The Nine Pound Hammer Read Online Free PDF Page A

go.”
    “They’re not … poisonous?” His mouth watered.
    “Gracious, no!”
    Ray rushed forward and pulled handfuls of the currant-like berries from the vines. With one hand he stuffed the gooseberries into his mouth. With the other he filled the pockets of his coat. He had never tasted anything so delicious, and for a moment he forgot that the thief was standing with him.
    “Well, best be off,” Hobnob called.
    Ray turned, his lips stained with the juice. “You’re leaving?”
    “Don’t worry. Just keep going that way”—Hobnob waved his hand—“and you’ll find your way out before nightfall.” Then he added, “But be careful. Lost Wood is full of bandits and the like.”
    Ray frowned. “I haven’t seen another person besides you for days.”
    “Well, you never know. Bound to be someone from the
Snapdragon
along to check on me any day now. Don’t want to get caught by one of them, unless it’s Big Jimmie. He’s a nice sort. You’d get along fine with him, unless he’stired. Gets right cranky when he en’t had a nap. Good luck.”
    Hobnob gave him a wave and stuck the dandelion hat on his wild jumble of hair—the yellow of the dandelions matching hue for hue with his yellow hair. The golden color began to drain away instantly, wilting to a gray-white. “Won’t forget that good turn you done me, Jay.”
    “It’s Ray,” he said.
    As the dandelions turned to puffy wisps, Hobnob’s body grew misty and began to scatter slowly like smoke. His fading face gave one last merry smile before he disappeared into a million tiny white seedpods, drifting away in the breeze.

R AY STARED WITH BEWILDERMENT AS THE LAST DANDELION pods disappeared up into the canopy of leaves. Had that really happened? Hobnob had flown away, just as he said he could!
    Ray took the lodestone from his pocket. As his fingers wrapped around the stone, he felt its pull return. He screwed up his brow and then looked at the shadowy forest. Putting the lodestone back, Ray took out a handful of gooseberries and set off again.
    As he journeyed, he took out the lodestone from time to time to check his direction. His thoughts drifted back to what Hobnob had said about John Henry and some wicked machine and Ramblers. He certainly knew about John Henry—everybody had heard that legend. But a wicked machine? In the story Ray remembered, JohnHenry had beaten a steam drill before dying at the end of the competition. Nothing about—what was it?—a Gog!
    After another hour, the forest began to change again, decorated now more frequently with wildflowers. The trees were not so close together or as menacing. Ray felt emboldened that he might at last be coming to the edge of the Lost Wood.
    Voices echoed through the trees. Ray froze. The pirates from the
Snapdragon!
They were coming for Hobnob. Or had they heard Ray and begun following him?
    Ray spun around and saw an enormous tree. Long ago, it must have been a titan among the other oaks and hickories, but at some point the tree had broken about twelve feet from the ground. It reminded Ray of a severed column from a picture book on the ancient empires. If he could get up there, it might be the best hiding spot.
    Ray pulled himself up on the pegs of old limbs. As he reached the place where the tree had broken off, he saw an opening in the trunk where the tree’s interior had become hollow with rot and age. It seemed almost like a giant well.
    Something sparkled from the shadows just inside the opening. Reaching in, his finger touched something metal and sharp. He flinched back and then leaned down to peer closer.
    A few feet into the opening, there was a small ledge of rotten wood, before the opening descended deep into the trunk. The silver handle of a stiletto protruded from the rotten ledge, its blade sunk several inches straight in. Raythrew his legs over the opening. Reaching down once more, he gave the handle a jerk, releasing it. It was the Pirate Queen’s dagger. It had to be! What were