Read Escape to Witch Mountain for Free Online Page A

“Honest? You wouldn't kid a fellow?”
    “It's the truth, Father. But we'd rather you didn't tell anyone.”
    “Tell anyone such a tale? And who would believe me?” The rugged face became dreamy for a moment. “Ah, but what a gift! I wish I had it. The things I could do for people…” Then he shook his head. “No, it wouldn't work. If I had such a gift, the devil would be tempting me sure—and confusing me—every minute of the day. He's hard enough to fight now.”
    Tia asked a question, and Tony said for her, “Tia can't talk, Father, but she wants to know if you really believe in the devil.”
    “Of course I believe in the devil!” the deep voice said. “Look about you. It took the devil himself to build this part of the city. But don't think of him as a personage. Look upon him as a disease. A sneaky, foul, and dreadful sort of thing. Gets into people's hearts and minds, makes 'em—”
    The priest was interrupted by Winkie, who chose this moment to leap from Tia's bag. “Hey there!” he gasped, and immediately scooped Winkie up in his huge hands. “A black cat! Ha! Am I being visited by witches? Don't tell me you brought this fellow all the way from Hackett House in a bag!”
    At Tia's nod he stared at the two of them. “Forgive me for ranting about my sworn enemy. He'll just have to keep a bit. You've got problems. Come in here where it's cooler, and let's talk things over.”
    He turned out the overhead light, and closed the door behind them as they entered the room where the electric fan was going. The place was furnished merely with a cot, some folding chairs, and a desk. Behind a partition, Tony glimpsed a gas stove and a few dishes on a table. Everything was spotlessly clean, and the only luxury was the fan.
    Father O'Day shook open some folding chairs for them, then sat down at the desk with the purring Winkie on his lap.
    “Let's have it,” he began. “You ran away from Hackett House. Why?”
    “To—to find our people, and to get away from a man who claims he's our uncle, but who isn't.” Tony started with Sister Amelia, then explained at some length about Mr. Deranian. Father O'Day interrupted constantly with surprised questions.
    “This beats all,” the big priest said at last. “Are you sure,absolutely sure , that this man Deranian is the one who left you with Mrs. Malone?”
    “Yes, sir. I mean, I'm sure about Tia's memory.”
    “How about yours? I 'd say you were at least a year older than Tia. Can you remember anything yourself ?”
    “A—a little. Tonight I can remember being brought to Granny's place by a man in a car, after being on a ship. But that's all. It wouldn't have come back to me if Tia hadn't remembered it first.”
    “What about faces?”
    Tony shook his head. “I can't remember a face that far back, when I was so small. Tia can, even though she's younger. She doesn't forget.”
    “She's forgotten what happened before you were taken from the ship.”
    “Yes, but she thinks something must have given her a bad shock, so that she doesn't want to remember. Just trying to think about it makes her feel sick.”
    Father O'Day nodded and looked at Tia. “Probably something did happen; that may be why you can't talk. Now, this man Deranian—”
    Tia spoke quickly to Tony, and Tony said, “She's thought of something else. Mr. Deranian was not on the ship with us. The captain, or someone in uniform, sent for him after the ship was tied up at the dock, and he came and took us away.”
    The big man scowled; it made his battered face seem quite ferocious. “Then it looks as if the rascal was paid to take you away. That must be it. There was trouble aboard, and the ship's captain paid him to get rid of you.”
    “But why would he come back years later and pretend to be our uncle?”
    “Well, let's use logic on it. He pretends to be your uncle because he's learned something about you that makes you valuable to him. It's something he didn't know at first.”
    “He does