Summer Rider Read Online Free PDF Page B

what?” Stevie asked. “Who authorized this?”
    Bill shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’m not the foreman. I just follow orders.”
    “Is the foreman here?” Stevie asked.
    “Nope,” Bill said. “You just missed him—he was in the car that just left. Now if you’ll excuse me, we’ve got to push on.”
    Stevie stepped out of the road as Bill climbed back intothe bulldozer’s cab and put the machine into gear. A moment later the whole line of construction equipment was on the move again.
    Stevie found her friends waiting for her a short distance down the trail. “What’s going on?” Carole asked as Stevie mounted.
    “I don’t know,” Stevie said. She reported what Bill had said.
    Lisa glanced at her watch. “We’d better head back,” she said. “We don’t want to be late.”
    The girls started riding back toward camp. “Do you think this is more of Moose Hill’s improvements?” Carole asked. The camp had had some additions made to its grounds that year, including new cabins and tennis courts.
    Stevie shook her head. “The field he was talking about must be a good three or four miles from the main part of camp,” she said. “That’s too far away to be building anything.”
    “Then what are they doing here?” Lisa asked.
    “That’s what I intend to find out,” Stevie replied grimly.
    A FEW MINUTES later the girls were knocking on the door of Barry’s office. It opened and Barry peered out. “Girls?” he said. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in your riding classes?”
    “We have a few minutes before they start,” Stevie replied.“Right now we need to ask you a question. What are those bulldozers doing out in the woods?”
    Barry frowned. “Bulldozers? You saw bulldozers?”
    Carole nodded. “They were driving down the fire road that crosses the west trails.”
    Barry was beginning to look angry. “I can’t believe it,” he muttered. “They shouldn’t be there yet.”
    Yet?
The three girls exchanged glances. What did he mean?
    Barry stomped over to his desk and picked up the phone. He dialed a number, then waited, tapping his foot impatiently. He seemed to have forgotten about the girls. Stevie took that as an invitation and led the way into the office.
    Finally someone on the other end of the line picked up the phone. “Hi, this is Barry from Moose Hill,” Barry said. “I just heard the equipment is in the woods here already. I can’t have my campers out there running into—” He stopped and listened to what the other person was saying. “I see. Well, I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit. And I don’t understand how a few days is going to make that much difference. The session is over in a week and a half, and then—” He paused again. “Well, all right. But they’d better not start working until the session ends and the deal is signed.” With that, he slammed down the phone without saying good-bye.
    Stevie waited for what she felt was a respectful amount of time. But when Barry still didn’t seem to notice TheSaddle Club standing there, she cleared her throat. “Ahem. Is there something you’d like to share with us?”
    Barry looked up, startled. “Oh! I forgot you were here,” he said. “I guess there’s no point in lying to you.” He took a deep breath. “Moose Hill is being sold.”
    The three girls gasped. “What?” Carole cried. “What do you mean, sold? Who bought it? What are the bulldozers for?”
    Barry rubbed his temples as if his head hurt. “It’s kind of a long story.”
    Stevie sat down in one of the chairs by Barry’s desk. “We have time,” she said. Actually, their riding classes were starting in five minutes, but Stevie had the feeling that this story was worth being late for.
    “All right.” Barry waved a hand at the other chairs. “Have a seat, girls.”
    Carole and Lisa sat down. As she waited for Barry to begin, Carole found herself clutching the arms of the chair so hard that her fingers hurt. She