Cam Jansen & Mystery of the Dinosaur Bon by Suzanna David/Natti Adler Read Free Book Online Page B

buy presents for my twin sisters and my brother, Howie.”
    In the gift shop there were shelves of books and racks of postcards. Kits to make airplane models and models of dinosaurs were piled on a table with toys and games.
    “All I have is a dollar,” Eric said. “I hope I can find something.”
    While Eric looked around, Cam opened a big book called Dinosaurs. There was a whole page on the Coelophysis, but there was no illustration of its skeleton. The book told about how the Coelophysis hunted for food and how it might have looked, but it did not say how many bones the Coelophysis had in its tail.
    “Look what I bought for the twins,” Eric said a few minutes later. He reached into a bag and took out two small whistles, each in the shape of a Brachiosaurus. Cam took one of the whistles and blew into it. It was a dog whistle. It made a sound dogs could hear clearly, but Cam and Eric could hardly hear it.
    “These whistles are for calling dogs,” Cam said. “Why did you buy them? Your family doesn’t have a dog.”
    “I know, but these whistles are also toy dinosaurs, and they’re just twenty-nine cents each. Everything else costs too much.”
    Eric reached into the bag again and took out two postcards. “Look at these,” he said. “This one is for Howie.” It was a picture of a hot-air balloon. “And this one is for me.” The second postcard had a picture of the Coelophysis skeleton.
    “Let me see that,” Cam said.

    Cam looked at the postcard carefully. Then she closed her eyes and said, “Click.”
    “This is it!” she said, waving the postcard. “This is the way the skeleton looked when I saw it the last time I was here. Let’s go to the dinosaur room. You’ll see. Some bones are missing.”
    Cam and Eric quickly walked through the museum.
    “All right,” Cam said when they stood in front of the Coelophysis skeleton. “You count the bones hanging from the tail of the skeleton. I’ll count the ones on the postcard.”
    Cam counted the bones on the postcard a few times. Then she said, “I counted thirty-four on the tail. How many did you count?”
    “Thirty-one.”

Chapter Four
    Cam looked at her watch. It was two-thirty.
    “Come on, Eric,” she said. “It’s time to go.”
    Eric put the postcards and whistles in his pocket, and they went to meet the class in the lobby. Ms. Benson asked the class to line up. Then she led them to the school bus.
    On the bus Cam and Eric talked about the missing dinosaur bones.

    “Why would anyone want them?” Eric asked.
    “And how could anyone steal the bones?” Cam added. “The skeleton is wired together. In the time it would take to unhook a bone, I’m sure someone would walk by and see what they were doing.”
    The bus stopped in the school parking lot. Ms. Benson stood up.
    “It’s after three o‘clock,” she said. “So you may all go home.”
    It was a warm spring day. Cam and Eric had ridden their bicycles to school that morning. They went to the rack behind the school to get their bicycles.
    As Cam unlocked her bicycle, she said, “The bones can’t be taken when the museum is open. There are too many people around then, and too many guards. It must be done after the museum closes. Let’s go back there. Maybe we can find out what’s going on.”
    “But the museum closes early today,” Eric said. “We won’t have any time to look around.”
    Cam put rubber bands over the cuffs of her pants to keep them from getting caught in the bicycle as she rode.
    “All we have to look for is a place to hide,” Cam said. “We don’t have to be home until six today. We can stay in the dinosaur room after the museum closes and watch to see what happens.”
    Cam was already on her bicycle. She started to ride away before Eric could tell her that he didn’t want to hide in the museum.
    Eric got on his bicycle. He pedaled hard, but he couldn’t catch up with Cam. By the time he locked his bicycle in front of the museum, Cam was halfway up the