Lantern Sam and the Blue Streak Bandits Read Online Free Page A

brothers and sisters. “Snuggled into the straw right up against one of the cows, especially the big, old ones.”
    “Don’t do it,” said Susie. “It’s too dangerous.”
    I puffed myself up as big as I could. “I don’t care. I need a little danger. Besides, I’m going to freeze to death if I stay here, so what’s the difference?”
    “Suit yourself,” she said. Years later, when Susie became a mother, she was
much
more protective of her kittens than she was of her siblings, as is often the case.
    I jumped down into the hay in the manger between two of the biggest cows, Dell and Derby (all the Dilly cows had names that started with
D
, and the Dillys had long ago used up all the usual ones).
    Derby turned her head to look at me. She was lying on a bed of fresh, deep straw, and I could feel the warmth radiating from her thousand-pound body.
    “Mrrraaaa,” I said, rubbing against her. I continued “testing the water” to see if she had a problem with my plan, but she went on chewing her cud, not at all concerned with me. So far, so good. I zeroed in on a spot near her belly, which seemed like the warmest place, and buried myself in the straw, pressing my tiny body against hers until I felt the heat start to flow. For about an hour, it was a little slice of heaven, if heaven is a warm place that smells like a barn (and I think it is).
    And then.
    And then, while I lay there in a state of perfect contentment,Derby shifted positions. Before I knew what was happening, I was completely
under
her, trapped in the cranny between her udder, her back leg, and the straw-covered floor of the stall. As she settled into position, her tremendous mass began to squeeze the breath right out of me. I tried to wriggle in order to get her attention, hoping and praying that she wouldn’t shift the
wrong
way and crush me completely, but it was no use. There was just too much Derby.
    I don’t know how long I lay there like that. Susie seemed to think it was at least a couple of hours, maybe a bit more. At four-fifteen, the Dillys entered the barn and flipped on the lights. Cows started to stir for the morning milking, and Derby pulled herself to her feet.
    According to Susie, it was Debbie Dilly who spotted me first. She was certain I was dead.
    “Oh no! Poor Samantha.” She knelt in the straw next to my flattened body and gently lifted me in her hands.
    “Dead?” her father asked.
    Debbie nodded. “Flat as a pancake. She’s still warm.”
    “That’s because Derby was on top of her,” said Mr. Dilly.
    And then I sneezed, scaring poor Debbie so much that she dropped me! Luckily, I landed in a pile of straw, and not manure.
    “Daddy!” she cried, recovering enough to pick me up again. “She’s alive. She just sneezed.”
    “Mrrr,” I said as the feeling started to return to my legs and paws.
    “It’s a miracle,” announced Debbie.
    “Let’s not get carried away,” said her father, a practical man. “It’s just a cat. A darned lucky cat, if you ask me. I think it’s safe to say that she just used up one of her lives.”

After we left the dormitory car, I figured that Ellie would go back to her suite and leave me alone, but she kept on following me, like a strip of flypaper stuck to my shoe. The nickel that my mother had given me was burning a hole in my pocket, and I headed for the club car in search of something to spend it on.
    “Grape Nehi, please,” I said, stepping up to the counter.
    “And I’ll have orange, please,” said Ellie, producing a shiny nickel of her own.
    We took seats across from each other and slowly sipped our sodas, relishing every drop. Ellie finished hers first, and sat quietly for a moment before blurting out, “I still don’t believe it. Not really. First, everyone knows that allcalicoes are girls, and second, everyone knows that cats can’t talk. It’s some kind of trick. It
has
to be.”
    “It’s not a trick—scout’s honor. It’s hard to describe how his voice sounds