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the sand off her hands. As she looked around the inside of the hollow log, her face first showed relief at finding Darrell in one piece, then darkened. “Are you crazy? What d’you think you’re doing? You scared me to death.” Her hair was sticking straight up with perspiration and wet sand.
    Darrell started to feel embarrassed, but she clung stubbornly to her anger. “I just wanted some private time on the beach. I followed this dog and he came in here. I think he’s a stray and this must be his home. What are you doing spying on me, anyway?”
    Kate sounded defensive. “Well, you nearly scared me to death. I’ve been looking for you for over an hour,and if Brodie hadn’t spotted you crawling into this old log, who knows what might have happened?”
    â€œNothing would’ve happened,” Darrell snapped, and then paused and softened her tone. “Why were you looking for me? And who is this Brodie guy, anyway?”
    â€œThat’s not important — you’ll meet him. I was looking for you because I have something to show you, but I don’t know why I bothered.” Kate still appeared furious. She stopped to catch her breath, and for the first time she looked around the inside of the hollow driftwood log. Delaney whined, and Kate dropped to her knees on the sand to pat him. Her anger evaporated, and she looked up at Darrell.
    â€œIt
is
pretty cool in here, isn’t it? I can see why you followed this guy. He’s a great dog.” She ruffled Delaney’s fur. Darrell nodded and crouched down beside Kate on the sand.
    â€œA pretty smart dog, too. This is a great shelter, and tucked under this side of the tree he won’t even get rained on. It seems like he’s been living on his own out here for a long time.” She paused, and added, “He must’ve belonged to somebody once, though.”
    She showed Kate the dog’s collar. Kate nodded and got to her feet. “I’m sorry I invaded your private place with Delaney,” she said quietly. “I can talk to you about what I wanted another time. It’s pretty late, and I’m going back to get something to eat.”

    Darrell looked at her watch and made a decision. “I’m coming with you. I want to get some food to bring back for Delaney so he doesn’t have to forage anymore.” She looked pleadingly at Kate. “Please don’t tell anyone about this place. At least, not until I figure out what I’m going to do about this dog.”
    Kate nodded and dropped to her knees to crawl out of the tunnel. Delaney thumped his tail, and Darrell gave him a last pat.
    â€œI’ll be back later with some food for you, boy,” she promised. She held her hand above his head and said, “Stay!” He wriggled contentedly into the sand and dropped his head onto his front paws. Darrell scrambled out through the tunnel and hurried to catch up to Kate.
    â€œHey! Wait up.” Darrell ran up behind Kate. “You didn’t tell me what you wanted before.”
    Kate looked thoughtfully at Darrell. “Well, I’m not so sure you will care, but it was something that I thought was interesting.”
    â€œTry me.”
    â€œOkay. Remember the lesson this afternoon with Professor Tooth?”
    â€œYeah.
History of the Middle Ages
.” Darrell looked a bit sheepish. “I hadn’t really intended to go, but it was pretty interesting.”
    â€œI thought so, too. Anyway, remember how Professor Tooth said that people used to use art to recorddaily life? Then she talked about some of the paintings that showed how people lived from day to day.”
    Darrell nodded. “I felt like she was looking at me the whole time. Trying to tie history to a topic like art that really interested me, or something.”
    â€œI didn’t notice that,” Kate admitted. “But later this afternoon after my programming class with Mr. Neuron, I