The Legend Of Annie Murphy Part 3

Dr. Cooper feared the worst. "Oh no ..."

"This could be trouble," Mac said. "He may have heard about the boys seeing a ghost up here, and now he's trying to hunt it down."

"We don't need this."

"Well, we'll try to talk to him." Mac waved and called out, "Hey there! Be careful with that gun!"

The man spotted them immediately and quickened his step, dodging through the sagebrush to the main road and hurrying toward them. When he came to the jeep, he stopped a moment, eyeing the vehicle suspiciously and then eyeing Mac and Dr. Cooper. He had a beard and a wide mustache, and they could see the glint of a sheriff's badge in the moonlight.

"Oh brother," Mac said quietly, "this guy thinks he's Wyatt Earp. Look at that outfit!"

The man hollered, "Hold on, you two!" then hurried toward them, the gun safely pointed at the ground, at least for now. "I'll have a word with you!"

They walked onto the main road to meet him. He was agitated, breathing hard from running, and his forehead was beaded with sweat. "Did you see a woman come running through here?"

Mac tried to be very calm-it was obvious this fellow was not. "No sir, and I don't expect we will. Now why don't you put that gun away-"

"She was wearing a blue dress, had red hairwell, you must know what Annie Murphy looks like!" Mac and Dr. Cooper exchanged a glance.

Dr. Cooper also spoke calmly. "Sir, how about putting the gun away? You can't shoot a ghost with a gun."

That only made the man indignant. "I'm not after a ghost, you idiot! I'm after a fugitive from the law!"

"And just who are you?"

"Are you blind?" He fingered his badge to call their attention to it. "I'm Dustin Potter. I happen to be the sheriff." He gestured with the gun, waving it in their faces. "And I might ask who you are. I've never seen you around here before."

"I'm Dr. Jacob-"

"What's that around your neck?"

Dr. Cooper touched the camera hanging against his chest. "It's a camera."

The sheriff c.o.c.ked his revolver and aimed it between Jacob Cooper's eyes. "I know what a camera looks like. Drop it. Real slow." He waved the gun at Mac. "And you, get your hands in the air where I can see 'em!"

Mac slowly raised his hands and Dr. Cooper slowly removed the camera and set it on the ground.

The sheriff stooped to pick up the camera, keeping his gun trained on them. "Now both of you sit down with your hands in the air and we'll have ourselves a little talk."

Mac said quietly, "We'd better do as he says."

They sat in the road, their hands raised.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Dr. Jacob Cooper, a biblical archaeologist."

"And I'm Richard MacPherson, professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona."

"And we're here ..." Dr. Cooper hesitated. Just how could they explain what they were doing?

Mac gave it a try. "We're here to examine the gravitational and time/s.p.a.ce anomalies indigenous to this area."

The sheriff chuckled. "You talk like a professor. Have you figured out why it's so dark all of a sudden?"

The learned professor knew the answer. "It's night."

The sheriff grabbed Mac by the collar. "What kind of a fool do you take me for? I ought to haul you both back to Bodine and throw you in the hoosegow." Then he added, under his breath, "If I knew where it was."

"Sir, we're in Bodine right now," said Dr. Cooper.

The sheriff straightened up in anger and glared down at them. "What are you talking about? I just came from Bodine."

Mac tried to explain, "Sheriff, uh, Potter, this is Bodine. We're sitting right in the middle of it."

They could tell the answer startled and even scared this weird, would-be lawman. He began looking carefully around the canyon, then aimed his gun in their faces. "Now think real hard and try answering again."

The kids entered the town along a bare dirt road, walking past a row of single-story houses where other kids were playing in the street. Mothers and fathers called good morning to their neighbors. Jay and Lila couldn't help staring. The folks on the street and even some of the dogs were starting to stare back.

If Jay and Lila were seeing things, the "things" were seeing them as well.

"You know what?" said Lila. "This place is starting to look awfully real."

"Act natural. Don't stare."

"Hey, hey you kids!" said a voice from up the street.

Oh-oh. A lanky fellow came running toward them, his boots pounding up little clouds of dust. They could see a lawman's badge on his brown leather vest.

"Are we in trouble already?" Lila moaned.

But he wasn't just talking to them. He was talking to all the kids on the street, "Did any of you see the sheriff come this way?"

None of them had.

The deputy ran up to Jay and Lila. "How about you?"

Jay and Lila looked at each other. Well, they knew the answer to that one. "Uh, no," said Jay. "Haven't seen him... "

The deputy gave them a second look. "Are you new in town?"

Jay couldn't help chuckling as he answered, "Yeah, we sure are."

He gave them one more careful looking over, then ran on, asking some of the other folks whether they'd seen the sheriff.

