Dunc and the Haunted Castle Read Online Free Page B

comes on every afternoon before my mom gets home from work. It’s all about different kinds of fishing techniques.”
    “So where have you been practicing?” Dunc asked.
    Amos reeled in. “I’ve always been one of those hands-on type learners. You know, actually do the thing while the teacher’s explaining it.”
    “I have a feeling he’s trying to tell us he practices in his living room,” T.J. said.
    “Oh.” Dunc watched him cast. “What do your parents think of that?”
    “I don’t think it would have been that big of a problem if my mom hadn’t come home early with her Welcome Wagon group.”
    “What happened?” Dunc asked.
    “The show that day was on fly fishing. I made a spectacular cast just as Mrs. Higgins, the mayor’s wife, walked in our front door.The hook landed on her head. I knew if I didn’t handle it just right, I’d be in trouble. So I gave it a gentle pull and reeled my line back in. The only problem was, her hair came with it. How was I supposed to know Mrs. Higgins was bald?”
    T.J. laughed. “Then what happened?”
    “Mrs. Higgins wasn’t a very good sport about it. She busted my new pole over my head and stomped out the door. My mother threw out all my fishing gear and said if I ever touched a fishing pole again,
I’d
be bald.”
    Dunc was about to remind Amos that he had his hands on a fishing pole when he heard someone talking on the bridge overhead.
    “I’ll be glad when we get this shipment ready. Things are getting too dangerous with those kids hanging around. The boss says we can lay low awhile after we get this one out.”
    “I don’t think it’s the kids you’re worried about, Jimmy Knox. I think it’s himself. The ghost of Robert Ramsey. Your mother has you scared to death at the mention of his name.”
    The two men walked on over the bridge and out of hearing range. Amos recognized the look on Dunc’s face. That look meant trouble.

They were in T.J.’s laboratory. Dunc and T.J. were hovered over a desk making plans. Amos was playing with a remote-control flyswatter.
    Dunc looked up. “Pay attention, Amos. You’re not going to know what’s going on.”
    “I don’t want to know what’s going on. That way I don’t have to be a part of it.”
    T.J. held up a drawing. “Look at this, Amos. It’s a drawing of our secret weapon.”
    “I don’t need to look. I know it’s not going to work.”
    “What makes you so sure?” T.J. asked.
    “Two reasons. First, the odds are bad. Dunc’s never had a plan yet that actually worked. And second, nobody in their rightmind would wander up and down dark secret passages at night with a vicious, people-eating monster running loose.”
    Dunc frowned. “How many times do I have to tell you? There’s no monster. Besides, we need you for this.”
    “As what—bait?”
    “Of course not. You have the key role.”
    Amos eyed them both suspiciously. “Just what exactly do you have in mind?”
    T.J. brought the drawing over. “See, we have this costume—”
    Amos took the paper. “That looks like the suit of armor on the stairs.”
    Dunc nodded. “It is.”
    “Are you both crazy? You want me to wear a suit of armor? It’s too heavy. I won’t be able to move.”
    “Isn’t it great, Amos?” T.J. added some detail to the drawing. “Dunc thought of it. He got the idea when Jimmy Knox said he was afraid of the headless ghost, Robert Ramsey.”
    “Why do I get stuck with the armor? Why don’t one of you boy geniuses wear it?”
    “We thought of that,” T.J. said. “But you’rethe tallest, so it will fit you better, and Dunc and I have other things to do.”
    “Like what?”
    T.J. picked up something off the table. “Like making sure these antigravity air shoes have enough power to hold you and the suit of armor up in the air. You have to look like you’re floating.”
    Amos took one of the shoes and looked it over. “I thought you said you didn’t have all the bugs worked out of these yet.”
    T.J. grabbed