Free Gib and the Gray Ghost by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page A

chin in her hand and turned his face so that she, and the whole class, could see that a small stream of blood was oozing out of a cut on his forehead and trickling down his right cheek. He was starting to wipe the blood away when Miss Elders caught his arm. “You’re really bleeding,” she said. “I thought at first that you’d made yourself up to look like a wounded brigadier, but that’s real blood, isn’t it? What happened to you, Rodney?”
    Rodney didn’t answer right away. Taking the blood-spotted handkerchief out of his pocket, he dabbed at his forehead. “Nothing. Nothing happened,” he finally muttered. “I’m all right.”
    “What happened, Rodney?” Miss Elders said again in a tone of voice that made the whole class sit up straighter and taller. “You haven’t been fighting again, have you? I’m sure you remember what Mr. Shipley said about schoolyard fights, and what the punishment would be for repeat offenders. Repeat offenders like yourself, Mr. Martin.”
    Still holding the handkerchief to his head, Rodney nodded, staring down at the floor and looking so miserable that Gib could almost have felt sorry for him if he hadn’t been so worried about what Rodney was going to say about who else had been in the fight.
    When Rodney finally looked up his eyes glanced off Livy for only a split second before he mumbled something about walking into a wall.
    “A wall. What wall?” Miss Elders asked, and when Rodney only shook his head, she sighed and said, “Well, it seems obvious that this matter will need some looking into. I’ll see you after school, Rodney, in Mr. Shipley’s office.”
    Then Rodney went back to his seat, and Miss Elders sent one of the sixth-grade girls to the office to get the first-aid kit. So Rodney’s forehead got bandaged, and for the rest of the day he stayed away from Gib, and even farther away from Livy. And there were no more notes either. There were messages, though. Messages that Gib got loud and clear every time he looked in Rodney’s direction and caught him looking back. “This isn’t over,” Rodney’s look said. “I’ll get you yet, Gib Whittaker.”
    On the way home in the buggy Gib asked Livy what would happen to Rodney if they found out he’d been fighting, but she only shrugged. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. But it’s bound to be something dreadful because he’s always fighting. Like maybe they’ll make his parents come to school and talk to the principal. And if that happens his pa will probably beat the tar out of him.” She laughed. “But he’ll never tell who hit him,” she said. “Not if they beat him to death.” Her giggle had an ornery sound to it. “Rodney Martin would rather die than to have people laughing at him for letting a girl get the best of him.”
    Gib saw what she meant. “But what if Alvin tells?” he asked.
    “He’d never dare,” Livy said. “Rodney would kill him.”
    Gib was pretty sure that was the truth too. Alvin was bigger and taller but Rodney was meaner, and Alvin knew it. And Alvin knew, everybody knew, actually, that life wouldn’t be easy for a farm-out nobody that Rodney Martin was looking to beat up on.
    Lying there in his bedroom that night, even though it was his own private room, Gib had to accept the fact that he still was one, and that surely was the reason why Rodney was after him. Still a farm-out orphan, and likely to go right on being one for the rest of his life.

Chapter 12
    T HE WEATHER HELD COLD but clear for several days, and Gib and Livy went on driving the team to Longford. Livy said she was glad to be going to a real school again, and she was planning to go right on attending Longford School all the rest of the year.
    “Aren’t you glad to be going to a real school?” she asked Gib one morning as they were heading down the lane and out onto the Longford road. Gib only shrugged. When Livy pushed him for an answer he said, “Well, far as I can see there are some good things