Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Dink tried to shrink into the dark space between the bushes. He could feel Josh and Ruth Rose doing the same. His heart thudded as Fred Little stepped closer. Then he stopped, took off his jacket, and hung it on a tree branch three feet from Dink's nose. He walked back toward the house. Josh grabbed Dink. "Look, he's wearing yellow suspenders!" Dink remembered where he'd seen those suspenders. He grinned at Josh. "The Superman clown!"

"And the giraffe clown," Josh whispered back. "I knew I'd seen him before." They watched as Fred Little opened his gym bag. He pulled out a coil of rope and looped it around his neck. Then he picked up the long pole he'd brought with him. Only it wasn't a pole. Fred Little had brought a pair of long stilts. He carefully leaned the stilts against the house and scooted up the foot rests. Now about ten feet tall, he stilt-walked to a spot under a small window on the second floor. A moment later, Dink watched Fred Little slip through the window. First he was standing there on stilts, and then he was gone, like a snake slithering into a hole. The stilts remained leaning against the side of the house. Josh was at Dink's ear. "Should we-" "Shhh, wait," Ruth Rose whispered. Suddenly the rope uncoiled from the window. One end dangled to the ground, between the stilts. "That must be how he's coming down," Ruth Rose said.

"Let's take the rope and stilts," Josh whispered. "He'll be trapped inside!" "But Mrs. Davis is in there with him," Ruth Rose said. "We have to let him come out, then follow him." "One of us should run to the police station now," Dink said. The trouble was, no one wanted to leave the excitement. Suddenly three things happened at once: The upstairs light blazed on. Dink heard a loud scream. A police whistle blared through the open window. Dink leaped to his feet, not sure what to do. Mrs. Davis was up there, and the burglar was probably in the same room with her! But which one had let out that scream? Dink saw a silhouette appear at the window. A second later, Fred Little was climbing down his escape rope. With his feet still above the ground, he dropped. Suddenly the backyard exploded in color and noise. A police cruiser roared across Mrs. Davis's lawn, flashing red, yellow, and blue lights. The backyard looked like a fireworks display.

The siren whooped loudly, shutting out the shrieking of the whistle. Then the noise stopped as the cruiser doors burst open. Officers Fallon and Keene leaped out. "Hold it!" Officer Fallon shouted. Fred Little was still crouched on the ground where he had landed. Dink saw his mouth fall open in panic and surprise. In seconds, he was wearing handcuffs. As Officer Keene led the prisoner to the police car, the back door flew open. Mrs. Davis marched out in a white nightgown and floppy slippers. She flip-flopped across the yard toward Fred Little. Her face was shiny with white cream. Some kind of lacy bonnet covered her hair. And she held a long sword high over her head. "The nerve of you!" she yelled into Fred Little's terrified face. "Coming right into my bedroom!" The sword flashed in the cruiser's headlights. Dink thought she was going to use it on the burglar!

"I heard you trying to find my jewelry!" she shouted. "And after I fed you tea and cookies!" "Come on," Ruth Rose said. Everyone, but especially Fred Little, was surprised to see three little ninjas crawl out of the bushes.