Missing on Superstition Mountain by Elise Broach Page A

here. This is a waste of time.”
    â€œYeah,” Jack agreed.
    Henry sighed. “It’s all little stuff—the school’s having a concert … somebody won a contest … a road’s closed. There are a lot of power outages, and the fire department is always being called.”
    â€œOkay,” Simon agreed, standing up. “I don’t see anything either. Let’s look in the local history area, like that guy said.”
    They wandered over to the section marked “Arizona History” and crouched in front of the bookshelf labeled “Superstition and Its Surrounds.” It was crammed with fat, worn volumes. They smelled musty, like somebody’s attic. Simon pulled out a book and showed them the cover: Legends of Superstition Mountain. “Take out anything that looks like it would tell us about the mountain,” he directed.
    So Henry and Delilah began sorting through the shelves, while Jack stood on tiptoe, looking at the map of Arizona. Simon quickly assembled a pile of books at his feet. After a few minutes, Delilah sat cross-legged on the carpet with a stack of her own, including the book of legends that Simon had chosen.
    â€œI’ll see what’s in here,” she said.
    Henry continued to scan the shelves. There were books about the Old West, about cowboys and outlaws, and about the Apache Indians. He thought about Uncle Hank crossing the plains as a scout for the U.S. Cavalry. He didn’t see anything specifically about Superstition Mountain, but any of these books might mention the mountain, he supposed. He found a book called Ghost Towns of the Old West. “Hey,” he said, showing it to Simon. “I wonder if the ghost town that policeman was talking about is in here.”
    â€œWhat ghost town?” Delilah wanted to know.
    â€œIt doesn’t have real ghosts, silly,” Jack told her condescendingly.
    â€œSome abandoned frontier town that’s near here,” Simon said. “We’re going to explore it sometime.”
    Henry glanced at him, surprised. That was exactly what they weren’t supposed to do. The summer was sounding more and more interesting.
    â€œReally?” Delilah’s raised her eyebrows.
    â€œGirls can’t come,” Jack declared. He flopped onto his stomach on the carpet. “These books are too long. We can never in a million years read all of them.”
    As much as Henry loved to read, he felt discouraged himself. They were long, with tiny type, and most of them didn’t have pictures. And there were so many! Did Simon really mean they had to look through every book? He tried to find a short one for Jack. At the end of the bottom shelf was a cluster of thin pamphlets, held in place by a metal bracket. These were very short, Henry thought, cheered. But they seemed to be tourist brochures. They were covered with colorful photos advertising various attractions in the area: horseback riding, an old mining town, rafting on the Verde River. Wedged at one end was a thin white booklet, stapled down the middle, with black type on the front.
    â€œJack,” he said, “take a little one instead. Here’s a really short one—”
    Henry stopped. The title read Missing on Superstition Mountain: A faithful record of disappearances since 1880, compiled by the Superstition Historical Society.
    â€œHey!” Henry waved the booklet under Delilah’s nose. “Look at this! Simon, look!”
    Delilah scrambled to her knees. “Ooooh…”
    Simon crowded next to them. “Read what it says.”
    Henry dropped to the carpet and flattened the booklet open with one palm. “Huh,” he said. “It’s mostly a list.”
    â€œWhat kind of list?” Simon asked.
    â€œYeah,” Jack clamored, propping himself up on an elbow. “Read it!”
    â€œOkay.…” Henry started reading from the top of the first page: “‘Superstition