Excerpts

The Case of the Mysterious Tricker Trees From Hank the Cowdog #9: The Case of the Halloween Ghost CAUTION: Hazardous and Scary Material!!! It's Halloween night, and mysterious things are afoot at the ranch. A Mysterious Black Car has arrived at the house with some mighty suspicious looking passengers. The passengers have entered the house, but not to fear?Hank's on the lookout! I didn't hear the front door open. I didn't hear footsteps on the porch. I didn't know I was about to be attacked until I turned around and saw? I hesitate to describe what I saw. I mean, it was so horrible, so frightening, so blood-chilling that if I told thew whole story, it might have a bad effect on the kids. You ready? Take a deep seat and grab hold of something solid. Here we go. Okay. Let me set the scene again: dark night, coyotes howling off in the distance, a whisper of wind sighing through the bare limbs of the cotton woods, and, behind me, the rumble of the motor of the Mysterious Black Car. I heard a sound to my left. I turned my head and saw? HUH? Holy smokes, you won't believe this, hang on because here it comes? TWO SKELETONS, ONE GHOST, ONE PIRATE, AND ONE WITCH!!!! Fellers, I still didn't believe in skeletons or ghosts, but there they were right in front of me. My eyes popped open, and I think they even crossed. My lower jaw dropped a good six inches and my tongue fell another six inches beyond that. The hair on my back stood straight up, and I mean every single hair from my eyebrows all the way out to the tip of my tail. Up to this point I hadn't known whether these goblins were friendly or the dog-eating variety, but I soon found out. One of the skeletons saw me there, and at that very moment he or she (with skeletons it's hard to distinguish hes from shes) made claws with his or her hands, jumped at me, and screeched a poisonous magic word: "BUGABOOOOO!" The second skeleton had a mysterious paper bag in his hand. Gripping it at the top, he or she raised it above his or her head, and began shaking it. It contained something, perhaps roots or magic herbs or even bones. Suddenly the witch jumped off the porch. This huge witch, she must have stood, oh, seven feet three inches tall, biggest woman I'd ever seen, she jumped off the porch and yelled, "Tricker Tree!" And at that very same moment the ghost said "WOOOOOO!" and he came flying off the front porch. And then the Pirate came after me too. This one was wearing a black patch over one eye, had two teeth missing and a big scar on the left side of his face, and he carried a sword. I mean, I was under attack. fellers, and it was time to do some serious lifesaving. Who?or what?are Tricker Trees? And can Hank protect the ranch from this group of deadly villains? Find out in Hank the Cowdog #9: The Case of the Halloween Ghost (Copyright ? John R. Erickson) Excerpted from The Case of the Halloween Ghost by John R. Erickson, John R. Erickson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.