The Bloodwater Mysteries: Skullduggery by Mary Pete/Logue Hautman Page B

never forget that sound. He had often imagined the world blowing up, and for a moment he thought it might be happening. It sounded like a huge thumb had been jammed inside a really enormous mouth and then come rocketing out with a colossal pop.
    A fraction of a second after the explosion, the boulder Brian was standing on shifted, and he came crashing down. He screeched as he fell and then slammed into the earth flat on his back.
    After that it seemed very, very quiet. Brian couldn’t even hear himself breathe.
    Because he wasn’t.
    Roni’s face rose in front of him like a big full moon. She stared down at him. “Are you okay?”
    Brian tried to say something, but couldn’t. The fall had knocked the wind out of him. He felt as if his lungs had been squeezed flat and glued together. Roni’s face grew larger.
    â€œBrian?” Roni’s voice rose to a panicky screech.
    â€œHeek, heeek,” Brian managed to say—and then Roni was grabbing him, trying to help him sit up. She looks scared, Brian thought as he fought to breathe.
    â€œBrian?” Roni’s voice rose another octave.
    Brian closed his eyes, and suddenly the bands around his chest loosened and he drew a shuddering breath.
    â€œI . . . I’m okay,” he said, even though he wasn’t sure it was true. For a few seconds Brian just sat there enjoying the sensation of air flowing in and out of his lungs.
    â€œAre you sure you’re okay?” Roni asked.
    Brian moved his arms and legs. All in working order. “I’m fine. I think.”
    â€œYou sure?”
    Brian climbed to his feet. He was shaky, but nothing hurt. “Yes . . . except . . .” He reached into the side pocket of his cargo pants and came out with his dad’s five-hundred-dollar digital camera—or what was left of it.
    â€œThis doesn’t look good,” Brian said.
    â€œYou have to break a few eggs if you want to make lemonade,” Roni said. “What was that big bang, anyway?”
    Brian remembered what he had seen as the explosion had rocked him from his perch: a fountain of dust and rock erupting from the face of the bluff. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

19
    red shirt
    Roni followed Brian down the steep coulee as he picked his way around trees and scrambled over boulders.
    â€œDo you think it was our fault? Because we were standing on top of the cave?” Roni asked.
    â€œNo way,” Brian said. Roni could tell by his tone of voice that Brian thought her concern was stupid. “That was some kind of explosion.”
    Ten minutes later the coulee spilled out onto a weedy field. They turned right and soon found themselves looking up at the bluff.
    â€œIt looks different,” Roni said.
    â€œI’m going up,” said Brian. He started climbing. Roni stayed behind and watched him make his way up the face of the bluff. It took him only a few minutes to reach the ledge that led to the cave. She waited for him to disappear into the concealed cave entrance, but he just stood there for a few seconds, then came back down the bluff.
    â€œIt’s gone,” he said.
    â€œGone?”
    â€œNo cave. Caveless.”
    â€œThe cave caved in?” Roni was glad they had not been inside when it happened.
    â€œMore like it blew up,” Brian said. “Like somebody dynamited the cave entrance.”
    â€œWhy would someone do that?”
    â€œObviously to keep anybody from finding out what’s inside.”
    â€œSo now what?” Roni asked, feeling defeated.
    â€œWell, we could get some picks and shovels and start digging . . .”
    â€œOr we could go to the police,” said Roni, who did not like the idea of digging her way into a cave full of bats and old bones.
    â€œAnd tell them what?” Brian said. “Is it illegal to dynamite a cave?”
    â€œI think it’s illegal to blow up anything. The land belongs to the college. I bet they’d