CHAPTER II
Death at Costin's Creek
Scotty checked the map and examined the terrain below. "That'sManassas," he confirmed. "Swing to the south now, on a bearing of 183degrees."
Rick banked the Sky Wagon onto a new course, then settled down to locatethe landmarks Barby and Jan had noted on the road map enclosed withtheir letter.
The Sky Wagon had, until recently, been equipped with pontoons for waterlanding. Rick had outfitted it originally for a skin-diving trip to theVirgin Islands, an adventure now known as _The Wailing Octopus_. Thepontoons were so useful that he had left them on, until his new scienceproject had made it necessary to go back and forth between Newark andthe island for consultation with a laboratory in the city. He was gladnow that he had changed back to wheels. It had made it possible for himand Scotty to leave the morning after Barby's urgent letter arrived.
The four-seater plane was actually Rick's second. The first, his belovedCub, had been bought and paid for by his own efforts, serving as taxifor the scientists and as the island's shopping service. When the Cubwas wrecked, as described in _Stairway to Danger_, the reward forcapture of a criminal and his loot had made it possible to buy a largerand more powerful plane.
Rick consulted his watch. "We must be pretty nearly there."
"We are," Scotty confirmed. He consulted the map again. "There's thecluster of buildings on top of the mountain Barby circled. It's either aweather station or a radar installation. Start losing altitude after wego over it. The town of Lansdale should be in sight by then."
Scotty's navigation proved excellent as usual. Shortly after passing themountaintop Rick saw the town, obviously a very small one, andimmediately swung slightly north again. The glint of water caught hiseye and he said excitedly, "There's Costin's Creek. It has to be. Noother water in sight."
He lost altitude rapidly, finally leveling off a thousand feet above thecreek. Scotty, peering ahead, saw the ground signal first. "There's thepanel of white towels, ahead and to the right, on my side. Swing andyou'll see it."
Rick did so. He spotted the panel at once, with four figures standingnext to it. In a moment they were in plain sight, waving as the planepassed overhead. Rick did a wing over that took the plane back over thearea. This time he watched the terrain carefully, while Scotty did thesame.
"Looks good," Rick said. "See any rough spots?"
"Nope. It's a hayfield, fresh cut, from the looks of it. Should be okay.The leaves on the trees across the creek aren't moving, so windshouldn't be a problem."
"Okay. Here we go." Rick turned into his landing pattern, losingaltitude rapidly. The field was a big one, so he had plenty of room. Ina moment the Sky Wagon touched down, bumping only a little as it rolledacross the field. He taxied to where the girls and the Millers werewaiting, and killed the engine.
Barby and Jan were up on the wing before the boys had a chance even tounbuckle seat belts. Both girls were obviously excited, and both startedto talk the moment Rick opened the cabin door.
He looked from one to the other trying to make sense out of the streamof words. Barby's blue eyes sparkled, as did Jan's brown ones. Both wereintent on having their say, and as a result, the boys understoodneither.
Not until hands had been shaken all around did the excited chatter ofthe girls begin to make sense. Apparently the very field where the boyshad just landed was haunted. The ghost had walked this ground on morethan one occasion, the latest being last night, with dogs howling andmen running from the ghostly sight.
Dr. Miller finally quieted the two down. "Let's tell our tale in goodorder, or we'll simply confuse our visiting detectives. Come on, boys.Let's go to the house. We have some lunch waiting."
The boys collected their bags, then set up the plane's alarm system. Itconsisted of an electrified fence that would set off a loud klaxon hornif touched. The plane itself would also trigger the alarm if touched.The alarm could be stopped only by inserting the key in the locked door.
As the group walked from the plane to the Miller house, Rick checked hisimpressions with the view from the air. The house, and the field onwhich he had landed, were on the north side of the creek. A half milebelow the house, the dirt road leading to the Miller farm crossed thecreek on an old military Bailey bridge. Across the creek the roadvanished into a forest that came right down to the creek's edge.
Rick knew from his overhead view that the forest was only a hundredyards wide along the creek. Beyond it were more fields, interspersedwith patches of trees and a few uncultivated areas that were too rockyfor farming.
It was a lovely countryside, and Rick enjoyed it. The Miller house wasin an orchard on which a bumper crop of Virginia apples already was inevidence.
The house itself had once been a large farmhouse. The Millers hadremodeled it, keeping the charm of the old while adding the convenienceof the new. Rick felt at home right away, and he saw that Scotty did,too.
Over an excellent lunch of charcoal-broiled hamburgers, salad, and icedtea, Dr. Miller asked, "Who's going to tell the tale?"
Both girls started talking at once. Mrs. Miller, an attractive, stylishwoman, raised her hands. "Please! Jan, suppose you start with thehistory of the ghost. Then, Barby, you take over and tell what we sawthe other night."
"All right, Mother," Jan began. "The ghost isn't new, you see. We've hada blue ghost here for centuries!"
Rick's eyebrows went up. "A _blue_ ghost?"
"Yes. You'll see why in a moment. Anyway, we all knew about the ghost,sort of, and some people were supposed to have seen it. Only it was thekind of story where you never met anyone who had actually seen theghost. There were only people who knew people who knew people who hadseen the ghost. If you follow me?"
Rick grinned. "We do."
Jan's dark eyes sparkled. "Then, just before we came down fromSpindrift, over a hundred people saw the ghost, and it was just as thelegend tells."
Scotty asked, "So this isn't just any old ghost, it's a legendary one?"
