The Diamond War (11 page)

“Bucky,” the voice called. “Bucky. You’d better get home. Right this minute.”

Muttering something under his breath, Bucky quickly shoved the box back into the hole and began to kick dirt over it. “It’s Muffy,” he said. “Look out. Here she comes.”

T
HE MYSTERIOUS TIN BOX
was back in the hole and covered with dirt, and the three PROs had picked up their shovels and were pretending to dig in other places when Ducky’s sister, Muffy, appeared on top of the basement wall.

Muffy Brockhurst was nine years old, blond, blue eyed, pug nosed, and very dangerous. Not in the way her brother was, maybe—as in “black your eye and bloody your nose” dangerous. But Carlos knew from experience that, in her own sneaky way, Muffy could be just about as much trouble.

Standing on top of the wall with her hands on her hips she stared down at Carlos and Bucky and Eddy. “You better get home right now, Bucky,” she said. “Gary’s been waiting for you for a long time and Mom is really mad. You’re probably going to get grounded.” Gary Harding was a college student who worked part time as a math tutor. Once or twice a week he came to the Brockhursts’ for a couple of hours to try to keep Bucky from flunking fifth-grade math. From what Carlos had heard, it was a pretty hopeless cause, but Gary kept trying because Bucky’s parents kept paying him.

Still standing on the wall, Muffy tipped her curly blond head from one side to the other and smiled her most dangerous smile. “Another clubhouse, huh?” she said. “Another big, old, super-secret clubhouse.” Her tone of voice was definitely sarcastic. Sarcasm was one thing that Muffy had an above-average talent for.

Watching Muffy, Carlos was trying to keep his shoulders from lifting in a nervous sort of twitch, when Bucky whirled around. Grabbing him and Eddy both by the fronts of their shirts, he jerked them toward each other so hard they almost bumped heads.

“Shh,” Bucky whispered. “Don’t mention the box. And don’t touch it till I get back. Okay? Just leave it right where it is until we decide what to do with it. Until all three of us decide, I mean.” Then he took off running across the Pit to where Muffy was waiting.

For a while after Bucky and Muffy had disappeared, Carlos and Eddy just went on standing there staring after them. Then, at the very same time, they turned and stared down at where the box was buried. Then Carlos sighed, grinned at Eddy, squatted down beside the hole, and began to brush away the dirt. Began—and then stopped. He looked up at Eddy. “Well, I found it,” he said.

Eddy nodded encouragingly. “Yeah, sure. You found it. Go ahead.”

When the box was partly uncovered, Carlos wiggled his fingers into the dirt until they were around the handles and pulled up—hard. A moment later the old tin box was sitting right there on the ground between them. Eddy reached out and jiggled the padlock.

“Can you open it?” Carlos asked. “You got any tools with you?”

Eddy, who really liked fixing things, usually carried a bunch of handyman stuff around with him in case something needed fixing. Carlos had seen Eddy fix everything from bicycles to wristwatches with stuff he carried around in his pockets.

Eddy nodded. “I got some stuff, but I don’t know if I can open this thing.” He reached in his pocket and brought out a small screwdriver and an even smaller pair of pliers.

It wasn’t easy. Eddy put the screwdriver into the padlock’s keyhole and turned and twisted. And when that didn’t work he began to use the pliers too.

“Wish we had the key,” Carlos said.

Eddy shrugged. “Probably wouldn’t work even if we had it. The whole thing is rusted together. I think we’ll just have to pry it apart.” Using the pliers to grab hold of the padlock, he began to twist it from side to side, but for quite a while nothing happened. It wasn’t until he’d tried three or four times, biting his lip and straining until his knuckles turned white, that there was a grating sound, a click—and the padlock fell apart. The mysterious tin box was open.

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Zilpha Keatley Snyder (b. 1927) is the three-time Newbery Honor–winning author of classic children’s novels such as
The Egypt Game
,
The Headless Cupid
, and
The Witches of Worm
. Her adventure and fantasy stories are beloved by many generations.

Snyder was born in Lemoore, California, in 1927. Her father, William Keatley, worked for Shell Oil, but as a would-be rancher he and his family always lived on a small farm. Snyder’s parents were both storytellers, and their tales often kept their children entertained during quiet evenings at home.

Snyder began reading and telling stories of her own at an early age. By the time she was four years old she was able to read novels and newspapers intended for adults. When she wasn’t reading, she was making up and embellishing stories. When she was eight, Snyder decided that she would be a writer—a profession in which embellishment and imagination were accepted and rewarded.

Snyder’s adolescent years were made more difficult by her studious country upbringing and by the fact that she had been advanced a grade when she started school. As other girls were going to dances and discovering boys, Snyder retreated into books. The stories transported her from her small room to a larger, remarkable universe.

At Whittier College, Zilpha Keatley Snyder met her future husband, Larry Snyder. After graduation, she began teaching upper-level elementary classes. Snyder taught for nine years, including three years as a master teacher for the University of California, Berkeley. The classroom experience gave Snyder a fresh appreciation of the interests and capabilities of preteens.

As she continued her teaching career, Snyder gained more free time. She began writing at night, after teaching during the day; her husband helped by typing out her manuscripts. After finishing her first novel, she sent it to a publisher. It was accepted on her first try. That book,
Season of Ponies
, was published in 1964.

In 1967, her fourth novel,
The Egypt Game
, won the Newbery Honor for excellence in children’s literature. Snyder went on to win that honor two more times, for her novels
The Headless Cupid
and
The Witches of Worm. The Headless Cupid
introduced the Stanley family, a clan she revisited three more times over her career.

Snyder’s
The Changeling
(1970), in which two young girls invent a fantasy world dominated by trees, became the inspiration for her 1974 fantasy series, the Green Sky Trilogy. Snyder completed that series by writing a computer game sequel called Below the Root. The game went on to earn cult classic status.

Over the almost fifty years of her career, Snyder has written about topics as diverse as time-traveling ghosts, serenading gargoyles, and adoption at the turn of the twentieth century. Today, she lives with her husband in Mill Valley, California. When not writing, Snyder enjoys reading and traveling.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1995 by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Cover design by Barbara Brown

978-1-4804-7159-7

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com