{"product_id":"2940149045648","title":"The Phantom Town Mystery (Illustrated)","description":"A whirl of gleaming sand and dust on a cross desert road in Arizona. The four galloping objects turned off the road, horses rearing, riders laughing; the two Eastern girls flushed, excited; the pale college student exultant; the cowboy guide enjoying their pleasure. A warm, sage-scented wind carried the cloud of dust away from them down into the valley.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“That was glorious sport, wasn’t it, Mary?” Dora Bellman’s olive-tinted face was glowing joyfully. “Wouldn’t our equestrian teacher back in Sunnybank Seminary be properly proud of us?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLovely Mary Moore, delicately fashioned, fair as her friend was dark, nodded beamingly, too out of breath for the moment to speak.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[8]\u003cbr\u003eJerry Newcomb in his picturesque cowboy garb, blue handkerchief knotted about his neck, looked admiringly at the smaller girl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I reckon you two’ll want to ride in the rodeo. I never saw Easterners get saddle-broke on cow ponies as quick as you have.” Then his gray eyes smiled at the other boy, tall, thin, pale, who was wiping dust from his shell-rimmed glasses. “Dick Farley, I reckon you’ve ridden before.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDick flashed a radiant smile which made his rather plain face momentarily good-looking. “Some,” he said, “when I was a kid on Granddad’s farm just out of Boston.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJerry, a little ahead, was leading them slowly across soft shimmering sand toward a narrow entrance in cliff-like rocks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDora protested, “Mary ought to know how to ride a cow pony since she was born right here on the desert while I have always lived on the Hudson River until two weeks ago.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Even so,” Mary retaliated brightly, “but, as you know, I left here when I was eight to go East to school and since I have never been back, I haven’t much advantage over you.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cowboy turned in his saddle and there was a tender light in his eyes as he looked at the younger girl. “I’m sure glad something fetched you back, Mary, though I’m mighty sorry it was your dad’s illness that did it.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[9]\u003cbr\u003eDora, glancing at the pretty face of her best friend, saw the frank, friendly smile she gave the cowboy. To herself she thought,—“Jerry certainly thinks Mary is the sweetest thing he ever saw, but she only thinks of him as a nice boy who once, long ago, was her childhood playmate.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey had reached the narrow entrance in the wall of rocks. It was a mysterious looking spot; a giant gateway leading, the girls knew not where. On the gleaming sand near the entrance lay a half-buried skeleton. It looked as though it might have been that of a man rather than a beast. The girls exchanged startled glances, but, as Jerry was riding unconcernedly through the gateway, they silently followed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What a dramatic sort of place!” Dora exclaimed in an awed voice as she gazed about her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey were on a floor of sand that was circled about by low mountains, grim, gray, uninviting. Here and there in crevices a twisted dwarf tree clung, its roots exposed. There was a death-like silence in the place. Even the soft rush of wind over the desert outside could not be heard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMary shuddered and rode closer to the cowboy. “Jerry,” she said, “why have you brought us here? Is there something that you want to show us?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[10]\u003cbr\u003eThe cowboy nodded. “You recollect that Dora was saying how she wished there was a mystery she could solve—” he began, when he was interrupted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh, Jerry,” Dora’s dark eyes glowed with anticipation, “is there really a mystery here—in this awfully bleak place? What? Where? I don’t see anything at all but those almost straight up and down cliffs and—”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere was an exultant exclamation from Dick Farley. Perhaps his strong spectacles gave him clearer sight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I see a house, honest Injun, I do, or something that looks powerfully like one.” He turned questioning eyes toward the cowboy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Righto! You’re clever, old man!” Jerry Newcomb told him. “Don’t tell where it is. See if the girls can find it.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a long silent moment Mary and Dora sat in their saddles turning their gaze slowly about the low circling mountains.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDora’s excited cry told the others that she saw it, and Mary, noting the direction of her friend’s gaze, saw, high on a narrow ledge, what looked like a wall made of small rocks with openings that might have been meant for two windows and a door. The flat roof could not be seen from the floor of the desert.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Lost Leaf Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47084519751920,"sku":"2940149045648","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940149045648_p0.jpg?v=1763711373","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940149045648","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}