The Halloween Tree

Pipkin tries to run toward the other boys, but he is weak and falls, the light of the jack-o’-lantern he is holding going out. He is enveloped by darkness and calls for help. When the clouds clear, Pipkin is gone. Moundshroud says he fears that Death has “borrowed” Pipkin and is holding him for ransom. He asks the boys if they would like to go on a journey to rescue Pipkin as well as solve the mystery of Halloween, thus “solv[ing] two mysteries-in-one” (39). The boys unanimously answer “yes.”

Beginning their journey, they come upon an abandoned barn covered with old circus posters and banners depicting various wild animals. Moundshroud instructs the boys to use the posters and a fence railing to construct a kite.

Working quickly, the boys and Moundshroud finish the kite, which Tom and Moundshroud observe resembles a pterodactyl. Using a clothesline, Moundshroud hoists the kite in the air. The boys and Moundshroud grab onto the end of the kite to act as its tail, and they sail away into the night sky.

As they fly along, the boys ask Moundshroud where they are going. Moundshroud answers that they are going back in time, 2,000 years before Christ.