Ghost Cave Read Free Page B

fool; she’d believe anything. His dad always called her a city girl. He loved to tease her, too.
    â€œWe’ve got to go, Mr. Daniels.” Suddenly Marc needed to ride his bike really fast. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about his mother?
    Hermie raised his eyebrows up and down, up and down, to remind Marc he hadn’t asked about the reward poster. Eddie poked his finger halfway through Marc’s back.
    â€œYou boys see the sign out front?” Mr. Daniels asked, before Marc had a chance to question him about where to look for relics. He took one last drag on the cigarette and ground out the stub on his concrete floor. “You three might as well try for the reward.”
    Marc looked at Hermie and Eddie in surprise and then looked up at the porch post. Sure enough, they’d passed right by a sign identical to the one hanging in the park. Then Marc remembered that Mr. Daniels had been leaning on that post when they came up to the store. He thought he’d saved a surprise for the boys until they got ready to leave.
    â€œIf we found a grave, who would it belong to?” Marc asked as the four of them read the sign again.
    â€œWhoever owned the property, silly,” said Eddie. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Daniels?”
    â€œYes, unless it was in the state park. Then I figure it’d go to a museum or the university so they could study it. I don’t reckon there’s much left to find these days, but it’d be fun to look.”
    Mr. Daniels had been digging Indian relics since he was a boy. That’s how he got started in the business. Marc liked to listen to him tell about those days. The farmers would call him when they plowed up stuff, and he’d go over and dig.
    â€œI figure it’d be easy to find some good stuff if we took time to look,” Eddie said, when Mr. Daniels went back inside.
    â€œYou heard Mr. Daniels, Eddie,” Marc said. “He’s an expert, and he doesn’t think it’d be easy. You think you’ll be good at everything before you try it. Remember the pool table that Mr. Ellis put in the back of the drugstore? He said we could play when it wasn’t busy. Well, you said you’d get it in no time.”
    â€œAw, horse pucky. I’ll get the hang of it soon. Mr. Daniels has just gotten too old to get out and look for relics himself, so he says there’s not any more good stuff.”
    Eddie might have had a point, but Marc wasn’t going to waste time arguing with him. Sometimes Marc thought Eddie liked to argue better than anything else—the same way Mr. Daniels liked to tell stories. But Marc got tired of Eddie’s bragging.
    â€œI hope we aren’t going to spend all summer digging around in the woods,” said Hermie.
    â€œYou just want to spend it digging in the library, in a bunch of dusty old books,” Eddie accused Hermie.
    â€œHey, it sounds as if we’re going to spend all summer fighting,” Marc said. “What else have we got to do except look for relics? Think how exciting it’ll be if we find something.”
    â€œLet’s make it a contest. We’ll see which one of us can collect the reward,” suggested Eddie.
    â€œI think we should work together and share the reward.” Marc figured splitting up would take the fun out of it. Being realistic, he knew all they’d probably find would be some arrowheads or some pottery shards. A big find these days was rare. But that’s why the reward was so high. “Whatever one of us finds, we’ll share and split the reward three ways. Deal?” Marc put out his hand.
    Hermie reached out immediately.
    Eddie frowned and hesitated. “Only if we’re together when we find it. If I stumble over a grave when I’m alone, I’m not going to share it.”
    Eddie and Hermie looked at Marc. “That’s fair enough,” Marc agreed. He was certain that wouldn’t happen.
    Eddie took