Big-Top Scooby by Kate Howard Page A

finally decide clowning is not for me. So now I go to New York to pursue my true love … theatre!”
    â€œThat’s great, Shmatko,” Daphne said. “I’m sure you’re going to be a huge success.”
    â€œOf course, Sisko will miss me terribly.” Shmatko looked at Sisko, who honked sadly in response. “But a man has got to be doing what it is that a man has got to be doing! Good-bye!”
    Daphne waved. “Good-bye!”
    Sisko mimed tears as he waved good-bye to Shmatko. But the second Shmatko was out of sight, his tears cleared up. He rolled his eyes and said, “I thought he’d never leave. Cheers!” He stepped up and boarded the train.
    As the train chugged off, Fred mused, “Well, another case solved.”
    â€œI don’t know,” Velma sighed. “Something’s still bugging me.”
    Daphne nodded. “Yeah, I miss the part where the bad guy says he would’ve gotten away with it, if it hadn’t been for us.”
    â€œWait!” Velma cried, raising her finger into the air. “Archambault said ‘black diamond.’ But the last he heard that gem was a ‘carbonado.’”
    â€œSo?” Fred asked.
    â€œAnd do you remember what Doubleday said when we unmasked him? He said, ‘You won’t take us that easily.’ He said us ! Like he had a partner in crime! And Archambault caught Doubleday after he tranquilized him. He could have grabbed the black diamond!” Velma looked around, nodding as the others began to get it. “And Archambault said he broke his ropes, but that rope hadn’t been broken. The ends looked like they’d been cut!”
    â€œAnd the book!” she cried. “Archambault was the one who knocked the Ingolstadt werewolf book off the shelf. I’ll bet he planted it in there!” She beamed. “Archambault was in on it!”
    They all looked at the train, which was speeding away from them. “We’ve got to catch that train!” Velma cried.

T he Mystery Machine sped down the highway. Scooby looked out of the van’s window as the Mystery Machine pulled up alongside the train. Through a window, he could see Archambault and Marius fighting. “Ruh-roh!” he barked. “Look!”
    â€œWe gotta get on that train somehow!” Shaggy said in a moment of temporary insanity. The others looked at him curiously. “What?” he asked nervously. “What are you looking at?”
    Fred smiled. “Shaggy … how far can you jump?”
    â€œHuh?” Shaggy’s eyes widened as he realized what Fred was suggesting. “Oh, no. Oh, no no.”
    A few minutes later, Shaggy and Scooby were on the roof of the Mystery Machine, staring at the speeding train zooming along beside them.
    â€œCome on, guys,” Daphne urged. “Jump, so I can get up there.”
    Shaggy moaned. “Like, how did we get talked into this, Scoob?”
    Scooby turned away. He was still mad at Shaggy. “Hmph!”
    â€œHow can you still be mad? I said I was sorry!”
    Daphne was getting annoyed. She grabbed a clown horn from the floor of the van and honked it loudly. Startled, Shaggy and Scooby jumped off the roof and onto the top of the train.
    A moment later, the road began to curve away from the train tracks, making it impossible for anyone else to jump onto the train.
    â€œI guess it’s just us, Scoob,” Shaggy said, looking mournfully at the van. He followed along as Scooby ran toward the front of the train. They stopped and leaned down over to peek in a window.
    Inside, Archambault and Marius were still fighting. Archambault had Marius pressed upagainst a wall and held him off his feet with just one hand. He shook the lockbox in Marius’s face. “Tell Archambault where is key, or Archambault get angry!” he screamed.
    â€œWe gotta stop him!” Shaggy shouted.
    Scooby looked away, upset. “Re?”
    Shaggy