The Ghost at Doringkloof

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There was no sign of Rajit. An hour of scouring the veld, of shouting till they were hoarse, was to no avail. He seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Rajit was closest to that thing," said Pete. "It probably wound him in a magical spell."

Pepper and Lwazi shuddered at such a fate and yet . . . if he was alive and well, then why had he not made contact?

"He was running right behind me as we left the house," Pepper argued. "He had a torch so he should have found his way here."

"Perhaps he somehow overtook us," suggested Lwazi. "Maybe he's already gone down to the cave."

"I suppose we'd better check," Pepper decided.

They slithered and slipped their way down the gully. If it had been difficult climbing up in the feeble light, it was almost impossible now that their only torch had faded altogether.

"Rajit hasn't been here," Pepper announced as they reached the cave, "else he would've re-started the fire."

"Yeh," Pete agreed. "It'd be pretty scary alone in the dark. A fire would've been something."

"We should get it going again," Lwazi urged them.

"And then we must call a meeting," added Pepper. "Decide what we're gonna do."

The leaping flames made all the difference, trapping the darkness outside their friendly cage of light, easing their fears.

"We'll be detectives," Pepper said. "We'll be the Supersleuths."

"But I thought we were the Famous Four," Pete objected. "Why can't we just carry on being the Famous Four?"

"That was when Rajit was with us," Pepper reminded him. "We can't be the Famous Four when we're only three."

Such commonsense could not be argued against and so Pepper went ahead with the election of a captain. It had to be someone who could think quickly in difficult circumstances . . . and make important decisions.

"I take it you both want me?" he asked and awaited objections. "Ok, it's agreed then," he declared.

He cleared his throat before continuing. "Gentlemen," he said. "I'm calling this meeting to decide what to do about our friend Rajit who is missing."

He paused to allow his message to sink in although he also needed time to think of something else to say. His mind, however, kept returning to the terror and he found himself at a loss for words.

"We could start by listing what we know," Lwazi helped, "and decide how to investigate."

"Good idea," Pepper said. "Any suggestions?"

"Well, we've seen a ghost or a zombie," Pete volunteered.

"Not a thikoloshe," Lwazi added. "It was too big."

"And it had three heads and too many arms," Pete agreed.

"How many arms?" Pepper asked.

"I saw six," said Lwazi, "but I wasn't really counting."

"There were eight," Pete contradicted him. "There were definitely eight arms, just like a spider."

"Three heads and eight arms," Pepper concluded. "Then what happened?"

"We all turned and ran," said Pete. "Ran as fast as we could."

"And Rajit was behind us," added Lwazi. "He was ahead as we approached that thing, which put him behind us when we ran away."

"He had a torch," Pete said. "He took Lwazi's torch, I think."

"And that's all we know," Pepper concluded, cutting short any further points. "So . . . what we're gonna do?"

Everyone knew what they really ought to do but no one dared voice it. The house itself needed further investigation if they were to have any hope of solving the mystery of Rajit's disappearance.

"Let's not go there now," pleaded Pete, being the first to admit his fear. "Can't we wait till the sun comes up?"

"At sunrise then," Pepper quickly agreed, without even consulting Lwazi. "Wouldn't like you to be afraid. But we should take our bikes and things with, just in case."

Dawn brought new courage to the ghost hunters. Soon after first-light, therefore, they put out the fire and struck camp. Then, with growing confidence, they began the slog up to the plateau above.

The Bouwer place had lost a degree of its terror when the morning sun dispelled the gloom. Even Rajit's disappearance could suddenly be explained without mention of magical spells.

"I'll bet he took a wrong turning," said Pepper. "Then he found himself on the open road and went home instead."

This very sensible explanation somehow gave a greater thrill to the investigation at hand. Until then each had a secret fear that some catastrophe had indeed befallen Rajit, and that they should really be contacting the police. Now, however, it seemed highly unlikely that their friend was in any danger. They could therefore pit their intellects against the limited clues available to determine whether or not Pepper's theory could be proved.

"Any sign can be vital," warned Pepper. "We need to explore thoroughly and must be careful not to destroy the evidence by walking all over it."

