Amelia Earhart: Lady Lindy Read Online Free PDF

his hands. “Well then,” he said.
    â€œAll I know for certain,” Great-Uncle Thorne said thoughtfully, “is that you need your twin to get
there
.”
    Again, he stared off at some distant place.
    Then he looked at them again and his voice grew firm.
    â€œI came back without my twin, didn’t I?” he asked.
    Maisie knew that it was a rhetorical question, but she still said, “That’s right, you did.”
    â€œCame back from where?” Hadley asked, trying to keep up.
    â€œNew York,” Felix explained. “We all went there, Maisie and me and Great-Uncle Thorne and—”
    â€œAnd my bullheaded sister,” Great-Uncle Thorne interrupted. “For decades she carried a torch for that nincompoop Harry Houdini—”
    â€œYour sister had a crush on Harry Houdini?” Rayne asked, interested again.
    Great-Uncle Thorne banged his walking stick on the floor.
    â€œIrrelevant!” he proclaimed. “All that you need to know is that Amy Pickworth can come back without her twin, just like I returned without that obdurate sister of mine.”
    â€œObdurate?” Rayne said, losing interest again.
    â€œOh! Look it up!” Great-Uncle Thorne said dismissively. “We have more to do here than improve your vocabulary.”
    While Great-Uncle Thorne shouted, Rayne stepped forward, her palm facing outward as if she was ready at any moment to press that spot on the wall and go up those stairs.
    â€œI’m coming upstairs with you,” Great-Uncle Thorne said quickly. “We’ll survey the objects and find the one that will get you to the Congo.”
    â€œBut surely that object is gone,” Felix said. “Phinneas and Amy took it with them to get there in the first place.”
    Great-Uncle Thorne shook his head. “They hadn’t given the object to Dr. Livingstone when Amy disappeared,” he said.
    â€œYou’re wrong!” Felix said, his head swimming with too much information.
    â€œI’m certain of this.”
    Maisie’s face had that deep-in-thought look she got when she was thinking hard.
    â€œImpossible,” she finally said. “Phinneas could not get back if they hadn’t given the object and received a lesson.”
    Great-Uncle Thorne’s face twisted with anger.
    â€œYou are an idiot!” he said. “That’s why you have
lame demon
!”
    â€œI thought it was—”
    Great-Uncle Thorne pressed the wall, hard. As soon as it opened to reveal the staircase, he marched forward to the stairs, his ebony walking stick tap-tapping as he moved.
    At the foot of the stairs he paused to face them.
    â€œWe will find the object that Phinneas brought back from that fateful trip to the Congo. You will choose a secondary object to bring along. And if and when things become . . . complicated . . . you will say
lame demon
three times with your hand on that secondary object and continue your travels elsewhere.”
    â€œComplicated?” Felix asked. “You mean cannibals catching us or—”

    â€œI’m not sure I want to do this,” Hadley said.
    â€œExactly!” Felix agreed.
    â€œI’m in,” Maisie said quietly.
    â€œMaisie,” Felix pleaded, “let’s discuss this calmly and rationally.”
    â€œI’m in,” she said again, louder this time.
    â€œMaisie,” Felix said, and even though he put on the look that usually softened her, this time she shook her head.
    â€œI’m in, too,” Rayne said.
    Felix didn’t like how her fingernails all had half-peeled-off purple nail polish. He didn’t like how she wasn’t looking at him.
    â€œWhat?” Rayne asked him. “Don’t look at me so weird.”
    Felix turned away, confused. All of a sudden, he missed Lily Goldberg. Lily Goldberg had not sent him one email or letter or anything since she’d moved away. At first, he’d missed