The Blue Ghost Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story
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CHAPTER XV
The Missing Facts
Dr. Miller's conversation with Jethro Collins was something less thansatisfactory. He told the boys about it on the way home.
"I told him bluntly that I was suspicious about his offer because theproperty he wants to buy has little value as farm land and contains notimber or anything else of commercial value. I told him I wouldn'tconsider an offer until I knew what the land was to be used for."
The scientist chuckled. "That was my way of putting him on a spot, ofcourse. But he refused to be cornered. He replied that his customerwanted the land for reasons of his own, which it was not Collins' placeto divulge. He assured me the land would not be used for commercialpurposes, so my own property would be quite safe.
"I replied that I needed more assurances than his word, and demanded toknow the identity of his client. I pointed out that the name wouldbecome known during the process of settlement anyway, unless his clientproposed to use a dummy of some sort in which to register the deed tothe land."
"But he wouldn't tell you the name," Rick guessed.
"Correct. My guess is that he would use a dummy of some sort, perhapseven Collins himself as nominal owner of the land."
Scotty offered, "People don't buy land unless it has some value forsomething. Can't you think of any way in which your land has value?"
"I'm afraid not. I've tried to puzzle it out, with no success. The fielditself is all right, if fertilized and limed, but the rest is worthlessfor farming. There isn't even an access road. The road leading into thepicnic area and across the creek to the house is my own property. It's aprivate road."
Rick kept wondering about the radioactive ore. "Could there be anyminerals worth mining?"
"Not even that, Rick. Except for the igneous outcropping in which themine is located, this whole valley is sedimentary rock, probably for adepth of several hundred feet. Even the foothills are the same kind ofrock. They were moved upward from what is now the valley during a shiftin the earth's crust. The faults in the formation show this clearly."
"The whole business is tied together somehow," Rick said withconviction. "So far we've been trying to follow threads. We come acrossother threads that seem to run crossways, but that's because what we'retrying to see is a whole piece of cloth, not just the threads. So far wedon't know if the cloth is a whole suit or just a handkerchief."
"The metaphor is a little obscure, but I get your meaning, and I agree."Dr. Miller drew to a stop in the driveway of his home. "Suppose we havea late morning bit of refreshment and use our heads instead of ourlegs?"
At the scientist's request, the girls produced a snack of toast and jamwith iced tea and soft drinks. Mrs. Miller begged to be excused from thecouncil because of housework to be done, but the others gathered in theliving room to explore the mystery from every angle.
Dr. Miller led the discussion. The scientist was obviously intrigued bythe problem, even though he had let the boys handle things in their ownway. As he explained with a twinkle, "Rick and Scotty have reputationsas detectives to maintain. I'm a poor, simple physicist. No one expectsme to solve this mystery. So the boys have to be given first chance tobring the ghost to bay."
Barby sniffed. "You're all pretty sure the ghost is a fake."
"And you're not," Rick observed. "I guess we'll have to put him in abottle for you before you'll believe it."
"Peace," Dr. Miller interposed. "Each to his or her own opinions. We'rehere in pursuit of facts, not fancies. Rick, you're first at bat."
Rick considered. What were the most important facts? They had beenworking on assumptions, but assumptions need proof before they can beaccepted as valid.
"Well, I'm not sure I'm listing the facts in order of importance, butI'll try. First, the ghosts that walk the fields at night are humans."
Barby interrupted. "How can you be certain?"
"They looked human. We saw their silhouettes against the sky clearlyenough to see their shapes, and they were human shapes." As she startedto speak again, he held up his hand. "Whoa! Let me finish. Ghosts alsohave human shapes is probably your counterargument. I'm not arguing thatghosts don't really exist, but if they do, they are supposed to be sortof nonsolid, aren't they? Like the Blue Ghost at the mine. But the fieldones were solid enough. No light showed through them."
"Not all ghosts are transparent," Barby insisted.
"She's got you." Dr. Miller chuckled.
Scotty spoke up. "Ghosts do not drive cars."
"And you've no proof the ghosts you saw in the field came from the car,"Barby defended hotly. "Did you see them get in the car and drive away?"
Scotty held up his hands in surrender. "No. I passed them on my way backfrom the car."