"Let's begin at the back," Lwazi proposed. "That way we won't disturb what prints Rajit left when he ran. We should at least see if he followed us out."

The rear door was ajar and the entrance through the scullery was a mess of tracks. It had apparently been a hive of activity in the not-too-distant past.

"A great many people have traipsed through here," Pepper commented.

"Or one person many times," Pete suggested.

"No," Pepper contradicted him. "The imprint of their shoes is quite clear. See? Here's one, and there's another of a different pattern. I think at least two or three people were here."

"Let's look what's inside the great box," Lwazi suggested. "Maybe that'll tell us something."

The box in the kitchen was deserted now but all around it was a muddle of prints. Whatever had been there seemed to have scuffled around in an almost deliberate attempt to destroy the evidence.

"Perhaps there's a secret passage inside the box," Pete said. "You know, a hidden entrance or something."

"Come off it, Pete!" Pepper answered scornfully. "Secret passages don't exist in real life. You forget we're real people in a real world, not just characters in a someone's story!"

He climbed into the box nevertheless and examined every segment of the floor and walls. Pete even passed him a stick so he could tap for hollow spots.

"Nothing to be learned here," he declared at last. "The thing . . . whatever it was . . . hardly even made a mark."

They then began to seek out Rajit's path of flight. It was easy to find because their friend had been in the front when they were advancing and his prints were clearly visible.

"This is where Rajit suddenly stopped," Pepper indicated. "And these smudges in the dust must be where he tried to turn and take off . . . and slipped."

"Look," said Lwazi. "He must have stumbled and fallen. These are sprawl marks . . . and here are his hand prints where he pushed himself up again."

"Didn't hear him fall," Pete commented.

"You wouldn't have," said Pepper. "You were wailing like a fire engine at the time!"

"Wasn't the only one," Pete muttered. "There were more fire engines than one, if you ask me!"

"There seems to have been something after him," observed Lwazi. "Here . . . and here . . . other footprints heading for him."

"And at this spot he's changed tack," added Pepper. "He's now running in another direction altogether."

"The thing that was following must've really scared him," Pete put in. "He seems to be heading blindly for the wrong way out."

They tracked Rajit into a badly lit passage. Just as they were beginning to lose the trail in the gloom, however, they came across an obstacle which semi-blocked the pathway.

"It's a beam," said Lwazi. "And it's fallen from the roof."

Pepper suddenly whistled. "Look at this," he exclaimed. He pointed to a dark patch on the fallen rafter. He touched it. "Blood!" he announced dramatically.

"Looks like something clobbered him with this beam," Pete said, his eyes wide in astonishment. "Must have been a giant to have managed to swing that thing!"

"There's also blood on the floor," Lwazi observed. "And look . . . definite signs of a fight."

The boys examined the spot with sinking hearts. It was clear to them that a blow to the head had felled their friend and that, while he lay prostrate in the dust, the thing with many arms had bounded up and pounced on him.

"It must have knocked Rajit senseless," Pepper explained. "He fell to the floor . . . that's how he left traces of blood . . . he was then bundled up and carried away."

"What we gonna do now?" asked Pete in dismay.

At that moment something else caught Pepper's eye. A crumpled sheet of paper, folded over several times, was lying on the dusty floor just beyond the beam. He reached out and scooped it up.

"Look at this," he cried, unfolding the sheet. "There's something scrawled on it in crayon."

He peered at the paper, trying to read the print in the dim light. "It's a message from Rajit!" he exclaimed suddenly.

Lwazi and Pete crowded round to look but the light was too dim for them to see it properly.

"What does it say?" Pete asked.

"REMEMBER THE LONELY GIRL," Pepper read. "It's all written in capitals . . . and here's some numbers scribbled below the words."

"Yo!" exclaimed Lwazi. "What's it mean? Why would Rajit leave a note like that?"

Pepper looked at them, his eyes large with excitement. "If I'm right," he said, "Rajit is trying to tell us something . . . something in code."

"What?" begged Pete.

"I don't know," Pepper answered. "Not yet. But I do know one thing . . . Rajit has been captured and taken away. Solve the riddle on this paper and we'll find out where!"