The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee Read Online Free Page A

but he was not a book thief or any other kind of thief. He placed the book on the bench in the sweet morning sunshine. It opened automatically to the M page. Though the breeze fluttered the pages, back they always came to the M page. This was a baffler!
    Jimmy McGee got back to his headquarters just in the nick of time. Amy and Clarissa, still dressed in their nightgowns, barefooted—he hadn't even banged their pipes yet—tore over to the bench at the top of the twenty-six steps. "Shows how valuable that book is!" thought Jimmy McGee. "Something magic about it, maybe..."
    He postponed finishing his usual business and stayed behind the lacy grass curtains of his headquarters and listened.
    "Ah-ah," breathed Amy. "It's safe and sound. Opens as always to the M page. And you know who's on that page, don't you?"
    "Why, Jimmy McGee, of course," said Clarissa. "But, Amy, what are all those funny-looking smudges below McGee, Jimmy, in that empty space there?" she demanded.
    Amy looked closely. "Well, those are probably the footprints of some curious gull or an adventuresome sandpiper who made it up the twenty-six steps. I'm not 'sprized. At the beach anything can happen."
    Amy smelled her book. "Smells like stove polish," she said, laughing. "Book! Have you been on adventures in the night? Like the midnight ride of Paul Revere?"
    Clarissa laughed. Amy went on. "It's lucky I had written in the front, 'If this book should chance to roam, bring it back to Amy's home. Reward. No questions asked.'"
    "That person saw that and brought it back and didn't wait for the reward," said Clarissa.
    "We will bring a pancake out for him. That will be his reward for honesty. But come on in because it is pancakes for breakfast. I smell them."
    "Smell better than stove polish," said Clarissa.
    Amy hugged her little book. "I love you, book!" she said. "And I'm glad you're safe and sound. And I like the smell of stove polish."
    Amy and Clarissa went in. Jimmy McGee heard all that talk. And he heard the last words before the screen door slammed behind them. Amy said, "After pancakes, we'll put on our bathing suits, go down to the beach, and we'll make sand castles."
    Clarissa clapped her hands and jumped up and down. "Oh!" she cried. "I never have done that before in all my borned life!"
    "We'll take Little Lydia," said Amy. "She's never seen the ocean either. We will make a castle for her, just for her."
    "And," said Clarissa sternly, "Amy, you must leave your
Who's Who Book
in The Bizzy Bee!"
    "Yes," said Amy. "I will tuck it under the mattress. Even Wags won't know where I hid it."
    "Yes," agreed Clarissa. "Because maybe it
is
magic, opening up all the time to the same page."
    And they went into The Bizzy Bee. Jimmy McGee heard that the screen door squeaked and thought he should fix it when no one was around. He could smell the bacon and the pancakes. But none of these things interested him now. What interested him now was this Lydia, Little, business.
    He got his scroll copy of the
Who's Who Book
out of its pipe and read, "Lydia, Little: a teeny, tiny doll with bright blue eyes, a do-nothing doll."
    "Well," thought Jimmy McGee, "soon I will see this Little Lydia doll." So he postponed his next rounds until after he had gotten a glimpse of her. What he wondered was this: Was there a connection between him and Little Lydia? "No," he answered himself. "A happenstance. Just the correct place in the alphabet for the two of us." He was Number 13 in the alphabet. She was Number 12. Still he mulled over this coincidence.
    Was it tied up in any way with McGee, Jimmy ... a hero? Is that what Amy knew about and he didn't?
    He should go out now on his rounds, do his work. But then Amy and Clarissa with towels and pails and shovels came out of The Bizzy Bee. Amy had some little thing clutched tightly in her fist. Might it be Little Lydia? The teeny, tiny doll? The do-nothing doll?
    He had to wait and see. It might be Little Lydia. "If it is, I must wait and get a