Getting into the pit was easy enough. One side of the hole was a slope of loose dirt and gravel where the roof of the mine had caved in, and they half-walked, half-slid down. Ahead of them, the tunnel was intact. It slanted downward, deeper into the earth.

Still, the darkness was practically inviting compared to the roaring of the truck, which was so loud Spaulding figured Von Slecht must be almost overhead now. They hurried a few yards down the tunnel until the sound was muffled.

“Can’t we just hide here until he leaves?” Lucy whispered.

Spaulding shook his head. “It won’t take him long to figure out where we went. Our only chance is to keep going.”

“But we’ll get lost,” Kenny moaned. “This could go on for miles and miles and connect to other tunnels, and there could be dead guys down here and stuff.”

Marietta snapped her fingers. “My map!” She dug in her pocket and pulled out a paper folded into a small, dirty square. She’d clearly been carrying it for a while. “It’s not completely accurate, but it ought to give us some idea of where we are.”

She unfolded it and they all leaned in to see. Marietta traced her finger along a line that went past the field where Von Slecht’s house now stood. “That looks like about the area we’re in—somewhere in this small tunnel off the main shaft. You’re lucky you fell into this little tunnel, Kenny. The main shaft probably goes down hundreds of feet.” She made a long, whistling, falling sound, ending in a juicy splat.

Kenny glared. “Thank you for that, Marietta. That’s very nice to think about right now.”

“I’m only trying to look at the bright side!” she protested, widening her eyes. “Anyway, let’s keep going.” She tapped the map again. “We need to find another tunnel up to the surface. Watch where you step, though. Sometimes they’d dig shafts straight down to look for new veins, and then they’d put planks over the top to walk on. Only by now, the planks will be too rotten to hold weight. So if your footsteps sound hollow—”

“I’d never have believed it, Marietta,” Kenny interrupted, smirking. “Turns out you’re a bigger nerd than Spaulding. You’re, like, a mining nerd. I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”

“I am not!” she huffed. “It’s not nerdy to know about cool stuff like exploring mines! I shouldn’t even warn you about the ant traps. That’d serve you right.”

Kenny froze midstep. “What the heck are ant traps?” he demanded.

“That’s when a vertical shaft collapses into a funnel. It just looks like a little sunken place, but if you put weight on it, it’ll give way, and—” She gave another cheery splat.

“Okay, that is it.” Kenny folded his arms. “I’m not going down a tunnel full of death traps just hoping some antique map keeps me alive and unlost. No way.”

“Now, now,” Mr. Radzinsky said kindly. “You forget, I can pop up to the surface anytime and see where we are. I won’t let you get lost.”

Kenny muttered something about Mr. Radzinsky not being able to prevent them from falling into hidden deadly pits of doom, but there wasn’t any choice except to go on.

Slowly, they went in deeper. The floor was lumpy and uneven; the air frigid and damp. Mr. Radzinsky’s glow cast odd, lurching shadows, and Spaulding kept thinking he saw things moving out of the corner of his eye. Marietta stopped frequently to check the map, but it didn’t seem to be particularly accurate, and they couldn’t be sure how far they’d gone.

Eventually, they came to a fork in the tunnel. Everyone stopped and looked at Marietta.

She dragged in a deep breath. “Okay, I’m pretty sure we want to go right. It looks like it goes up to the surface. Left just seems to go deeper into the mine.”

Mr. Radzinsky floated down the left-hand tunnel until he disappeared around a corner. He reappeared quickly. “Hopefully you’re right,” he said brightly. “That way is caved in.”

They turned right. The new tunnel sloped up quickly, and a breeze promised fresh air close ahead. After a quick scramble over some loose dirt and rocks that were heaped at the tunnel mouth, they found themselves back on the surface.

Spaulding gasped in a mouthful of air. Pushing past the others, he staggered forward without a thought except putting distance between himself and the mine. But he’d only gone a step when something slammed into him from behind and knocked him to the ground.

He rolled over, dazed, as Marietta scrambled to her feet. “Excuse you, Marietta!” he puffed.

“Well, if you’d watch where you’re going, I wouldn’t have had to do that!”

She gestured to a harmless-looking sunken spot in the ground a few feet away. “That,” she said, “is an ant trap.”

Spaulding stared at the small, dark hole at the center of the sunken area. “You mean—if I’d stepped onto the edge . . .”

She scooted a half-step closer and peered down. “There’s no way to tell how deep it is for sure, but the map shows a two-hundred-foot air shaft near here.”

Spaulding swallowed, staring at the pit. “Oh. Well. I guess saving my life makes up for, you know, the other thing.”

