by Cathy Hapka
Andrea smiled. “Haven’t you guys ever heard of
a dramatic pause?” Her smile faded, and her voice
Chapter 4:
A Spooky
Legend
23
went dark and spooky again. “Like I was saying, the
first mayor of Heartlake City had a very loyal horse.
All he had to do was whistle, like this”—Andrea
pursed her lips and gave a soft whistle—“and the
horse would come galloping over. One day, the
horse and his master were on a ride deep in these
very woods. Suddenly, they were chased by a pack of
hungry wolves!”
24
“Yikes!” Emma cried, covering her mouth.
Mia looked skeptical. “There are no wolves
around here.”
“This was a long time ago, remember?” Andrea
said. “Anyway, the brave horse galloped as fast as he
could to get them to safety. But, suddenly, the path
was blocked by a wide, deep river.”
“Oh, no!” Olivia exclaimed. “What happened?”
Andrea’s voice grew even lower. “The wolves were
still coming. There was nowhere to go. So the horse
plunged into the rushing river! He tried to make it
across—but he got swept away. His master grabbed a
floating log and made it to shore.But the loyal horse
was lost in the swirling water.
“To this day,whenever the wind whistles through
the trees just right,” she paused again, making the
eerie two-note whistle,“it’s said that you can hear
the Phantom Horse galloping through these woods
in search of his long-lost master.”
25
“Stop!” Emma squeaked. “I’ll never be able to
sleep tonight!”
“Come on.” Mia rolled her eyes. “A ghost horse?
That’s not very scary.It’s not like a ghost shark or
crocodile or something.”
Olivia shrugged. “The way Andrea told it was
pretty scary.”
“Yeah,” Stephanie agreed. “Andrea is an awesome
storyteller!”
26
“Thank you, thank you.” Andrea stood and took
a bow as her friends clapped.
Mia stood up, too. She stretched her arms over
her head and yawned. “Well, I think that’s enough
spooky stories for one night,” she said.“Let’s put
out the fire and get ready for bed.We have a lot of
science mystery work to do tomorrow, after all!”
Chapter 5:
Thumps in
the Night
27
Late that night, Stephanie was dreaming
about watching Mia ride her horse, Bella. The
horse galloped toward a huge jump. Her hooves
thundered.
“Go, Mia. Go, Bella,” Stephanie mumbled.
Ka-thump. Ka-thump.
Groggily, Stephanie
opened her eyes. She thought she had heard
something. Had it just been her dream?
KA-THUMP! Now Stephanie shot straight up. It
sounded like Bella’s hooves had just hit the ground!
“What was that?” Stephanie exclaimed.
28
Emma’s eyes opened. “Steph?” she asked. “Is
something wrong?”
“Sorry,”Stephanie whispered back. “I thought I
heard something.”
Emma rubbed her eyes. “What did you hear?”
Stephanie paused. “This is going to sound dumb,”
she said. “It sounded like a horse’s hooves.”
“What?” Emma cried.
“Ssh!” Stephanie hissed.
It was too late. The other girls had woken up.
“What’s going on?” Andrea mumbled.
29
“Stephanie said she heard the Phantom Horse!”
Emma yelped.
“No, I didn’t,”Stephanie insisted. “I heard
something
. But I don’t know what it was.”
Just then, a low whistle sounded in the distance.
“What was that?” Andrea cried.
Emma gasped. “It was the whistle the rider from
the legend used to call his Phantom Horse!”
Mia shook her head and yawned. “Come on,
guys. We’re just getting spooked because of Andrea’s
story. There’s no such thing as ghosts. It’s probably
an owl or the wind.”
The girls remained quiet for a few minutes. But
there weren’t any other strange sounds.
Stephanie shook her head.“Sorry, guys. I was
probably just dreaming.” Her eyelids were already
starting to droop. “Let’s go back to sleep. If we hear
anything else, we’ll get up and look around.”
30
By the time Stephanie woke up again, it was
morning. Her friends were all still asleep.
“Time to get up!” Stephanie called.
Emma groaned and pulled her pillow over her
head. Stephanie nudged her with her toe.“Rise and
shine, sleepyhead!”
“I’m hungry.” Olivia stretched. “Let’s eat.”
The girls headed to the trailer. When they
reached it, they stopped short.
“Oh, no!” Olivia cried.
The coolers were wide open, the lids knocked
aside. All their food was scattered everywhere!
31
“What happened?” Andrea asked. “How did the
coolers get opened?”
