The Quicksand Question by Ron Roy Page B

over—or
into—
his sleeping bag.
    Then he heard munching, and he smelled cookies.
    “Josh!” Dink said. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”
    “Sorry,” Josh said, swallowing. “I was hungry!”
    When the kids woke up, sunlight was streaming through the dusty barn window. Birds chirped. The kids kickedout of their sleeping bags and stepped into their sneakers.
    “Let’s go see that fire,” Josh said. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair stood in spikes.
    Pal gazed up at Josh with big brown eyes.
    “Okay, you can come, too,” he said, snapping Pal’s leash onto his collar. Ruth Rose fed Polly a carrot, and then they left the barn.
    The sun peeked through the trees as the kids hiked across the meadow. The tall grass was heavy with dew. Their sneakers and legs were soon soaked.
    “Look!” Ruth Rose said. Straight ahead was a soggy pile of blackened wood. The air stunk of smoke and wet ashes.
    The ground was even wetter here. There were still puddles from the firefighters’ hoses. Dink noticed deep footprints in the mushy, trampled grass.
    “Why would somebody light a fire here?” Josh asked, looking around. They were standing near the edge of River Road. On the other side of the road, a short bank dropped off to Indian River.
    “Maybe they were roasting marsh-mallows,” Ruth Rose said. She found a long stick and began poking the mess of charred wood and ash.
    “In the middle of the night?” Josh asked. “Who eats then?”
    Dink laughed. “You do, Mr. Cookie Monster.”
    Josh grinned.
    “What’s this?” Ruth Rose asked.
    She picked up a hunk of wood and wiped it clean. It was about six inches long and three inches wide. Both ends were charred, but the middle hadn’t been burned. Stamped into the board with black ink were the letters ET CO. “What’s ET CO?” Josh asked.
    “CO could be the first two letters of
Connecticut,
” Ruth Rose said.
    “Or
Colorado,”
Dink added.
    “I wonder if someone started the fire just to get rid of this,” Ruth Rose said, examining the narrow piece of wood.
    “It would be nice to know how many letters got burned off,” Dink said. “ET CO could be part of lots of words, like
pet comb
or
wet coat.”
    “Or
sweet cotton candy,
” Josh added.
    “The CO could be short for
corporation,
” Ruth Rose suggested, shoving the wood into her back pocket.
    “I think it stands for
get cookies!
” Josh yelled. He started to run. “Last one back to the barn doesn’t get any!”

Josh burst through the barn doors first. Dink and Ruth Rose barreled in right behind him.
    Josh immediately pounced on the cookie tin. He opened it, then gasped. “Call the cops!” he yelled. “I’ve been robbed!”
    Dink grinned at his friend. “What’d they take, your brain?”
    “Worse,” Josh said, peering into the empty cookie tin. “They took my cookies!”
    “Hey, my piggy bank is missing!”Ruth Rose said. “I left it right on my sleeping bag.”
    Dink poked his hand into the opening of his sleeping bag. He felt around. “My money jar isn’t here, either!” he said.
    Josh pulled open his sleeping bag. “Now I’m
really
mad!” he said. “My money sock is gone!”
    Josh looked at his friends. “Someone snuck in here while we were gone,” he said.
    “Raccoons might have taken the cookies,” Ruth Rose said, glancing around the barn.
    “And I read that crows sometimes steal shiny coins,” Dink offered.
    Suddenly Josh grinned. “No, it wasn’t raccoons or crows,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “I think it was two little monkeys!”
    “The twins!” shouted Dink and Ruth Rose at the same time.
    The three kids charged out of the barn and raced across the yard. Josh stormed through the kitchen door and yelled, “Freeze!”
    Brian and Bradley were kneeling on kitchen chairs, playing with a pile of coins on the table. On the counter were Josh’s blue sock, Dink’s peanut butter jar, and Ruth Rose’s piggy bank. “Josh!” cried Bradley. “Look what we