Copyright MCMXXXIII
The Saalfield Publishing Company
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
[I Lucky Loon] 7 [II The Ghost Town] 15 [III The Missing Friends] 24 [IV “Desperate Dick”] 32 [V Poor Little Bodil] 40 [VI The Evil-eye Turquoise] 48 [VII Middle of the Night] 56 [VIII Singing Cowboys] 64 [IX A Vagabond Family] 72 [X A Lonely Mountain Road] 80 [XI The Skeleton Stage Coach] 88 [XII A Narrow Escape] 95 [XIII A Sand Storm] 103 [XIV “A.’S and N. E.’S.”] 111 [XV In the Barn Loft] 119 [XVI Searching For Clues] 127 [XVII A Wooden Doll] 135 [XVIII A Strange Hostess] 143 [XIX A Gun Shot] 151 [XX Introducing an Air Scout] 160 [XXI A Possible Clue] 168 [XXII An Interesting Arrival] 176 [XXIII A Silver Plane] 184 [XXIV A Long Night Watch] 192 [XXV A Cry for Help] 200 [XXVI Is It a Clue?] 208 [XXVII It Was a Clue] 215 [XXVIII A New Complication] 222 [XXIX An Old Letter] 230 [XXX Secret Entrance to the Rock House] 238 [XXXI A Wonderful Secret Told] 246
THE PHANTOM TOWN
MYSTERY
CHAPTER I
LUCKY LOON
A whirl of gleaming sand and dust on a cross desert road in Arizona. The four galloping objects turned off the road, horses rearing, riders laughing; the two Eastern girls flushed, excited; the pale college student exultant; the cowboy guide enjoying their pleasure. A warm, sage-scented wind carried the cloud of dust away from them down into the valley.
“That was glorious sport, wasn’t it, Mary?” Dora Bellman’s olive-tinted face was glowing joyfully. “Wouldn’t our equestrian teacher back in Sunnybank Seminary be properly proud of us?”
Lovely Mary Moore, delicately fashioned, fair as her friend was dark, nodded beamingly, too out of breath for the moment to speak.
Jerry Newcomb in his picturesque cowboy garb, blue handkerchief knotted about his neck, looked admiringly at the smaller girl.
“I reckon you two’ll want to ride in the rodeo. I never saw Easterners get saddle-broke on cow ponies as quick as you have.” Then his gray eyes smiled at the other boy, tall, thin, pale, who was wiping dust from his shell-rimmed glasses. “Dick Farley, I reckon you’ve ridden before.”