“The one and only!” said John. “I was a bit of a master with ivory, if I do say so myself. And George was so generous with his praise after I made the most exquisite set of teeth for him.” He pulled a letter from his jacket pocket. “January 6, 1799. And I quote, ‘His prices are very moderate, as no person can excel him in facility and neatness of performance.’ Naturally, I raised my rates after that.” He winked at them.

Henry couldn’t help but like the man. “So who else is buried here?”

“Oh, I have lots of friends. Let’s see … There’s Cornelius DuBois, and Benjamin Wright—but don’t get him started about that canal of his or you’ll never get to leave. ‘Erie Canal’ this and ‘Erie Canal’ that. If you ever get caught by him, just start talking about the Panama Canal. That will shut him up.” He laughed.

“I heard that, Greenwood!” a disembodied voice boomed nearby.

“Oops! Time to go.” He faded away as if he had never been there.

“Wow,” Henry whispered. “That was really a ghost, wasn’t it?”

“Don’t call them ghosts,” Molly confided. “They prefer to be thought of as people. Use their real names.”

“Are you just going to stand there all day?” Coralis thundered from up the tunnel.

They resumed their walk, passing vaults on either side. “Do they haunt people?” Brianna whispered, popping her head out.

“No,” Molly answered in a whisper of her own. “The walls of the vaults are inlaid with phantom quartz crystals, which calm the spirits of the dead. Only restless spirits haunt people.”

At the end of the tunnel, they entered the open vault on the right. It was bigger than Henry had imagined, and it was also empty. Now what? He watched Coralis walk to the back of the vault and withdraw a small yellow wand from the folds of his coat, which he used to trace the rectangular outline of a door onto the wall. Then with a slight tap of the wand to the exact center, the solid rock swung outward. They stepped through, and the pitch-darkness on the other side seemed to absorb some of Henry’s glow. He couldn’t see far, but he could sense the spaciousness of the room they’d entered.

Click.

Henry closed his eyes against the sudden brightness. When he could see again, he saw Coralis standing near a wall switch, grinning somberly beneath a series of wall sconces. Henry couldn’t disguise his disappointment. He had been hoping for something much more magical than electricity.

Coralis must have been able to read his expression. “I hope you haven’t been completely corrupted by misguided notions of ‘wizardry,’ boy. Now come here. We have much to do and little time to do it.”