“Yeah?”
“You’re gonna be our powder man.”
“Huh?”
Zack handed Malik a glass jar. “Extract of Newt Eye & Cow Hoof” was scribbled on its lid.
“Wait for your cue, then sidearm the whole jar at him.” Zack unscrewed the cap.
“The powder will fly out.”
“That’s the idea. Stand over there. Near those gears. Zip? You stick with me.”
The thunk of the boots became louder. Jack and Azalea were coming closer.
“Zack?” said Malik.
“Yeah?”
“What exactly are we doing here?”
Zack smiled and shot Malik a wink. “We’re about to become amateur herbologists.”
Azalea’s head bobbed up in the stairwell first.
Zack tossed her the paper wad.
She caught it. Gave him a puzzled look.
Zack did some rapid-fire hand signals he hoped she understood.
Azalea nodded. She quickly unfolded the sheet and read it.
Her eyes bugged out, but she took it all in. Half a second later, she crumpled the paper back up into a ball.
Now the man in the mask appeared.
“Greetings, Zachary.”
Zack just nodded.
“Where is it, boy?”
Now Zack held open his right hand. The miniature black heart from the center of the stone was nestled in his palm. “You mean this?”
“Give it to me!”
Zack retreated half a step. “No way.”
“What? You dare refuse me?”
Zack retreated another half step.
“I need that black heart.”
Zack took another backward step.
Jack the Lantern shoved Azalea aside. Held out his hand. “Give it to me, boy!”
Zack took one last giant step backward.
And was standing directly in the spot hit by the sunbeam streaming through the biggest broken-out hole in the clock face.
He whipped up the signal mirror with his free hand.
A blinding shaft of light streaked across the room and seared a rectangle of white over Jack the Lantern’s triangle eyeholes.
The masked man froze in his tracks.
“Azalea?” shouted Zack. “You’re on!”
“We three declare it so, the uninvited visitor must now go,” said Azalea with a shrug, because, Zack could tell, she had no idea why she had committed such nonsense to memory.
But she kept on going. “Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.”
Since they didn’t have a cat, Zack gave Zipper the hand command for “Speak.”
Zip howled.
Zack tucked the tiny black heart into his shirt pocket and motioned for Malik to move closer, for Azalea to take a step to her left.
The three friends were forming a circle around the frozen highwayman.
“Round the dybbuk now we go,” chanted Azalea, doing the whole thing from memory. “Leave this body by the toe. Spirit, under cold stone lie; you have had your chance to die.”
“Sprinkle the powder,” Zack said to Malik, who flung the whole sparkling contents of his open jar at the back of the bandit’s head. Glittery clumps landed in the gullies on all three sides of his hat.
Zack stretched out his hands. Malik and Azalea understood. They linked hands with Zack and each other and started circling Jack the Lantern, ring-around-the-rosy style.
“Eye of newt and hoof of cow,” Azalea said dramatically, nearing her big finish. “Leave this body, leave it now!”
Zack pulled out the tiny tin party horn and blew sour trumpet blasts like it was a World Cup soccer match.
“Is that really necessary?” asked Azalea, scrunching up her shoulders in an attempt to cover her ears.
“Yeah. The sour notes jar the soul out of the body.”
“Look!” said Malik.
Jack the Lantern started to quiver.
And shimmy.
And shake.
His body slumped to the floor.
A purple mist seeped up out of his crumpled form.
The violet cloud quickly took shape.
The ghost of Barnabas Ickleby rose beside the body of Norman Ickes.
“I need a hammer or something!” Zack shouted.
He’d forgotten to look for one in the carpetbag.
“Foolish children,” snarled the demonic ghost.
Zack raced back to the bag.
“You have done nothing but set my spirit free from this mortal coil. I shall return again—in a new body, a stronger body. I have other descendants. I shall find them.”
Maybe you will, Zack thought, because he couldn’t find anything to whack the stone with.
“And when I do, you three shall pay for what you tried to do to me.”
Zack at least found a sage candle!
He sparked the tip.
Tossed it at Ickleby’s feet.
“What?” The ghost laughed. “You cannot stun me into submission. My spirit is far too strong for such tricks. Don’t waste your sage, boy!”
“What’s going on, Zack?” asked Azalea. “Why are you tossing road flares around the room?”
“There’s probably a ghost in here, right, Zack?” said Malik.
“Yeah. The spirit that possessed Norman Ickes.”
“For real?” said Azalea. “Where is he?”
“Probably in the smoke,” said Malik.
“No. Way!” Azalea fanned the air. Tried to see the spirit. Couldn’t.
Zipper nudged Zack in the back with his snout.
“Not now, boy.” Zack was pulling everything out of the carpetbag. The sage didn’t immobilize Barnabas the way it had the other Icklebys.
Maybe the demon was right.
Maybe his spirit was too twisted for the sage to touch it.
Zack tore through the bag in a flurry. He tossed out a spice jar, a bundle of dried herbs tied with twine, more candles, a roll of breath mints, a pair of tongs—everything except what he needed.
Zipper nudged him harder.
Zack whipped around. “What is it, Zip?”
His trusty dog held something in his mouth like a bone.
A rock hammer!
“Good boy! You guys?”
Malik and Azalea crouched down to join Zack around the small black heart. While Ickleby ranted and Zipper snarled, Zack quickly consulted with his two friends.
“Shall we three send this soul straight to the underworld?” asked Zack.
“Yeah!” said Malik.
“Whatever,” said Azalea.
“We three agree?” asked Zack.
And all three friends said it together: “We three agree!”
Zack smashed the hammer down hard.
The tiny black heart exploded with a sharp bang like he had smacked a roll of cap gun caps. Then it burst into a puff of violet smoke, which vanished in a flash of purple light.
The room was quiet.
Until, behind them, Norman Ickes began to moan.
Judy heard a small explosion, like a firecracker.
Or another pistol shot!
The crowd gathered around the base of the clock tower looked up in horror.
The big black horse bolted free from the distracted police officer holding its reins and trotted up Main Street.
A black raven circled overhead, like a vulture hungry for carrion it could peck to pieces.
And then Zack stuck his head out the hole in the clock, waving Jack the Lantern’s tricornered hat.
“We’re okay. Norman just surrendered.”
The crowd cheered!
“What was that noise, Zachary?” shouted Aunt Hannah.
“His heart breaking!” shouted Zack. Aunt Hannah, Aunt Sophie, and Judy smiled. They knew what Zack meant.
“You sure you’re okay, Zack?” shouted Sheriff Hargrove.
“Yeah. We’re all fine.”
“You kids did good, Zack.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Hang tight up there. We’re coming in.” The sheriff turned to two of his deputies. “Go grab the battering ram. We’re breaking down that darn door!”