THE GHOST RETURNS 
After supper, Logan and Anthony got permission from their parents to play outside.
“Stay close to the house and take one of the lamps with you. It’s getting dark!” Mrs. Bruna called after them.
“Yes, Mama,” Anthony promised.
The boys hurried out the back door and made their way toward Juniper Creek. The creek ran along the south side of the Brunas’ property, and the forest was just beyond. Anthony had brought along a kerosene lamp. Logan clutched the gunnysack that held his ghost trap. He had finished working on it that afternoon.
Logan had set aside his other trap, which was the trap for catching Mrs. Slaski’s missing cat. He would finish it tomorrow and put it somewhere in her yard. He had even saved a piece of fish from tonight’s meal to place inside the trap. It was in the pocket of his dungarees, wrapped in a handkerchief.
The moon shone down and helped to light their way as they neared the creek. The air was cool and smelled like firewood and apples. Crickets hummed. Bullfrogs twanged.
Somewhere, a coyote howled. It was a long, shrill sound and made Logan shudder. “Maybe we should go back,” he said nervously.
“But you said we had to be brave,” Anthony reminded him.
“I guess so. All right. Let us march on!” Logan lifted his gunnysack like a flag.
They soon reached the creek. They walked along the bank until they were at the edge of the forest.
It was pitch black in the stand of beech and sugar maples. Anthony stopped and swung his lamp in a wide arc. Logan squinted. He could see spidery shrubs and branches like spindly arms—but nothing else.
“Where do you want to set up the trap?” Anthony asked.
“Maybe under that tree,” Logan replied, pointing. “I think we’re close to the spot where we saw the . . . you know.”
He and Anthony got busy. Logan placed the ghost trap on the mossy ground and propped open the lid. Inside was a sprig of catnip that Annie must have put there earlier. If catnip could lure cats, then maybe it could lure ghosts, too? It was a crazy thought, but he had run out of ideas—and time.
Two long pieces of string came from the lid. “You take one piece, and I’ll take the other,” Logan told Anthony. “As soon as the ghost is in the trap, we pull! That will slam the lid shut.”
Holding on to their strings, the boys hid behind some shrubs and waited. And waited. And waited.
“Maybe you were right. Maybe we should go back,” Anthony whispered.
Logan frowned. “Wait! I think I hear something.”
A sudden breeze shook the leaves on the trees. The flame of the lamp flickered.
A cloud passed across the moon. From high up in the branches, two golden eyes blinked down at Logan and Anthony.
It was the ghost!
