The Boys Return (13 page)

She opened her eyes.

Tap…tap… tap,
it came again.

Caroline turned and looked at the clock. Almost midnight.

Tap…tap… tap.
The noise was coming from the wall behind her bed.

Caroline got up and put her mouth to the floor register. “Okay, you guys, I know you're down there,” she called softly.

Tap… tappity-tap.
The noise continued.

Bolder now because of her encounter with the cougar, Caroline decided not to tell her sisters but to investigate on her own. Undoubtedly, one of the Hatford boys had crawled back through the basement window, as Tony had done before, and was tapping on
the water pipes to make her think the house was haunted for sure.

She slipped into the hall and down the stairs and got a flashlight from the kitchen. Then, without turning on any lights, she opened the basement door and stealthily started down the stairs. One step…two steps…three steps… four…

She waited until she got to the bottom before she snapped on the flashlight. The furnace pipes made grotesque shadows on the wall, like long fingers against the cinder block.

“I know you're down here,” Caroline repeated, a little less boldly than before. Holding the flashlight out in front of her, she began moving around the corner of the basement toward the Ping-Pong table.

Step by step, closer and closer. When she got right over to the table, she directed the beam of the flash-light toward the basement window. Closed. Locked, in fact. She turned slowly and pointed the light in all directions, but she saw no one. No one at all.

Tap…tap… tap.
She could still hear the ghostly tapping from somewhere. Then she heard another sound. Footsteps. The creak of the floor above.

Step by step, step by step… closer and closer. Now the footsteps were crossing the kitchen floor. Now they were at the door of the basement. Now they were coming down the basement steps….

“Helllp!”
screeched Caroline.

“Good grief!” called her father. “Caroline Lenore, what in the world are you up to?”

“Oh, Dad! I heard a noise….A ghostly tapping … And I thought the house was haunted, or the boys were back, or—”

“We've got a leak in the roof from all the rain. Water's running down inside the wall and hitting a heat duct, that's all,” her father said.

Beth and Eddie appeared behind him in their pajamas and bare feet.

“What is it? What's the matter?” they asked.

“Your sister's imagination is on the loose, that's what,” said Coach Malloy. “Caroline, could you possibly make the effort to forget about ghosts for one night?”

“It won't be easy,” said Caroline.

“Do you think it's too much to ask that you stay in your bed until morning?”

“I suppose not,” said Caroline.

“Do you think your father could have one night of peace and quiet before spring vacation ends?” he asked.

“I'll try,” said Caroline.

“Then get the heck to bed,” said her father, and she did.

On Monday morning, Wally came out of the house with his brothers and found the Malloy girls waiting for them at the end of the bridge. They were used to walking to school together now, and Jake and Josh fell in beside Beth and Eddie, while Peter skipped happily on ahead. That left Wally, of course, to walk with
Caroline, who had a sickening smile on her face. A scary smile. A sickening, scary smile that could mean only one thing: trouble.

“Good
morning,
Wally!” she said, moving up beside him.

“No,” said Wally. “Whatever it is, no!”

“I have an idea for our spring assignment, and I'll bet you can guess what it is.”

“The answer is no,” said Wally.

“Everyone is going to ask you about it anyway, so you might as well get up and tell the class.”

“No,” said Wally, but even then he knew he was doomed.

“We'll not just
tell
about capturing the cougar, Wally, we'll
show
it. We can use Miss Applebaum's desk for the loft, and I'll be down below, and maybe we could get Peter to be the cougar, and—”

We who are about to die salute you,
Wally said to himself, smiling a little, but he kept his eyes on the road ahead.

About the Author

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
enjoys writing about the Hatford boys and the Malloy girls because the books take place in her husband's home state, West Virginia. The town of Buckman in the stories is really Buckhannon, where her husband spent most of his growing-up years. There are now seven books in the series —
The Boys Start the War, The Girls Get Even, Boys Against Girls, The Girls' Revenge, A Traitor Among the Boys, A Spy Among the Girls,
and
The Boys Return
—and Mrs. Naylor plans to write five more, one for each month that the girls are in Buckman, though who knows whether or not they will move back to Ohio at the end?

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is the author of more than a hundred books, a number of which are set in West Virginia, including the Newbery Award–winning
Shiloh
and the other two books in the Shiloh trilogy,
Shiloh Season
and
Saving Shiloh.
She and her husband live in Bethesda, Maryland.

Copyright © 2001 by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Delacorte Press.

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Library of Congress Cataloging Card Number: 00-050944

eISBN: 978-0-307-51483-7

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