12. Down the River

DOWN THE RIVER 12 Sam, Lucy, and Antonio chased the money jar as artwork hurled it back and forth down the hall. Sam reached for it, but it flew over his head. "This way!" Lucy yelled. She sped around a corner.

A painting of a tree flung the jar up a flight of stairs. It was caught by a doodle of an elderly woman. The woman threw the jar to a sketch of a caterpillar. The hall monitors raced up the steps— then stopped. Sam whispered, "Do you hear something dripping?" "More than dripping," Lucy said. Antonio said, "That sounds like a gushing faucet." Sam gasped. Paint was dripping from every single piece of art! It ran down the walls and puddled on the floor. The canvases on the wall were drained of color— they all turned white! There was so much paint, it began rising like a river!

All of a sudden— A river of paint rushed toward them. "Ahh!" Lucy cried out as the friends were swept up in a flood of thick, wet, multicolored paint. "Look!" Sam said. "The jar is over there!" It was bobbing in the river of paint. Every time the friends got close to it, the jar was carried farther away.

"Quick, hold hands!" Antonio shouted. "If we form a chain, we can reach it!" Antonio grabbed Lucy's hand. Lucy gripped Sam's. Sam tried to grab the jar...

"I can't quite get it!" Sam yelled. They heard Ms. Winter's voice coming from inside the auditorium: "Now for sale: Our most prized piece! A self-portrait painted by Orson Eerie!" "Hurry! We are almost out of time!" Lucy shouted. The paint river flung them around a corner. Sam's fingertips scraped the jar. "So close..." He felt his heart pounding as he lunged for the jar!