"Evidence not sufficient," Dr. Miller said with a grin. "The ghosts mayor may not be human. Your first fact needs more proof, Rick. Carry on."
Rick sighed. "All right. I'll start over again. First, we have uncoveredcement bags that contained radioactive ore, pulverized into a fine dust.I'll amend that. The bags contain a small quantity of radioactive ore,which gives some reason for believing they were once full of such ore."
The group laughed. "Now you're on the beam," Dr. Miller approved. "Stateonly what you know as fact and identify what you infer from the facts asinference or speculation."
"Glad you all approve. Second, we believe the Frostola man wasinterested in the cement bag Scotty carried. It is a fact that when wereturned from town the cement bag that we put in the trash can, and thecement bags we left where we found them, had been removed. Because ofthe Frostola man's apparent interest, we are of the opinion he took thebags."
Jan Miller giggled. "You sound like a lawyer."
"I feel like one," Rick returned with a grin.
"Third, the Blue Ghost led Scotty and me on a wild chase that ended upwith me dropping into the quarry. The facts are that the ghost somehowtriggered the plane alarm. We will not argue whether or not a real ghostcould have set off a purely physical, nonspiritual alarm."
Barby nodded soberly, but there was a twinkle in her blue eyes.
"Continuing with the facts of that incident, the ghost stayed ahead ofus without difficulty. A real ghost could have done that, I suppose, butso could any person in reasonable physical shape who knew the terrain.Now, the ghost's light went off as he reached the edge of the quarry, orsomewhere in the vicinity of the edge."
Rick looked at his sister. "I will stipulate that a real ghost need nothave any reason for his actions. But a person imitating a ghost wouldhave had to turn off his light in order to go around the quarry,otherwise we would have seen that he made a detour. A ghost wouldpresumably float right over the quarry."
"Ghosts do float," Barby agreed solemnly.
"Uh-uh. Since this one did not, and since it reappeared--or the lightdid--on the opposite side of the quarry, we believe there was adeliberate attempt to lead us into said quarry."
He paused and took a deep breath. "How am I doing, coach?"
Dr. Miller nodded approval. "Fine. See how easy it is to separate factand conjecture?"
"So what do we conclude from this one event? We conclude it isreasonable to believe that a person, and not a spook, triggered theplane alarm and led us to the quarry. We speculate that the person didnot know about the alarm and set it off by accident, probably whileinspecting the plane, since we see nothing to be gained by sabotage. Wespeculate that the chase was to frighten us, not primarily to harm us,the reason being that we rushed the ghost during the ghost act and aretherefore potentially dangerous. We reach this conclusion because theghost picked a side of the quarry where we would land in the water,which is plenty deep by the way, and not on the rocks."
"Okay. Scotty, take over. I'm worn out from trying to be precise."
The scientist grinned. "Lack of practice, I'm afraid. If we all soughtprecision in our speech many of the world's misunderstandings could beavoided."
"I don't know what we can say," Scotty objected. "We have few facts. Wehave onl
y some observations. We can try to interpret our observations,but we can't prove them. For instance, there is the fact that we weregiven a bath of something by the Blue Ghost that seemed to freeze ourfaces. There is the fact that the Frostola man bought a quantity ofmethyl chloride. There is the fact that methyl chloride could haveproduced the effect we felt. But how can we say that it's a fact thatthe Frostola man somehow doused us with chemical?"
"You can't," Jan Miller agreed.
"So if we stick to demonstrable facts, we don't get far," the scientistconcluded. "But can we settle for mere speculation?"
"No, sir," Rick stated. "But let's admit that speculation has its uses.After all, circumstantial evidence is permitted in court. Speculationcan give us the circumstances that need to be proved, and that tells uswhere to put our efforts. I think that's fair enough."
"So do I," Dr. Miller agreed.
Rick arose. "Then we'll continue working the way we've been doing it.It's not the best way, but at least we're uncovering little items thatcan be tied together if we find just two missing facts."
"Like what?" Barby demanded.
"We go back to our assumption that the ghost is man-made. On thisassumption, the things we need to know are _how_ and _why_ is the ghostproduced?"