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underground while walking in the cemetery,” Watch said. “I think a few people got boxed up a little too soon.”
    â€œThat’s horrible,” Adam said, appalled. “Why didn’t you get a shovel and dig those people out?”
    â€œI have a bad back,” Watch said.
    â€œAnd you don’t want to go digging up people who’ve been in the ground for a few days,” Sally said. “They might try to eat your brains.”
    Adam began to have second thoughts. “I’vehad kind of a long day, moving and getting attacked by the tree and all. Maybe I should catch up with you guys later.”
    â€œAre you chickening out?” Sally asked.
    â€œNo,” Adam said quickly. “I’m just stating a fact.” He paused. “Besides, you’ve been against this quest from the start.”
    â€œIt’s my nature to be against anything unnatural,” Sally said. “And I think this Secret Path qualifies.”
    â€œIf you really are scared,” Watch said, “I don’t want to force you into it, Adam.”
    â€œI told you guys, I’m not scared,” Adam said quickly. “I’m just tired.”
    â€œNo problem,” Watch said.
    â€œWe won’t hold your sudden and unexpected wave of tiredness against you,” Sally added.
    â€œIt’s not sudden and unexpected,” Adam protested. “If you’d just moved here from Kansas City, you’d be tired, too.”
    â€œParticularly if I was about to visit a cemetery where people are often buried alive,” Sally said.
    â€œI told you, I don’t believe in ghosts,” Adam said. “They don’t scare me.”
    â€œGood for you,” Sally said.
    Adam felt cornered and humiliated. “All right, all right. I’ll go to the cemetery. But that’s as far as I’ll go. I have to get home right after.”
    â€œIf what Bum said is true,” Watch warned, “you might not get home until very late.”

9
    T he cemetery was surrounded by a high gray brick wall. The front gate was made of wrought iron—rusted metal bars twisted upward into points. The few trees that littered the grave site were limp and colorless; they looked like the skeletons of real trees. Adam could see no way in and felt a moment of relief. They’d have to quit. Unfortunately, Watch had other ideas.
    â€œThere’re some loose bricks around back,” Watch said. “If you suck in your breath, you can just squeeze through the space.”
    â€œWhat if we get stuck?” Adam asked.
    â€œYou of all people should know the answer to that question,” Sally said.
    â€œThe brick wall won’t hurt you,” Watch said. “It isn’t alive.”
    â€œJust like the people locked inside,” Sally said menacingly.
    Getting through the small opening proved easy. But once they were inside and making their way around the tombstones, Adam began to get the sinking feeling that nothing else would be easy. He definitely didn’t want to be fooling around the dead witch’s grave. He could see her old castle peering down at them. A tall tower rose from the rear of the huge stone building. He thought he caught sight of a dull red light glowing from a window at the highest point. The light of a fire perhaps, of many candles at least. He could imagine Ann Templeton sitting in that tower in a black robe and staring into a crystal ball. Watching the three kids who dared to defy her ancestor’s grave. Cursing them for even thinking about it. She was a beautiful woman, true, but striding toward her great-great-great-great-grandmother’s grave,Adam began to believe Sally’s warning about Ann.
    He began to believe that Spooksville really did deserve its wicked name.
    Madeline Templeton’s tombstone was larger than any other in the cemetery. Its shape was odd. Rather than having a cross at the top, or a half dome, the top of the dark