Phantoms in the Snow by Kathleen Benner Duble Page B

that he had not been hurt when he hit the glass. At last, they were all down.
    Another head popped out of the broken window above them. “Hey!” The hotel manager’s face was tight with anger. “You boys get back here this instant!”
    “Yeah, right,” Roger muttered as he attached his ski boots to his skis. “To the woods, boys!” And they were off, skiing as fast as they could, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the hotel.
    Noah thought of nothing but skiing, making sure not to fall, pushing himself as hard as he could. Faster and faster they skied across fields and down hillsides. Until at last they stopped, breathing heavily, sweat dripping down their faces.
    “Whoo ha!” Wiley crowed. “Now, that was some fun!”
    “
This
will be a story for camp!” Bill laughed. “I couldn’t believe it when your feet hit that window.”
    “
You
couldn’t believe it?” Cam said, grimacing. “The woman standing there in her slip and curlers couldn’t believe it, either.”
    “That’s a sight I would like to have seen,” Roger hooted.
    “Nah, you wouldn’t have,” Cam said, rolling his eyes. “She was about seventy!”
    They all burst out laughing. Only Noah wasn’t joining in.
    “Noah?” Wiley said. “You all right? Something the matter?”
    Noah looked at them, a feeling coming over him as if someone were running fingernails down his spine. “What about the jeep?”

CHAPTER NINETEEN
    M an, we are in for it now,” Cam said, shaking his head.
    “Yeah, we’ve
got
to go and get that vehicle,” Bill said.
    “Shoot. Last year, me and a few friends from my football team bought some girls’ panties and began to string them up on the rival team’s yards,” Roger said.
    “And the point of this is?” Bill asked.
    “Word got around fast. By the fifth house, they had people waiting for us,” Roger said. “We may have to wait till sundown to sneak back and get that jeep. They may be watching for us.”
    “But we’re due back on the base at nineteen hundred hours,” Cam said. “If we wait till dark, we’ll be cutting it close.”
    “We don’t have a choice,” Noah argued. “We can’t return now. Roger’s right. There’s probably people out looking for us.”
    They all stared dejectedly at one another.
    Wiley took off his duffel bag and threw it to the ground. Then he sat down. “Some day off.”
    “Yeah,” Cam said, tossing his bag down, too, and throwing himself on top of it. “We don’t even have anything to eat with us.”
    “You always just think of food, Cam,” Bill said. “We could get court-martialed for this.”
    “Yeah,” Roger said ruefully. “We’re gonna be in big trouble, no doubt.”
    He paused and then a wide grin suddenly lit up his face. “Still, you have to admit it, boys, the climb down that hotel sure was sweet, wasn’t it?”
    At this, they all burst out laughing, and this time, even Noah joined in.
    Eventually, they skied back toward town, miserably cold from sitting in the snow all day and worried about getting back to Camp Hale on time without getting caught. They left their skis by the side of the road about a mile away from town and walked toward Leadville, keeping themselves hidden in the trees that bordered the road.
    The hotel was quiet. The sun had just set, and shadows were creeping across the parking lot. Noah and the boys breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the jeep in the exact same spot they had parked it yesterday.
    “Okay. Here’s our strategy,” Roger whispered to them. “You boys wait here. I’ll sneak on in and get it. If anyone comes out when I start her up, take off.”
    “No, Roger,” Noah argued. “That isn’t right. We’re in this together. If one of us gets caught, we all get caught.”
    “I’m with Noah,” Bill agreed. “We’re a team. Teams don’t leave members behind.”
    Wiley and Cam nodded their assent.
    With their eyes peeled for any sign of movement, the boys crouched low and scurried