Fool's Gold by Eric Walters Read Free Book Online Page B

again. Between the ties I could see the creek flowing below. It was a strange effect, the water rushing by underneath from right to left while I was moving forward. It made it feel like the bridge itself was moving … like my stomach was moving.
    â€œGeorge!” Jack hissed. “I think I hear a train.”
    My head jerked up. Anxiously I looked beyond Jack and along the tracks. I didn’t see anything. I looked back over my shoulder. Nothing. I didn’t seeanything … I didn’t hear anything … at least I didn’t think so.
    â€œHurry up!”
    I looked down at the next tie. I stepped onto it. Rather than bring my other foot forward onto that tie I stepped straight to the next. Maybe I didn’t have time to take baby steps. I kept on taking the ties one at a time, one after the other. There couldn’t be that many more now. I could see that the ground was starting to rise to meet the rails again. As the ground got closer I got more confident and started to move faster and faster. I stopped when I reached Jack’s side and waited for the pounding in my chest to settle down.
    â€œTook you long enough.”
    â€œBut I’m here,” I said, looking down the tracks. “So where’s the train?”
    Jack smirked. “I didn’t really hear one, but I thought you needed a little encouragement.”
    He had put me through all that for nothing? “You know, Jack, sometimes you’re a real—” I stopped myself mid-sentence. I heard something. Jack turned around.
    Then we both saw it. Up the tracks, steaming toward us, was a train! It was a fair way down the tracks but it was moving incredibly quickly for something that big. I was mesmerized by it.
    Jack grabbed my arm and yanked me off the tracks! We plunged, feet first, down the embankment,skidding, sending an avalanche of cinders and stones down before us. I hit the bottom and tumbled forward, landing face first in a heap. I turned to look up at the engine and there was a blast of air and my face was pummelled with a shower of grit and cinders. The ground underneath me was shaking. I watched, my eyes partially shielded by a hand, as car after car thundered by. It was a long, long train. Finally the caboose swished past, and the shaking and the sound got softer and softer until both were gone completely.
    â€œYou planning on lying there all day?” Jack asked.
    Embarrassed, I got to my feet and brushed myself off.
    â€œLucky thing I lied to you to get you moving,” Jack said. “If I hadn’t, you’d be a stain on the tracks right about now.”
    A little shiver went up my spine. He was probably right. If I hadn’t started to move faster I would have still been on the trestle when I saw the train, and if I’d frozen or fallen or—
    â€œYou can always count on me,” Jack said. “At least, count on me to give you a hard time. Come on, let’s get moving.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    JACK PICKED UP THE RECEIVER of the telephone. We were at a pay phone at the side of a little gas station on the highway. It was the first phone we’d been able to find. Jack held the phone so I could listen in to the conversation. He dialled zero and the phone started to ring.
    â€œOperator,” a nasally voice sang out.
    â€œYeah … hi … we have to make a call … a collect call.”
    â€œWhat is the number?” she asked.
    Jack held the phone against his shoulder and unfolded the paper. He read out the numbers.
    â€œAnd who should I say is calling?” the operator asked.
    â€œJack … Jack Braun.”
    â€œHold please, Mr. Braun.” The line suddenly went silent.
    â€œLet me do all the talking,” Jack said.
    I nodded my head.
    â€œThey have accepted the charges,” the operator said. “I’m connecting the call.”There was a click. “Hello?” Jack said.
    â€œHello,” came a voice—the familiar voice of