Catcher with a Glass Arm Read Online Free Page B

shoes so that he made Midnight jump with fright. He was carrying a flashlight.
    “Hi,” he said. “Where are you going?”
    “To Flatiron Rock,” replied Jody. “Midnight and I go there once in a while.”
    “You
and Midnight?”
Johnny looked down at the cat. “I’ve heard of guys being good friends with dogs, but never with cats.”
    “You get them trained, they’re as smart as dogs,” said Jody.
    He started walking again, and Midnight began trotting beside him. If Johnny wanted to come along, okay. But he wasn’t going
     to ask him. He could still remember Johnny and Moonie talking about him at the games and practices, and none of it was any
     good.
    “I asked Moonie if he’d want to go to Indian Cave today, but he can’t,” Johnny said. “You ever been there?”
    “Of course,” said Jody. “Many times.” Heshrugged. “Well—three or four times, I guess.”
    “Ever been
inside?”
    “Well, no,” said Jody. “Never inside. Never
far
inside, I mean.” He looked curiously at Johnny. “Why? Is that where you’re going? Is that why you have that flashlight?”
    Johnny smiled, “Yes. You want to go? It;’s not far from here, and we can go inside and explore. I found two arrowheads in
     there once. Moonie found one, too. Of course, we had to go in a long ways. You’re not scared, are you?”
    “No,” Jody said. “I’ll go with you. What’s there to be scared of?”
    They walked a quarter of a mile down the road to a wooden bridge. They stepped off the road and slid down the steep bank to
     the edge of a creek.
    The boys walked up alongside the creek, Midnight following close behind. Theyreached falls that were about ten feet high and two feet wide. They climbed the rocky ledge that was like steps beside it.
     They reached the top. Here the creek was wide but the water was very shallow.
    The cave was a big hole in the hillside to the left.
    “Here we are!” said Johnny. “Watch that crack in the floor. There’s water in it.”
    They rested for a while on a large rock. Then Johnny turned on his flashlight and started to walk deeper into the cave. A
     chill crawled along Jody’s spine as he followed at Johnny’s heels.
    “Meow!”
said Midnight. He hesitated awhile, then trotted in after them.
    “Look at that,” said Johnny.
    He was shining the flashlight against the wall. Into the flat surface of a huge rock were carved pictures of a tepee and of
     aNative American chief. Jody wondered how long those had been there. Maybe scientists knew, he thought. Or those people who
     studied Native American lore.
    They walked farther in. I wonder how far he’s going, Jody thought.
    “Scared?” asked Johnny.
    “No,” said Jody. “Why should I be scared?”
    He was scared, but he wasn’t going to let Johnny know it. Not for one second.
    Suddenly his left foot slipped on a slimy rock. He fell to his knee and let out a cry. Johnny turned, flashed the light on
     him, then on the rock beside him.
    Jody’s heart flipped. Not a foot away from him was a pool of water. The water was about four feet below the floor of the cave.
     It looked deep and dangerous. Jody shuddered as he rose slowly to his feet.
    “I’m sorry,” said Johnny. “I knew the poolwas here somewhere, but I didn’t see it either. We’ll go to the falls, then turn back.”
    Jody soon heard the hum coming from farther inside the cave. They walked on for another fifty feet, the hum of the falls growing
     louder all the time. And then Johnny shone the flashlight straight ahead, and Jody saw the falls. The water looked like a
     huge white curtain. He couldn’t see the bottom of it. From where they stood all they could see was the spray that leaped up,
     and all they could hear was its thundering noise.
    The whole thing was creepy. Jody felt goose bumps on his arms.
    They started back, walking side by side now. Johnny talked almost all the way back, telling about the Native Americans and
     how they had fought the pioneers, and