The Legend of Deadman's Mine by Joan Lowery Nixon

Author:Joan Lowery Nixon [Nixon, Joan Lowery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-8274-8
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 2012-09-21T16:06:00+00:00

6

BRIAN KNOCKED ON THE office door and waited. “Cool,” he told Dan after a few minutes. “Nobody’s home.”

Dan nudged Brian. Through the window he could see a computer on a desk.

Brian opened the door, and they tiptoed in. The office appeared deserted.

“Maybe we should ask permission to use it,” Dan said.

“There’s no one here to ask,” Brian pointed out. “Besides, Mrs. Austin said she was here to answer any question we might have, right? Well, I have a question only her computer can answer.”

“Right,” agreed Dan.

Brian sat down at the computer and flipped the switch that turned it on. Dan bent over his shoulder, his eyes on the screen, and they waited impatiently until the menu came up.

“Press code and F3 to get the directory,” Dan said.

Brian did, and Dan studied it. “There,” he said and pointed to a listing of stock. “Try that. Press exit and get back to revise document.”

As Brian followed directions, Dan said, “Type in stock. When it comes up press find. Then type in nightstar.”

Brian did, but the message appeared on the screen: “nightstar not found.”

Dan frowned. “They don’t have a modem,” he said. “They’re not hooked into any of the programs. If they were, I could probably hack into Mr. Morrison’s computer, figure out his code, and check his records.”

“I need to know more about what kind of information’s kept on a horse,” Brian said. “I’m going to try thunder. That’s one of the Austins’ horses.”

The computer brought up thunder along with a couple of paragraphs of information. Some of it was abbreviated, but Brian could figure it out.

“Here’s his parents and grandparents,” Brian said, pointing. “And here is the location and date of birth. Here’s some other dates, whatever they mean. But what’s this string of numbers?”

“I don’t know,” Dan said.

Brian scrolled back a page to a listing for another horse. “Here’s goldie. Hey, look! Here’s another string of numbers.”

Mrs. Austin burst into the office.

“What are you boys doing?” she demanded.

Brian and Dan froze. She didn’t look nearly as friendly as she had the evening before.

“We were going to ask permission,” Brian said, “but nobody was here.”

“The offices are out-of-bounds,” Mrs. Austin said sternly.

“We didn’t know,” Dan said, improvising. “It’s not in the rules.”

Mrs. Austin folded her arms and sighed. Brian thought she looked a bit less angry. “In the meantime, suppose you answer my question and tell me what you’re doing.”

“We wanted to see what kind of records are kept on a horse.”

“What on earth for?” she asked.

Brian explained.

“So you’re the one my husband told me about,” she said. “The boy with a million questions. Very well, what can I do to help?”

Brian smiled and pointed at the screen. “Is this an identification number for the horse?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it is.”

“Does every horse have one?” asked Brian.

“Every registered horse does.”

“Are the numbers listed anywhere else besides in a rancher’s records?”

“Yes, the number is listed with a particular group, such as the Racehorse Club Association or the Horses of the Americas Registry. All the groups are listed in the National Encyclopedia of Associations.

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