The Box and the Bone by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page A

good look.
    “Yep,” Carlos said. “It’s definitely the same shape, and see all that gunk stuck to it? I remember all that gunk.”
    Eddy wrinkled his nose and made a gagging noise. “And the smell too. I definitely remember the smell.”
    “Well, I guess Nijinsky was the one who dug up the treasure. You know, when he was burying the bone.”
    “It looks that way,” Eddy said. “At least we know that he must have been the one to put his bone there.”
    Carlos sighed and nodded. “Well, anyway, I guess we better go tell Bucky.”
    “Yes. I guess so,” Eddy said.
    As they started back across the cul-de-sac Carlos asked, “What do you think he’ll do to Nijinsky when he finds out?”
    Eddy grinned. “Oh, he’ll give him the third degree.” He got a mean look on his face and said, “Okay, dog. You better start talking—or else.”
    “Yeah,” Carlos said. “Or else—the torture chamber. Bring out the red-hot pokers, Igor. And the thumbscrews.”
    Eddy did an Igor the hunchback number and whined, “Too bad, Boss. No can do thumbscrews. No thumbs.”
    They were still laughing when they rang the Brockhursts’ bell and Bucky shot out the door.
    “Okay, dudes,” he said, “let’s go. I’m ungrounded. Let’s go find that treasure. Let’s go dig up …”
    Carlos had been saying “er, er, er” for quite a while before Bucky shut up long enough for them to tell him about Nijinsky and the bone.
    As soon as they’d convinced him that it was, for sure, the very same bone, Bucky said. “Well, all right. That means … Well, I guess that means that …”
    “Well, for one thing it means that Nijinsky has been back to the Pit since we were there last night,” Carlos said.
    “That’s right,” Eddy agreed. “But that’s about all it means for sure. It doesn’t prove that he had anything to do with—”
    “What do you mean?” Bucky said. “Sure he did. His bone was in the hole, wasn’t it? And our treasure chest was missing from that same hole. That sounds like a pretty good clue to me. Come on. Let’s go look. Maybe he buried the treasure somewhere else in the Pit.”
    Carlos didn’t think that was too likely. That would have to mean that Nijinsky dug up the treasure and carried it away and buried it someplace else. And then came back and buried his bone in the first hole. Not too likely. Nijinsky seemed like a fairly smart dog, as dogs go, but not all that smart. But there was no use arguing with Bucky so the three of them headed back to the Pit.
    On the way Bucky wanted to stop at the Grants’ to see the bone but Nijinsky had disappeared. And so had the bone. So they went on to the Pit and started digging.
    The first place they dug was in the corner where they’d started the new clubhouse and found the tin box. “Just in case we missed the right spot in the dark last night,” Bucky said. “Everybody dig where you were digging before. And don’t stop until you’re down to the really solid stuff.”
    In Carlos’s part of the circle that didn’t take long. But he was still whacking away at the “solid stuff” when he heard something and looked up in time to see a huge, shaggy shape come flying over the Pit wall, dragging something behind it. The shaggy shape was Lump and the something he was dragging at the end of his leash turned out to be Susie.
    As Susie landed on her hands and knees she turned loose of the leash and Lump came bounding toward Carlos whining with happiness. Carlos braced himself for a slobbery kiss attack. Then as soon as he’d gotten Lump to more or less cool it, he went to see if Susie was hurt. She was still sitting on the ground looking at her knee, but when Carlos came over she jumped up.
    “You all right?” he asked her.
    “I’m okay. I’m okay,” Susie said, even though she obviously had a skinned knee. “Hey, I didn’t know you guys were in here. I was just taking Lump for a walk.”
    Carlos grinned. “Down here in the Pit? Funny place to walk a dog,