Emma gasped. “The ghost ate all our food!” she
exclaimed with wide eyes.
“Don’t be silly,”Mia told her. “Ghosts don’t eat
food. Besides, it looks like most of it is still here.” She
bent over and picked up an orange.
“Not all of it.” Olivia held up the bag of hot-dog
buns. Half of them were gone.
“I’ll bet it was the Phantom Horse!” Emma
insisted. “It heard us telling its story and didn’t like
that, so it took our food.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Emma, come on,”she
said. “Squirrels and raccoons like food, too.” Olivia
turned to Stephanie. “Maybe that’s what you heard
last night—an animal knocking over the cooler.
That would explain the thumping noises you heard
when you woke up.”
“It could be. . . .”Stephanie replied. Her face had
gone a bit pale. “But that cooler was closed up tight.
32
I even put a blanket on top of it so no squirrels or
animals would get into it. It’s like something
knew
to
knock it over. Like something was watching us when
we opened it.”
Stephanie looked around at her friends, worried.
“What if the legend is true?”
Chapter 6:
Olivia’s
New Plan
33
Mia couldn’t believe her ears. Did her friends
actually believe there was a ghost?
“This is silly,” Mia insisted. “There’s no such
thing.”
“Are you sure?” Emma asked. “
Something
stole
our food last night.”
“I heard weird noises,” Stephanie added.
“And we
all
heard that spooky whistle!” Andrea
exclaimed.
Mia sighed. “That doesn�
��t mean there’s a ghost.
We just have to figure out what really happened.”
34
“You mean like—a mystery? ” Olivia smiled.
“Girls, I think we may have found a new science
project!”
“What do you mean?” Emma asked.
“We’re supposed to explore a mystery of nature,
right? ” Olivia waved her hand at the trees. “Well,
something mysterious is happening out here. We
should investigate to figure out what it is!”
Stephanie frowned. “Is researching a ghost
allowed?” she asked.
35
“Let’s find out.” Olivia ran to the camper and
grabbed Ms. Russell’s handout. “‘Step one,’”she read.
“‘Find something in nature you don’t understand.’”
“Check!” Andrea declared.“We don’t
understand what is messing with our food and where
those strange noises came from.”
“‘Step two,’” Olivia continued. “‘Study the
mystery.’”
“We can do that.” Stephanie nodded. “We can
look for clues like footprints and stuff.”
“Don’t you mean
hoof
prints?” Emma said.
“‘Step three,’” Olivia went on. “‘Research the
mystery.’”
“We already know the legend of the Phantom
Horse,” Andrea said.“But we
could
research the
history of it. We could see if there’s actually a river
where the horse would have fallen in. I’m sure the
ranger’s station will have maps and stuff.”
“‘Step four: Draw a conclusion,’” Olivia finished.
“We can do that once we complete the other steps.”
36
“Then it’s settled.” Stephanie grinned widely.
“Our new project is proving whether or not the
Phantom Horse exists!”
“I’ll bet no one else in class will be ghost hunting
for their project!” Andrea clapped excitedly.
“True.” Mia still looked hesitant. “But if this
doesn’t work, we can still go back to observing the
leaves, right?”
The five friends exchanged eager glances.
“Agreed!” they said.
37
As they ate breakfast,Stephanie worked out a plan.
“Mia, you’re our animal expert,”she said. “You
and I will look for animal footprints around camp.”
“Sounds good to me,” Mia said.
“Olivia, you’ll be in charge of the camera,”
Stephanie said next.
“Okay.” Olivia licked peanut butter off her
fingers. “I’ll go set it up to take pictures every few
minutes. If a wild animal is sneaking in while we’re
not looking, maybe we can get a photo of it.”
Stephanie nodded. “Andrea and Emma, maybe
you can walk to the ranger’s station and see if they
have a map of the woods?”
“Got it,” Andrea said. “We can check for rivers
like in the legend.”
“All right.” Stephanie brushed her hands clean.
“Time to investigate!”
Stephanie and Mia headed off into the forest
while their other friends got to work. They circled
38
the woods near their campsite several times, looking
for animal footprints. Mia walked slowly, scanning
the ground. Finally, after several laps around, she
spotted some fresh paw prints in a muddy patch near
the forest trail.
“Stephanie, check this out,” Mia called.
Stephanie came running over. “Those look
like the paw prints my cat leaves in her litter box,”
Stephanie said thoughtfully.
