Chapter 5

Chapter 5 "I'm going to boil some water," Ruth Rose said. "My grandfather used to collect stamps. He showed me how to steam 'em off envelopes." Ruth Rose ran water into the teakettle and set the kettle on the burner. Then she turned on the stove. The kids sat and stared at it. "Sure is taking a long time to boil," Dink muttered, brushing his fingertips over the sunflower stamps. Suddenly steam began whistling out of the kettle spout. Dink handed Ruth Rose the empty envelope.

Ruth Rose held the envelope so the stamps were right over the kettle's spout. In a few seconds, moisture began gathering on the stamps. Then the stamps began to peel away from the envelope. "Cool!" Josh said. "I feel like a spy!" Ruth Rose shut off the stove. Using the tip of a toothpick, she removed the three sunflower stamps from the envelope. Hidden beneath the stamps, covered with cellophane, was a smaller stamp. It was blue. In the center of the stamp was a picture of an oldfashioned airplane. The plane was flying upside down. Dink removed the cellophane. "It's an old stamp," he said. Josh poked a finger at the stamp. "The dumb thing is printed wrong," he muttered. "What's the big deal about an upside-down airplane stamp?"

Ruth Rose studied the stamp. "Maybe it's valuable," she said. "My grandfather has a stamp that's worth two hundred dollars!" "I wonder if Doris Duncan knew this was here," Dink said. The kids looked at each other. Then they stared at the little blue stamp. "We should go to the library and look at a book about stamps," Ruth Rose said finally. Dink glanced at the kitchen clock. "We better make it fast. Doris Duncan will be back in less than an hour!"

Dink slipped the stamp inside the empty envelope and stuck all five envelopes under his shirt. "Okay, let's go," he said. Ruth Rose went to the bottom of the hall stairs. "MOM, I'M GOING TO THE LIBRARY!" she yelled. They hurried through the living room, out the door, and down Ruth Rose's front sidewalk. As they started up Woody Street, Josh nudged Dink with his elbow. "Look. There's some weird guy watching us." He pointed at a dark car parked on the other side of the street. Ruth Rose looked. "What guy?" They all looked. There was no one in the car. "Come on," Dink said. "We're running out of time!" The kids ran all the way to the library. When they charged up the front steps, they were out of breath. Mrs. Mackleroy looked up as they burst through the door. "Slow down, kids," she said. "Why, your faces are red as beets!" "Hi, Mrs. Mackleroy," Ruth Rose panted. "Can you show us a book about stamps?"

"What kind of stamps, Ruth Rose? United States? Foreign? We have many many books about stamps, dear." "Do you have one about stamps with pictures of upside-down airplanes?" Dink asked. Mrs. Mackleroy smiled. "You mean inverts," she said. "Stamps that were printed upside down

by mistake." She walked to a shelf and returned with a big flat book. "You should find your stamp in here," Mrs. Mackleroy said. "Thanks a lot," Dink said. Dink carried the book over to a corner table. He set it down, looked around, then pulled the envelopes from inside his shirt. He carefully removed the blue stamp and placed it on the table. "There's a zillion upside-down stamps in here," Josh said, riffling through the pages. "How do we find ours?" "Try the index," Dink said. "Under Jenny." Josh turned to the index in the back of the book. He ran his finger down the J section. "No Jenny," he said. "Try looking under airplanes," Ruth Rose suggested. "Good idea!" Josh backed up a few pages to the A's. He found a listing for airplanes and turned to page 329. And there it was. A picture of the little blue stamp.