Who Won the War? Read Online Free PDF Page A

than you think. Just stack them there in the front hallway, would you, boys?”
    The Hatfords walked through the kitchen and the dining room and deposited their load in the front hallway while the girls watched.
    “Do you have time to stay for some cookies and iced tea?” said Mrs. Malloy.
    Was that a serious question? Caroline wondered. Did boys have stomachs?
    “Yes!” said Peter, answering for them, and they all went back to the kitchen and sat around the big table, where the girls were just finishing their dinner. Mrs. Malloy put a platter of brownies and sugar cookies on the table, along with a pitcher and some paper cups. Then she left the kitchen to carry a few of the boxes upstairs.
    Jake looked slyly around the table. “Question,” he said. “If somebody told you he was going to buy some rope, a flashlight, and some dynamite, what would you think he was going to do?”
    “Hmm,” said Eddie. “If he needed a flashlight, then he was probably going to be working at night.”
    “If he had rope, then he was probably going to lowerhimself down a cliff or into a hole or something,” said Beth.
    “Or hide the dynamite somewhere,” said Caroline.
    “What is this? A game?” asked Eddie.
    “I don't know,” said Jake. “Show her the list, Wally.”
    Wally pulled the small slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Eddie.
    ‘Eggs, Rope, Tomato sauce, Flashlight, Dynamite,’ ” she read aloud. She studied it for a moment. “Nothing in code? No map? No ‘X marks the spot’?”
    “I didn't say it meant anything,” Jake said quickly. “It just seems sort of unusual, that's all. Wally found it in one of the empty boxes.”
    Wally took the paper back and put it in his pocket again.
    “Of course,” said Eddie, “if they were connected somehow—the rope, the flashlight, and the dynamite—we're probably the first ones to find out. So if anything happens …”
    “We're just going to sit around and wait until it happens?” asked Josh.
    “So what do you suggest?” said Beth. “Taking it to the police and telling them we've found a suspicious shopping list?”
    “Just keeping our eyes open, that's all,” said Jake.
    “If somebody was going to blow up something, and somebody was going to lower himself down into a hole somewhere, where would that somewhere be?” said Eddie.
    “It could be anywhere at all,” said Josh, reaching fora cookie. “Somebody's basement. The riverbank. The old coal mine.”
    Caroline's mind was already alive with possibilities. What an exciting movie that would make! A story! A play! What if she were being lowered on a rope into a gravel pit? A mine? What if she had to blow up a dam to prevent the enemy from taking over a town?
    Maybe her job would be to stop an explosion, to reach the fuse in time. The clock would be ticking, and Caroline would be lowered into the hole to stomp on the lit fuse before the bomb went off. Her eyes glazed over. Her pulse began to race. Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen … , she counted down to herself.
    Eddie snapped her fingers in front of Caroline's face. “Hey!” she said. “Get a grip.”
    Caroline blinked. “It could be serious,” she said.
    “Yeah, well, if we hear of anything suspicious, we'll let you know,” said Jake.
    “About that old coal mine …,” said Eddie, and Caroline could tell that Jake was uncomfortable. “You and the Benson guys used to go in there, right?”
    “Well, not exactly, because it's been fenced in,” said Jake. “There's just the tunnel into the mountain.”
    Eddie's eyes narrowed. “So you've only been over the fence?”
    “Um … not exactly,” said Jake.
    “You guys haven't even been near that old coal mine!” Eddie scoffed. “It's all hot air! It's all talk!”
    “We have so been near it!” said Jake. “I've looked in there a thousand times!”
    “Well, I'm going to go in it!” said Eddie. “I'm notgoing to leave Buckman until I've seen inside that old coal mine.”
    Caroline