Ghost Town at Sundown - Mary Pope Osborne [2]
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still.
Jack opened his eyes.
Morgan le Fay was gone.
A fly buzzed around his head.
The air was hot and dry.
Jack and Annie peeked outside.
The tree house had landed in a lone tree on a prairie. The sun was low in the sky.
Right in front of them was the town from the cover of the book. In real life it looked empty and spooky.
To one side of the town was a patch of ground with several tombstones.
“That’s creepy,” said Annie.
“Yeah,” said Jack. He took a deep breath. “What’s our riddle say?”
Annie held up the ancient scroll. She unrolled it. Then she and Jack read together:
Out of the blue,
my lonely voice
calls out to you.
Who am I? Am I?
Jack pushed his glasses into place and read the riddle again to himself.
“There must be a mistake,” he said. “ ‘Am I?’ is written twice.”
“Well, I don’t hear any voices now,” Annie said as she looked out the window.
There were no human sounds at all—only the buzzing of flies and the whistling of the dry wind.
“Let’s look at the book,” Jack said.
He opened the book. The pages were yellow with age. He found a picture of the town and read the words beneath it out loud:
In the 1870s, Rattlesnake Flats was a rest stop for the stagecoach that carried passengers from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Fort Worth, Texas. When the creek dried up, everyone left. By 1880, it was a “ghost town.”
“Wow, a ghost town,” said Annie, her eyes wide.
“Let’s take a quick look around,” said Jack. “So we can leave before dark.”
“Right,” said Annie. “Let’s hurry.” She started down the rope ladder.
Jack put the old book into his pack. Then he followed Annie down the ladder.
They stood by the tree and looked about. Tumbleweeds blew across the dry ground.
Suddenly something jumped past them.
“Yikes!” they both said.
But it was just a rabbit—a lone, long-legged rabbit hopping past them.
“Hey, he’s just like that rabbit we saw at home,” said Jack.
“Yeah, that rabbit must have been a sign of things to come,” said Annie.
The rabbit hopped across the prairie and out of sight.
“I’d better take notes,” said Jack.
He reached into his backpack and took out his notebook and pencil.
He wrote:
“What’s that sound?” said Annie.
“What sound?” asked Jack.
“That rattling sound!” said Annie.
Jack looked up. “What?” he said.
“There!” Annie pointed to a rattlesnake. It was about a hundred feet away. It was coiled up and rattling.
Jack took one look at the snake and ran. Annie ran, too. They ran past the graveyard and right into the ghost town.
“I guess that’s why this town is called Rattlesnake Flats,” said Annie when they stopped.
Jack looked around. The town was hardly big enough to call a town. There was one unpaved street and a few old buildings.
It was quiet, too quiet.
“Look, a store,” said Annie.
She pointed to a building. The faded sign said GENERAL STORE. “Let’s look inside. Maybe the answer to the riddle is in there.”
Jack and Annie stepped onto the porch. The wooden boards creaked loudly. The door had fallen off its hinges. They peeked inside.
The air was thick with dust. Spider webs hung from the ceiling.
“Maybe we shouldn’t go in,” said Jack.
“But what if the answer’s here?” said Annie. “Let’s just take a quick look.”
Jack took a deep breath. “Okay.”
He and Annie tiptoed into the store.
“Look,” said Annie. She picked up a pair of rusty spurs.
“Careful,” said Jack. He poked at other stuff in the store—an old feed sack, a rusted tin cup, a faded calendar dated 1878.
“Oh, wow,” said Annie. She held up two cowboy hats. She put one on and handed the other one to Jack. “For you.”
“It’s too dusty,” said Jack.
“Just blow on it,” said Annie.
Jack blew on his hat. A cloud of dust rose up. Jack sneezed.
“Just try it on!” said Annie.
Jack put the hat on. It nearly covered his eyes.
“Boots!” said Annie. She pointed to a row of cowboy boots on a shelf. “There are even some small ones, like our sizes. Here’s a pair for you.” She handed the boots to Jack.
“They’re not ours,” he said.
“I know, but just try them on,” said Annie.
Jack