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know if climbing inside the tree is a requirement,” Watch said. “It’s probably good enough that we came here.”
    â€œNow you tell me,” Adam said.
    â€œLet’s quit while we’re ahead,” Sally said. “This path is too dangerous.”
    â€œLet’s go a little farther,” Watch said. “I know what’s next. It can’t be that dangerous.” He paused to look back at the tree. “I hope.”

8
    T here were other interesting stories surrounding Madeline Templeton. Watch related several of them while they hiked toward their next destination. When she was sixteen, she was supposed to have climbed up to one of the largest of the caves that overlooked Spooksville and wrestled a huge mountain lion.
    â€œShe supposedly killed the lion with her nails,” Watch said. “She wore them long.”
    â€œI heard the tips of them were poisonous,” Sally added.
    â€œAre we going to this cave next?” Adam asked unenthusiastically. He was scared of entering any more places that could abruptly close him up inside.
    â€œYes,” Watch said. “I’ve been there before and had no problems.”
    â€œYou were inside the tree before, too, and had no problems,” Sally reminded him.
    â€œWe’ll go in together,” Watch said. “We should be safe.”
    â€œSounds like a plan for disaster,” Sally remarked. “But assuming we survive the cave, have you figured out the rest of the path? I don’t want to waste all my time and energy hiking in circles around this town I hate.”
    Watch nodded. “I think I’ve remembered the highlights of her life. We hit the cave next, then head for the chapel.”
    â€œWhy the chapel?” Sally asked. “I don’t think it existed when Madeline was alive.”
    â€œIt didn’t,” Watch said. “But she got married on the spot where the chapel was later built. She was twenty-eight years old then, and that would be the next big event in her life that weknow about. After the chapel, I think we have to visit the reservoir.”
    â€œWhat happened at the reservoir?” Adam asked.
    â€œThat’s where she drowned her husband,” Sally said.
    â€œThat’s what the stories say,” Watch added. “People say she tied his legs down with heavy stones and pushed him screaming off a boat that was floating in the center of the reservoir.”
    â€œWhy?” Adam asked.
    â€œShe thought he was chasing another woman,” Sally said. “Turned out she was wrong. But she didn’t find out until after she buried the other woman alive.”
    â€œWonderful,” Adam said.
    â€œAfter the reservoir, we go back to the beach,” Watch said. “That’s where the townsfolk tried to burn her alive for being a witch—the first time.”
    â€œWhat do you mean they tried to burn her?” Adam asked.
    â€œThe wood they stacked up around her refused to catch fire,” Sally said. “And snakes crawled out of it and killed the judge who condemnedher to death. You remember that story the next time you get the urge to visit her great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Ann Templeton.”
    â€œAfter the beach, we go to the cemetery,” Watch said.
    Sally stopped him in midstride. “There’s no way we’re going there. Even you know that’s a stupid idea. Dead people live there. Live people die there.”
    â€œShe was buried in the cemetery,” Watch said. “To reach the end of the Secret Path, we must follow her life to the end. Bum made that clear.”
    â€œBum was anything but clear,” Sally said.
    â€œLet’s worry about the cemetery when we get that far,” Watch said.
    â€œYeah,” Sally said sarcastically. “We might be ready for the cemetery by then. We might be dead.”
    They hiked up to one of the largest caves that overlooked Spooksville. Adam was breathing