The Box and the Bone Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Look at the bone.” He bent over and picked it up. “Look at it.”
    “I’m looking,” Bucky said. “What am I supposed to see?”
    “It’s greasy,” Carlos said. “See here? And there are still some chunks of fat on it.” He sniffed. “And it still smells like rotten pot roast, or something. Who do you think would bury a bone like that?”
    “Hey, yeah,” Eddy said. “A dog. Maybe a dog left it there.” Which was exactly what Carlos was leading up to. Eddy was good at that sort of thing. Sometimes he guessed what Carlos was leading up to before Carlos knew himself. “Yeah,” Eddy went on. “I mean, who buries bones, anyway? Dogs do.”
    “Sure,” Bucky said. “And then the dog carried off that heavy old tin box in his teeth. Sure he did, Wong. You’d better think of a better story than that.”
    Carlos had to admit it didn’t seem too likely. The box had been too big and heavy—for most dogs. Not your ordinary normal-sized dog, anyway. “Well, I bet Lump could carry that box,” he said. Lump, who was the Garcias’ enormous Saint Bernard, had a mouth as big as a garbage can.
    Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “Are you telling me that’s what happened?” he asked. “Oh, I get it. Lump carried the box home to your house and—”
    “No, no,” Carlos said quickly. “I never said Lump did it. Lump is fenced in. He never gets outside of our yard except on a leash. And even if he did, he’s way too lazy. I never said he took it. I just said he could have.”
    Bucky glared at Carlos, and for a long time no one said anything. No words anyway. But Carlos could hear Bucky breathing hard. It wasn’t a good sign. He tried desperately to think of what might have happened to the box. Of who might have taken it. Because someone did—and he knew that he and Eddy hadn’t. But nothing new came to mind and Bucky was breathing harder all the time.
    Just then Eddy said, “What I think is we must be looking in the wrong place. You know. Because of the dark. What I think is we better come back and look again tomorrow.”
    “Yes,” Carlos said eagerly, “I’ll bet you’re right. Let’s come back tomorrow and look some more.”
    “No way.” Bucky grabbed the flashlight back and shone it in both of their faces. “We’re going to stay right here until you guys come up with that box, if it takes all night. Nobody’s going anywhere until—”
    Just at that moment a sudden noise wiped out what Bucky was saying. Somewhere in the darkness at the back of the Pit there was a heavy crash, followed by a trickle of smaller sounds. Scratching, spattering sounds, and then a strange animal noise, halfway between a growl and cough. A deep silence followed.
    “What was that?” Bucky said in a strangely high-pitched voice.
    “I don’t know,” Eddy whispered. “But it came from back there. Like maybe a wild animal was trying to climb over the wall. Maybe something wild that came down off the hill.”
    Suddenly Carlos began to get the feeling that, this time, he was the one who knew what Eddy was leading up to. And why. “Yeah,” he said. “A mountain lion, probably. Mr. A. told me there were mountain lions around here.” The rest of what Mr. A. had said was that there were mountain lions around here a long time ago , but it didn’t seem like a good time to go into that.
    It worked. The thought of a mountain lion seemed to make Bucky change his mind about staying in the Pit all night. Or even for a few more minutes. It wasn’t until after they’d dashed across the Pit floor, scrambled over the wall, and ran down the Dragoland driveway that Bucky slid to a stop and panted, “Okay. We’ll come back and look again tomorrow. And we better find that box. We just better—or else. You dudes know what I mean.”
    Carlos thought he knew.

Chapter 10
    S USIE HAD NEVER SNUCK out after dinner before, but it turned out that Muffy was right about it being easy. At least the sneaking-out part was. It was particularly easy