Fabulous Five 013 - The Christmas Countdown Read Online Free PDF

more?"
asked her mother. "Maybe you can go in a new direction. Come on into the
living room, Clare. You can have a cup of coffee with me while they're looking."
    "We can help, too," said Jana. "I don't have
to get home right away."
    "Neither do I," said Randy.
    "Me neither," said Shane.
    "Hey, that's great!" cried Melanie. "Tony,
you and Katie have to go, but everyone else can stay and join our search party.
Don't worry, Mrs. Miller. We'll find her."
    "Right on!" said Keith. "We'll form a puppy-posse."
He opened the door and raised his arm as if he had a sword and was leading a
charge. The others piled out of the house behind him.
    They broke up into groups of twos and started tramping
through the snow, searching the neighborhood in different directions. Melanie
went with Shane, but as much as she was glad to be with him, the little lost
dog was all she could think about. They cut through a side street and then went
into an alley behind homes calling Duchess's name. They looked in backyards and
stood on their toes to see through dirty garage windows trying to find her.
Shane threw a snowball at one doghouse, but he retreated quickly when a big
Labrador retriever came out and snarled at them.
    Finally, after winding their way through streets and alleys
for an hour, they returned to Melanie's house, their faces red from the cold air.
The others were gathered on the front steps.
    "Any luck?" Melanie asked as she and Shane flopped
on the steps next to them.
    "Naw," said Keith. "I've yelled 'Duchess' so
much, I'm afraid I'll start calling Beth Duchess."
    "You do and I'll call you Fido," Beth protested.
    "I really hate to tell Mrs. Miller we couldn't find her
dog," said Jana. "Is there anyplace else we can look? Is there a
place she usually ran to when she got loose before?"
    "Not that I know of," Melanie said dejectedly. "As
far as I know, she's never gotten out of her yard before."
    "We looked all around the fence and couldn't find where
she might have dug her way out," said Randy.
    "You know what could have happened?" offered
Shane. "There are people who steal dogs and sell them to medical research
laboratories. Someone could have come along, reached over, and picked her out
of the yard."
    Beth made a face. "Don't talk that way."
    "Well, it's true," Shane insisted. "It happens . "
    "Maybe Duchess was picked up by the dog warden,"
said Mona. "We could call the animal shelter to see if they have a
Pomeranian."
    "Good idea," said Melanie. "I'll sneak into
my kitchen through the backdoor so Mom and Mrs. Miller won't know we're home. I'd
rather wait until we find out if the shelter has her dog before telling her we
couldn't find her."
    When Melanie reached Mrs. Graham, she said there were no
Pomeranians at the shelter. Back outside she reported the grim news.
    "Well, I guess we'd better tell Mrs. Miller we couldn't
find her dog," said Jon. They all looked at each other, dreading passing
on the news.
    Just then the front door of Melanie's house opened and Mrs.
Edwards and Mrs. Miller came out.
    "Did you find Duchess?" asked Melanie's mother. There
was a look of hopeful expectation on Mrs. Miller's face.
    Melanie searched for the least painful way to answer. In the
brief moment she hesitated, the look of hope faded from Mrs. Miller's face, and
Melanie knew she didn't have to tell her a thing. Mrs. Miller already knew the
answer.

CHAPTER 6
    "Melanie!" Her mother's voice calling her sounded
stern. Melanie had cleaned up the cookie crumbs and soda glasses from where her
friends had been counting money in the kitchen. What else could she be
disturbed about? Her mother was standing next to her father's chair in the
family room.
    "What's the meaning of this?" her father asked,
shoving the newspaper toward her. It was opened to the page containing their ad
asking for donations. Her heart sunk to her feet. This was it. The moment she
had been dreading.
    "Uh . . . it looks like an ad about some animals,"
she said, hoping to bluff her way out of