purpose of
the trip.

"I'm going to get a sample of the water from the pool and try to see if
there's anything strange about it, then I thought we'd take a closer
look at the mine to see if we can trace that water pipe. It still
worries me."

To his surprise, Barby and Jan hurriedly finished their breakfasts and
announced they were going, too.

"You're going into that mine," Barby explained. "We're going to be
waiting outside, and if you're not out within ten minutes, we're going
to come home for help."

Rick was touched. Both girls believed in the ghost, Barby more than Jan,
while he and Scotty were convinced that it was man-made in some way they
didn't yet understand. It took courage for the girls to accompany them,
even if they only planned to wait at the mine entrance.

"Okay," he agreed. "Let's go."

Dr. Miller offered, "Take the car. I don't like the looks of the weather
and there's no point in your getting caught in the rain."

Rick accepted and in a moment the four young people were on their way.
He saw that the sky was filled with haze, with only a glimpse now and
then through the haze of flying scud. Something was on the way, all
right.

"It's a tropical storm," Jan explained. "The morning weather report from
Washington said it would strike northern Virginia this morning."

"And not long from now," Scotty commented.

By the time Rick had collected his first sample, a jarful of water from
the pool mixed with a scraping of algae from the bottom, there was an
ominous line of black clouds on the horizon.

He hurried to the embankment where Scotty had found the cement bags, his
pal close behind him. The girls had waited in the car.

To his surprise there were no bags. Raw earth showed where they had been
dug up.

"What do you make of that?" he asked.

Scotty shook his head. "I don't know. The Frostola man must have taken
them, but I can't imagine why. Come on. Let's get out of here. This is
no time to stand around wondering. That storm is close!"

"No mine for us this morning," Rick said. "Wonder if the rain will last
long enough to cancel out the Sons of the Old Dominion, or whether we'll
just have some thundershowers?"

"Time will tell. Let's go."

They beat the storm to the house by minutes. It arrived with a rattle of
windows and the flash of lightning, followed by thunder that
reverberated among the mountains endlessly. The rain came in blinding
sheets, covering the windows with a steady