d, "Can I ask a
question? Where is this mine and what kind is it?"

"The mine is right across the creek, just beyond the bridge," Jan
explained. "We could see it from here if the trees weren't there.
Anyway, it's where the town picnic ground is located now, on our
property, partly. It used to be a lead mine, and during the Civil War a
lot of Southern bullets came from there."

From Jan's tone of voice, Rick suspected that her sympathies were with
the lost Southern cause, which was natural enough, since her ancestry
was pure Virginian for several generations.

"The mine wasn't worked on Sunday, in those days, and Captain Costin
asked Ellen to meet him on a Sunday night at nine o'clock. Well, the
Lansdale boys somehow found out where their sister was going, and they
went, too. And they shot down Captain Costin in cold blood, right at the
mine entrance. Just when he was holding out his arms to greet his
sweetheart!"

Jan obviously didn't like this part of the legend, Rick thought.

"So that's how the ghost began," Jan concluded. "After making his way
through practically the whole Confederate cavalry, he was shot down at
our mine before he could even say hello to her! No wonder he haunts the
place!"

"How about all the soldiers killed in the fighting?" Scotty asked,
straight-faced. "Don't they haunt the place, too?"

"We've heard that some people have seen more than one ghost," Jan said,
"but we don't credit secondhand stories much. We only saw the captain."

Rick must have looked pretty incredulous, he suspected, because Barby
gave him an accusing glance and stated flatly, "And we did see the
captain, Rick Brant! Didn't we?"

The Millers all nodded. "Tell them," Mrs. Miller suggested.

Barby picked up the tale. "We were all invited to a cook-out the other
night. It was given by the Lansdale Garden Club and Mrs. Miller is a
member. I guess it's planned long in advance, so they couldn't call it
off or go somewhere else, so it was held. There must have been at least
fifty people there."

Rick made a mental note to ask for elaboration of Barby's statement
about canceling the event or holding it somewhere else.

"The barbecue pits are close to the old mine entrance, where the ghost
always appears because that's where the captain was shot. Anyway,
everything went well until nearly nine, and that was when we all began
to get nervous."

Shot at nine, reappears at nine, Rick guessed. Strange ghost. Usually
appariti