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

in here,” I said, pointing at my head. “Far away, and echoey, like he’s in a cave, or at the end of a long tunnel. But it really is there, I swear.”
    Ellie stuck out her lower lip about three inches. “Harrumph. It’s not
fair
. Why does he talk to you and not me? You didn’t even know what a calico was.” She crossed her arms and stared out the window with a pouty face until a New York–bound train on the other track zoomed past, just inches away, making her jump.
    “I don’t know why you’re mad at me,” I said. “It’s not like I asked for it or anything. And what good is it, anyway? Big deal, so I can hear a cat talking. Once I get off the train in Ashtabula, I’ll probably never see Lantern Sam, or you, again.”
    “Don’t say that!” Ellie said. “We’re going to be friends forever.”
    “You’re crazy,” I said, making a face. “You don’t know anything about me. I’ll bet you don’t even remember my name.”
    “Henry Shipley. H-E-N-R-Y S-H-I-P-L-E-Y. You live in Ashtabula, Ohio, and you have a little sister named Jessica.Your father is captain of a ship called the
Point Pelee
. You like science and drawing boats, and you want to be a naval arch—”
    “Okay, okay, I get it. I forgot that you remember everything. Still doesn’t mean we’re going to stay friends.”
    Ellie shrugged and smiled a know-it-all smile, her nose stuck high in the air. “Say what you want. I’m right. I can just tell. You’ll see, ’specially after we catch those criminals. I wonder where they’re hiding out, planning their next move.”
    “What do they look like, anyway?” I asked.
    “Kind of ordinary—well, he is, anyway. She’s quite pretty. I didn’t get a good look at what they were wearing because they were behind the baggage cart.”
    “One is a woman! You didn’t say that before.”
    “You didn’t ask.”
    “What are they wanted for?”
    “All the usual crimes, I suppose,” Ellie answered. “Murder, probably. Robbing banks. That’s what they’re
all
wanted for—the really famous criminals. Like Bonnie and Clyde, and Ma Barker’s gang.”
    I stood up suddenly, checking all around me. “Oh no! I must have left my sketchbook back in the observation car. I have to get it before anybody else finds it. Meet you back here in a minute?”
    “You have
one
minute,” Ellie answered. “Then I’m going to sneak back into that car up in the front to see Sam again. Maybe if I listen
really
hard, I can hear him. One … two … three …”
    “You’re counting? Criminy!”
    “Four … five … six …”
    I turned and ran through the car, almost knocking down a pregnant woman in a dress as red as her lipstick.
    “Hey, watch it!” growled her husband. The brim of his hat cast a dark shadow over his face, but I did manage a quick look at his eyes as they sparked with fire at me.
    “Sorry!” I shouted, turning and catching one last glimpse of Ellie. She was staring openmouthed at the pregnant woman and her husband, who was dressed all in black except for the white minister’s collar at his throat.

    By my count, I made it to the end of the observation car and picked up my sketchbook (“Whew! It’s still here!”) in a shade over thirty seconds. The collision had cost me some time, no doubt about that, but the round-trip
couldn’t
have taken much more than a minute—which was why I was so surprised, on returning to the club car, to find no sign of Ellie.
    “Where the heck did she go?” I asked no one in particular.
    “She went thataway,” said a man in a gray flannel suit, peering over his newspaper at me and pointing toward the front of the car with his chin. “You’re looking for the pretty little brunette, aren’t you? The one with the Shirley Temple curls, wearing a green dress? Is she your girlfriend?”
    “N-no! She’s not … she’s only ten!” I headed for the front of the train, through the sleepers and the dining car, stopping at the section where my