A Spy Among the Girls Read Online Free Page B

wouldn't be finding them and talking about them with their friends. Better that each student should read the message alone and decide for himself or herself whether or not to go see the abaguchie.
    Caroline did her afternoon arithmetic lesson, wrote a paragraph for American history, and promptly at two-thirty-five went up to Miss Applebaum's desk with a rather urgent look on her face, one hand on her stomach, and asked to use the rest room. Miss Applebaum nodded and Caroline went out in the hall.
    She could see Eddie coming out of her classroom fardown one end of the corridor, and Beth in the hallway at the other end. Eddie disappeared into the south corridor, Beth disappeared into the north, and Caroline took a handful of slips from her sweater pocket and began putting them in the pockets of all the coats hanging outside her classroom. It was understood that Beth would fill the pockets of the second- and third-graders, Eddie would do the fifth and sixth grades, and Caroline would do the pockets of her fourth-grade class.
    Caroline's heart was beating fast and her hands felt cold as she walked silently along the rows of coats, dipping one hand down into the pocket of her sweater. She knew she was taking an extra-long time, but she hoped Miss Applebaum would figure she had been feeling a little sick and needed extra time in the rest room.
    The girls usually hung their coats on one side of the hallway, the boys on the other. On one side were purple, pink, and green nylon jackets, some with fake fur around the hoods, mittens with designs on them, and a few snow boots of blue and pink and purple.
    On the other side of the hallway were brown and gray and blue and black coats, some of wool, some of nylon, and stocking caps stuffed up sleeves or flung this way and that on the rack.
    Caroline finished putting messages in the girls’ pockets and started down the other side of the hall. She put her hand deep into the pocket of a browncorduroy jacket with a sheepskin collar and didn't notice Wally Hatford walking out of the classroom toward the boys’ rest room. She didn't see him stop and stare at her before continuing silently on his way.

Six

Spy Time
    C aroline Malloy steals,” Wally announced to his brothers as they walked up to their porch that afternoon.
    “How do you know?” asked Josh.
    “I saw her in the hall today with her hand in a boy's coat pocket. She didn't see me, though.”
    “What did she take?”
    Wally shrugged. “I don't know. She was probably looking for money or something. It was Kevin Miller's jacket.”
    Wally went inside and started to take off his coat.
    Then he remembered the quarter he'd found on the way to school that morning and wondered if it was still where he'd put it. If Crazy Caroline was going around checking pockets to see if there was any money in them, she'd undoubtedly taken his quarter too.
    He thrust both hands in both pockets. The quarterwas still there. There was also a little slip of paper, which he pulled out with two fingers. While his brothers went into the kitchen to get a snack, Wally unfolded the paper and read:
    Private: This is a secret message. If you want to
    see the abaguchie, come to 611 Island Avenue
    between 3 and 4 PM. tomorrow, Saturday. Free.
    Do not tell anyone about this message or you will
    not get in.
    What in the world?
    Wally looked around to see if Josh or Jake had seen him reading the secret message. He wanted to go right out and show it to them, but maybe he shouldn't. That was the Malloys’ address, all right, and Caroline had obviously put it in his pocket. Maybe
that
was what she'd been doing out in the hall. She'd sure been acting weird lately, as though she wanted Wally to be her boyfriend, and now maybe she liked Kevin, too. Well, that was fine with Wally. Kevin could have her all to himself.
    Still, what did it mean? Was it possible the Malloys really had captured the strange animal that had been lurking around Buckman? Maybe Coach Malloy had