"What's going on?" said Jack.
"I don't know," said Annie. "But we'd better followit."She hurried after the ball of silk thread.
Jack put the bamboo book into his sack and took offafter her.
They followed the trail of thread down the row,where it turned down another row.
"Hey, that's impossible!" said Jack. "That'sscientifically impossible!""I told you, it's magic!" cried Annie.
Jack couldn't believe it. But he kept fob lowing thethread.
Suddenly the trail of thread was gone. The ball hadcompletely unrolled.
Jack and Annie stood still for a moment and caughttheir breath.
"What--what now?" said Jack.
"I guess we go up those stairs," Annie said.
"What stairs?" said Jack.
"There."Jack looked through the dim light and saw theentrance to a stairway only a few feet away.
"Let's get out of here!" he said.
They ran up the stairs. At the top, they saw thatthey were in the hall that led to the entrance of themound.
They walked and walked and walked down thelamp-lit passage. Finally, Jack stopped.
"I don't remember this hall being so long," he said.
"Me neither" said Annie. "I guess those weren't thesame stairs that we went down.
"What should we do now?" said Jack.
"We'd better keep going," said Annie.
"Yeah, we don't have much choice," saidJack.
They started walking again. They rounded a cornerand came to a door.
"Oh, great!" said Annie.
"Wait. We don't know what's on the other side,"said Jack. "Go slow. Be careful.""Okay," said Annie.
Slowly and carefully, she opened the door. Thenshe peeked out.
"Yippee," she said softly.
Annie stepped into the fading daylight. Jack steppedout after her.
The sun had gone down.
They were standing outside the gate of the DragonKing's palace. They could see the market not faraway. The stalls were closing for the day.
"We're safe!" said Annie.
Jack breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Just then, a gong sounded. It was coming from thetower of the city walls!
"Oh, man! They're going to close the gates!" saidJack.
He clutched his sack as they took off. They chargedup the street. They ran past the market. They ran pastthe rich houses.. .past the poor houses.
Their straw shoes fell off. But Jack and Annie keptrunning barefoot.
Just as the giant wooden gates started to close, theytore through them.
They charged across the bridge and kept runningup the dirt road, past the farmhouse, and through thefield.
By the time they reached their tree, Jack's lungsached. His heart pounded. His feet burned.
He followed Annie up the rope ladder. When theygot inside the tree house, Jack collapsed.
"Let's--go--home," he said, out of breath. Hereached for the Pennsylvania book.
"Wait," said Annie, looking out the window. "Theyfound each other.""Who--found--who?" said Jack, panting. He draggedhimself to the window and looked out.
Two figures embraced at the edge of the field.
"The silk weaver and the man who takes care of thecows!" said Annie.
"Oh, yeah," said Jack.
"Bye!" Annie called to them. The couple wavedback.
Annie sighed happily. "We can leave now," shesaid.
Jack opened the Pennsylvania book and pointed atthe picture of the Frog Creek woods.
"I wish we could go there," he said. The windstarted to blow. Jack looked out one last time at theChinese couple. They seemed to be glowing like stars.
The tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still. |