Chapter 3

Chapter 3 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 found in the barn!"

"It's pirate treasure!" yelled Brian. "No, it's not. It's our treasure," Josh growled at his little brothers. Bradley made a face. "But we found it. Nobody was there!" "This is special money," Dink told the twins. "We saved it for the ducks." "Why do ducks need money?" asked Brian. Ruth Rose explained how the money would be used to build a bridge so mommy ducks and baby ducks could cross the road safely. "Okay," the twins said together.

"Now, what about my cookies?" Josh asked, waving the cookie tin. "Give 'em back!" The two little boys erupted in giggles. "We can't—they're in our stomachs!" Brian crowed. The five kids ate breakfast, and then Josh told Bradley and Brian to go wake up their parents. Dink scooped all their coins into the cookie tin while Josh and Ruth Rose cleaned up. Then Josh reached for Pal's leash. But Pal was already sitting by the door with his leash in his mouth. "Smart doggie," Josh said as he clipped the leash to Pal's collar. Dink lugged the heavy cookie tin. Pal and the kids took Eagle Lane to Silver Circle, then crossed Main Street to the fire station. They saw Officer Fallon getting out of his cruiser in front of the station. "'Morning, kids," the police chief said. "You're up early." He bent down and stroked Pal's soft ears. Dink held up the cookie tin. "We came to make a deposit!" Officer Fallon grinned. He reached into his cruiser and pulled out a jar of coins. "Me too."

"Did you hear about the fire last night?" Ruth Rose asked. "Yes, I did," Officer Fallon said. "It was small, and I guess the fire department put it out easily. The question is, who started it?" "I saw a car's headlights near there," Dink reported. "But that was before the fire." "How long before?" Officer Fallon asked. Dink thought back. "I don't know, maybe ten minutes or so." Officer Fallon set his coin jar on the roof of his cruiser. Then he pulled out his pad, flipped it open, and made a few notes. "Could this be a clue?" Ruth Rose asked. She pulled the partly burned wood from her pocket. "Where'd you find that, Ruth Rose?" he asked. "We went to the scene of the fire this morning," she told him. "This was in the ashes."

Officer Fallon examined the four letters. "CO is usually short for company," he said, "but there should be a period after the O." "Maybe the period got burned off?" Ruth Rose said. Officer Fallon made a note on his pad. "Good detective work," he said to Ruth Rose. Josh's eyes lit up. "Maybe the wood was from a snake's cage," he said. "Don't pet cobra." They all laughed. "Well, let's add our money so we can save those ducks," Officer Fallon said, slipping his notebook into a pocket and reaching for his money jar. They walked into the fire station together. Somewhere a radio played softly. A clock on the rear wall said nine o'clock.