Secret of the Time Capsule Read Online Free Page A

up.
    “Sorry we missed the parade,” Mrs. Quinn said. “Your father got a long-distance call he had to take. Have they begun the speeches yet?”
    Nearby, a woman nodded and put a finger to her lips.
    But Brian couldn’t wait. He whispered to his dad, “Did you see the shuttle lying in the street?”
    Mr. Quinn looked puzzled, “No. Where in the street?”
    “Be right back,” Brian said. He dashed to the street, where a city dump truck was just hauling away the broken remains of the shuttle. “Wait!” he yelled at the driver.
    The driver leaned down from the open window. “Can’t wait,” he said. “Orders. Straight from the city council. Big crowd. Gotta clear the street.”
    The truck rumbled off, and Brian walked back to join his parents. Whose orders? he wondered. If the shuttle was hauled off and destroyed, no one would be able to say for sure if the supports had been sawed through or not.
    “Is something the matter?” Mr. Quinn asked Brian.
    “I had to go see about the shuttle,” Brian began.
    “Shhhh!” The same woman frowned at Brian, so he whispered even more softly.
    “It fell off the float. Nobody got hurt, but—”
    “Shhhh!” the woman said. “You’re interrupting the speeches.”
    “I’ll tell you later,” Brian said. Trying to be patient, he took a good look at the row of officials. Harry Harlow had finished his speech, and Councilman Williford was speaking about his grandfather.
    Mayor Harlow didn’t even pretend to listen. He wiggled in his rickety folding chair and fidgeted nervously with the end of his tie. Emma Wegman, who had brought the largest handbag Brian had ever seen, seemed just as nervous. She clasped and unclasped her hands and crossed and uncrossed her ankles. Only Mr. Vlado, who hunched over, chuckling to himself, seemed to be having a good time.
    As Mr. Williford came to the end of a long, boring sentence, the mayor interrupted. He jumped to his feet and grabbed the microphone. “Thank you, Councilman,” he said. “Now it’s time to open the capsule.”
    Hugh Dickerson stepped down into the dirt around the capsule. Next to him was a man who looked so much like him, he had to be his brother Gene. The dirt had been loosened and shoveled back from the capsule, so it took only a minute for the two men to lift out the time capsule and place it upright in front of the mayor.
    “Will you break the seal, please?” the mayor asked.
    Hugh Dickerson pulled a screwdriver from his belt, poked it into the soft red wax that circled the top of the capsule, and pried the strip of wax loose.
    As everyone leaned forward, the mayor pulled off the lid and peered into the container.
    Suddenly he gasped and staggered back. The lid dropped to the ground. “It’s empty!” Mayor Harlow shouted. “The time capsule is empty!”

5

    A LTHOUGH EVERYONE BEGAN TALKING at once, the mayor could still be heard. He bellowed for the police chief. “Find the culprit! Catch the thief who did this!”
    Brian and Sean looked at each other.
    “The mayor looks scared,” Sean said.
    “Maybe he’s a good actor,” Brian suggested.
    “How could he have taken the stuff from the capsule? How could anybody?” Sean asked. “You saw Mr. Dickerson peel the wax seal off.”
    “That’s our first clue that someone opened the capsule and resealed it,” Brian said. He pulled Sean away from the crowd so they could talk. “Remember when we were here before? We saw the wax that was put on the capsule back in 1918. It was hard and dried out. The wax Mr. Dickerson peeled off was soft. That means it was a new seal.”
    “But how could anybody open the capsule? The Dickerson brothers and the police took turns guarding it.”
    “How about when the space shuttle crashed?” Brian asked. “Everybody ran to see what had happened. The thief would have had ten or fifteen minutes to cut through the old wax, pull out the contents of the capsule, and slap the strip of fresh wax around the edge.”
    Sean gave a