Chapter 4

The view through the keyhole was enough to sicken the most jaded pedophile. Three girls, about 8-10 years old were being dragged down the hall. The girls were crying, naked, and bleeding at the crotch. And they were being dragged toward his door.

The Ghost barely had time to escape out the window and move out of sight as he hung on the rope. The door was pushed open and the three girls were pitched unceremoniously into the room. Then the door was closed and locked.

The terrified girls were left in the darkened room without further ado. The Ghost swung back to the open window when he heard the door close. He sat on the window sill and whispered to the girls, "I am here to save you. Please don't be frightened of me." The girls all stopped crying and rushed to him. "I will get you out of here, but you must work with me. We will be going down this rope one at a time. I will take you down on my back, and rest assured that I will be back for all of you. Now, we must hurry before those bad men come back. Tell me your names."

"Sarah." "Joan." "Margie."

"OK, we'll start with Sarah. I will turn around and you grab hold of my back. Hold on tight and we will go slow so that you will not fall. Don't be scared. It looks like it's a long way to the ground, but we will be down in only a couple of minutes. Hang on tight. You might feel better if you close your eyes."

Sarah climbed on and held on with a death grip. They quickly reached the ground, and The Ghost had to pry Sarah's arms loose before she would stand on her own, even after she opened her eyes. "Now stay here next to the wall and don't be frightened. I'll go back up the rope to fetch Joan."

The Ghost climbed back up fetch first Joan and then Margie. When all three girls were on the ground, The Ghost climbed back up one more time to retrieve his grappling hook and rope. He didn't want the Goslins to know how he had rescued the girls. The girls were about to panic by the time he returned to them, but they calmed down when they saw him coming.

By this time, he was too tired to carry the girls, so they had to walk. Fortunately, they were still tired and frightened, so they were not difficult to herd into the dark alleys that The Ghost used to convey them to Betty's bordello. He took them in that back door and had the girls sit on the floor to rest while he went to find Betty. She was in her office and came with him without any urging.

The girls were still naked and still had the bloody crotches, so Betty knew what needed doing first. The girls were given a blanket and taken in for a bath. Once cleaned, they were put to bed until they could be examined by the midwife used by the bordello. They didn't want to bring in a doctor, since there were none that they trusted to be tight lipped, besides, doctors couldn't do much for female problems, anyway.

All three girls were checked carefully by the midwife and pronounced not permanently injured; they were given nightgowns and allowed to sleep. Betty planned to take them to her orphanage after they rested and Jason had time to question them. He wanted to know if there were more girls being held at the Goslin headquarters and whether or not they knew of any additional houses where children were being held.

The Ghost hoped that the Goslins had not figured out what had happened to the three girls that he had rescued, since he had closed the window after he had removed the last of the girls. He intended to get to the Goslin headquarters earlier in the evening, this time, in hope of sparing any more girls the savage treatment the three had been subjected to.

He was on top of the Goslin headquarters by 9:00 PM; he had been in danger of being seen because it was not yet hard dark, but he was anxious to help any children still in the building. That same window was open, again; some people never learn, thank God. That was the only open window, so The Ghost took advantage of his luck and entered the building as quickly as he could. The room was dark, but not so dark that he could not see what little there was to see.

The only furnishings in the room was a large chamber pot off in one corner. At least, it had been recently emptied and cleaned, so it did not stink as it otherwise would have. Now The Ghost knew why the window was open: to let out the smell of the chamber pot. There were no children in the room, so The Ghost moved to the door to see what was happening in the hall. The hall was empty; this was a good time to leave the room.

The Ghost noticed that every one of these rooms had a deadbolt on the door operable only from the hallway. He decided to check each one of these rooms in case there were more prisoners hidden inside. None of the doors were locked, but The Ghost checked anyway, and he did not find any prisoners in any of the rooms.

The Ghost decided to take a look at the next floor, down, to see what that looked like. He had never been on that floor, so he did not know what to expect. This floor turned out to be a kind of barracks; a few of the bunks were occupied by sleeping men, presumably members of the Goslin gang.

OK, now for the top floor. The Ghost moved up the stairs to see what he would find. He was more familiar with this floor from his two previous visits. There were a few doors opening off the hallway, but nothing of interest behind those doors. O'Brien's office was around a short bend in the hallway, so that the door was not visible from where The Ghost was standing.

The Ghost dropped silently to the floor and used a small mirror to look around the bend in the hall. He saw two men guarding the door, so there was no way he could sneak up to it without having to kill the two guards first. He could do that with his throwing knives, but this would probably have alerted anyone inside the office, so he was not ready to do that, yet.

Instead, he decided to head back down to the barracks and eliminate the sleepers as the first step in his terror attack. There were 32 bunks in the barracks, and six of them were occupied. Five of the men were sleeping, but one of the men was restlessly twisting and turning as he tried to get to sleep. This was obviously the first man to be taken care of, so The Ghost slipped up to him and bashed him in the side of the head with the cosh. The Ghost then cut the man's throat to make doubly sure that he was dead. The other men were disposed of in the same way, and The Ghost dropped one of his "business cards" on each man's chest before he left the room. The Ghost didn't know how many members there were of the gang, but he certainly must have made a dent in that number with this bit of activity. The Ghost was happy because he recognized one of the men who had been pulling the girls to the room the previous night; otherwise, he was breathing a little heavy as a result of the exertion.

The Ghost went back up to the top floor to see what he could accomplish there, but he had hardly stepped on the third stairway landing when he heard children crying and the sound of people coming up the stairs. This time it was four men dragging five children along, presumably headed for that room with the chamber pot. The Ghost dashed for the room across the hallway from the expected holding room and closed the door. He put his eye to the keyhole to see what was going on.

The first man was pulling two boys about seven years old. The boys were naked, as expected, and bleeding from the rectum. Each of the other men was dragging one girl, probably in the range of 9-11 years old. It was all The Ghost could do to contain himself until after the children were pushed into the room and the door was locked. The four men obviously were not expecting trouble, because they stopped to talk and light cigars before leaving.

This was the distraction that The Ghost was looking for. He burst out of the room and charged the four men who were caught completely by surprise. The Ghost wanted prisoners for questioning, this time, so he attacked with his usual weapons sheathed. His strength, speed, and bare hands were enough to render three of the men unconscious, but the fourth man had time to draw his knife in self defense. Fortunately for him, this resulted in his quick death.