The Curse of Deadman's Forest Read Online Free Page B

from the cellar. Ian realized suddenly that the finger of the shadow seemed to be pointing directly at that pile of wood!
    “Carl!” Ian said, his voice edged with excitement. “Check under that blanket and see if your plank of wood is there, would you?”
    Carl looked at him oddly but moved away from another pile he’d been fishing through and lifted the blanket. There, right on top, was the long plank of wood he’d been searching for.
“There
it is!” he said triumphantly, pulling it out.
    But Ian was already staring in amazement back down at the sundial’s surface. The shadow had faded the moment Carl had lifted the blanket, and the surface of the relic returned to its dull, tarnished appearance. “Crikey!” he exclaimed. “I’ve got it! Carl, I’ve got how it works!”
    Carl hurried over to him again and looked at the dull face of the dial. “Uh-oh,” he said. “Your shadow’s gone, mate. Sorry.”
    “No, you don’t understand,” Ian said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Ask me where something is and I’ll show you how it works.”
    “Like what?” Carl asked, obviously confused.
    Ian turned in a circle, looking for anything he could suggest, when his eyes lit on something across the room. “The treasure boxes,” he whispered.
    “All right,” Carl agreed. “Ian, where did you put your treasure boxes?”
    Immediately, the dial’s shiny surface returned and a shadow appeared across the face, pointing directly at a long stone bench by the stairs on the far side of the tower. Carl gasped, his head pivoting from the shadow to the bench. “Ian! It’s pointing right at your hiding spot!” Carl was the only other person besides Theo who knew Ian’s secret hiding place.
    Both boys hurried to the other side of the room, and Ian held the dial out so that they could see what happened the moment Ian lifted the loose plank that hid his treasure boxes. The instant his hand touched the silver top of the first box, the shadow disappeared.
    “Remarkable,” Ian whispered, in complete awe of the magical instrument in his hands.
    “Bloomin’
brilliant!”
Carl said enthusiastically. “Let’s make it a bit more challenging, though, shall we?”
    Ian nodded, delighted that he’d finally managed to work out the secret of the sundial. “Where’s Theo?” he asked, and immediately the sundial’s shadow pointed right behind him. Ian turned and he and Carl looked out the far window, which gave a lovely view of the English Channel. The boys both knew that the shore where Jaaved and Theo had gone was in that very direction.
    Carl laughed and slapped his knee. “Smashing!” he gushed.
    Ian smiled happily while he looked from the dial to thewindow, and was about to agree with Carl when something on the distant horizon caught his eye. From the window Ian could see all the way across the channel to France, and something large appeared to materialize just offshore.
    Ian squinted and moved toward the window. “Ask it something else!” Carl urged, still bubbling with excitement.
    “Hang on,” Ian said, distracted by the shape, which he could see was zigzagging over the water. “Carl?” he said as a chill crept over him.
    “Yeah, mate?”
    “Do you still have those field glasses handy?” On a recent trip to London, Carl had purchased a set of binoculars, and he usually had them on hand for spying on the other orphans outside in the yard.
    “Of course,” he said. “Why don’t you ask the dial where they are?”
    Ian glanced down, and sure enough, the dial was pointing behind him, toward the fort. But Ian was more concerned with something else at the moment and he had the eeriest, most unsettling feeling. Something large and conelike was zigzagging back and forth across the horizon. It appeared to be just off the shore of Calais, and he couldn’t be sure, but it also appeared to be getting bigger. “Can you hand them to me, please?”
    Carl paused, then came to stand next to him and pointed out the