Marietta scowled at the ant trap as if it had personally offended her. She muttered something that Spaulding couldn’t quite catch, but it sounded like “No, it doesn’t.”

The moment was just starting to feel extremely awkward when Kenny interrupted. Unfortunately, he interrupted with a string of loud kissy noises, making it several hundred million times more awkward.

Luckily, Lucy interrupted him before Marietta could locate a murder weapon. “Have you guys noticed where we are?” she asked.

For the first time, Spaulding took a real look around. They were back in the woods. Just ahead, a weedy bank sloped down to a familiar dark shape—Blackhope Pond.

At that moment, an engine roared to life somewhere very close by. A pair of blinding lights stabbed through the trees, and branches snapped and splintered as Von Slecht’s truck plunged straight toward them.

Spaulding’s heart jumped into his throat.

“He was waiting for us!” Marietta gasped. “He must have known the mine tunnel ended up here.”

“We’re going to have to make our stand now,” Spaulding said. He hoped he sounded calm and determined instead of pants-wettingly terrified. “Mr. Radzinsky, can you tell David to hold Griselda and look like he’ll eat her if we give the word?”

“Of course,” Mr. Radzinsky said. He knelt in front of the snake, who reared up his head to gaze into the ghost’s eyes.

Spaulding left them to their silent communication and turned to the others. “You guys make a circle around Griselda and block Von Slecht if he tries to get to her.”

On the far side of the pond, the truck jerked to a stop. Von Slecht cut the engine. The only sound was the ticking of cooling metal.

Spaulding wiped his hands on his pajama bottoms.

At last, the driver’s side door opened, and Von Slecht stepped out. He gave them all a long, unblinking stare.

“Release my wife and hand over the book immediately,” he said, his voice soft, “and I won’t kill you.”

Spaulding squared his shoulders. “Only after you let my aunt and Mr. Bellwood go. Otherwise . . .” He stepped aside, revealing David Boa wrapped around Griselda’s body. The snake obligingly opened his jaws wide behind her head and hissed. “. . . I’m afraid she’s dinner.”

“You think you can intimidate me?” Von Slecht snorted. “With a dumb animal that I happen to know has never eaten a human being in his life? Pathetic.” He snapped his fingers. “Griselda, come here.”

Griselda attempted to stand up, struggling against the boa constrictor’s weight.

“I can’t believe I ever looked up to you,” Marietta snapped at Von Slecht. She put a hand on Griselda’s shoulder and pushed her back down. “I mean, you’re married to a corpse! What is wrong with you?”

“Quite a lovely corpse, though,” Mr. Radzinsky murmured to no one in particular.

A red flush crept up Von Slecht’s face. “You could never understand how deeply I love her. Even death couldn’t change that.”

Spaulding had a flash of understanding. “Griselda was the first,” he said suddenly.

Von Slecht paused, one hand stretched toward his wife.

“All the workers,” Spaulding continued, “the free labor with no vacation days and no rights—that idea came later. You learned to raise the dead just to bring her back, didn’t you?”

Von Slecht laughed uneasily, his eyes darting. “Is this the part where I explain my evil plot? No, thanks.”

Spaulding shrugged. “It doesn’t matter—I already get it. Your whole business is making red mercury just to keep some dead lady preserved. It’s pointless.”

“You know about the red mercury?” Von Slecht demanded. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at a bead of sweat on his brow. “Well, well. Darke said I underestimated you. And yet, clever as you may be, you still don’t understand the greatness of what I’ve done.” He took a step closer, his voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. “Yes, I sank my fortune into bringing my wife back—and I achieved it. Do you understand? I have undone death.”

Marietta scrunched up her nose. “Yeah. Great work. Is that how you put your family’s factory out of business?”

Von Slecht sputtered, balling his handkerchief in his fist. “What—it—it’s not out of business! My plan is simply more long-term than you can wrap your mind around. You’re as short-sighted as my mother.”

“What, the tunnels?” Spaulding asked. He rolled his eyes. “Sure, I’ll bet there’s tons of money to make in the big-holes-in-the-ground industry.”

“It’s not about money, you fool!” Von Slecht’s voice shot up an octave. “It’s about power. Why would I stick to simply running a factory when I have an unlimited workforce at my disposal? And a system of mines already in existence, just waiting to be expanded? Have you any idea how far those tunnels go?”

“No,” Spaulding said.

