Mystery on Blizzard Mountain Read Free Page A

want anyone building new trails. Maybe she’s been fixing Maris’s truck so it wouldn’t start, to try to discourage her,” Henry said.
    “It didn’t work,” Violet pointed out.
    “No. We’re still headed for Blizzard Mountain,” Jessie said.
    “And she helped fix Maris’s truck both times,” Benny said.
    Just then, Rayanne returned with their drinks.
    “Blizzard Mountain?” asked Rayanne as she set the four cups of hot chocolate in front of the Aldens. “You kids headed up that old mountain?”
    “Yes,” said Henry.
    “I hear it’s a bad luck mountain,” said Rayanne. “Haunted, too.”
    “We know all about Stagecoach George,” said Jessie. “We’re not afraid of ghosts.”
    The man with black hair spoke up from the next table. “I wasn’t afraid of ghosts, either, until this happened,” he said. He leaned over and thumped his leg. “It broke my ankle for me.”
    “Ah, Chuck, everybody knows you saw your shadow and thought it was a ghost and that’s how you broke your ankle,” one of the other waitresses teased.
    “Ha-ha,” Chuck retorted. “I know what I saw up on that mountain. I say if it looks like a ghost and sounds like a ghost, it’s a ghost.”
    “You saw the ghost of Stagecoach George?” Benny said. He almost spilled his hot chocolate, he was so excited.
    “That’s right, young man,” Chuck said. He flashed his teeth in another big smile. “That’s what made me fall down the mountain and break my ankle.”
    “Stop telling tall tales, Chuck Larson,” Rayanne said. “You know there’s no such thing as a ghost. And you a history teacher!”
    “That’s how I know so much about it,” Chuck said. “It’s a history teacher’s job to know the history of a place he’s visiting. And Stagecoach George is known to haunt Blizzard Mountain.”
    As Chuck finished speaking, Bobcat came in and sat down next to Benny.
    “Mr. Larson says he saw the ghost of Stagecoach George,” Benny reported excitedly.
    “I know,” said Bobcat. “I was part of the group that rescued Chuck. A hiker found him and got us, and we carried him down off the mountain. Chuck told us and everybody else to stay off Blizzard Mountain because he’d seen a ghost.”
    Jessie turned toward Chuck Larson’s table. “If you saw Stagecoach George’s ghost, you must have been near the treasure, right?” she asked Chuck.
    “I don’t know about that,” Chuck said. “I think the ghost is still looking for the treasure, not guarding it. He doesn’t want anyone to find it before him, so he haunts the whole mountain. But you know what else I think?”
    Rayanne rolled her eyes. “ Of course I know what you think. You think that the avalanche swept the stagecoach gold down the mountain and it’s somewhere near the bottom and the ghost is haunting the wrong place,” she said.
    Chuck blushed a little. “I guess I’ve said it all before. It’s been a few months now. But I’ll never forget seeing that ghost. White and misty and floating through the trees,” Chuck said. “And howling. When it started to howl, that’s when I tripped and broke my ankle.”
    Bobcat said, “You’re lucky that hiker found you when he did. You could have been stuck up on the mountain for a long time.”
    Again Chuck’s teeth flashed in a smile. “I got pretty lost. I thought I was hiking up Pam’s Peak. I guess I’m not much of a woodsman.”
    “If it’s been so long since you broke your ankle, why are you still on crutches?” Jessie asked.
    “I stumbled and reinjured it, that’s all,” Chuck said. “But now even a busted ankle can’t keep me away from these mountains. I’m doing a history project on Blizzard Gap and this park. And according to my research, it has been a bad luck mountain ever since Stagecoach George. Look at everything that’s happened up there. Floods. Lost hikers. Rock slides.”
    “There hasn’t been an avalanche in these mountains in over sixty years,” Rayanne said. “And floods happen