Wrath of the Grinning Ghost

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Book: Read Wrath of the Grinning Ghost for Free Online
Authors: John Bellairs
trademark of Goebel's Beer. After the professor had gotten rid of the Time Trolley, Brewster had also gone away.
    Until now, anyway.
    Johnny blurted out his story. "I'm almost sure it was him," he finished. "Brewster, I mean, trying to warn me."
    The professor picked up the book about ancient coins and went to sit in his chair. He took a long drink of lemonade. "Strange, very strange," he murmured. "Also uncanny and unsettling. You see, John, I've been having weird dreams for the last couple of days. And guess who has been the featured player in them all?"
    "Brewster?" asked Johnny.
    "Brewster," replied the professor in a grave, troubled voice.
     
     

 
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    Johnny asked, "Whatever happened to Brewster, Professor? He was with us when we went back in time to Constantinople, but after we got back, he disappeared."
    Professor Childermass crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. The light from the window behind him made his white hair glow almost like a halo in a picture of a saint. A crabby, red-faced saint. He cleared his throat and said, "Well, John, you remember Aurelian Townsend, the inventor of the Time Trolley, and how he took his blasted contraption back into the past. As for me, I had had my fill of time traveling. You may not know, though, that Mr. Townsend visits me from time to time. On his first visit I asked him to take Brewster's statuette back to Egypt, around the year 3000 B.C., and drop it off in a nice little temple. I knew Brewster would enjoy being worshiped as a god far more than he would be willing to endure being gawked at as an exhibit in a museum."
    "But now Brewster's come back to the present," said Johnny. "How did he manage that without the Time Trolley?"
    Professor Childermass tapped his chin with his finger. "I don't think he really has returned, John. Brewster is a spirit, and spirits don't live in time quite the same way you or I do. Evidently he is trying to communicate with us. That is why you're seeing visions of him and why I'm having peculiar dreams. Yes, Brewster wants to attract our attention, but I gather that, without the onyx statuette, he is having great difficulty in getting through. The falcon statue gave him his focus and let him speak to us."
    Johnny thought for a moment. "Maybe the statuette still exists in the ruins of that temple in Egypt."
    With a snort the professor said, "Oh, certainly. By now, no doubt, the statuette is cozily buried under fifty or a hundred feet of Egyptian sand. And a fat chance we'd have of finding it too! Hmm. Too bad Aurelian Townsend took the Time Trolley with him when he moved permanently to the 1890's." He drummed his fingers on the desk and hummed an unmusical tune. "Maybe I can do something about Brewster's problem and help him get in touch with us," he said at last. "I have a friend in New York, and you can find practically anything in New York."
    "What are you trying to find?" asked Johnny.
    With a smug look Professor Childermass said, "Never you mind. If I can pull it off, it will be a surprise for you. I'll call my friend later today. However, first we have the problem of this rare Spanish coin to look into." He opened the book and began to leaf through the pages.
    Johnny came around to stand beside him. The book had columns of black-and-white pictures of coins, showing both the front, or obverse, side and the back, or reverse, side of each one. Paragraphs described each set of photographs. The professor found a section on Spanish coins from the New World and went through the pictures of the gold and silver pieces very carefully. "That one looks a lot like it," Johnny pointed out.
    "Right you are, John," the professor said, bending close to the page. He put his stubby forefinger on the text below the picture. "Let's see.... The types of coins called cobs were cut from a one-ounce bar of silver or gold. The word 'cob,' by the way, is a shortened form of a Spanish word meaning 'cut.' Well, an ounce of silver was cut up

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