Free Ghost Invasion by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

nodded.
    As they approached the big stall across from the ladder, Kate found herself tiptoeing and holding her breath. They were almost there, the tiny spot of light was shining on the stall door, when they both stopped in midstep.
    “Voices,” Aurora breathed.
    Kate nodded. She had heard them too.
    “In the loft,” Aurora said. “Someone’s in the loft.” They both turned toward the ladder.
    “I’ll go first,” Kate said, but Aurora was already on her way up.
    It was dark everywhere now, even in the loft. Almost as dark as down below. At first Kate could see nothing. She moved the narrow beam of her flashlight from side to side, watching the spot of light moving across familiar wooden walls and bales of straw.
    But then suddenly she heard Aurora say something. What she said was “Ari?”
    Kate brought the beam of her flashlight back to Aurora’s face and then followed her wide-eyed stare to where … to where it was shining on two small figures standing side by side in the middle of the loft—a small caveman and an even smaller astronaut.
    “Ari?” Aurora said again. “What are you doing here?”
    “Aurora.” Ari sounded a little bit frantic, but also relieved. “Come on, Web. It’s just my sister.”
    As the two of them came toward Kate and Aurora, Kate shone her light on their faces. They looked nervous—twitchy-faced and jumpy.
    “Was that you?” Ari asked. “Just a minute ago. Was all that noise just the two of you?”
    “What noise?” Aurora asked.
    “Running,” Ari said. “Running and shouting and a lot of bangs and thuds. Like somebody falling down the ladder. We heard all this noise coming from up here. It sounded like a lot of people, but when we got here we didn’t see anything. All we heard were footsteps—running away.”
    Kate chuckled. “That,” she said, “was probably the PROs. We saw them just before we got here, and they were running, all right. Boy! Were they ever running.”
    “Yes,” Aurora said. “I wonder what scared them. Do you know what scared them, Ari?”
    “Well,” Ari said. “Hmmm. Well, I guess …” He paused and started over again. “Well, it might have been …”
    While Ari was deciding what not to say, Kate had gone back to flashing her light around the loft. Across the bales of straw and up to where the pigeons were making their usual evening noises. The beam moved on across the ceiling, but all of a sudden it stopped and came back. Back to where …
    “Carson!” Kate yelled. “You come down from there. This very minute.”

Chapter 17
    W HEN KATE YELLED FOR Carson to come down, the ghostly figure jerked, kicked, and twisted. And then Carson’s funny, squeaky voice floated down from way up above their heads. “I can’t!” he yelled. “I can’t find the button.”
    “The button?” Kate yelled back. “What are you talking about? What button?” She turned to Ari and Web and her voice sounded super-angry.
    Grabbing Web, Ari pulled him back out of reach of a karate chop. “Tell her, Web,” he said hastily. “Tell her about the escape button.”
    “I made it special,” Web said quickly. “All you have to do is push it a little and the helium is released. You know. From the balloon. It’s released very slowly, so you just float down to earth.”
    “Balloon?” Kate said. “What balloon?” She shone the beam of her flashlight up again to where the ghostly white figure seemed to be hanging in open space. And then on up to where, even in the direct beam of the flashlight, it was just barely possible to see a shiny black blob a couple of feet above the ghostly Carson’s head.
    “There. That black plastic thing,” Web said. “It’s a weather balloon. It’s full of helium.”
    Kate grabbed Web by the shoulder. “Look,” she said. “What do you think you’re doing? Using Carson for one of your crazy experiments. I ought to—”
    “It wasn’t my idea,” Web said quickly. “All I asked Carson was if he wanted to help me with