39
“Close.” Mia crouched down and pointed. “See
how this animal’s claws left marks by the toes? That
means it’s a canine print.”
“Like a wolf?” Stephanie asked.
“Or a fox.”Mia nodded.“It’s about the right size.”
“Would a fox steal our food?” Stephanie
wondered aloud.
“Maybe.”Mia shrugged. “We should take a picture
of this print and see if we spot any others like it. Let’s
go grab Olivia and ask her to bring the cam—”
Mia was cut short by a cry from the clearing.
The two friends looked at each other.
“That sounded like Olivia!” Stephanie exclaimed.
“Let’s go!”
Chapter 7:
A Close Call
40
Unaware of the excitement back at the campsite,
Andrea and Emma were outside the ranger’s station
studying a map.
“It looks like there should be a creek somewhere
over . . . there.”Emma pointed out into the woods.
“On the map, it seems kind of tiny to be the river
from the legend. But let’s go look for it, anyway.”
The two friends followed the winding forest trail.
It twisted and turned deep among thick groves of
trees, growing shadier as they went.
“How far is it?” Andrea asked.
41
Emma checked. “It’s hard to tell. This map isn’t
very detailed.” She glanced ahead. “For instance, that
fork in the trail isn’t on here. I don’t know which
way we should go.”
“Let’s split up,” Andrea suggested.
Emma looked nervous. “Are you sure? What if
we run into the ghost?”
Andrea giggled. “If you get scared, just yell ‘help’
really loudly, and I’ll come right over. I promise.” She
gave Emma a gentle shove toward the left-hand fork.
“Go on. It’ll be fine.”
42
As soon as Emma started down her path, Andrea
turned to the right. She pushed past low-hanging
branches on the trees. It was dim and shadowy in the
forest. Dry leaves crunched under her feet.
She continued along the narrow trail, farther and
farther away from Emma. Suddenly, a strong gust of
wind rushed past. It kicked up the leaves and swirled
them around her shoes.
It really is quiet out here
, Andrea thought.
Then, very softly, the breeze
whooshed
through
the leaves. To Andrea, it sounded like a low, gentle
whistle quietly fading away.
43
“That was weird,” Andrea murmured, feeling her
heart beat a little faster. The noise didn’t sound like
the whistle they’d heard the other night. But it didn’t
sound like the normal wind blowing, either.
Suddenly, something moved in the thick tangle
of bushes behind her.
“Emma?” Andrea stammered. “Is that you?”
Andrea spun around, feeling spooked. Her foot
slipped off the trail—and into nothingness!
“Help!” Andrea cried loudly. She was slipping
down a rocky embankment!
She reached wildly for something to hold onto.
Her hand closed around something soft.
Whatever she had grabbed held taut, and Andrea
stopped sliding. She dug her heels into the dirt and
looked down. She had stumbled upon an empty
ri
verbed in the woods. A small trickle of water ran
along the bottom. But at one time, the creek must
have been much larger.
“That was close.” Andrea sighed in relief.
44
Then, her heart pounded again. She had been
so startled by her fall that she hadn’t realized what
she was holding was strong but soft . . . kind of like a
horse’s tail!
Andrea whipped around. Clasped tightly in her
fists was a loose, gnarled tree root.
45
Phew
, she thought as she climbed back up.
I’m
really letting my imagination get the best of me!
Then, she frowned.
Still, I heard that whistle. . . .
Just then, Emma came rushing toward her.
“What happened?” she asked.“I heard you scream.”
“I slipped,” Andrea said, her voice shaky.“I
almost fell into that.” She pointed down into the
rocky gully.
“Whoa.” Emma followed her gaze. “Is
that
the
creek?” She glanced at the map and back into the
empty gully. “Now I get why the water is so small on
the map. The bed is all dried up. Andrea, I think you
found our legendary river!” Then she looked at her
friend. “Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
“No, I’m all right.” Andrea breathed. “I grabbed
onto this.” She pointed to the tree root. “But I
thought I heard something, just before I fell.”
“Like what?” Emma asked.
“A whistle, high up in the trees,” Andrea replied
slowly. “For a moment, I could have sworn . . .”
46
Andrea gazed at the root for a long while. Finally,
she looked back up at Emma. “Are you sure you
didn’t hear anything?” she asked.
Emma shook her head. “Now
you’re
starting to
creep me out,” she said. “I didn’t hear anything. Only
you when you called for help.”
Andrea looked back down at the rocky creek bed