“No.” A smile crept over Von Slecht’s face, revealing the grayish teeth in his wide jaw. “You don’t. And neither does the government, or the army, or the National Guard. With my tunnels, I can move my army of deathless soldiers into position to overthrow the government before they even know what’s happening. I’ll be unstoppable, and together Griselda and I will rule forever!”

“He’s raising an army?” Marietta gave Spaulding a kick to the sneaker. “I told you we should have gone to the police!”

Spaulding’s hands were shaking. She was right. Of course she was right. This was completely out of control. He’d made a huge mistake by not going straight to the police. But maybe there was still a way around that error.

“I know you did, Marietta.” He folded his arms and attempted to give Von Slecht a tough-guy stare. “And guess what? I took your advice. I went to the cops, and I told them everything.”

Von Slecht burst out laughing. Not quite the reaction Spaulding had been hoping for.

“The police?” Von Slecht giggled. “Oh good heavens, not the police! Whatever shall I do now?” He laughed harder and harder.

Spaulding stood up as straight as he could. “If we go missing after what I told them, you’re going to be their number one suspect.”

Von Slecht uncrumpled his handkerchief and dabbed at his eyes, still chuckling. “Oh, dear. Perhaps you aren’t so smart after all. Surely you can’t have believed you were the only ones in the whole town aware of all this? You never once thought it a little odd that you’d ferreted all this out, but the police had no idea?”

“The newspaper said the police didn’t know what was going on with the grave robberies,” Spaulding protested.

“Ah—that little article. I’m afraid that was the work of a certain newly hired editor who didn’t have all the facts. She also didn’t realize that investigative journalism isn’t really welcome here in Thedgeroot. Of course, she moved on to a new career shortly after that.” Von Slecht folded his handkerchief back into a tight square and tucked it into his pocket once more. “It turns out she’s much better suited to factory work.”

Spaulding’s stomach gave a sickening flip. Mr. Radzinsky, this newspaper editor . . . how many times had Von Slecht gotten away with murder? And if he’d done it before, there was nothing to stop him from killing them, too. The only possible hold they had over him sat a few feet behind Spaulding, wrapped in boa constrictor.

“You might not be worried about the police,” Spaulding said, “but if you don’t let our families go, we won’t give you back your wife.”

The businessman sighed. “This grows tiresome. I don’t need you to give me my wife.” He took a step forward.

“Squeeze, David Boa,” Spaulding ordered.

“Don’t you dare,” Von Slecht growled. He surged toward the snake.

Instantly, Kenny lunged forward too and grabbed Von Slecht from behind. But the businessman broke free easily. Without even looking, he slammed Kenny aside with a backhanded blow.

Kenny landed heavily on his side a few feet away, groaning. “Oof,” he wheezed, clutching his stomach. “He’s really strong, guys. I think he’s using magic or something.”

Von Slecht snorted. “Of course I’m using magic! You little fools have no idea what I’m capable of.” Before anyone could react, he shoved Marietta and Spaulding aside and reached for Griselda. “Come, my darling.”

He pulled her to her feet, grabbed David around the neck, and flung him away—or rather, he tried to fling him away. But the snake was too fast. In a blur, David whipped his tail up and wrapped it around Von Slecht’s arm. Von Slecht lost his hold on Griselda, who stumbled a few steps.

David Boa lashed himself around Von Slecht’s torso, pinning his left arm against his side. But Von Slecht’s right arm was free. He seized the boa in an iron grip, his hand squeezing just behind David’s jaws.

“What can we do?” Marietta demanded.

“I don’t know!” Spaulding looked around helplessly—there was nothing to hit Von Slecht with, and no way to do it without hitting David too.

Spaulding’s eyes fell on Griselda. She’d managed to stay on her feet and keep walking. She seemed unaware of the fight—unaware of everything, really. The moon had just cleared the treetops, and she was staring up into its cold light. Spaulding wondered afterward if she was staggering toward that. Maybe she was moving mindlessly. Or maybe some remaining shred of her mind knew this was her chance to escape.

Whatever the reason, she was headed straight toward the ant trap.

“Watch out!” he cried as she took the final step that put her weight on the loose earth.

With a soft shushhh, the slope of loose earth shifted and Griselda’s feet slid out from under her. She landed on her back, her falling weight speeding the landslide.

Spaulding took a step toward her, but Marietta caught his wrist. “You’d just fall too,” she said quietly.

Von Slecht turned his head in time to see Griselda vanish into the hole. He gave a strangled, wordless cry. Before anyone else could move, he threw himself into the pit after her.

He screamed as he fell. It went on and on, until finally it cut off abruptly. A thick, awful silence fell. Von Slecht was gone at last.

But so was David Boa.