The Ghost of St. Elmo

by L. Parks Sanford

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ZACK’S SURPRISE VISIT

  Zack and I had been the best of buddies at the orphanage for as long as I could remember. There wasn’t anything we didn’t do together, and we never had any secrets from each other. We ran up the stairs and headed for our room. “Wow!” Zack exclaimed. “What a house.”

  “Wait until you see our room,” I said as we headed down the long upstairs hallway. Arriving at our room, I stopped Zack. “You may have the pleasure, good buddy. Enter our castle,” I said with a smile on my face. Zack lifted the latch of the heavy wood door and gave it a shove forward into the room. He stood there silently, moving his head slowly from one side of the room to the other.

  “Holy cow! What a bedroom. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

  “Go on in,” I told him as I pushed him from behind. We both entered the room and closed the door behind us. We looked at each other, let out a big “Yahoo” and dove head first onto the two huge beds in front of us. We lay on our backs looking at the vaulted ceiling with its heavy wooden beams.

  “How big is this place?” Zack asked.

  “Katie told me they own about 2,000 acres,” I replied. “You won’t believe it. It has six barns, a huge lake that’s fed by springs, all kinds of horses, chickens, goats and Katie.”

  “Katie? Oh, yeah. I was going to ask you about the pretty blonde,” he smiled. “It looked like you two were pretty chummy when I drove in,” Zack said teasingly.

  “Aw, come on, Zack, she’s a girl,” I responded. “She’s just a good friend,” I said, but I could feel my face becoming red.

  “Yeah, sure she is.”

  “Come on, Zack,” I motioned. “Let’s get going. We can talk all night long. I want you to see the rest of this place.” We turned and headed outside. Mr. and Mrs. McVicar were standing there as we hit the bottom step.

  “Whoa, fellas,” Mr. Mac said. “Where ya goin so fast?”

  “We’re going to meet Katie at the barn,” I answered. “Then we’ll show Zack the ranch if that’s alright, sir?”

  “I think that’ll be just fine,” Mr. Mac offered. “Take Zack down and introduce him to Slim and have a horse saddled up. Do you ride, Zack?”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. McVicar. I sure can,” he answered.

  “Then have a great day, boys! But before you head out, I’ll have Mrs. Mac pack some grub for the three of you. Just come and pick it up before you take off…and just remember,” he added, “it gets dark early so leave yourself plenty of time to get back.”

  “Yes, sir,” we answered in unison. “We sure will.” We headed outside into the biting, cold wind where only minutes before it had been pretty calm. “Feels like cold air is starting to blow into the valley from over Mt. Columbia,” I said pointing it out to Zack. We headed for the barn, leaning into the falling snow and dropping temperatures. Snow was beginning to accumulate by the time we had reached the barn at the edge of the surrounding forest. Katie was standing at the entrance to the barn busily brushing her horse’s shiny coat.

  “Katie, I’d like you to meet my best friend, Zack.”

  “Hi, Zack,” Katie responded in a somewhat flirting manner. “Ian has told me so much about you, and finally we get to meet.” Katie had only just finished her greeting when Slim suddenly appeared from around the corner of the corral leading two saddled horses.

  “What are you kids up to today?” the longhaired man demanded curtly, with his eyes squinting suspiciously.

  “We’re going to show my friend Zack the ranch,” I responded, trying to sound as friendly as possible. “Slim, I’d like you to meet my best friend, Zack. He’ll be staying here with me until I go back east.”

  “Just another brat,” you could hear Slim mumbling under his breath. “Just another one to care for,” he said as he tightened the horse’s cinch, never looking in our direction. The three of us exchanged glances. When he was done, he turned to walk off.

  “Slim!” Katie yelled. “Where’s Jeb?”

  “It’s his day off,” he yelled back over his shoulder. “What’s it to ya?”

  “What was that all about?” Zack asked rather concerned.

  “Just mount up,” Katie responded. “We’ll explain it while we’re riding.” I told Katie what her father had said about food so we rode toward the house to pick it up.

  Finally, we were on our way into the vast, cold prairie that stretched out in front of us. By the time we had reached the foothills ahead of us, we had brought Zack up to speed on all our adventures and suspicions. This included French Pete, our mysterious Indian. We continued riding toward St. Elmo when all of a sudden we spied a shadowy figure through the falling snow, as he disappeared into the cliff high above. We could hear the sound of muffled horses hooves hitting against the rock, but they suddenly stopped completely. “Come on,” Katie urged, “or we’ll lose him!”

  “Lose who?” Zack asked. We whirled about and took off after Katie as she headed down the gulch, then climbed toward the cliff above. Zack just shook his head wondering where we were going. Flinging caution aside, we drove the horses along a narrow path up the side of the rocky cliff.

  “This way,” Katie motioned as we plunged through the waterfalls rushing from above. A minute later we all disappeared from view as we stood horse to horse behind the falling water. We found ourselves surrounded by brush and weeds that had grown from the sides of the hillside during a dry period in the past. There was little light coming through the falls, so I pulled my flashlight from my saddlebags and shined it around. We strained our eyes in the dimly lit cave behind the falls we were in and listened intently. We heard nothing but the sound of falling water and the sound of a howling coyote somewhere in the distance.

  “There! Look over there,” Zack whispered. I shined the light his way and picked up some horse tracks that led out of the cave and continued to the ridge above. In the meantime, Katie was on her knees examining something very closely.

  “What is it, Katie?” I asked.

  “Come here and see for yourself,” she answered.

  Zack and I dismounted and moved in her direction. “Look familiar?” she asked, holding something in the palm of her hand. I kneeled down and shined the light. She was holding two cigarette butts. I took them in my fingers and sniffed.

  “Whew! Do they stink!” I said curling my nose. “Slim!” Katie and I immediately agreed. What was he up to? And where was he going?

  “Great,” Zack chimed in…“two Sherlock Holmes.”

  “Follow us, Zack. We have to follow these tracks.” We all mounted up and continued along the rocky path following the tracks. We reached the top of the cliff, and the tracks disappeared. The wind and snow were blowing so hard any tracks that once showed were quickly covered. We continued slowly working our way along and being cautious not to get too close to the edge of the steep cliff. Katie, in her headstrong manner, was leading the way, with me behind her and Zack taking up the rear. Suddenly, Katie came to a stop, leaned over the side of her saddle and stared at the accumulating snow beneath her. Zack and I dismounted and walked forward to see what she was so intently studying. There were footprints, but they were too badly disturbed from the blustery winds.

  “They’re headed toward St. Elmo,” Katie said, her eyes squinting suspiciously.

  “Are you sure?” I asked, already knowing her answer and where we were headed next. Zack and I exchanged glances and just shook our heads.

  “What’s St. Elmo?” Zack asked me as we mounted our horses.

  “It’s a ghost town that’s supposedly haunted,” I answered.

  “Not supposedly,” Katie shot back. “It is haunted. It has been for years. There have been some very strange things happening up there. Sometimes late at night you can see weird blinking lights. I’ve seen it from my bedroom window before. I know they’re real,” she said emphatically.

  “Haunted? Has anyone else seen the lights?” Zack questioned.

  “I told J
eb about it one day, but he just passed it off as car lights from the highway below reflecting off the quartz rock of the cliffs.”

  “That explanation seems like a stretch,” I shouted back to Katie, “but then again I’m only a city boy.” I looked at Zack, and he looked back at me wrinkling his brow as he did so. We both knew that explanation was pretty weak. Katie took off heading towards St. Elmo without saying a word. Zack and I quickly turned and took off after her. By now the wind was howling ferociously, and we all knew we had better find shelter until the weather, hopefully, blew over.