Sample Chapter, TERROR AT WOLF LAKE

Hello.

This is the final sample chapter for your preview. All of the other 6 samples can also be found by searching this blog.

Again, students can do a creative writing assignment by writing a paragraph, after reading this chapter, and tell 1. What will happen next, 2 How will the story go later on, or 3. How will the story end?

Again, your comments will be appreciated.

Thank you




Chapter 6


The boys pulled on their snowsuits again and went outside. They finished making their snowman in the front yard first.
“I thought you had a great idea,” Rusty said.
Eddy walked around back while the others followed him to the small porch where firewood was neatly stacked. From one corner he pulled out three wooden crates and two shovels.
“What are we doing now?” Rusty asked.
“I’ll show you. Come with me.”
Eddy led his friends all the way to the back part of the fence that ran along the abandoned narrow road behind the cabin.
“Rusty,” Eddy teased. “You could get good and scared if this wall wasn’t here. ‘Cause there’d be nothing to keep out the monsters, wolves, and robbers you’re so worried about.”
“Funny Edward. Real funny,” Rusty scoffed. “So what are we doing back here?”
“You see how the snow is drifted up against the fence?”
“That’s like asking me if I think it’s cold out here. Yes. I see the drift.”
“Then what we’re gonna do is dig out the drift first.”
“What are the crates for?” Chet asked. “To sit on?”
“Plenty of time for you to know about that. Start digging.”
The boys took turns digging deep into the drift until they came right up to the fence. “This will be the back wall to our new snow fort,” Eddy announced.
“Snow fort?” Rusty said. “That sounds great.”
Eddy laughed. “Finally something Russell actually likes.”
“Keep digging,” Rusty told them.
They cleared enough snow to form a big square. Then Eddy picked up the crates and gave one to each of his friends. “Since the new snow is so wet and heavy, we can pack it in these crates.”
“Oh, I get it,” Chet said.
“You wanna help me to get it because I don’t,” Rusty complained.
Eddy just stared at his friend at first. “We fill our crates with snow, pack it down real hard, and…”
“Now I see,” Rusty broke in. “We make kind of like building blocks.”
“Not kind of like…they are blocks. Then we can build the walls as high as we want.”
“I like it,” Rusty said.
Eddy opened his mouth to say something sarcastic but Rusty cut in, “Keep it to yourself.”
Their work started out slowly as they tried different ways of stacking the snow blocks, but soon the boys worked like a professional construction crew. One boy shoveled snow and packed it into the crates as the other two hauled them to the fort. The more they worked, the higher the walls went. After a couple hours the boys decided to take a break. They sat on their crates near the snow walls.
“How high should we build it?” Chet asked.
“High enough so we can stand up inside,” Eddy answered.
“No fair,” Rusty complained. “You guys are at least a foot taller than me.”
“My dad told me he heard it’s gonna get really cold again tonight. That means this wet snow we’re stacking is going to freeze solid. Our fort will be like a real building.”
“Cool,” Rusty said.
“It’s snow Russ. Of course it’s cool,” Eddy teased. “You guys go ahead and keep building. I’m going to pull in some of the long dead tree branches we use for firewood. We can lay those across the top, cover them with snow, and no one will know we even have a fort back here.”
Rusty started to say, “Coo…, never mind,” he chuckled.
The roof went on faster than Eddy thought it would. The boys covered that part with loose snow. “Now all we gotta do is build the front wall, make a door, and we’re in,” Eddy announced with pride.
“Eddy!” a voice called. “Where are you guys?”
“Back here, Dad.”
Eddy’s father came around into the yard. “Wow. I see you boys have been busy.”
“How was the fishing?”
“We caught enough to make dinner. Us dads are going to run into town to pick up a few things at the store. You boys want to ride along?”
“No thanks. We’d like to finish the front before it gets cold tonight.”
“Suit yourselves. We’ll be back after dark, but I plan to cook a full fish dinner so don’t snack on anything.”
“We won’t even have time to go in the cabin, Dad.”
“All right. See you architects later.”
A few minutes later the boys heard the doors to the truck slam shut. Then it drove away.
“I’m glad we stayed,” Chet said. “This is a lot more fun.”
They continued building even as the sun went down. The air did begin getting much colder but with the cold air came a clear night sky. The moon, shining against the
snow, gave them all the light they needed to keep right on building. Since their fathers
