On all sides there were deserted adobe houses in varying degrees of ruin.

THE PHANTOM
TOWN MYSTERY

By CAROL NORTON

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Author of

“The Phantom Yacht,” “Bobs, A Girl Detective,”
“The Seven Sleuths’ Club,” “The Phantom
Town,” Etc.

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THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
Akron, Ohio New York

Copyright MCMXXXIII
The Saalfield Publishing Company
Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

I Lucky Loon 7

II The Ghost Town 15

III The Missing Friends 24

IV “Desperate Dick” 32

V Poor Little Bodil 40

VI The Evil-eye Turquoise 48

VII Middle of the Night 56

VIII Singing Cowboys 64

IX A Vagabond Family 72

X A Lonely Mountain Road 80

XI The Skeleton Stage Coach 88

XII A Narrow Escape 95

XIII A Sand Storm 103

XIV “A.’S and N. E.’S.” 111

XV In the Barn Loft 119

XVI Searching For Clues 127

XVII A Wooden Doll 135

XVIII A Strange Hostess 143

XIX A Gun Shot 151

XX Introducing an Air Scout 160

XXI A Possible Clue 168

XXII An Interesting Arrival 176

XXIII A Silver Plane 184

XXIV A Long Night Watch 192

XXV A Cry for Help 200

XXVI Is It a Clue? 208

XXVII It Was a Clue 215

XXVIII A New Complication 222

XXIX An Old Letter 230

XXX Secret Entrance to the Rock House 238

XXXI A Wonderful Secret Told 246

THE PHANTOM TOWN
MYSTERY

CHAPTER I
LUCKY LOON

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.

“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?”

Lovely Mary Moore, delicately fashioned, fair as her friend was dark, nodded beamingly, too out of breath for the moment to speak.

Jerry Newcomb in his picturesque cowboy garb, blue handkerchief knotted about his neck, looked admiringly at the smaller girl.

“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