Free Beware the Fisj by Gordon Korman Page B

for,” said Bruno at the dinner table.
    “Barely,” muttered Wilbur.
    “Some guy was after us at the dump,” said Pete. “If it hadn’t been for Sidney’s quick thinking, we’d have got caught.”
    “Quick thinking, my eye!” retorted Wilbur. “It was clumsiness, as usual.”
    The boys broke into a confused babble of complaints about their experiences on the hunt, all directed at Bruno Walton.
    “Most important,” cried Bruno over the din, “did you guys get a lot of cans?”
    “When you see Dormitory 3,” said Larry, “you’ll freak out! We’ve got them stacked four high and they take up the first nine doorways! I didn’t think there were that many cans in the world!”
    “Scrimmage’s has a lot too,” said Boots.
    “We’re all going over there to get them tonight,” Bruno added.
    “Count me out,” chorused everybody.
    “If we don’t get them,” responded Bruno cheerfully, “all that work we did last night will be for nothing.”
    Wilbur held his head. “What do we have to do?”
    “Each of you recruit a few more guys,” instructed Bruno. “We need lots of muscle. We’ll all meet tonight in front of Dormitory 2.”
    “Is this mandatory?” asked Elmer in a small voice.
    “Absolutely,” said Bruno.
    Elmer sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
    “When are we going to build this pyramid anyway?” asked Boots.
    “Next Saturday,” Bruno told them. “That’s the day The Fish and most of the staff go to Toronto for the big Board meeting. I’ve already called the TV station in Chutney to come and witness it for us.”
    “We’re going to be on TV?” gasped Pete.
    “Publicity and the
Rankin Book of World Records
,” said Bruno with great satisfaction.

Chapter 8
A Question of Ownership
    At midnight Cathy Burton and Diane Grant were at their window watching as about twenty-five Macdonald Hall students arrived at Miss Scrimmage’s apple orchard. It took the boys only a few minutes to locate the treasure of pop cans the girls had hidden there for them. Then, carrying four big bags apiece, the boys began to move slowly and silently back towards Macdonald Hall.
    In the lead, Bruno and Boots were just about to step onto the highway.
    “Halt!”
    The whole group stopped and wheeled about. Miss Scrimmage was running towards them, her arms waving wildly. She did not, Bruno was relieved to note, have her shotgun.
    “Run!”
he bellowed, and twenty-five yelling boys, each carrying huge clanking bundles, thundered across the highway with Miss Scrimmage in hot pursuit. In a matter of seconds, a stream of girls dressed in nightclothes swarmed after them.
    “No!” howled Bruno, seeing his crew heading for Dormitory 3. “Don’t lead her there!” He could not be heard over the general din. “No! Stop! Awwwww …” He ran after them.
    Boys began to pour out of Dormitories 1 and 2, sleepy and bewildered.
    “Stop, thieves!” screeched Miss Scrimmage, still running at the head of her army of shrieking girls.
    The boys arrived at Dormitory 3, threw the door open and stampeded inside, dropping their bags and kicking the neatly stacked pop cans all over the hall. Sidney Rampulsky was the first to fall. He started a chain reaction, and soon all twenty-five boys were down on the floor, pop cans scattered all around them. More boys were pouring in through the doorway, all tripping and tumbling.
    “What’s going on?”
    “Our pop cans!”
    “Miss Scrimmage is coming! She’s going to find our pop cans!”
    “Don’t be silly! What would she do with thirty-two thousand pop cans?”
    “Ouch!”
    Outside, a hysterical Miss Scrimmage was being restrained by several of her girls.
    “Don’t go in there, Miss Scrimmage,” Diane Grant pleaded. “You won’t like it!”
    “Release me!”
insisted Miss Scrimmage.
    The girls’ gym teacher, Miss Smedley, arrived on the scene. “Miss Scrimmage,” she shrilled, “all the girls have left their rooms!”
    “I can see that!” cried the