many years, legend has it that he ran into some serious trouble in Twin Sisters Hollow. He and his band of men had struck silver and sunk a shaft into the hillside by the lonely little lake. They built a smelter and proceeded to mine the precious metal against the wishes of the local Susquehanna Indian tribe, who believed the hollow and its waters to be a sacred place. When the miners refused to stop their work, so goes the tale, the Indians attacked on the night of the October full moon in 1618, wounded and killed many of the men, and beheaded Brule. As a warning against further disturbances in the hollow, they placed his body with its head in its hands at the opening of the mine shaft.

Throughout the many years since then, scores of sightings have been reported of the ghost of Brule seen carrying his head and wandering aimlessly near the mine and along the Twin Sisters Trail leading to it, always and only on the night of the October full moon. Many of those who have seen The Headless Frenchman have sworn in their testimonies of some aspect of the apparition that is so horrible, so unthinkably macabre, so much so that none have ever been able to express this dreadful horror. So now, almost four hundred years later, it remains an unsolved mystery just what is the terrible secret of The Headless Frenchman.

So why didn't Margaret Sutton write a Judy Bolton mystery about this classic Potter County legend? Well, maybe she would have if the series had continued beyond book number 38. And Judy certainly would have solved the mystery, found out the secret of the headless ghost, something supposedly even more horrific than the fact that he carries his own head!

What could it be? Don't you kind of wonder? Darn, why wasn't that book ever written? Why didn't .... hey, why not try it out right here? Can't you just picture Judy and Peter and Honey and Horace when they were still teenagers in the 1930s stealing down the Twin Sisters Trail on the night of the October full moon in search of the ghost of the Headless Frenchman and its sinister secret? Can't you just hear Judy saying:


"  Ooh, this is so spooky! Will we or won't we see the ghost of the Headless Frenchman? I wonder!"

Peter Dobbs watched from behind as Judy led the way down the dark trail, her flashlight beam bobbing ahead. He grinned to himself in amusement. "There she goes again," he said in low tones to Horace and Honey behind him. "Judy, the 'I wonder' girl!" 

Honey sniffed loudly, showing apparent disdain. Her voice was shaky as she responded.  "You're telling me? And she just 'wondered' us into this terrifying place. Oh Horace, let's go back to the highway and sit in the car. I'm scared!"

Horace chuckled lightly. "Nonsense! No old headless ghost is going to scare me away. Don't worry, Peter and I are here to protect you. Besides, I want to get a picture of old Etienne Brule."

He pointed to his camera, slung around his neck with flashbulb in place and ready to pop. "If I get a picture of that old Frenchman, the paper will put it on the front page! Can't you see the headlines: THREE HUNDRED TWENTY YEAR OLD MYSTERY SOLVED? Finding out the Headless Frenchman's secret will be a big feather in my cap."

"If it doesn't scare us to death, you mean,"   Honey grumbled.

"Come on now, Honey," Judy sighed impatiently, playing around the light beam on the trunks of the towering trees. "What could possibly be so horrible? That's just part of the legend, the Secret. These tales get told over and over, generation after generation, and everybody adds their little dramatic touch. A ghost so scary no one can talk about it? If that's really true, wow, I want to see it!"

"Judy's right," Peter agreed. "It's scary enough just being in these woods looking for a ghost who's carrying his head. Surely somebody way-back-when made up the part about the Secret, and since then almost everybody else who claimed to see Brule just went along with it. That's called 'confabulation'."
 

"Humpphh!" snorted Horace. "I'd rather the Secret be real. I need a headline, a front-pager all over Pennsylvania. Maybe it'd even make the papers in Ohio and New York."

"You'll get a front-pager all right, Mr. Reporter,"   Honey shot back at him. "  But it'll be more like 'FARRINGDON TEENAGERS FOUND DEAD FROM FRIGHT IN STATE FOREST NEAR TWIN SISTERS HOLLOW'. That's what everybody will be reading!"

Judy smiled as she pulled her sweater closer around her neck. Good thing the night was pleasant, not cold and snowy like it could be in mid-October. It was a perfect night for ghost hunting! But she really didn't expect to see anything, not being a believer in ghosts. She'd already proved out a couple of them to be complete fakes. But this was one of the county's most famous legends and she had promised her friend Yaneeha to look into it. Yaneeha's ancestors were of the Susquehanna tribe and the girl did not believe the legend could be true.They had been peace-loving people and would not have attacked and killed the miners in such a manner, especially to behead a man. Judy had already solved several mysteries on her own, but never one that was three hundred and twenty years old. She was determined to get to the bottom of it!

"Oh lookit!" she suddenly blurted, her free hand clamping down on her chest in surprise as the flashlight beam snapped on to an object in the center of the trail ahead. "My goodness! It's a ... a ... a hand!"

"A man's hand!" Peter gasped, bumping into Judy as she stopped dead in her tracks. "Cut off at the wrist!"

Honey tried to stifle a scream, but it came out anyway sounding like the bleating of a goat.

"Shhhhh!" Horace soothed, placing his arm around her shoulders. "It can't be real. It's just some kind of prop or something."

