Holes by Louis Sachar Read Free Book Online Page A

first have to show the tube to Mr. Sir or Mr. Pendanski, who would then have to show it to the Warden. By then X-Ray might be done anyway.
    Stanley wondered about trying to secretly take the tube directly to the Warden. He could explain the situation to the Warden, and the Warden might make up an excuse for giving him the day off, so X-Ray wouldn’t suspect.
    He looked across the lake toward the cabin under the two oak trees. The place scared him. He’d been at Camp Green Lake almost two weeks, and he still hadn’t seen the Warden. That was just as well. If he could go his entire year and a half without seeing the Warden, that would be fine with him.
    Besides, he didn’t know if the Warden would find the tube “interesting.” He looked at it again. It looked familiar. Hethought he’d seen something like it, somewhere before, but couldn’t quite place it.
    “What you got there, Caveman?” asked Zigzag.
    Stanley’s large hand closed around the tube. “Nothin’, just, uh …” It was useless. “I think I might have found something.”
    “Another fossil?”
    “No, I’m not sure what it is.”
    “Let me see,” said Zigzag.
    Instead of showing it to Zigzag, Stanley brought it to X-Ray. Zigzag followed.
    X-Ray looked at the tube, then rubbed his dirty glasses on his dirty shirt and looked at the tube again. One by one, the other boys dropped their shovels and came to look.
    “It looks like an old shotgun shell,” said Squid.
    “Yeah, that’s probably what it is,” said Stanley. He decided not to mention the engraved design. Maybe nobody would notice it. He doubted X-Ray could see it.
    “No, it’s too long and thin to be a shotgun shell,” said Magnet.
    “It’s prob’ly just a piece of junk,” said Stanley.
    “Well, I’ll show it to Mom,” said X-Ray. “See what he thinks. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get the day off.”
    “Your hole’s almost finished,” said Stanley.
    “Yeah, so?”
    Stanley raised and lowered his shoulder. “So, why don’t you wait until tomorrow to show it to Mom?” he suggested. “You can pretend you found it first thing in the morning. Then you can get the whole day off, instead of just an hour or so this afternoon.”
    X-Ray smiled. “Good thinking, Caveman.” He dropped the tube into his large pocket on the right leg of his dirty orange pants.
    Stanley returned to his hole.
    When the water truck came, Stanley started to take his place at the end of the line, but X-Ray told him to get behind Magnet, in front of Zero.
    Stanley moved up one place in line.

14
    That night, as Stanley lay on his scratchy and smelly cot, he tried to figure out what he could have done differently, but there was nothing he could do. For once in his unlucky life, he was in the right place at the right time, and it still didn’t help him.
    “You got it?” he asked X-Ray the next morning at breakfast.
    X-Ray looked at him with half-opened eyes behind his dirty glasses. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grumbled.
    “You know …” said Stanley.
    “No, I don’t know!” X-Ray snapped. “So just leave me alone, okay? I don’t want to talk to you.”
    Stanley didn’t say another word.
    Mr. Sir marched the boys out to the lake, chewing sunflower seeds along the way and spitting out the shells. Hescraped the ground with his boot heel, to mark where each boy was supposed to dig.
    Stanley stamped down on the back of the blade of the shovel, piercing the hard, dry earth. He couldn’t figure out why X-Ray snapped at him. If he wasn’t going to produce the tube, why did he make Stanley give it to him? Was he just going to keep it? The tube was gold in color, but Stanley didn’t think it was real gold.
    The water truck came a little after sunrise. Stanley finished his last drop of water and stepped up out of his hole. At this time of day, Stanley sometimes could see some distant hills or mountains on the other side of the lake. They were only visible for a short while and