A gold key that unlocks dark secrets (Gold Key comics)

{Spoiler}
The ghost of Setauket, a native American, arises from the grave of Jebediah Collins – “Evil pours from his eyes… Revenge fills his heart!” His spirit form becomes solid flesh, and his eye are drawn to Collinwood. As the sun rises, Setauket steals some modern work clothes from a greenhouse, knowing he must complete a task before he can rest eternally. He knocks on the double doors of Collinwood. He is greeted by an annoyed Roger Collins.

Roger demands the stranger’s business, and Setauket introduces himself as Charley Tauket, a gardener. He is looking for a job. Roger briefly says they don’t need a gardener, but then contradicts himself. He hires Charley, while confused as to why he changed his mind. He sends Charley to prepare himself for work, saying they’ll discuss his duties after Roger’s breakfast.

Later, Barnabas approaches Roger to speak, but Roger puts him off. He must go get a list of things for the gardener from Collinsport, and that the gardener is a strange fellow who doesn’t know how to drive. As Roger sets off, he doesn’t see Charley hidden in the bushes with a deer. As Roger nears the hiding spot, Charley releases the deer, and its dash across the road cause Roger to crash the car. Charley and Barnabas rush to assist Roger, who is uninjured. When Roger says he swerved to miss a deer, Barnabas replies that there wasn’t a deer. Roger is confused again.

Barnabas discusses this accident with Elizabeth. They are concerned that Roger had been “the picture of health”. The deer incident has him terribly concerned. They agree that Barnabas should speak to him and try to cheer him up. They head towards the library, when there is a sudden crash. A grandfather clock has fallen, barely missing Roger. Barnabas sends Roger to rest, and notices that Charley is outside, trimming a bush. Barnabas is curious about Charley being close by when both incidents occurred, but he doesn’t mention it. Roger retires, and tells Barnabas that someone is trying to kill him!

That night, after dinner, Roger is still very nervous despite the efforts of Elizabeth and Barnabas. He resolves to keep a pistol with him for safety. The door of the cabinet holding he pistols is stuck, and Roger falls backwards in his efforts to open it. He falls into a rack of rifles, one of which discharges. Roger insists that all the guns were not loaded. Barnabas peers out the window, but doesn’t spot Charley who is concealed against the wall. Liz asks if Barnabas suspects something, but the two are interrupted by a scream from Roger. He has been pinned to the wall by a spear, which has pierced the tail of his coat. Liz identifies the spear as being from the collection in the attic. Unseen by the Collinses, Charley watches through the window.

Later that night, Dr Stokes examines and the spear. Roger says it is part of the collection of his great great grandfather, which was locked in a case in the attic. Roger says something is trying to kill him, which prompts Stokes to ask if he thinks a ghost is behind the series of incidents. Roger confirms his suspicion, and asks Stokes to hold a séance immediately to resolve the matter, Stokes agrees and the four are soon gathered around a table. The séance produces shapeless spirits but no answers. Despite Liz’s objections, Barnabas leaves the house to seek out Charley (although he doesn’t explain what he is doing). He believes Charley is a spirit, and heads to the cemetery. At the grave of Jebediah Collins, Barnabas projects himself back through time to resolve the issue in 1769.

In 1769, Barnabas is an invisible spirit, unseen and unable to interact with the people of the time. He can feel the vibrations of Charley Tauket at native American settlement, where he sees a young man laughing about stealing some furs. He suspects the sneak thief is “the coward Jebediah Collins”. Following the white man back to his home, Barnabas sees him conceal the furs. Later, Chief Wampaug of the native Americans approaches the house. Thomas Collins calls his sons, Jeremiah, Jebediah and Seth, to join him as the chief “hasn’t the crease of a pleasant look about him”. Wampaug accuses one of the Collins sons of being a thief, which causes Thomas to say that their friendship is at an end as he does not believe any of his sons could be a thief. Wampaug prays to the Great Spirit, holding up a “twofold weapon” (a knife) between the parties. He plunges the knife into a fire, calling on the weapon to pass its pain on to the guilty party. Jebediah runs immediately, to his father’s horror. Thomas stands by the fire for hours, feeling pain and anger at his son’s betrayal. He shouts out that he only has two sons, Jeremiah and Seth, and that no man should speak the name of the disgraced one.


The next day, despite his sons’ request that he recant his condemnation of their bother, Thomas builds a small wooden enclosure. He ends his sons to capture the one who is disgraced and lock him within the enclosure. The ghostly Barnabas sees Setauket working on the Collins property, and wonders what his role could be. He follows Jeremiah and Seth, who locate Jebediah. Together they decide to capture Setauket, dress him in Jebediah’s clothes, and lock him in the enclosure, making out that he is Jebediah so their father believes his wishes have been fulfilled. The real Jebediah flees. After about a week, Setauket has refused all food and he calls upon the Great Spirit to grant him his revenge against the Collins family when two hundred summer moons have passed. Jeremiah and Seth find him dead the next day, and bury Setauket in a grave marked with a headstone for Jebediah Collins. Barnabas concludes that Charley is Setauket returned, and that once he has killed Roger, the curse will be continued until all the Collinses are dead. He returns to 1969.

Barnabas can see no hope for the Collins family unless history is changed. To achieve this, he again travels to the past but this time manifest himself as flesh and blood, and arrives shortly after Setauket has been imprisoned by the Collins brothers. He sets out to find Jebediah, and finds him at an inn called the Willow and Swan in a nearby port. Jebediah is very ill from his period of living rough, and close to death from the consumption. He asks Barnabas to help him right the grievous wrong he has committed, and they journey back to the Collins farm. Jebediah takes the place of Setauket before the curse is laid, and Jeremiah and Seth find their brother very ill. They convince Thomas to see him, and Jebediah confesses to his thief with his last breath. Thomas reinstates his dead son in the good graces of the family, and Jed is buried with honour. Barnabas witnesses all this, and again returns to 1969.

On his return, he hears Liz screaming from with Collinwood, Stokes advises him that Roger went for a walk after the spear incident, and Liz had retired to her room, complaining of a headache. Barnabas and Stokes beat on Liz’s door, but raise no response. They break the door down and find Liz unconscious on the floor. Awakened, she says she screamed and fainted after seeing an Indian come through her door, threatening her with a knife, but then disappearing like a ghost. Glancing out the window, Barnabas sees Charley with a knife, about to stab something on the ground. Barnabas runs out and tackles the figure, but instead of Charley it is Roger wearing the work clothes Charley had worn. Joined by Liz and stokes the four try to puzzle out what happened. Where is Charley Tauket? Why is Roger wearing his clothes? Roger says he put on the clothes to pitter around in the garden to help him forget the unpleasant incidents, and he was using the knife to hack out some forsythia roots in the hedge. Stokes expresses the view that something had disturbed some semi-spirits, and it was they that caused the incidents. It seems they had dissipated. Barnabas keeps what he knows to himself.