The Missing Mummy Read Online Free PDF Page A

and the pebble he’d found at Aunt Freda’s.
    â€œI don’t get it,” Dink said.
    â€œI found this pebble on the floor in Aunt Freda’s kitchen,” Josh explained. “It matches the pebbles in the tomb. The only way it could have gotten from the tomb floor to Aunt Freda’s floor was on the bottom of one of the crook’s shoes!”
    â€œOkay,” Ruth Rose said. “But that still doesn’t tell us where the gold is.”
    â€œOr who the second crook is,” Dink added.
    â€œMaybe not,” Josh said, “but
something
in that restaurant smells!”

That night, a thunderstorm blew through Green Lawn. While Dink slept, lightning flashed and thunder boomed outside his bedroom window.
    Dink had a nightmare. He was trapped in the tomb again. This time he was alone.
    One by one, the two mummies leaning against the wall opened their eyes. One by one, they stepped out of their coffins and shuffled toward him.
    They passed the child’s coffin. Its lid stayed shut, the child’s mask staring up at the ceiling.
    Because the mummy’s not in there
, Dink thought.
But then why—
    Just then Dink felt a cold hand on his shoulder. He tried to run, but his legs wouldn’t budge. The mummies’ cloth wrappings had come loose and were encircling his body, like tentacles.
    Dink bolted awake with a yell, tangled in his sheet. When he realized that he was in his bed and not the tomb, he lay back down.
    He tried to go back to sleep, but something kept him awake. It was something in his nightmare, in the tomb. What was it?
    He lay there trying to picture the tomb again. Before the bomb went off, all three sarcophagus lids had been open. The small sarcophagus wasempty because the mummy was still in Dr. Tweed’s office.
    But after the blast, the smallest coffin—the one for the child—was closed.
    Then Dink remembered the robbers dragging those two heavy bags of gold. He smiled, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.
    After breakfast, Dink called Josh. He came over, and they walked next door to Ruth Rose’s house. She was sitting on her front steps with a plate of toast on her knees.
    Dink sat on the bottom step. “I figured it out last night,” he told them. “I know where the crooks hid the gold.”
    Josh reached for a piece of Ruth Rose’s toast, but she slapped his hand.
    â€œDon’t you know it’s nice to share?” he asked.
    â€œDon’t you know it’s nice to ask first?” Ruth Rose said. But she passed Josh a section of her toast. “Tell us, Dink.”
    â€œI had an awful dream last night,” Dink said. “I was trapped in the tomb. The two big coffins were open, and the mummies were chasing me. But the little coffin, the one for the kid, was closed.”
    He looked at Josh and Ruth Rose. “After I woke up, I remembered something. When we were in the tomb just before we got locked in, the little coffin was open. Remember? But when we went back into the tomb after the bomb went off, the coffin lid was closed!”
    â€œI don’t get it,” Josh said, licking jam from his fingers.
    â€œYou will in a minute,” Dink said. “I couldn’t get back to sleep last night, soI started wondering: Who closed that little coffin? Then it hit me. If the robbers didn’t have a car waiting, and if the gold was too heavy to carry far, maybe they hid it
there
!”
    â€œThen the crook has to be someone who can get back into the tomb later and get the gold,” Josh said.
    â€œDR. TWEED!” Ruth Rose yelled.
    â€œThat’s what I think, too,” Dink said. “Aunt Freda said Dr. Tweed was a good customer. I figure he and the woman with the short dark hair planned it together.”
    â€œShe had that gym bag,” Ruth Rose said. “And all she had to do was walk across the street.”
    â€œAnd she smelled like a walking French fry!” Josh