Free The Box and the Bone by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page B

up,” she said. “They’re in there, in Bucky’s room. I could hear their voices but I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Wait here a minute. I’ll be right back.”
    Muffy went out and down the hall and a minute later she was back carrying two drinking glasses.
    “Here.” She handed one to Susie. “Do like this.” Muffy went over and put the top of the glass against the wall. Then she put her ear against the bottom of the glass. She motioned to Susie. “Here. Put yours right here. This way you can hear through the wall.
    It was an interesting idea. Susie put her glass against the wall and listened—but she couldn’t hear very much at all. She kept on trying—pressing her ear to the bottom of the glass harder and harder until it began to ache. Now and then she could hear Bucky yelling something, but most of it wasn’t very clear.
    In the next room Carlos and Eddy were sitting on Bucky’s bed while Bucky paced up and down the room. “She was lying,” he yelled. He made his eyes big and round and in a high-pitched, squeaky voice that was supposed to be like Laura’s he said, “‘I never saw that box until a minute ago.’ Sure she didn’t. She probably took our gold nuggets out and buried them someplace as soon as her mutt showed up with the box. Well, we’ll show her. Will we ever!”
    “What are you—er—what are we going to do?” Carlos asked.
    “Well.” Bucky swaggered around the room. “We’ll just do a little arm twisting. We’ll wait for her when she gets off the bus tomorrow and then we’ll grab her and—”
    “What about Nijinsky?” Carlos said.
    For a minute Bucky didn’t say anything. But after a while he started up again. “Okay. We’ll just follow her. Every time she steps out of her house, or off the bus, we’ll be there. Right behind her. Not touching her or anything. Just following along behind her. You know. Staring at her like …”
    Bucky narrowed his eyes and looked as sinister as he could, which in Bucky’s case was pretty sinister. Sticking his hands in his pockets, he slouched around the room looking up out of the tops of his eyes.
    Eddy didn’t look too impressed. “And what’s that supposed to accomplish?” he asked.
    “Oh nothing much,” Bucky sneered. “Just scare her to death, that’s all. Scare her so much that she’ll decide it isn’t worth it. So she’ll give up and hand it over.”
    Carlos couldn’t help grinning. “You mean that you think just because you go around staring at her, that she’s going to hand over all those valuable coins? Just like that?”
    It wasn’t until he caught a glimpse of Eddy’s face that he realized what he’d said.
    “Coins?” Bucky’s eyes were really narrow now. “What do you mean—coins?”
    Feeling a little bit panicky, Carlos stared at Eddy. But after a second, Eddy shrugged and grinned. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said. “I was already thinking that maybe we ought to tell him.”
    “Tell me what?” Bucky said.
    So they did. All about how, on that first day when they’d just found the box, and after Bucky left for his math lesson, the two of them had opened the treasure chest.
    “That padlock was old and rusted and it just fell apart,” Eddy said.
    “And …,” Bucky yelled. “And what was in it?”
    “Coins.” Carlos looked at Eddy and grinned. “You know. Pennies and nickels and dimes. And like that.” He waited until Bucky’s face fell about three feet before he went on and told the rest of it. All about how old the coins were—and about the three gold coins in the separate bag. Then Eddy took over and told what he’d found out about how the gold coins might be worth six thousand dollars apiece.
    “Six thousand,” Bucky howled. “Wowee! Six thousand apiece. And the other coins are probably worth something too. That’s … That’s … How much is that, Wong?”
    “Oh maybe around twenty thousand dollars,” Eddy said.
    “Wowee! Twenty thou. That’s enough to buy a Harley