The Wild Culpepper Cruise by Gary Paulsen Read Free Book Online Page B

strangely and went even faster.
    When they arrived at the hotel, the driver put the luggage on the sidewalk and took off at something close to the speed of light.
    Amos craned his neck to see the top story of the hotel. “Wow! I hope our room is on the very top.”
    Their rooms were on the fifteenth floor. It wasn’t the top, but it did have a balcony overlooking the ocean.
    Amos threw his suitcase on the bed. “Come on. Let’s look this joint over.”
    Dunc was carefully hanging his clothes in the closet. “In a minute. Let me get unpacked.”
    Amos had always thought Dunc was too organized for his own good. He turned on the TV and plopped onto the other bed. The news was on. A reporter was telling about a robbery that had taken place in Fort Lauderdale earlier this morning.
    “I’m glad we only stopped in Fort Lauderdale to change planes,” Amos said. “Those guys look mean.”
    Dunc was hanging up a T-shirt. He leaned over to see the television. “They’re ugly too. Look at that one. He has a scar down the side of his face. I’d sure hate to meet him in a dark alley.”
    Dunc closed his empty suitcase and put it in the closet. “Okay. Let’s go.”
    They headed straight for the top of the hotel, where they found a swimming pool and a Jacuzzi. The view of the ocean was spectacular. It was blue as far as you could see.
    “Let’s go get our trunks on,” Amos said. “This pool has my name on it.”
    They rode the elevator back down and raced the length of the hall to their room.
    A tall, extremely thin man was bent over thedoor to their room. When he saw them, he turned and walked quickly around the corner.
    Dunc grabbed Amos’s arm. “Did you see that?”
    “What?”
    “That man was trying to break into our room.”
    Amos made a face. “Give it a rest. You’re not solving any mysterious crimes on this trip. The guy probably works for the hotel.”
    “I don’t know. He sure acted funny.”
    “Lighten up. This is a vacation. Save all that detective stuff for when you get home.” Amos unlocked the door. “Last one in the pool is maggot food.”
    He grabbed his suitcase. It was locked. “That’s funny. I know I didn’t lock it. I don’t have a key.”
    Dunc tried to open it. “Go see if your mom has a hairpin or something we can use to get it open.”
    Amos ran across the hall and came back with a long hairpin. He wiggled it in the lock until it popped open.
    “Oh.”
    “What’s wrong?” Dunc asked.
    Amos stared in the suitcase. “This isn’t my stuff.”
    “You must have grabbed the wrong bag at the airport.”
    “What do I do now?”
    “You search it and see if you can find out who it belongs to.” Dunc picked up the phone. “I’ll call the airport and see if they have your bag.”
    The clothes obviously belonged to a man. Whoever owned the bag was traveling light. Everything was brand-new. A new set of clothes, new shaving supplies, and a newspaper.
    Dunc put the phone back down on the receiver. “The airline doesn’t know what happened to your suitcase. They’re going to check on it. And no one from our flight has reported theirs missing. Did you find any identification?”
    Amos shook his head. He picked up the suitcase. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
    “The guy at the airport said to hang on to it until he gets back to you.”
    “When exactly is that going to be? We’re leaving in the morning. What do they want me to do? Wear the same sweaty clothes for seven days while I drag some strange man’s stuff all over the Caribbean?”

“It’s a good thing you let me hold our tickets,” Dunc said.
    “I wish my parents had let you hold theirs. Then they’d be here instead of racing back to the hotel to get them,” Amos said.
    Dunc looked at his watch. “They’ll be here. They’ve still got forty-five minutes. While we’re waiting, let’s look around the ship.”
    Amos turned around and bumped smack into a little girl.
    “I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”
    The