Norton, Andre - Novel 32 by Ten Mile Treasure (v1.0)

red-faced now
and screaming in rage.
    "She slapped Parky , she
did, she did!" The uproar Perks made was
deafening.
    "He bit me first!" Marlene had backed against the wall, staring at both
furiously angry twins
as if they were wild animals.
    "She was going to take Lady Maude. She wouldn't let
go of the box!" Perks continued. "She's mean, mean, mean!"
    "Perks!" Christie shook her little
sister. "Calm
down, Perks. Stop it!" Now her voice was beginning to sound as shrill as Perks's .
    "Get them out of here." Neal pushed the resisting Parky ahead of him. Christie tried to follow his
suggestion with Perks, though it was all she
could do to force the little girl to take one step at a time. Meanwhile
she heard a loud barking, as if Baron,
having gone off on some business of his own, had returned to find his family in trouble and was voicing a warning about what he was going to do to remedy that.
    Somehow they got the twins outside. Once in the open, they began to calm
down. Parky refused to answer any questions and Perks cried loudly as Christie tried to
find out what had
happened.
    "I'll tell you what happened," Marlene ex claimed. She had a tear in the
sleeve of her shirt,
and there were dark smudges on her jeans. "I saw these—these little monsters sneaking around, pulling out
rocks to open up that
cave. So I watched to see what else they were doing. That way I found this treasure of yours. They had just opened the
box and were taking
out that old doll when I caught them."
    "Perks!" Christie's real horror was plain
in her voice. What if the twins had
dragged Lady Maude out, broken her fine
china head, or got ten her dress torn
and dirty?
    "We were going to hide her and keep her safe!" Perks wailed. "You and Libby, you
said she was worth a lot of money and we
wanted her for Daddy! Then she"—Perks stabbed a finger toward
Marlene—"said Lady Maude be longed to
her and she was going to take her right
now. When she couldn't let go of the box, Parky bit
her. He had to—she wouldn't let go!"
    "Just like an animal!" Marlene broke in.
"Don't you teach your little brother to act human? Just like a dirty
little animal—"
    Christie gave Perks a push in Libby's direc tion and confronted Marlene.
"You—you shut up! Parky's no animal. He was just too excited and frightened. And you've no
right to Lady Maude
either!"
    "So? Well, this cave is on my own father's land, and
what's found here belongs to us! And—"
    Marlene moved as if to return to the cave, but the four Kimballs plus Libby formed a solid barrier between her and its entrance. She stopped, but it was plain she was not yet de feated.
    "You
just wait and see! I'm going right home now
and tell my father, and you'll see what happens to you then! Your little
brother bit me and tore my shirt.
See? Right here. You're keeping things that belong to
us. My father, he'll fix you! Just
wait and see!" She turned her
back on them and went toward > her mare.
    Neal moved as if to stop her, but Libby caught him back.
    "Don't make it any worse," the Navajo girl advised him. "She can cause
trouble and she

Danger for Lady Maude
    will .
What are we going to do about that now?" She
nodded at the cave.
    "There's just too much for us to take it all away," Neal said.
    "Take the mail sack, Lady Maude, and the strongbox," Christie advised.
"The rest is mostly
old clothes. We can show Mother and Father and they'll know who it really belongs to."
    "Chris—Chris, can Marlene do something bad to Parky 'cause he bit her?" Perks caught her sister's hand in both of hers and squeezed it tight.
    " Parky shouldn't have
bitten—he knows that,"
Neal said.
    "Don't care!" Parky scowled at his brother defiantly. "She was going to take our stuff. She's nothing but an old stealer,
so she is! I couldn't
make her let go, so I bit her!"
    "You know what Daddy said about biting," Christie reminded him. "Now,
we don't know how
long it will be before she comes back—"
    "Yes." Neal turned to the cave. "We'd better
get those