The Tell-Tale Start Read Free Page A

indicate otherwise,” Mr. Mann said.
    “That’s because we’re
identical
!” the boys said in unison.
    Mr. Mann shook his head. “This has nothing to do with your appearance,” he said.
    He just didn’t get it.
    “So what are you proposing, Mr. Mann?” Uncle Jack asked, his patience clearly strained.
    “They’re kicking us out of the whole school district,” the boys answered.
    Uncle Jack stared at the principal.
“The whole school district?”
    Sheepishly, Mr. Mann nodded. “Until we can make other arrangements.”
    “
Other arrangements
? It sounds like you want to send our nephews, the smartest students your district has
ever seen
, to some kind of reform school!”
    “We don’t like that terminology,” Mr. Mann answered.
    Uncle Jack glared at Mr. Mann. “We don’t like
anything
about it, whatever you want to call it. And you canbet we’re going to talk to the superintendent first thing tomorrow morning!”
    Aunt Judith put her arms around the boys. “Let’s get your things and get out of here,” she said.
    Edgar and Allan had never been more proud of their aunt and uncle.
    Later in the car, the twins leaned over the front seat.
    “Trust us, Uncle Jack and Aunt Judith, we’re the victims of some kind of treacherous fix,” Edgar said.
    “Yeah, it has something to do with an ‘institution’ dedicated to messy science experiments,” Allan continued.
    “And unauthorized hair removal,” Edgar added.
    Uncle Jack and Aunt Judith merely shook their heads—over the years, they’d heard too many tall tales from their nephews.

     
     

    WHAT THE POE TWINS DID NOT KNOW…
    ENCRYPTED E-MAIL MESSAGE— TOP SECRET
    From: [email protected]
    Sent: Tues, Oct. 25, 3:18 pm
    To: [email protected]
    Subject: CONTACT
    Professor,
    I made contact with the twins today as planned and obtained hair samples for final DNA analysis. Oh, how useful the brats will be to our revolutionary project!
    The school principal followed our instructions to the letter. The boys will soon be ours for the taking.
    I await further direction.
    Your humble servant,
    Ian Archer
    P.S. The boys’ guardians, Jack and Judith Poe, remain unaware of our interest in their nephews and so should prove no problem to us. I recommend against their elimination at this time.

HOME SCHOOL
    THE morning after being expelled, Allan and Edgar lingered over the Denver omelets Aunt Judith set out at breakfast.
    Afterward, they played with their black cat, Roderick Usher, whom their mom and dad had brought home as a kitten just two weeks before the launching pad accident that claimed their lives. Roderick meant everything to Edgar and Allan. (It didn’t hurt that he was probably the smartest cat in the world.)

    When Roderick retreated for a morning nap, curling into a ball that concealed the furry white figure eighton his chest, the twins turned their attention to a few of the household projects they’d had to put off for the past few weeks.
    First they made precise measurements of the shadowy, oddly shaped rooms on the top floor of the large white clapboard house that had been in the Poe family almost back to the days of their famous great-great-great-great granduncle.

    They used the measurements to draft a detailed architectural drawing that they hoped would reveal some unaccounted-for space between the rooms, which might indicate a hidden chamber. Who knew what such a chamber might contain?
    But no such luck.
    Why would anyone build a house like this without a secretroom
? they wondered, frustrated by some nineteenth-century architect’s lack of imagination.
    It was a good thing they had other projects.
    Next, they went to the attic, tethering themselves like mountaineers to a crossbeam, and climbed out the small window and onto the steeply angled roof. From here, they enjoyed a good view of the whole neighborhood, though that wasn’t the reason they were there. Edgar held a heavy lead ball the size of a baseball. Allan held a lighter lead ball