Chapter 7

CHAPTER seven Fletch opened his eyes first. "What the…" He jumped up. Leo's candle gave the room an eerie golden glow. Wilkie stirred for a second, grumbled, and then closed his eyes again. Fletch gave him a cruel kick in his side. "What?" Wilkie said, scrambling to his feet. He quickly fixed his eyes on Leo. "Who's that?" "Give me my gold," Leo whispered again. The two boys stared at him. And then Leo saw it, in Wilkie's eyes. A flicker of fear. "It's that man!" Wilkie said. "What man?" Fletch rasped. "Let's get out of here," Wilkie said.

Fletch wavered a little, Leo could see. But he was still looking at Leo with a hard, untrusting expression. He wasn't fooled, Leo thought. This wasn't working. Run! he told himself. Get out of here now! But somehow Leo was able to stay still. He stood a little taller. He imagined he really was the ghost of a murdered man. Fletch and Wilkie weren't killers, as far as Leo knew. But they had hurt dozens of people in their lives, probably more. If anyone deserved to be haunted, it was these two. "I know what you've done," Leo whispered, the way Papa used to whisper when he told his late-night stories. "You will be punished." Wilkie looked terrified. It was as though Leo had cast a spell on him. But then there was a loud crash from the front. They all turned. And for a second Leo expected to see the ghost of Corey Drew hovering in the doorway. Instead, he saw a familiar skinny shape. Morris.

Leo's heart dropped into his boots. Fletch let out a rasping laugh. He walked over and grabbed Morris. He dragged him back by the collar and then pushed him hard into Leo. Leo's candle dropped to the floor. Now it was almost completely dark in the old saloon. But that didn't stop Fletch and Wilkie. As Wilkie pinned Leo and Morris against the wall, Fletch came close to them. Leo could feel the heat of his rotten-smelling breath. Fletch grabbed Papa's hat from Leo's head and smacked Leo across the face with it. Hard. "Your gold is long gone," he said, in his sickening growl. Then he punched Morris in the stomach. Morris doubled over, moaning in pain. "Hey!" Leo said. Without thinking, he gave Fletch a hard shove. Fletch tripped and fell to the floor. In the faint predawn light, Leo saw the chilling stare on Fletch's face. It was the look of a rattlesnake ready to strike.

Fletch leaped to his feet and came charging toward Leo. Leo closed his eyes and braced himself for a beating. His entire body began to shake. But wait. He wasn't shaking. The entire house was. There was a strange sound, like thunder rumbling from deep in the ground. The trembling got stronger. The noise rose up around them, so loud that it hurt Leo's ears. The floor bounced beneath their feet. "What is it?" Wilkie said. Morris grabbed Leo by the arm. "It's an earthquake!" Morris shouted. "We have to get out of here!"