Free Ghost Invasion by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page A

my atmospheric studies. It was his idea to use the balloon for bat catching.” Web squirmed in Kate’s grasp and tried to look up to where Carson was still twisting and kicking beneath the black balloon. “Tell her, Carson,” Web called. “Tell her it was your idea.”
    Suddenly Kate began to get it. Bat catching. Yeah, she should have guessed. She should have remembered how Carson had freaked out the day she and Aurora took him to the barn. He’d gotten the same look in his eyes that he’d had when he’d first seen Slinky in the pet shop. So it really wasn’t entirely Web’s fault. She knew from experience that arguing with Carson when he got that look in his eyes was about as useful as trying to argue a bone away from a pit bull.
    “Okay,” she said. She turned loose of Web’s shoulder and lowered her karate-chopping hand. “So it was Carson’s idea. But it’s your balloon. You got him up there so you get him down. And I mean right now !”
    Just at that moment Aurora gasped—and then giggled.
    “What?” Kate said. “What’s funny?”
    “That’s why they were running,” Aurora said. “The PROs. I’ll bet they saw Carson floating up there and—”
    Ari started to laugh too. “Yeah,” he said between snickers. “And it must have been them we heard yelling and falling down the ladder. They must have been up here in the loft when Carson came floating up the hay chute and—”
    “The hay chute?” Aurora asked.
    “Yes. Not this one. That one over there. Web and I were going to launch Carson from up here in the loft, but we couldn’t get the helium tank up the ladder. So then I thought of inflating the balloon down there in the stable and letting Carson float right on up the chute. It worked great too. Didn’t it, Web?”
    Ari stopped and thought for a minute and then chuckled. “The PROs must have seen him come floating up out of the chute and—”
    They all cracked up then, even Kate. And when Aurora told how Bucky had pointed back over his shoulder and gasped, “Ghost!” they broke up all over again. Kate laughed as hard as anybody, but after a minute she stopped and said, “Yeah. And now all we have to do is find a way to get him back down. Preferably in one piece.”
    For a minute they all stood looking up to where Carson was still twisting and squirming in the beam of Kate’s flashlight.
    “Come on, you guys,” Kate said. “You better put your heads together and come up with something. And I mean fast!”
    So they tried. Standing around in a circle, they all scratched their heads and chewed on their fingernails, but for several minutes no one had anything to say. At last Web said, “My dad has this really tall painter’s ladder in our garage. Maybe we could bring it over here and climb up and—”
    “Sure,” Kate said. “It would be morning by that time. And what are you going to tell your dad when he hears us opening your garage door?”
    Web shrugged and nodded. “Yeah. You’re right, I guess.”
    Then Ari had an idea. “Hey,” he said. “I could go to the Brockhursts’ and ask Bucky for …” He stopped and considered and went on, “I could go find Athena”—Athena was the only Castle Court kid whom Bucky had never slugged—“and get her to go to the Brockhursts’ and ask Bucky for his BB gun. And then I could bring it back here and shoot—”
    “And shoot Carson?” Kate finished for him. “Because that’s what you’d probably do. No thanks, Pappas. Any other good ideas? Because I’m about to run out of patience.”
    Just then there was a soft thud only a few feet away. As they all whirled around, Kate’s flashlight beam shone right on a short white ghost. It was Carson, back on the loft floor, safe and sound, still wearing his ghost costume and clutching his butterfly net.
    “I found the button,” he said. “Can we do it again? I didn’t catch anything.”

Chapter 18
    W HEN CARSON SAID, “CAN we do it again?” Kate grabbed him by the back of