The Mystery of the Carnival Prize

Read The Mystery of the Carnival Prize for Free Online

Book: Read The Mystery of the Carnival Prize for Free Online
Authors: David A. Adler
at?” Eric asked.
    “Someone just rode out on a bicycle. It’s the same bicycle we saw before, the one that wasn’t locked.”

Chapter Three
    “S top!” Cam yelled as she ran toward the gate. “Get off that bicycle!”
    Eric and the twins followed Cam. They ran past the Baseball Throw and the refreshment stand. As they passed the Water Gun Shoot, one of the children missed the candle and hit Eric’s ear.
    At the gate, Cam waved her arms and yelled, “Stop!” But the girl on the bicycle didn’t even turn around. She kept right on riding.
    “What do we do now?” Eric asked as he wiped the water off his ear.
    “I want to see where she’s going.”
    While Cam and Eric stood by the gate, a few children came into the schoolyard. And a few left. The girl who had just won the Dime Toss was talking to a tall boy with curly blond hair.
    “I can’t see her anymore,” Cam said. “Let’s tell Ms. Benson what happened. She’ll know what to do.”
    Cam, Eric, Donna, and Diane ran to Ms. Benson. They told her about the unlocked bicycle.
    “We yelled to the girl and told her to stop,” Cam said. “But she didn’t. She just kept on riding.”
    “Maybe she didn’t hear you.”
    “She heard us, all right,” Eric told Ms. Benson. “Cam yelled really loud.”
    “Did you see who the girl was?”
    “No. I only saw her from the back. She was wearing a green sweater and she has long black hair.”
    “Can you describe the bicycle?”
    Cam said, “Click,” and closed her eyes. “It was a girl’s bike. It was red with some blue stripes and two baskets in the back.”
    Ms. Benson blew her whistle. She waited until it was quiet. Then she blew the whistle a second time and called out, “If anyone left a red-and-blue bicycle unlocked in the schoolyard, please come and see me.”
    The schoolyard became noisy again. The fifth-graders running the booths called out for children to try their luck. Cam and Eric waited with Ms. Benson. But no one came to tell them that a bicycle was missing.
    “Maybe the bicycle wasn’t stolen,” Ms. Benson said.
    “No, I’m sure it was stolen. That’s why the girl didn’t stop when I called to her,” Cam said.
    “Well, you don’t have to wait here,” Ms. Benson said. “I’ll call you if anyone comes for the bicycle.”
    “Then let’s try the Button Jar Guess,” Donna said. “The prize for the closest guess is a really big stuffed animal. It’s a kangaroo mother with a baby in her pouch.”
    Cam, Eric, and the twins walked to the Button Jar Guess. There was a line of children waiting to guess the number of buttons in the jar. Before Cam got in line, she walked very close to the jar, said, “Click,” and blinked her eyes. Once Cam was in line, she said, “Click,” again and closed her eyes. Then she started counting.
    “One, two, three ...”
    “What’s she doing?” Diane whispered.
    “She’s looking at the picture of the jar she has in her head,” Eric explained. “She’s counting the buttons.”
    “Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine ...”

    “It’s my turn,” Diane said. She gave the boy running the game a nickel. He gave her a card. Diane wrote her guess on the card.
    “Sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four ...”
    Donna and Eric guessed next. Then it was Cam’s turn. Her eyes were still closed.
    “Ninety-four, ninety-five, ninety-six ...”
    “Let’s go,” the boy running the booth told Cam. “Your memory won’t help you with this game. Most of the buttons are hidden in the middle of the jar.”
    Cam opened her eyes. “Counting the buttons that I could see will help me to guess.” Cam wrote down a number on the card and gave it to the boy.
    Bong! Bong!
    Freddy, the boy at the Dime Toss, was hitting the bottom of a large pot with a wooden spoon. “We have another winner,” he called out.
    A tall boy with curly blond hair, who was wearing a red baseball cap, was standing near the booth. He was smiling and holding a large furry toy

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