Free The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster by Mary Downing Hahn

least he was out of the cave, I thought, and alive.
    Just as my heart was slowing down to its normal rate, I heard Charles shout, "Come back here, you little fools!"
    Several shots rang out. I wanted to leap up and run, but I kept my head down and forced myself to stay still. If I moved, Charles would hear me. Even if he couldn't see me, he'd shoot at the noise I made.
    Then I saw him less than a foot away, a vague shape blurred by the fog, moving slowly toward me. Holding my breath, I watched him walk past me. He was pointing his gun this way and that like an actor in a war movie. Only he wasn't acting. If he saw me, Charles would shoot me with a real bullet.
    When I was sure he was gone, I rose slowly to my feet and peered through the fog. Where were Amy and Phillip? Seeing no one, I crept out from behind my rock and moved cautiously from boulder to boulder, freezing every time a stone rolled out from under my shoes. I wanted to call Amy and Phillip, but I was afraid to raise my voice.
    As I edged around a tall slab of rock, I came face to face with Grace. Taken by surprise, I stumbled backward, but I wasn't fast enough. Before I knew what was happening she was pulling me toward her, her hand over my mouth.
    "Do not scream," she whispered into my ear. "I am trying to help you."
    I nodded, and Grace let me go. "Find a place to hide," she told me, "and stay there. If you run, you will fall and hurt yourself. After dark, go down the road to the village. Be careful. I will do all I can to help."
    "Where are Amy and Phillip?" I asked. "Are they all right?"
    Grace shook her head. "They ran from the cave like you, but I do not know where they have gone. In the fog, who can tell?"
    "Will Charles kill us if he catches us?"
    Grace hugged me so tightly I thought my ribs would crack. "Do not think such a thing," she said fiercely. "He could not be that wicked!"
    "But Orlando?"
    Grace hugged me again. "That one is the devil himself. Go now and hide, Felix, go!"
    Then Grace was gone, running away from me and calling, "Children! Children!"
    Cold and frightened, I inched my way down the mountainside in the opposite direction, looking for a place to hide. Several minutes later, I found Amy. She was huddled behind a boulder, sobbing. For the first time in my whole entire life I was glad to see her.
    "Help me find Phillip," she whispered. "I'm scared Charles shot him."
    Taking Amy's arm, I pulled her to her feet. For a second or two she clung to me, shaking. Her hands were icy cold and her teeth chattered so loudly I was afraid Charles would hear them.
    "Come on," I whispered. "We'll find him."
    But it was Charles we found, not Phillip. In fact, we skidded to a stop not two feet away from him.
    Spotting us at the same moment we spotted him, Charles lunged toward Amy and me, but we ducked behind a boulder before he got close enough to grab us. Charles shouted and swore, but Amy and I kept going. We were soaked and cold, and the rocks were slippery, but we weren't about to surrender.
    "You stop!" Charles shouted from somewhere in the fog. "Or I'll shoot!"
    "
¡Estúpido pulpo!
" I shouted back, remembering Phillip's favorite insult.
    At the sound of my voice, Phillip loomed up out of the fog and mist ahead of us. "Quick, this way," he whispered. "I found another cave."
    Not too far away, I heard Charles panting and coughing, the result of all those long, dark cigarettes he smoked. "Come back here this moment!" he shouted.
    "Charles," Grace called from somewhere. "Over here, quick, I have caught the boy!"
    "In here." Phillip grabbed my shirt and pulled me down beside him. On our hands and knees, we wedged ourselves into a tiny cave, barely big enough for the three of us.
    Charles passed us twice, calling our names and cursing, but he didn't find us. Once he and Grace actually stopped just a few inches from our hiding place.
    "I thought you had the boy," Charles said.
    "He got away and then the fog, it swallowed him whole," Grace said. "Now I