Free Mandie and the Secret Tunnel by Lois Gladys Leppard

went, banging on the wall. They were almost all the way around the attic when they realized Mr. Bond was no longer with them.
    “Polly! Mr. Bond! He’s gone!” Mandie cried. “Where did he go?”
    “I don’t know. He was here just a minute ago. Maybe he’s behind some of that old furniture. You go that way and I’ll go this way and maybe we can find him,” Polly told her.
    As they worked their way around the room, they kept calling, “Mr. Bond! Mr. Bond! Where are you?”
    Finally they met again.
    “He’s not here!” Mandie gasped.
    At that moment, something scampered across the floor and both the girls screamed.
    “Let’s get out of here!” Polly shouted, running for the door to the steps. Mandie, her heart pounding, followed close on her heels, and then she stopped suddenly as she looked back and sawSnowball beating an old piece of wood around with his paws.
    “Oh, Snowball! Polly, it was Snowball!” She picked up the kitten.
    “Well, anyway, let’s get out of here!” Polly ran ahead to the door.
    They came down the steps into the front hall so fast they almost collided with Liza who was passing through with her arms full of bed linens.
    “Hey, where you two going?” Liza stepped out of their way just in time.
    “Liza, have you seen Mr. Bond? He disappeared,” Mandie told her.
    “I ain’t seed him since he went up the steps with you two,” Liza answered. “Why? What’s wrong? Something wrong?”
    Mandie immediately tried to compose herself, knowing the black girl would become frightened if they told her what had happened.
    “Oh, nothing, we just missed him, I guess,” Mandie said.
    “Yeh, we stayed too long in the attic,” Polly helped out.
    “You been in the attic? Lawsy mercy, what you two done been doin’ in that spooky place?” Liza’s eyes widened. “Ain’t you’ns askeered to go up there?”
    “We just went up there looking for something, Liza. Come on, Polly, let’s go out in the yard.”
    Once the two girls were out of Liza’s sight they ran for the entrance to the tunnel.
    “He’s gotta be in the tunnel. He must’ve found the panel that opened up,” Polly declared.
    “Right. Maybe we can find the way in from the tunnel now,” Mandie said as she ran on ahead and pushed at the door. “Oh, no, Mr. Bond locked it when we left, remember? And we don’t have the key!”
    “Guess we give up and go home and wait for him to come back from wherever he’s gone,” Polly lamented.
    To their amazement, Mr. Bond was sitting in the swing on the front porch when they came around the corner of the house.
    “Mr. Jason! Where did you go?” Mandie ran to him.
    “Where did I go?” the old man asked.
    “Yes, when we were in the attic, you just disappeared,” Polly added.
    “Oh, the attic—why, I just came on back downstairs.”
    “But we didn’t see you leave,” Mandie insisted.
    “No, because some of that old furniture is taller than you two, I suppose.” He smiled at the girls. “Did you get scared because I left you alone up there?”
    “Oh, no, Mr. Jason. We were just trying to find you. We thought maybe you had found the secret panel,” Mandie told him.
    “The secret panel? Oh, the panel to the tunnel. No, I don’t suppose there’s an opening into the attic after all,” Mr. Bond said.
    The two girls looked at him and then at each other and didn’t say anything else, but they went on inside the house and up to their room on the third floor.
    “I don’t believe him!” Mandie was emphatic about it.
    “Neither do I!” Polly flopped down beside Mandie on the big bed.
    “But why would he lie to us, Polly?”
    “Must have a good reason.”
    “Well, after all, this is my uncle’s house and Mr. Jason shouldn’t keep secrets from me,” Mandie moped.
    “Nope.”
    “Well, don’t you have any ideas?”
    “I just can’t figure this one out, Mandie. Everybody seems to be trying to hide something from everybody else.”
    “I know. Guess it’s the money my