“It’s my nature to be against anything unnatural,” Sally said. “And I think this Secret Path qualifies.”
“If you really are scared,” Watch said, “I don’t want to force you into it, Adam.”
“I told you guys, I’m not scared,” Adam said quickly. “I’m just tired.”
“No problem,” Watch said.
“We won’t hold your sudden and unexpected wave of tiredness against you,”
Sally added.
“It’s not sudden and unexpected,” Adam protested. “If you’d just moved here from Kansas City, you’d be tired, too.”
“Particularly if I was about to visit a cemetery where people are often buried alive,” Sally said.
“I told you, I don’t believe in ghosts,” Adam said. “They don’t scare me.”
“Good for you,” Sally said.
Adam felt cornered and humiliated. “All right, all right. I’ll go to the cemetery.
But that’s as far as I’ll go. I have to get home right after.”
“If what Bum said is true,” Watch warned, “you might not get home until very late.”
9
The cemetery was surrounded by a high gray brick wall. The front gate was made of wrought iron—rusted metal bars twisted upward into points. The few trees that littered the grave site were limp and colorless; they looked like the skeletons of real trees. Adam could see no way in and felt a moment of relief.
They’d have to quit. Unfortunately, Watch had other ideas.
“There’re some loose bricks around back,” Watch said. “If you suck in your breath, you can just squeeze through the space.”
“What if we get stuck?” Adam asked.
“You of all people should know the answer to that question,” Sally said.
“The brick wall won’t hurt you,” Watch said. “It isn’t alive.”
“Just like the people locked inside,” Sally said menacingly.
Getting through the small opening proved easy. But once they were inside and making their way around the tombstones, Adam began to get the sinking feeling that nothing else would be easy. He definitely didn’t want to be fooling around the dead witch’s grave. He could see her old castle peering down at them. A tall tower rose from the rear of the huge stone building. He thought he caught sight of a dull red light glowing from a window at the highest point. The light of a fire perhaps, of many candles at least. He could imagine Ann Templeton sitting in that tower in a black robe and staring into a crystal ball. Watching the three kids who dared to defy her ancestor’s grave. Cursing them for even thinking about it.
She was a beautiful woman, true, but striding toward her great-great-great-great-grandmother’s grave, Adam began to believe Sally’s warning about Ann.
He began to believe that Spooksville really did deserve its wicked name.
Madeline Templeton’s tombstone was larger than any other in the cemetery. Its shape was odd. Rather than having a cross at the top, or a half dome, the top of the dark marble was cut in the shape of a raven. The bird glared down at them as
if they were its prey. Adam blinked up at the deep black eyes that seemed to stare back at him. Over and around the grave, on all sides, the ground was bare.
Adam realized that no grass could grow so close to the remains of a witch.
“What a nice place for a picnic,” Sally said sarcastically. She turned to Watch.
“What do we do now? Wish ourselves into another dimension?”
“I don’t think it’s that easy,” Watch said. “We have to figure out the last part of the riddle.” He paused and repeated Bum’s words: “ ‘Follow her all the way to her death, and remember, when they brought her to her grave, they carried her upside-down. They buried her facedown, as they do all witches. All those they are afraid to burn.’ ” Watch paused to clean his glasses on his shirt. “I don’t think any of us can walk in here upside-down.”
“That’s a pity,” Adam said.
“You look heartbroken, Adam,” Sally said.
Watch began to walk around the large tombstone. He gestured in the direction of the cemetery’s entrance. “That must have been the entrance even then, so they must have carried her coffin in from over there. We should probably start there and walk this way. But I don’t think that’s going to work. Bum was trying to tell us something more with his riddle.” Watch frowned. “Do either of you have any ideas?”
“Not me,” Sally said, pacing several steps away from the grave and plopping down on the ground. “I’m too tired, too hungry.” She patted the spot beside her.
“Why don’t you rest, Adam?”
“I think we’ve done pretty good to figure out any of the riddle,” Adam said, joining Sally on the ground. It was good to rest; he felt as if he’d just walked to the West Coast from Kansas City. He called over to Watch, who continued to stroll around the tombstone, “We can always decipher the last part later.”
Sally smiled at Adam. “Do you want me to rub your feet?” she asked sweetly.
“That’s all right,” Adam said.
“I have a gentle touch,” Sally said.
“Save your strength,” Adam said.