went in to town while it was still daytime, they hadn’t left any lights on. The inside of the cabin was completely dark, making the place look abandoned.
An unexpected sound caused the boys to turn around and look at the same time in the same direction. Someone was coming, but not on the road out in front of the cabin. A truck drove up on the other side of the fence.
“They couldn’t be back this soon, could they?” Rusty asked.
“No.” Eddy answered. “And they wouldn’t be driving back there. My dad never does that.”
“Maybe he’s just trying to scare us,” Chet suggested.
“Well they’re doing a pretty good job of it,” Rusty groaned.
Eddy held his finger up to his lips. “Shhh,” he cautioned.
The lights on the truck went off but its engine kept running.
“Who do you think it is?” Chet whispered.
“Cops?” Rusty suggested.
“Not likely,” Eddy answered. “My dad said they don’t come out here in the winter.” He motioned for the boys to follow him into the fort. They inched their way in the dark until they were right up against the fence. From there they each found a crack between the boards where they could peer through to the other side. The boys looked out just in time to see two dark figures still sitting in the front seat of the truck, waving their arms around.
“Looks like they’re arguing,” Chet said. “What should we do?”
“We just sit tight,” Eddy whispered.
Then the driver put the truck in reverse and backed up a few feet. He shifted into another gear and turned the front wheels toward the fence. The tires bit deep into the snow as the truck lunged forward.
“He’s going to crash the fence and crush us,” Rusty squeaked. But the wheels turned away from the fence as the truck pulled in right next to it. The man on the passenger side opened his door and stepped out into the snow. His feet made a crunching sound as he came around the back of the truck. Then he climbed up until he was standing on the top.
The driver opened his window. “What can you see?” he asked.
“Nothin’, Boss.”
“What do you mean, nothing?”
“I mean I can’t see nothin’.”
“Lean up against the fence and look over. See what’s on the other side.”
The air was already cold, and the snow fort was no tropical beach either. But when the man said, “See what’s on the other side,” Eddy felt like the temperature went down another twenty degrees. He figured his friends thought the same thing because all three of them got a bad case of the shivers at the very same time.
They pressed against the fence tightly so they could see out. Just then the man on top of the truck bumped against the boards. It was like a donkey had kicked the fence. The boys fell onto their backs but they quickly scrambled back up to see what would happen next.
That’s when Eddy noticed he could see his breath in the frigid night air. He figured if he could see it, the two men might see it too. Eddy reached out and touched his friends on their shoulders. But when he did, it scared them so bad, they fell backward into the snow a second time.
“Breathe down the front of your jackets,” he whispered. When they did that, the steam went away.
“Der ain’t nothin’ in der, Boss,” the man said.
“Everybody knows these cabins are only for summer people,” the man in the truck answered. “A person could die out here and no one would know about it till spring.”
“What da you want me ta do, Boss?”
“Come on back down while I think of a plan.” He slammed the truck into park, but when he did that, it lurched forward just enough so that the man on top lost his balance. The boys watched as he went flying head first off the back of the truck, landing in a deep drift. Only his ankles stuck out.
The boys started laughing so hard they knew they were sure to be discovered. It was a good thing they had decided to start breathing into their jackets because that helped muffle some of the sound. Of course the poor sap in the snowdrift couldn’t hear a thing. He was buried so deeply, the boys could hardly hear his cries for help as he struggled in the snow.
Eddy finally stopped laughing but his chest hurt from trying to keep it in. Tears streamed down his face threatening to turn him into an ice sculpture.
The driver moved his truck away from the fence. Eddy noticed that he was taller than the other man when he stepped out and walked back to help his human snowplow partner. The man in the snow was not small. Not around anyway. He was much shorter and heavier. When he finally came out of the snow it was clear to see he was angry because he never stopped yelling.
“You did dat on purpose. Dat’s da meanest trick you never done.”
“Ever done. It’s ever done, Clarence.”
“I don’t care what you say. I ain’t never gonna forget it.”
“Will you keep your voice down.”
“What for. You tink the squirrels are gonna rat on us?”
