Avon Fantasy Reader No. 13 — page 69: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

But the next day they were asked to lead a group of the more curious to the spot where Karl had vanished. He had not returned, and they were worried. | In a ravine two miles from the village, the party discovered a small but penetrable entrance to a cave. Its existence had never been dreamed of by the farmer who owned the land. (He has since then opened it up for tourists, and it is known as Ghost Cave. Someone in the party had thoughtfully brought an electric searchlight, and the party squeezed its way into the cave. Exploration revealed a labyrinth of caverns of exquisite beauty. But the explorers were oblivious to the esthetics of the cave; they thought only of Karl and his weird story. After circuitous ramblings, they came to a sudden drop in the floor. At the base of this precipice they beheld a skeleton. _ The coroner and the sheriff were duly summoned. The sheriff invited me to accompany him, I regret that I cannot describe the gruesome, awesome feeling that came over me as I made my way through those caverns. Within their chambers the human voice is given a peculiar, sepulchral sound. But perhaps it was the knowledge of Karl’s bizarre story, his unaccountable disappearance that in- spired me with such awe, such thoughts, The skeleton gave me a shock, for it was a skeleton of a man seven feet tall! There was no mistake about this ; the coroner was positive. The skull had been fractured, apparently by a fall over the bank. It was I who discovered the hat near by. It was rotted with decay, but in the leather band were plainly discernible the crudely penned initials, “K.R.” I felt suddenly weak. The sheriff noticed my nervousness, “What’s the matter, have you seen a ghost?” I laughed nervously and affected nonchalance. With the best off-hand manner I could command, I told him of Karl Rand. He was not impressed. “You don’t >” He did not wish to insult my intelligence by finishing his question. . At this moment, the coroner looked up and commented: “This skeleton has been here about six years, I’d say.” I was not courageous enough to acknowledge my suspicions, but the vil- lagers were outspoken. The skeleton, they declared, was that of Karl Rand, The coroner and the sheriff were incredulous, but, politicians both, they dis- played some sympathy with this view. | My friend, the sheriff, discussed the matter Privately with me some days later. His theory was that Karl had discovered the cave, wandered inside and come upon the corpse of some unfortunate who had preceded him. He had been so excited by his discovery that his hat had fallen down beside the body. Later, aided by the remarks of the villagers about his ghostliness, he had fashioned his own legend. | This, of course, may be true. But the people of Friedenburg are not con- vinced by this explanation, and neither am I. For the identity of the skeleton has never been determined, and Karl Rand has never since been seen to walk by day. | 67 . Gomicboo LN ae aa. wa | B.4 ~~ ir Wheot a Beautiful Mornin’. : Bll Monroe and his Bive Grass Boys: Kentuck: ‘v altz LOVely VY ay CS Spr wei ies we in Love * Oh, es ee ee ee,” cae a ee we Come to the Mardi Gras vo ower Mk? | eae WW Bales ~ © sero ers pyr Peery” © Miami Beach Rhumba *® Mambo No. 5 * Mambo No. 8. B-2510 Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra: MY Iruly, trury ra 5