Read Philip and the Haunted House (9781619500020) for Free Online

us go in the back
way, too.”
    “ We have to go in some way,” Philip
said impatiently. “We can’t go down the chimney.”
    Emery looked up. “There’s a chimney?”
    “ No, there’s no chimney!” Philip
barked.
    “ Shhhh,” Emery warned, his finger to
his lips.
    “ Shhh yourself. Don’t talk. Think.” The
two boys studied the back of the house again.
    A cement backyard filled the space between
the bushes where they hid and the back door. The back door had a
block of four small windows in it, and the back wall of the house
had two sets of bigger windows.
    “ What’ll we do if everything’s locked
up?” Emery whispered.
    Philip ignored the grim question and
whispered back, “Come on. You try one window and I’ll try the
other.” Philip bent over as far as he could and still keep his
balance and ran to the window on the left. He pushed against it,
but it wouldn’t move. He noticed Emery standing by the back door.
Emery waved him over.
    “ Broken window,” said Emery.
    Philip looked and saw a hole in the window
nearest the doorknob. He watched Emery reach his hand inside the
broken window. “I saw,” Emery said as he wiggled his arm around,
“my father...do this...where is it...here...when he locked
everybody out once.” Emery carefully removed his arm from the
broken window as the back door swung slightly open.
    “ You opened it,” said Philip in
amazement. “Quick; in!” He pushed Emery ahead of him and pushed the
door closed. Both boys stood statue-still. They were inside the haunted house.
     
     

Chapter Ten
     
    “ At least it’s bright in here,” said
Emery. The afternoon light filled up the kitchen, and through the
kitchen entryway they could see the dining room.
    “ They probably wouldn’t hide the money
in a place everybody could see,” Philip said.
    “‘ Loot’,” corrected Emery. “I read
stolen money is called ‘loot.’”
    ‘ Loot’. Philip liked the sound. He
regretted not using the word. “Well,” he whispered, “the loot is
probably in a dark place. Come on; and stay away from the windows.”
He bent way over and tiptoed out of the kitchen into the dining
room. He pointed to a door. “Basement. The loot’s probably down
there.”
    Emery took a deep breath. “Can we turn the
basement light on? Will anybody outside see it?”
    Philip scrunched his forehead together. “I
don’t remember if there’s any window to the basement. Do you?”
    Emery scrunched his eyes closed. “I don’t
remember.”
    “ All right. Let’s go down the basement
and see if there are any windows. If there aren’t, we can come back
up and turn on the lights.”
    “ Good idea. Go ahead.”
    “ You go first.”
    “ No, you. You have the
flashlight.”
    Philip remembered the heavy object in his
right hand. He’d reminded himself over and over to let to Emery
carry it, but in all of the excitement, he forgot to hand it over.
Now he was stuck.
    Philip waved his left hand to Emery in
exasperation as he moved in the lead and put his hand on the
doorknob. “Ready?”
    “ I guess.” Emery pointed to kitchen and
the back door. “Are you gonna yell and then we run or should I yell
and then we run?”
    “ Who cares who yells?”
    “ Well, last time you wanted
to…”
    “ Never mind last time. Just run if
something goes wrong.”
    “ Shouldn’t we yell, too?”
    “ So yell, if you want.”
    “ Should we yell first and then run, or
run first and then yell?”
    “ Yell whenever you want to yell! Just
be quiet now, okay?”
    “ Sheesh. Don’t get mad.”
    “ You ready? Here I go,” Philip
whispered. He took his hand off the doorknob and wiped his palm.
“Shall I throw it open fast or open it really slow?”
    Emery thought a moment. “Fast,” he whispered.
“If anything is there, it’ll be surprised and make a noise and
we’ll hear it and run. And yell. If you open it slow, it won’t hear
us and we’ll walk right into it.”
    “ Don’t say ‘it.’”
    “ Whatever