The Hidden Valley Mystery by Susan Ioannou

Author:Susan Ioannou [Ioannou, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Boy's adventure novel
Publisher: Wordwrights Canada
Published: 2010-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11 – A Prisoner

Mike leaned closer and stared through the shadows at Gunnar and Tuan. “You went to the mansion again?”

Both boys nodded.

Gunnar glanced from the grape vines, to the garage wall, then back to Mike. He lowered his voice. “Tuan phoned me this afternoon.” He looked at his friend.

Tuan bent forward. “I wanted to read my new computer book. But with all my brothers home on Sundays, it’s too noisy in the apartment. So I sneaked away to Dead Man’s Cliff and slid into my hideout.”

Mike shivered. He still remembered his nasty tumble down that cliff.

Tuan winked at Mike and continued, “I was only up to page 7, when I heard faint barking from far away. North of the golf course woods, where the river turns into the hidden valley, I could see two tiny figures chasing another along the bank. They caught up, and knocked him to the ground. Then they dragged him into the woods, in the direction of the mansion.”

“A prisoner!” Mike cried in disbelief.

“Sh!” Gunnar covered Mike’s mouth. He craned over the grape vines, then poked his head around the garage corner. No one was there. He crouched back down and bent closer. “It sure looks that way,” he muttered. “We already checked it out.”

“Yeah,” Tuan added. “I was running home, when I bumped into Gunnar coming back from Freddy’s. I told him what I had seen. He filled me in on the rest.”

“Wait a minute,” Mike clutched his arm. “This is serious stuff. You guys better be careful, nosing around that mansion on your own.”

“You’re right,” said Gunnar, flattening his back against the garage wall. He looked from side to side, then continued in a whisper. “But you weren’t home.”

“And we didn’t want to call Freddy away from his girlfriend,” Tuan giggled. “Besides, he’s a blabbermouth.”

“Anyway,” Gunnar pulled up his knees, “we waited till after 8:00 P.M. I figured that was our best chance for getting close to the mansion. When I hunt late for lost golf balls, I almost never hear the dogs bark.”

“Where did you get binoculars?” Mike asked.

“We didn’t need them,” Gunnar replied. “With the dogs out of the way, we sneaked along through the woods, right up to the gravel road.”

“By then it was getting dark,” Tuan added. “On our stomachs we wriggled along the hedge up the circular driveway.”

Mike sucked in his breath. “And—?”

Gunnar craned to one side, then the other. Nothing moved in the shadows. He faced Mike and whispered, “On the main floor, lights turned on in a couple of rooms. We waited, but the curtains stayed closed.”

Tuan broke in, “Then we wiggled around to the back. We could see the basement windows. The ones nearest us were dark.”

Gunnar went on, “We worked along the basement wall. In the middle, we found one window half open. We stopped. We could hear a low sort of humming, click, and rustle, and also men’s voices. I listened hard, but over the noise, I couldn’t make out what they said.

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