Boo and Punkin stood in front of the clock in the attic room. The hands had moved since Boo was last there. She opened the closet in the bottom of the clock and felt for the secret button. Pressing it in, she pulled the hour hand around past the gothic looking number 4 on the face of the clock. She felt the gears click and the door in the back of the clock opened into the wall.
“How did you ever find that?” said Punkin.
“Kind of the same way you found the knob downstairs, by accident,” said Boo. “Okay, I’m going to climb down the ladder, Punkin. Oh, give me the extra flashlight first. Now, when I get down, you read me the directions.” She leaned into the shaft and clambered onto the ladder.
Punkin held the flashlight steady. “Go down to the thirteenth rung,” said Punkin.
Boo put the small flashlight in her back pocket and climbed down, counting as she went. “Okay, I’m there,” she said.
“The next notation says 3SR. Count over three stones to your right.”
Boo reached out and felt the wall. The stones were set in the wall roughly and it was hard to tell exactly which one was the third one to the right, but she found one she thought was the one. It was smoother than the rest. “Okay,” she said.
“Now count up two stones and try doing something with it,” said Punkin.
Boo moved her hand up and found the second stone. It too, was much smoother than the stones around it. She tried to pull on it but there was no place to grip.
“Try pushing it,” said Punkin.
Boo pushed and suddenly she felt the stone depress into the wall. Then four things happened really quickly. The section of the wall directly in front of her pivoted silently into the great rock chimney taking her with it. The section of the ladder she was standing on began to slide downward, coming to a jarring stop about ten feet down. Boo’s feet bounced off the ladder rung and she lost her grip on the ladder, and then she fell backward into the darkness…
Excerpt from “The Mystery of Ghost Dancer Ranch”