Jan nodded. "We even know its name. It's Seth Costin. He's the one thatthe creek was named for. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You see, thisregion was a battleground in the Civil War. Mosby's Raiders spent a lotof time around here. Well, when the war turned against the South, asquadron of Union cavalry came down under Captain Seth Costin, and theygot into a battle with some of Jeb Stuart's men right in our orchard andfield. They fought up and down the creek, with the South trying to keepthe Union from crossing. Finally, Captain Costin crossed, but the creekwas red with blood, the story goes."
"A real gory legend," Scotty murmured.
Both Jan and Barby glared at him. "Sorry," he muttered contritely.
"It's a very romantic story," Barby said tartly.
Rick and the Millers suppressed smiles.
"Anyway," Jan went on, "the creek has been known as Costin's Creek eversince. Well, Captain Costin quartered his men in the town. You know howit was. He stayed at the home of Squire Lansdale, who was by then aConfederate general. The squire had a daughter, whose name was Ellen,and she was perfectly beautiful. The squire also had two sons, who werea little too young for joining the Army, but not too young to causetrouble."
Rick could see where the story led. He asked, "Was Captain Costin ahandsome young man, by any chance?"
"He most certainly was," Jan said emphatically. "He was terriblyromantic. Wait until you see him."
Rick could hardly wait, but he didn't comment.
"Of course the captain and Ellen fell in love."
Rick could imagine.
"But along came Jeb Stuart's whole cavalry and they pushed CaptainCostin's squadron all the way back to Manassas, and then they occupiedthe area. But Captain Costin couldn't stand not seeing his Ellen, so hesomehow got a message to her, to meet him at the mine."
It was the first Rick had heard of a mine. He asked, "Can I ask aquestion? Where is this mine and what kind is it?"
"The mine is right across the creek, just beyond the bridge," Janexplained. "We cou
ld see it from here if the trees weren't there.Anyway, it's where the town picnic ground is located now, on ourproperty, partly. It used to be a lead mine, and during the Civil War alot of Southern bullets came from there."
From Jan's tone of voice, Rick suspected that her sympathies were withthe lost Southern cause, which was natural enough, since her ancestrywas pure Virginian for several generations.
"The mine wasn't worked on Sunday, in those days, and Captain Costinasked Ellen to meet him on a Sunday night at nine o'clock. Well, theLansdale boys somehow found out where their sister was going, and theywent, too. And they shot down Captain Costin in cold blood, right at themine entrance. Just when he was holding out his arms to greet hissweetheart!"
Jan obviously didn't like this part of the legend, Rick thought.
"So that's how the ghost began," Jan concluded. "After making his waythrough practically the whole Confederate cavalry, he was shot down atour mine before he could even say hello to her! No wonder he haunts theplace!"
"How about all the soldiers killed in the fighting?" Scotty asked,straight-faced. "Don't they haunt the place, too?"
"We've heard that some people have seen more than one ghost," Jan said,"but we don't credit secondhand stories much. We only saw the captain."
Rick must have looked pretty incredulous, he suspected, because Barbygave him an accusing glance and stated flatly, "And we did see thecaptain, Rick Brant! Didn't we?"
The Millers all nodded. "Tell them," Mrs. Miller suggested.
Barby picked up the tale. "We were all invited to a cook-out the othernight. It was given by the Lansdale Garden Club and Mrs. Miller is amember. I guess it's planned long in advance, so they couldn't call itoff or go somewhere else, so it was held. There must have been at leastfifty people there."
Rick made a mental note to ask for elaboration of Barby's statementabout canceling the event or holding it somewhere else.
"The barbecue pits are close to the old mine entrance, where the ghostalways appears because that's where the captain was shot. Anyway,everything went well until nearly nine, and that was when we all beganto get nervous."
Shot at nine, reappears at nine, Rick guessed. Strange ghost. Usuallyapparitions are supposed to appear at midnight.
"I didn't really expect anything," Barby went on, "because who believesin ghosts anyway?" She shuddered. "At least I didn't then. But at ninesomeone let out a scream, and we looked, and there was a white mistrising above the mine, and then the Blue Ghost appeared right in themist, and it was awful." She ran out of breath and paused.
"It really was," Mrs. Miller said quietly. "Go on, Barby."
"Well, the ghost was a handsome young officer in a blue uniform, theCivil War kind. And he held out his hands, and he looked so ... soappealing. And then he suddenly put his hands on his chest, and when hepulled them away they were all ... all bloody."
Barby gulped. Rick shot a quick glance at the Millers. They werenodding. So all had seen the same thing, then.
"Anyway, he faded away then, and only the white mist was left. Buthonestly, it was ... well, it was so real! And the whole thing was blue,sort of, except for the ... the blood. That was red." Barby finishedwhitely, "It kind of broke up the picnic."
Rick could imagine. Great galloping ghouls! What had happened? Hecouldn't believe the ghost was real, but Barby and the Millers wereobviously convinced.
"Incredible," Scotty muttered. "That's some yarn!"
Rick agreed. "I want to see this Blue Ghost," he stated.
Dr. Miller smiled. "You both look rather doubting. I must admit that Idon't believe in ghosts. My entire scientific training rejects theexplanation. But let me assure you, we saw a genuine apparition just asBarby described it, and I can offer no reasonable hypothesis. I havethoroughly inspected the area, and there is no physical evidence I havebeen able to see."
Rick digested this statement. His first thought, of course, had beenthat the ghost was somehow man-made. He still didn't reject the idea,but Dr. Miller's comments made it clear that the source of the ghost atleast wasn't obvious.
"When do we see this ghost?" Rick asked.
Dr. Miller replied, "How about tonight?"
A sudden chill of premonition wormed its icy way up Rick's spine. "Thatwill be fine," he said shakily.