Wrath of the Grinning Ghost by John Bellairs Page B

taken."
    "Aw, no, lady," said Fergie. "He's in the hospital an' everything. The only place he got taken to was a private room in Duston Heights."
    "His spirit has been taken," replied the old woman firmly. "And if you cannot find some way to return it soon, the body will die."
    Madam Lumiere went inside the cabin with them. She stood in the living room, looking all around her as she turned in a slow circle. The professor cleared his throat. "Ahem. You will have to pardon the mess, my good woman. We have been rather busy."
    Madam Lumiere nodded, her face empty of expression. "I sense a strong force of magic here," she said. She glanced at Johnny. "Johnny, do you still have the lucky token I gave you?"
    "Yes," said Johnny, taking the peso de ocho reales from his pocket.
    From somewhere among the folds of her dress, Madam Lumiere produced a crystal ball, smaller than the one Johnny had seen in her tent, hardly larger than a baseball. It gleamed in the light from the windows. She held it out on her open palm, and Johnny could see reflections of the room weirdly distorted and upside down. "Hold the silver piece flat on your hand," directed Madam Lumiere. "Be sure the side with the cross is upward."
    Johnny was beginning to have a creepy feeling, as if something was about to happen that might be dangerous. But he held the coin out, making his hand as steady as he could.
    Closing her eyes, Madam Lumiere began to chant softly. Johnny, Fergie, and the professor leaned close to listen, but whatever language she was speaking was unknown to them. Johnny felt the silver piece on his palm grow warm. He looked at it in surprise as a ray of brilliant white light shot out from the center of the cross to the crystal ball, which glowed with its own light. Then the ray flashed back out of the crystal and straight up to the ceiling.
    They all tilted their heads back as they looked up. The spot of white light on the ceiling began to make bigger and bigger circles, like ripples that spread out when you toss a pebble into a pond. Finally, when it had covered the whole ceiling, the round patch of light stopped just above the door to Johnny's bedroom. "In there," said Madam Lumiere with a groan. "Johnny, put the coin in my free hand." She held out her trembling palm, and Johnny carefully placed the silver piece in it. "Good. Now, you go! I must not move."
    Johnny, Fergie, and the professor dashed into the bedroom. The late afternoon sunshine streamed in through the window. The spot of light reappeared on the ceiling although Johnny was sure that no ordinary light—like the beam of a flashlight, for instance—could have reached from where the sorceress was standing to there.
    The spot of light slowed. It drifted to a dark corner of the ceiling, near the foot of Johnny's bed. Johnny narrowed his eyes, trying hard to see. The ceiling was made of plywood painted a flat white and supported by a couple of crisscrossing beams of dark wood. Was there something odd about that corner? He could make out a sort of irregularity—
    The professor snapped on the ceiling light. "Look at that, by Gadfrey!" he said. "Just like a chameleon!"
    Johnny felt the hairs on his neck prickling. The open book was there, with one cover pressed against the ceiling, the other against the pine-paneled wall. The part against the ceiling was the same flat white color, and the part against the panel was the same yellow as pine. It even had the streaks and whorls of wood grain in it, and one dark brown pine knot.
    "No wonder we couldn't find it," said Fergie. "It's hard for me to see it now, an' I know just where to look."
    The professor ran into the kitchen and came back carrying a straight chair. "I'll have it down in a jiffy," he proclaimed, placing the chair in the corner. He climbed up on it, but grunted in frustration. He was about two inches too short to reach the book. He jumped down and said, "Fergie, you have the build of a basketball player. Get up here and use those long