“The Mystery of the Ghost Gold” is the lead novella in the collection The Long Arm of the Law (1948) by William Byron Mowery. The adventure starts earthly enough with Mountie, Sergeant David Kirke, taking his furlough. Instead of visiting his family back East, he is off on a secret mission. Taking the Blood scout, Itai-Po, with him he sets out in a canoe for the wilds of the Rocky Mountains.
Before heading west, he stops at the cabin of Esther Shannon, the woman he is in love with. The reception is frosty because Kirke had arrested her and her brother, Paul, in an attempt to end the rumors they had been involved in a murder. Esther gives David the cold shoulder, but Paul is less angry. The “lunger” is a weakling in a land of strong men. David gives him some money but Paul refuses. He and Esther are moving back East.
Still pretty mundane so far. The two men travel across lake and stream and finally climb mountains. They are headed to the Cariboo region of British Columbia. Eventually they arrive at the cabin of Sockeye Sullivan. We learn that David has come looking for the real killers.A man named Sumdum McPherson had struck it rich in the mountains. He had made it to the home of the Shannons. He gave his eight thousand in gold to the brother and sister to hide. He later was found in the Bear River, murdered. Rumors spread that the Shannons had done it. It was these rumors that Kirke had tried to save them from, by being acquitted in a trial. Kirke twice had to repel lynching parties.
David reasoned that McPherson was murdered for the map to his claim. He is in Cariboo country looking for those killers and claim jumpers. Now we get to the strange part. The claim is located in the Ghost Gold, a region of thick snags, rocks and mysterious rivers. Prospectors who wander into the Ghost Gold return haunted by terrors. As Sockeye says: “…People say it’s full of ha’nts and queer doin’s…”
After a few weeks of finding nothing, Idai-po comes back from a search with the trail of the claim-jumping gentry. The two men follow and watch. There are three of them: a Metis named Charlo Daoust and two white men. These prove to be Mecklin and Greever. Using Itai-po’s amazing bushcraft, David Kirke begins a slow campaign of terror:
As he sat there, the appalling loneliness and savagery of the Ghost Gold weighed on him. The eerie wail of wind through the rock fissures and the black spruce tops, the play of moonlight shadows on the needle-carpeted moss, the distant ghostly cries of night animals– all these made him understand why the Ghost Gold had so frightening a name. He wondered — could he somehow make use of the uncanny spirit of that wild, lonely valley? Could he somehow use it to strike terror into the hearts of men whose consciences were already burdened with a murder?
The first unusual thing to happen is a boulder that nearly crushes the miners at their claim. Several more accidents happen, including a tree falls in the night eight feet from their tent, (always harmless enough that no one actually gets killed). The trio become overwrought, sending the Metis to track any human agents. He finds none. Mecklin begins to slip, mentioning Sumdum before Greever shuts him down. Things come to a head when they discover that the gold they have been collecting has all turned into yellow sand. Charlo and Mecklin are for running but Greever is tougher.
The final showdown comes at night when they see a human form. The three men draw their guns and shoot. It proves to be Sumdum’s hat and coat (which Kirke brought along as evidence). Seeing whose clothes they are, Mecklin spouts a full confession, accusing Greever of the actual murder. Kirke and Itai-po step in and try to arrest them. A tough fight ensues with the scout taking the Metis and Kirke getting Mecklin. Greever flees but Kirke knows a man without proper gear in the wilds is a dead man.
The Mountie and his friend return to their police station with the witnesses/accomplices. Kirke goes to his superior, Inspector Haley, and explains everything. David learns that Esther has not left yet since Paul had a turn for the worse. Both have been living at the fort. Haley says he will talk to Esther first but David should not go clean up. It would do her good to see what he has gone through to save her reputation. David and Esther go for a walk and wedding bells can’t be far away.
Conclusion
“The Mystery of the Ghost Gold” is not a supernatural tale at all, which to my mind, is a shame. Mowery very clearly is working in the same vein as Agatha Christie when she wrote “The Tragedy at Marsden Manor” where Hercule Poirot scares a confession out of a killer by having a woman pose as the ghost of the victim. (Not a few cowboy comic books used this idea too.) We never believe for any second of this story that ghosts are real. It is a common brand of strange Northern for writers like Mowery are known for their almost scientific detail of the Northern life. They are not given to wild fancy. Earlier writers like Robert Ormond Case and George Marsh used a similar method, though allowed the smallest of possibility for a supernatural creature. Mowery and others like William Brockie and Keith Edgar, writing later, do not. I will always side with Algernon Blackwood and the truly supernatural tale.
Does it work as a detective story?
Mowery would later teach Mary Higgins Clark, so he might have intended this as crime with supernatural dressing.