Read The Spy Who Came North from the Pole for Free Online

1
    The sky was dark. The air was cold and foggy. It had been days since a rock hopper penguin had left the South Pole and made his way north to Chicago.
    A black wing pulled the bus cord at Wabash Street. The driver watched as the penguin stepped into the fog. Strange. He thought that penguin looked familiar.
    â€œMind your step,” the driver said. The penguin snarled back.
    The door creaked shut and the bus headed west. The rock hopper headed north.
    He was mostly black and white, with long yellow plumes on both sides of his head. He carried a mysterious brown bag under his wing.
    Suddenly an elevated train screeched to a stop. A tall man in a trench coat came up to the railing and tossed a small box over the side. As the train screeched away, the rock hopper picked up the box. There was chocolate inside.
    â€œFrango mints!” he said out loud. He took a magnifying glass out of his brown bag and looked more closely. There was a note inside the box. The rock hopper quickly ate the chocolates, then read the note:
    CODEBOOK CLUE IN GARGOYLE
    He got the idea all right. The clue he was looking for was hidden in a gargoyle. Now he just needed to find the right one. But where? Those strange carved-stone creatures were on buildings all over the city. Not only that, but they were usually up very high. And penguins don’t fly.
    It was also a little strange that the clue to the whereabouts of the codebook was in a gargoyle to begin with. But in any case, his plan seemed to be working.
    â€œLooks like I arrived in Chicago just in time,” he said out loud.
    Just ahead was a diner—Smiling Sally’s Good Food. The penguin outside saw another penguin sitting in a booth near the window. I wonder, thought the rock hopper, what would have happened if that penguin had seen this box first?
    â€œToo late,” he said out loud again. “But on the other hand, maybe he should see it … or one almost like it.”

    With sinister plans forming in his mind, the rock hopper penguin chuckled softly to himself, turned away from the diner, and disappeared into the fog. A moment later the lights in Smiling Sally’s Diner went out.

2
    It was foggy again the next day. The thick, wet air rolled down the sidewalks like sleepwalking ghosts. It would have been a day to be inside Smiling Sally’s warm and friendly diner. But Mr. Pin and Maggie were somewhere else.
    The two detectives were on the second floor of an old warehouse. They were looking for new stools for Smiling Sally’s Diner. The warehouse belonged to Maggie’s uncle Otis, who lived on the top floor. He sold an odd assortment of things that he rescued from buildings about to be torn down.
    Maggie and Mr. Pin stood between a row of iron fences and old bathtubs with feet. Next to the fences and bathtubs were rows and rows of pillars, carved doors, marble fireplaces, stained-glass windows, restaurant booths, stools, sinks, doorknobs, hinges, and even staircases. Inside each bathtub was a gargoyle.
    â€œThis place is spooky,” said Maggie as she looked at the peculiar expressions on the gargoyles’ faces. “It’s weird seeing old bathtubs all lined up and no one around to take a bath. And what are these things? They look like monsters.”
    â€œThey’re gargoyles,” said Mr. Pin. “Some gargoyles look like monsters. Some just look like animals. You’ve seen them decorating old buildings, sometimes at the very top.”
    â€œI don’t know how Otis can live here,” said Maggie.
    The knotted floorboards creaked.
    Maggie shivered. “We should get the diner stools for Sally and go home. This place is giving me nightmares, and I’m not even asleep yet.”
    A low, groaning rumble shook the building. An elevator shuddered as it was lowered slowly down the shaft at the end of the row of bathtubs. A grated door opened, and a short, balding man wearing a striped vest stepped out.
    â€œUncle