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nine-year-old Vanessa, the ten-year-old triplets (Byron, Jordan, and Adam), and last of all, Mallory, who's eleven.
    Mallory has been a sort of junior baby-sitter for a while now. When us club members held a play group last summer, Mallory gave us a hand. And lately she's been the "second" sitter almost every time there's a job at the Pikes'. (Since there are eight children, Mrs. Pike usually likes to have two sitters in charge.)
    Anyway, when Claudia went to sit at the Pikes' that afternoon, she had no idea what she was getting into. She thought she and Mallory would have just the usual Pike bedlam to put up with. But, no, Jordan had invented SA's.
    "Where is everybody?" Claudia asked, as Mallory let her in the front door. She was used to being met by a herd of children.
    "Out back," Mallory replied, rolling her eyes. "I'll explain as soon as Mom leaves."
    Mrs. Pike bustled downstairs, giving last-
    minute instructions and phone numbers to Claudia and Mallory. Then she inched her station wagon down the driveway and was gone.
    "Okay," said Mallory. "Come here." She led Claudia to the Pikes' back door. "Look in the yard. What do you see?"
    "Nothing," I replied.
    "Look harder. Look in the elm tree, for instance."
    Claudia squinted her eyes. She saw a pair of blue jeans and some curly hair. "Jordan?" she guessed.
    "Right."
    "What's he doing up there?"
    "I'll tell you in a minute. See if you can find everyone else."
    It took a while, but Claudia finally spotted Claire and Margo crouched behind a yew bush, Nicky lying flat on his stomach in some tall grass, Vanessa peeking around a corner of the toolshed, and Adam and Byron up an ash tree. There was not a sound in the Pikes' backyard.
    "What are they doing?" Claudia whispered.
    "Spying," Mallory replied. "And we don't have to whisper. They're playing a game called SA's. That stands for Secret Agents. Some people finally moved into the Congdons' house, and those goons — " (Mallory waved her hand,
    indicating her brothers and sisters) "— think the new people are foreign spies."
    The Congdons' house sat just beyond the back edge of the Pikes' property. Adam and Jordan in the ash tree were practically looking in the bedroom windows, that's how close they were to the house.
    "Why do they think the new people are spies?" Claudia wanted to know.
    "Oh, they have a long, funny last name, and they speak with accents. They sound like this: 'ow nize do meed you. Thank you zo moch for your 'ozpeetaleetee."
    Claudia giggled. "Do they really sound like that?" she asked.
    "They really do," Mallory replied. "But that doesn't mean they're spies."
    This is what us sitters like about Mallory. She is totally levelheaded. And practical. And usually willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. Not that she doesn't have an imagination. She does. She loves to read and is usually in the middle of at least four books. She likes to write, too. And when she's alone, she daydreams. But when she's helping us baby-sit, she's always on top of things.
    "We better go out there and see what they're up to," Claudia said, opening the door.
    Mallory and Claudia   strode   through the
    backyard. They were intending to keep an eye on the kids. Instead, they wound up helping with spy missions that afternoon.
    "Psst! PSSST!" hissed a frantic voice.
    The girls looked around. They found Jordan signaling to them from his tree. He was waving a little spiral notebook around.
    "What?" asked Claudia and Mallory at the same time.
    "Come here. And keep quiet!"
    The girls tiptoed to the base of the elm tree. "What is it?" asked Claudia. "By the way, your mother left. She'll be back around five-thirty."
    "Okay," said Jordan quickly. Apparently, Mrs. Pike was the furthest thing from his mind. "Listen, you gotta keep quiet. We don't want the spies to know we're spying on them."
    "Jordan, they are not spies," Mallory whispered.
    "They might be. That's what we have to find out. You should see all the stuff that's in their den.