Ghost Town by Joan Lowery Nixon Read Free Book Online

your own fault you got hit,” Bert told him. “You got in the way.”
    Alan's leg hurt so much it was hard for him to speak. He took a long breath and said, “Anybody who'd hurt a dog is a stupid jerk.”
    The Tigers looked at each other in surprise. Then they grinned and began moving toward him.
    “Want to say that again?” Harley asked.
    Alan wanted to get as far away from the Tigers as possible. He was a pretty good runner. Maybe, even though his leg hurt, he could run fast enough tomake it back to the crowd of tourists—and to safety—before the Tigers could catch up with him.
    But what would happen to the dog? The Tigers were bound to take out their frustration on the dog if no one was there to protect him.
    Alan stood as tall as he could. “Leave the dog alone,” he said firmly.
    To his surprise, the Tigers stopped. The grins slid from their faces.
    Close to his side he heard a low, menacing growl. He glanced down, amazed. The dog seemed much larger than he had earlier. He was surely as large as a Lab. The dog stared at the Tigers, baring his teeth, and the hair rose on the back of his neck.
    Harley took a step back. “Let's get out of here,” he said.
    “Stupid dog. He looks vicious,” Bert said.
    The Tigers turned and ran.
    Alan let out a long breath. His legs trembled, and for a moment the earth seemed to rock under him. As he watched the Tigers racing down the street, he said, “Thanks, dog. Those guys are bullies. They would have hurt you. Someday they're really going to hurt
me
—unless I can think of some way to stop them. And I can't.”
    To his surprise, the dog was nowhere in sight.
    Alan whistled, but the dog didn't return.
    Poor old dog
, he thought.
He's not vicious. The Tigers scared him so he's gone somewhere to hide
.
    Alan looked at his watch. It was past the time his class was supposed to meet in front of the old Fourth Ward School. They were going as a group to visit one of the mines in the Comstock Lode. He ran all the way to the school.
    Neither Mr. Sands nor the chaperones scolded him for being late. Stragglers were still arriving.
    But Johnny came up to Alan and said, “I wanted to eat lunch with you, but you weren't there. Why weren't you there? Where'd you go?”
    Alan just shrugged. He didn't want to tell Johnny—or anybody else—about the Tigers or the dog.
    On the way to the mine the guide informed the class that Virginia City had once been the richest city in the United States, and that the Comstock Lode had yielded more than $1 billion worth of silver and gold. Gold had first been discovered in the Virginia City area in 1848, and the big silver strike had followed in 1859.
    Intrigued by everything the guide said, Alan eagerly studied the opening of the mine into which they were led. Tunnels extended in a number of directions.The guide pointed out an old cage elevator. The miners had followed the veins of silver and gold, the guide explained, sometimes many levels down into the depths of the earth.
    Alan found himself at the outside edge of his group. He glanced down the nearest tunnel, which was roped off and out of bounds. He shivered as he wondered what it must have been like to be a miner working for hours to carve out a passageway under the earth, with only a flickering headlamp to light the way.
    To Alan's surprise, in the dim shadows of the tunnel he saw the dog with the pointed ears staring at him.
    “You're squinting. What are you looking at?” Johnny poked his head around Alan, trying to see.
    “The dog in the tunnel.”
    “What dog?”
    Alan looked back at the spot where he'd seen the dog, but the dog wasn't there. “He's gone,” Alan said.
    “Whose dog is it? Where did he come from? What's his name?” Johnny asked.
    Alan smiled. There was no way he was going to try to answer those questions. “He comes from around here, and his name is Comstock,” he told Johnny.
Comstock. From the mine? Is that why I
thought of that name?
It didn't matter, Alan