“Good.” Bum asked them to come close again, and he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Follow the life of the witch. 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.”
Adam was confused. “What does that mean?” he asked.
Bum would tell them no more. He shook his head and returned to feeding the birds.
“It’s a riddle,” he said. “You figure it out.”
6
Well, that’s just great,” Sally said a few minutes later as they walked back up the hill in the direction of Adam’s house. “He gets us all excited about hearing the big secret, and then he just tells us a stupid riddle.”
“You were excited?” Adam asked. “I thought you didn’t want to find the Secret Path.”
“I’m human,” Sally said. “I can change my mind.” She glanced over at Watch, who had been silent since Bum sent them on their way. “Aren’t you disappointed?”
“Not yet,” Watch said.
Sally stopped him. “You’re not trying to figure out the riddle, are you?”
Watch shrugged. “Of course,”
“But it’s meaningless,” Sally said. “How can we follow the life of the witch who founded this town? She’s been dead almost two hundred years. And what does it mean anyway? A life isn’t a line on the ground. You can’t follow it as you would a path.”
“That part of the riddle is easy,” Watch said. He glanced at Adam. “Have you figured it out?”
Adam had been struggling with the riddle since Bum had told them. But he had been hesitant to say anything because he feared he might make a fool of himself.
Watch was obviously the most intelligent one in the group. He spoke quietly as he answered Watch’s question.
“I was thinking to follow her life meant to follow where she went during her life,” Adam said.
“That’s ridiculous,” Sally said.
“It’s probably true,” Watch said. “It’s the only explanation. What puzzles me is what’s so special about each place she went.”
“Maybe the places aren’t so important as the order they’re in,” Adam said.
“Maybe the Secret Path is right in front of us, like the numbers on a combination lock. But you have to turn the numbers in the exact right way. And only then will the lock open.”
Sally stared at them, dumbfounded. “I can’t believe you guys. You both think you’re Sherlock Holmes. Bum’s just taking you for a ride. He only wants you to bring him another sandwich, and then he’ll tell you another stupid riddle. He’ll keep going until you’ve fed him the entire summer,”
Watch ignored her. “I think you’re right, Adam,” he said, impressed. “The path must be right in front of us. It’s the sequence that’s important—where you go first, second, third. Let’s try to figure out the first place. Where was Madeline Templeton born?”
“I don’t know,” Adam said. “I never heard of the woman until this morning.”
Watch turned to Sally. “Do you know where she was born?”
Sally continued to pout. “I think this is stupid.” She paused. “At the beach.”
“How do you know?” Watch asked, surprised.
“There’s the old story about how Madeline Templeton was brought to earth by a flock of sea gulls on a dark and stormy night,” Sally explained. “In fact, she was supposed to have come out of the sky exactly where we just were with Bum.”
Sally made a face. “If you can believe that.”
“You believe everything else,” Adam said.
“I draw the line at supernatural births,” Sally replied.
“The story may have a germ of truth in it,” Watch said. “As long as the location of her birth is correct, it doesn’t matter if birds, or her mother, brought her into the world. And if the location is accurate, we don’t have to search for the first place on the Secret Path—we’ve already been there.” He considered for a moment. “It makes sense to me. Bum insisted on telling me the riddle at that
exact spot. Maybe he knew we would have trouble finding the first location.”
“Where did she go next?” Adam asked. “How can we know?”
“We may not have to know every detail of what she did,” Watch said. “We can just follow the general direction of her life. There are so many stories about Madeline Templeton that this won’t be as hard as it sounds. For example, I know that when she was five she was supposed to have wandered into the Derby Tree and made all the leaves turn red.”
“How could a kid get inside a tree?” Adam asked.
“She was no ordinary kid,” Sally explained. “And it’s no ordinary tree. It’s still alive, up on Derby Street, an old oak with branches hanging like clawed hands.
Its leaves are always red, year-round. They look like they were dipped in blood.
And there’s a large hole in it. You can actually slide inside and sit down, one person at a time. But if you do, your brains get scrambled.”
“I’ve been in it,” Watch said. “My brain didn’t get scrambled.”
