The Boys Return by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Read Free Book Online

turn in early.”
    “Well, we're going to stay up till midnight !” crowed Doug.
    “Yeah. We may not go to sleep all night!” said Peter.
    “Good for you,” said Wally, and took a bowl of popcorn upstairs with a giant-size bottle of Mountain Dew.
    Peter and Doug held out until nine-thirty. Mrs. Benson called, and Doug talked to his mother for a while. Then the two boys took a bath together and had a water fight. After Mrs. Hatford came up to calm them down, they finally went to bed, and the upstairs grew very quiet.
    Wally, Danny, and Bill took turns listening at the crack in their door for any sign that the four older boys were leaving the house.
    “Dad and Mom go to bed around ten. The guys will wait till they're sure they're asleep, and then they'll leave, I'll bet,” said Wally.
    Ten-fifteen came, ten-thirty, ten-forty, and there was still no sign of activity from Josh and Jake's room, no light from under their door, no stirrings or rustlings.
    “When do you suppose they're going to go?” Bill asked.
    “Maybe they fell asleep,” said Danny.
    Wally went out into the hall. He tiptoed over to his brothers' room. Not a sound. Gently he tried the handle. The door was locked. But his feet were cold, and he realized suddenly that there was a draft coming from under the door.
    The window!
    He hurried back to his room. “They've already left!” he said. “They climbed out their window and slid down the tree.”
    Danny and Bill jumped up and pulled on their shoes.
    “We've got to be really, really quiet, though,” Wally warned. “And don't step on the next-to-last stair from the bottom. It squeaks.”
    Silently the boys crept out into the hall and down the stairs, careful to avoid the squeaky step. They pulled on their jackets and passed the big clock in the hall, which said 10:44, softly opened the front door, and closed it behind them.
    The air was heavy and damp. Occasionally the moon peeped out from behind stormy, swirling clouds, then hid its face again. The boys made their way off the porch and down the sidewalk, where they crossed the road and went down the bank to the swinging bridge.
    The boards bounced and the bridge swayed beneath their feet. As they climbed the hill on the other side to the house where the Malloys were staying, they could see no glow in the windows, no light on the porch.
    Wally led his friends around the clump of lilac bushes at the edge of the yard, and suddenly, whump. He collided with a warm, sturdy body—a body in a nylon jacket smelling of popcorn.
    “Hey!” said Wally.
    “Hey!” said the jacket.
    “Josh?” asked Wally.
    “Wally?” asked the jacket.
    The boys confronted each other. “I thought you were going to let us know when you came over here,” Wally said.
    “There was too much noise going on. It took Peter and Doug forever to go to sleep, and we figured if we came through the hallway, someone would see us. So we went out the window,” Josh told him.
    “Yeah, I'll bet you weren't going to tell us at all!” Bill said.
    “Shhh. I'm the lookout here. I have to keep my eyes on Mr. and Mrs. Malloy's bedroom and tell Steve if their light comes on,” Josh said.
    “Well, we can help!” said Danny.
    “Okay, just spread out around the house and watch for a light,” Josh said. “Tony's crawling in the basement window right now, and he's going to start tapping. The minute you see a light go on anywhere in the house, give a whistle. Steve will tell Tony, Tony will crawl back out, and we'll all run like heck.”
    Bill and Danny moved on to the far side of the house, but Wally went around to where Steve and Jake were crouched by the open window, ready to pull Tony to safety at the right moment.
    Wally crouched down by the window too.
    “What are you doing here?” Jake asked irritably.
    “Same as you,” Wally said. From inside the basement he could hear a faint sound. Tap… tappity… tap-tap.
    Steve and Jake grinned at each other.
    Tap, tap… tappity-tap…tap,