"Sure looks real to me," Judy mused, training the light beam on the object. And it did indeed look like a real hand, one belonging to a large man.

Peter stooped down to see it better.

"Don't touch it!" Honey warned. "This is way too scary. Gosh, I've gotta ..."

Just then, at that very moment, from above and behind them came a great whooshing of air and a piercing cry that scared the bejabbers out of each one of them. They all gaped up in horror to see a great dark blur and the beating of wings as something, like some evil beast, swooped down to the trail, just missing Peter, and picked up the severed hand in a sharp beak illumined shakily by Judy's flashlight.

Then, with another screech and another swoosh, the dark creature was gone, up into the blackness of the trees.

"An owl!" Judy exclaimed.

"Or an eagle," rapped Horace.

"Right! A bird!" Honey cried. "And that was its food, I'll bet. It wasn't a man's hand, just a joint of some kind that the bird was eating earlier. He thought you were going to take it, Peter, when you stooped down to look."

"Must be," Peter agreed, now back up straight, having jumped up when the bird swooped down. "Maybe it was a coyote's paw. Those big birds can kill wolves and large dogs."

Horace's brows twisted in confusion. "It sure looked like a man's hand to me!"

Judy's heart was thumping from the fright. "I'll say it did!  Whew! That was scarier than seeing the Headless Frenchman himself."

"Oh ... oh ... oh I don't know about that!" Honey croaked out in a terrified voice, pointing ahead down the trail.  "Loooo ... oooo ... ooook!"

The others' eyes shot straight ahead. In the middle of the darkness beyond they could see a figure, like a man's, standing behind one of the trees along the trailside. He was peering at them, or at least it seemed he was trying to. He had no head on his shoulders, so he really couldn't have seen them no matter how hard he tried!

Judy shouted, "Hey you!" And she was off running, pinning the flashlight beam on the ghostly figure.

Horace was right behind her, readying his camera. But Honey was frozen to the spot, too frightened to move. Peter grabbed her by the arm and pulled her along as he rushed ahead.

Judy Bolton was sure the headless man was there. It couldn't be a trick or just her imagination. He was wearing buckskin clothes like Davy Crockett, like a frontiersman, and there definitely was no head on his shoulders. It made her skin prickle and she shivered. It had to be the ghost of the Frenchman Brule! And he was only twenty feet away!

Fifteen!

Now only ten!

And then, suddenly, he was gone.

Just like that, poof, totally gone!

"Where'd he go?" Horace demanded as they arrived at the tree the ghostly figure had been standing by.

Judy frowned in puzzlement, snapping her head this way and that, searching the dark woods with the flashlight beam. She realized she was trembling. This was sure scaring her. But it was exciting, too, and she forced a chuckle.

"He was there, all right," she insisted. "But, poof, then he was gone. These woods sure are haunted. But there has to be a logical explanation!"

"Yeeesh!"   Horace suddenly groaned in an especially grave tone. "I don't know about that, Judy!"   He pointed on down to the base of the tree. "For cryin' out loud, look at that!"

Judy glanced down to where the trunk met the ground and she stepped back in astonishment as the flashlight beam hovered there. She bumped into Peter and Honey who had just appeared.

"Good heavens!" she cried.

"Eeee ... eeeew!" Honey screeched, her eyes popped wide.

"My gosh!" Peter stammered. "It's a ... a ..."

"A heart!" Judy broke in with a gasp. "It's a human heart ... and it's beating!"

"Somebody tell me this isn't happening!" Honey shrilled, burying her face on Peter's shoulder.

Horace's flashbulb popped, its brilliance exploding in the darkness. "We'll find out if it's for real when we develop this picture!"

Judy had seen the end of the trail in the bright flash. "Come on, the hollow is just down there a bit. The ghost must have gone back to the mine. Let's go! We have to find out what's going on here!"

She ran ahead leading the way, the flashlight beam showing the old tree trunks on either side of them. Moments later, huffing and puffing, they ran out into the clearing of the hollow. The brilliant light of the full moon flooded the little valley and glittered off the smooth surface of the lake. The crumbling beams of the old smelter ruins glinted back the light and nearby was the old mine entrance, oddly illuminated by a hazy greenish glow.

Judy stopped and the others huddled around her as they gaped in disbelief at the entrance to the old silver mine. There, a figure began to materialize before their very eyes in the strange greenish glow.

It was a man, the same man they had seen moments ago on the trail, the man wearing the buckskin clothes. The man who didn't have a head. But they could all see clearly now that he was holding it in his arms!

"It's Etienne Brule, the Frenchman!"   Peter cried. "Jeez, he really is holding his head!"

"And just like the legend says,"   Judy put in breathlessly, "the apparition is even more horrible than only that!"

His hands trembling, Horace popped in another flashbulb and raised his camera. "You bet it is! He's missing one of his hands and where his heart should be is a ... a ... oh cripes! ... a ...."

Well, Judy Bolton fans, we'll just have to stop right there. After all, we can't reveal The Secret of the Headless Frenchman if the book was never actually written and Judy never figured out what was really going on in Twin Sisters Hollow on the night of the October full moon.

But it sure couldn't really be a ghost! We all know that, don't we?

Don't we?