Free Janet McNulty - Mellow Summers 06 - Where Trouble Roams by Janet McNulty

gold?” asked Aunt Ethel.
    “Uh, we didn’t think that far ahead,” said Gil.
    “Yeah, Gil here got lost in his own closet once,” said Stark.
    “That doesn’t surprise me,” said Rachel.
    Jedidiah shook his head.  “The Lord must love stupid people.  He makes a lot of ‘em.”  He disappeared and moments later the rope lowered itself down.
    “Jesus it’s a ghost!” shouted Gil as he jumped back.  “It’s a ghost—a real live ghost!”
    “Can I please just hit him once with this shovel?” pleaded Rachel.
    As tempting as it was I replied with a soft, “No.”
    Rachel chucked the shovel to the ground which hit Gil in the foot.  “Oops,” she said in a not so innocent tone.
    I gave her a reproachful look.
    “It slipped,” said Rachel.
    We each clambered up the rope.  The horses remained where we had left them.
    “So what’s the plan?” I asked.
    “Obviously, we need to get the sheriff to the town,” said Aunt Ethel, “Though I do not know how that is possible short of Rachel kidnapping him.”
    Rachel’s face brightened at that prospect.  “Kidnap the sheriff!  That is a brilliant idea.  I’ve never done that before and the best part is they can’t ar rest me cuz I’m already dead.”
    “Rach—” I tried to say, but she had already disappeared.
    “How are we to get to that town by noon tomorrow?” asked Aunt Ethel.
    “Poppy probably knows a short cut back now that he knows where the treasure was,” said Jedidiah.  “Thing is, I know one too.  If we ride through the night we should be able to make it.”
    “What about those two?” I asked pointing at Gil and Stark who each had resorted to picking their noses.
    Jedidiah sighed.  “I guess leaving them here would be cruel and unusual punishment.  They’ll have to come with us.  And we’ll have to double up on the horses.”

Chapter 10
     
     
     
    We ended up riding through the entire night not even stopping to rest our horses.  Turned out that when we discovered the underground river, Jedidiah recognized some of the landmarks and knew right away where we were and how to get back to the ranch quickly.  Short cut after short cut and we managed to crawl out of the Badlands around sunrise.  After that we rode hard across the plains to the “Old West Town” that the ranch owner had built for his guests.
    I felt my horse tiring underneath me as we rode.  Even I was exhausted, but stopping was not an option.  Jackie’s life hung in the balance and I knew that if we managed to make it out of the canyons in a short time, Poppy did too.  Just before noon we came upon the town.  Jedidiah stopped us before we got too close.
    “What is it?” I asked.
    “Remember what I said about the trap?”
    I nodded my head.
    “You are going to ride in there alone with these bags.”  Jedidiah handed me the bags containing the buried treasure.  “The rest of us will position ourselves around the town and hide.  One of us will cause a distraction.  When that happens, you get Jackie out of there.”
    “Why do I have to ride in alone?” I asked, “Won’t he be expecting all of us.”
    “I have to agree with, Mellow,” said Aunt Ethel.
    “I doubt he’ll be expecting those two,” Jedidiah pointed at Gil and Stark, “And he doesn’t know about me.  As for you, ma’am, he won’t be expecting an old woman to be able to ride through the night.
    “Sending, Mel, in alone should set him at ease and she was the one he was talking about.”
    The plan sounded solid enough.  Where was Rachel?  I had hoped she would be here already, but she seemed to be running late.  After the others disappeared, I rode into town.
    I felt like I had actually traveled into a western movie as the horse’s hooves clopped on the ground with slow, determined movements.  I adjusted my cowboy hat slightly to shade my eyes from the bright midday sun.  The clouds from the day before seemed to have vanished into thin air.  Looking around, I