Lila looked down at the light s.h.i.+rt and khaki shorts she was wearing. "I guess we're not blending in very well."

Jay considered his Chicago Bulls T-s.h.i.+rt and bright blue and white running shoes. "Well ... we'll just have to tell people we're from out of town."

"Way out of town!"

They pa.s.sed an attractive brick building, the Bodine Public Library. Lila reached out and touched the brick wall warming in the sun. The bricks felt just like real bricks.

They reached the main street, the same dirt road where the jeep had been. It was full of people, wagons, horses, and activity. Stores were opening for business. As a bank opened its doors, a wagonload of lumber pulled by a team of four mules rolled into town. On one corner, the curtains in the Bodine Consolidated Mining Company were being pulled back. And down the street, a blacksmith was just getting ready to shoe a horse.

Then they saw something that chilled them: At the other end of the street stood a gallows with a hangman's noose dangling from the crossbeam. A workman was standing on a ladder untying the rope, and two other men were removing boards with crowbars. If there had been a hanging, it was apparently over.

"Annie Murphy was going to be hanged," Lila whispered.

They could see beyond the gallows to the cemetery hill north of town. They were spellbound.

"Look out!" A wagon driver hollered as his team of horses bore down on them. Jay and Lila scurried out of the street and onto the wooden sidewalk as the wagon rumbled past.

"Now hold on, young lady!" This time it was an older, chubby lady wearing an ap.r.o.n and standing in the doorway of the Bodine Mercantile. "Haven't you forgotten something?"

Lila didn't know what to answer.

The lady glared down at Jay, indignant. "You let your sister walk out in broad daylight wearing nothing but her bloomers?" She looked at Lila's outfit quizzically. "Where'd you get those, anyway?"

Lila looked down at her hiking shorts. "Uh ... Outback Outfitters in Wheaton."

"Wheaton?"

"Near Chicago."

The lady laughed. "I didn't think you bought them here. So you're from back East, are you?"

Jay and Lila laughed along. "That's right, we just got into town."

"Well, around here the ladies dress a little more modestly. Hold on." In a short moment, the lady returned with a calico skirt. "What's your name, young lady?"

"Lila Cooper."

"Well, Lila Cooper, I'm Maude Bennett, and I'll sell you this skirt for ten cents. Now find a deal like that anywhere else!"

Lila gawked at her. "Ten cents?"

"For today only."

Lila dug into her pocket and pulled out a dime. "It's a deal."

Jay opened his mouth to say something but was too late; Lila plopped the dime in Maude Bennett's hand and took the skirt. Maude looked at that dime with great interest.

"Uh, that's a new kind of dime," Jay tried to explain. "They probably haven't gotten out this way yet."

Maude Bennett only squinted at it. "Don't have my gla.s.ses." She tossed it in the air and caught it again, then smiled. "A dime's a dime." Then she looked them over and shook her head. "What kids wear these days!"

Jay ventured a question. "Uh ... who got hanged?"

Maude shook her head. "n.o.body. They shot Annie Murphy before they could hang her. She's already dead and buried."

The kids couldn't help their horrified expressions. "She's dead?" Lila asked.

"It's a long story, kids. You should ask the judge about it. He knows what happened." She started into the mercantile but muttered over her shoulder, "A lot more than he's telling, if you ask me."

The kids walked a little farther until a notice tacked to a wooden post caught Lila's eye. "Look at this, Jay: `Sheriff's Auction: The Murphy Mine and All Land Holdings."'

"The Murphy Mine?" Jay scanned the notice. "`Upon the demise of the previous owners,"' his eyebrows shot up, `Cyrus and Annie Murphy... the mine is up for sale to the highest bidder. Sealed bids to be submitted to the auction committee at the courthouse."'

"`Eight o'clock P.M., June eighth,"' Lila gasped, "`1885'!" They stared at each other, then at the posted notice.

"It's really happened ..." Jay finally spoke in awe.

"We've gone back in time!"

Chapter 4.

Aproper-looking man in a business suit-an 1885 business suit-came walking by, and Jay asked him, "Sir, could you tell me today's date?"

The man took a moment to study the kids up and down before answering, "Well, it's June eighth, of course."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." The gentleman continued on his way, but not without a second, curious look over his shoulder.

Jay sighed. "Lila, maybe you'd better put on that skirt."

They ducked into an alley to get out of sight and do some thinking.

Lila pulled the skirt on over her shorts. "Jay, I think it's real."

"So do I."

"So we're in real trouble."

Jay wrinkled his brow. "Back in Bodine-I mean, the one we left-it was June tenth. So we're off by two days and ..."

"And about a century."

"But are we really in Bodine? I mean, the Bodine that used to be here-that is here."

"And why is it here?"