The Treasures of Weatherby by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Author:Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Chapter Fifteen

By the next morning Harleigh had decided on the questions he needed to ask Uncle Edgar, as well as how he might go about asking them without giving away too much about what he was really trying to find out. The first question would be about sonar, or perhaps radar—just to make it sound as if he were looking for general information about machines that searched for things, and perhaps made a noise while they were doing it. But then he would get around to metal detectors and maybe find out what they looked like, and what kind of searches they were usually used for. And—this was especially important—if they made a noise while they were doing it.

Sure enough, Uncle Edgar had lots of useful information. He even drew a picture of a long pole with some handles at one end and a large circular scanner at the other. And when Harleigh asked the important question, about what they sounded like, he said, “Well, I believe some of the newer ones have a small console on which symbols indicate whether anything made of metal has been located. But some of them still have audible indicators.”

“What kind of indicators?” Harleigh asked.

Uncle Edgar smiled. “Audible. Something that you hear.”

Something that you hear! That was it—exactly what Harleigh had been looking for. Or maybe what he hadn’t been looking for, if he wanted to go on believing that Allegra had been lying when she said she’d heard a metal detector on the recital hall’s stage.

Harleigh had a hard time keeping his mind on the rest of what Uncle Edgar wanted him to learn that morning, such as the relationship between diameters and circumferences and the dates of several ancient civilizations.

Finally Uncle Edgar said, “Well, it seems our recently improved attention span is taking the day off.” His big, floppy grin spread across his face. “What’s on your mind, boy?”

In the past, when Uncle Edgar said something of that sort, Harleigh might have let him have it with a quick comeback about how some teachers made their lessons interesting, while some others just didn’t have the knack. But today it somehow didn’t seem worth the effort.

So all he said was that he had been working on a different sort of problem—a personal one. And when Uncle Edgar said he’d be glad to help if it were possible, Harleigh surprised himself by saying, “Yeah, well, I wish it was.” The surprising part was—it was true.

It was almost noon before Uncle Edgar gave up on Harleigh, and even then he might not have, except that he was anxious to get to the special feast that Matilda was preparing.

“Special feast?” Harleigh asked. “What is she doing that for?”

Uncle Edgar stared at him. “He didn’t tell you?” he said. “No one told you?” Uncle Edgar seemed very surprised.

“Your father didn’t tell you?” he went on asking, and when Harleigh said no, Uncle Edgar shook his head and made the harrumphing noise that usually meant he was displeased about something.

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