Dunc and Amos and the Red Tattoos Read Online Free PDF Page B

was trying to convince the rest of them to ship the medicalsupplies tonight, then just tell everybody the boys were making it all up.
    “Our contacts in Mexico will pay double if we can pull this off tonight.”
    “What’s he talking about?” Amos whispered.
    Dunc frowned. “Somehow these guys are using this camp as a base for stolen medical supplies. Their symbol is that red flower. They ship the stuff to somewhere in Mexico. Wiggleston must have gotten suspicious, so they tried to get him out of the way.”
    Amos put his head in his hands. “What are they going to do to us?”
    Dunc rubbed his chin. “Let’s try not to think about that right now. Help me find a way out of here.”
    He looked around the room. There were no windows because it was an add-on to the original cabin. The only door was the one they had come through. A rock fireplace took up one whole corner. The only furniture in the room was a bed and a dresser.
    Dunc moved over to the fireplace. “Help me move this screen.”
    Amos looked at him. “I really don’t think this is the time to redecorate.”
    “Get over here.”
    “Okay, okay.”
    They moved it to the side. Dunc bent down and looked up the chimney.
    “You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do, are you?” Amos asked.
    Dunc crawled inside the fireplace. “I think one of us might be able to squeeze through here.”
    “
One of us?
”
    “The top gets a little narrow.”
    “
One of us?
”
    “Amos, you’re our only hope. You may be thin enough to get through. I’d get stuck for sure.”
    Amos shook his head. “Things always happen to me.”
    “Hurry, Amos. I think they’re through talking. You’ve got to go. Now.”
    Amos crawled into the fireplace. The inside rocks gave him footholds and helped him work his way up.
    He was almost out when the door burstopen. Adolf grabbed Dunc’s arm. “Where’s the other one?”
    “What other one?”
    “Don’t get smart with me, kid! Where’s your friend?”
    “Dunc!” Amos screamed. “I’m stuck up here! I can’t move!”
    Adolf reached up into the fireplace. He grabbed Amos’s foot and pulled his tennis shoe off. “Come out of there, you little runt!”
    Amos was wedged in tight. He could just see over the top of the chimney. He saw Mr. Wiggleston walking across the exercise field with a deputy sheriff.
    “Over here!” Amos yelled. “Help!”

• 13
    They were home. Amos was stretched out on the bed watching Dunc unpack.
    “I still can’t believe we pulled it off,” Dunc said. “That gang of crooks has been into black marketing since their days in the war together. It kind of gives you a good feeling to know they’re behind bars.”
    Amos arranged the pillows. “Right now, there are only two things that give me a good feeling. One is being able to lie on this bed. Just because I want to. The second is not being stuck in that stupid chimney.”
    “That was bad. Especially when that forestranger grabbed your legs to pull you down. You should have had your belt tighter.”
    “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Those pants came right off.”
    “I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “It wouldn’t have been so awful, except they finally ended up pulling you out from the top.”
    “I
really
don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Who would have guessed that the whole camp would turn out to watch?”
    “Dunc!”
    “I can understand how you feel. If a couple hundred people saw me covered with soot, running around on a roof in my underwear, I might be a little upset too.”
    “Are you through?”
    “I’m only trying to sympathize with you. Tell you what a bad deal I thought it was.”
    Amos sat up. “You’ve told me. Now, if we never talk about that dumb camp again, it will be too soon.”
    “I just need to tell you one more thing.”
    “Only one?”
    Dunc held up his hand. “I promise.”
    “Okay. But only one.”
    “We got a letter from Mr. Wiggleston.”
    “That’s nice.”
    “He