“You never know who might be back here. We can’t leave no witnesses.”
That really scared Eddy. Now he knew these guys weren’t just joking around.
“Look, Clarence. I’ll buy you a hamburger when we get out of here. Will that make it better?”
“Gee, tanks Boss.”
Faintly in the distance, Eddy thought he heard something. He pointed in the direction of the sound, and then shrugged his shoulders. What he heard sounded like hundreds of police sirens and they were coming this way.
“Aw Boss. Now what are ya gonna do, huh?”
“Be quiet and let me think,” he thundered. Then he snapped his fingers. “I got it.”
“What do you got, Boss?”
“Get me the briefcase! Hurry!”
“My…my name’s Clarence, not Hurry.”
“Just do it!”
The fat, short man bounded to the other side of the truck, slipped and fell, got up again, opened a back door, and returned with a shiny metal case.
“But dis is all we got,” he complained.
“Yeah, but if the cops catch us with it, we’ll have nothing. Now give it to me.”
“I don’t know, Boss.”
“There’s a hamburger in it for you. Remember?”
“Dat’s right. I almost forgot to forget. I mean remember, I mean…”
“Just hand it over.”
With each passing second the sirens kept coming closer. The larger man took the case and held it in both hands. “The way I figure it, there ain’t nobody here. And there ain’t gonna be nobody around for months. This case will be safer out here than in the truck.”
“How ya know dat?”
“At lease if we leave it here, we know where it is.”
“Yeah. It’s not wit us.”
“Right. But it ain’t in the truck neither.”
“Tell me why dat’s sposed ta make me happy?”
“‘Cause if the cops catch up with us, they ain’t gonna find nothin’ on us. That’s why.”
“I still ain’t happy, Boss.”
The police were close enough now that the boys could faintly see their lights flashing against the snow through the trees.
“We ain’t got no choice, and we ain’t got no time, Clarence. Now take this thing and throw it as hard as you can over the fence.”
Over the fence, Eddy thought. That can’t be good.
Now the police were on the same narrow lane heading straight toward the crooks’ truck.
“Throw it, Clarence, throw it!”
The boys watched as the short, fat man swung the case high over his head. He spun around and around as the moonlight shone against the bright metal finish on the case. With one giant heave, and a loud grunt, he let it go sailing over the fence. But all that spinning around must have made him dizzy because he plopped right down in the snow.
As he hit the ground there was another loud thump directly on top of the roof the boys had built over their fort.
I’m glad we got that part finished, Eddy thought.
The fat man tried to jump to his feet but he fell right back down again. It reminded Eddy of how he and his friends spun round and round at school to see how dizzy they could get. Then they’d try to race across a line to see who finished first. Rusty was always last.
The man stood up again and again he plopped right back down.
“Clarence. We gotta go. Hurry!”
“I’m hurryin’. I’m hurryin’ ”
“You’ve been in the same spot forever. Now move it.”
Clarence stood once again and this time he was able to move forward. But he slammed right into the side of the truck so hard he put a big dent in the door. That made him bounce right off and he was back in the snow again.
“Hamburger, Clarence. Hamburger!”
Clarence got back to his feet somehow, stumbled around to the other door, and fell in as the truck roared away without a second to spare. Clarence was still hanging half in and half out of his door.
The boys watched in wonder as enough lights to power a small town raced past their hideout. The sirens let out a head-splitting shriek so loud they had to cover their ears. As quickly as the cars had come, they now faded into the distance. Then the boys heard footsteps crunching in the snow outside their fort. From the sound of it, Eddy thought at least three people were coming.
“Hide in the corner,” he warned.
The boys huddled together as they shivered like wet dogs. Then a voice called,
“Anybody in there?”
“Dad?” Eddy asked nervously.
“Yes. We just got home. What in the world just happened back here?”
Eddy whispered to his friends, “Don’t say anything about the case yet.”
“It was really something, Dad,” he called out.
The boys crawled toward the entrance and out the door.
“This is quite a fortress you’ve built,” Rusty’s father said. “It has a roof and everything.”
The boys looked up too, to see if the silver case was still up there. It was, but the way it fell on the roof, the case was almost completely covered with snow. Eddy figured if he could hardly see it, and he knew it was up there, then his dad wasn’t likely to spot it.
“Come on. Let’s go inside the cabin. It’s really cold out here. Then you boys can tell us all about it.”
They turned and headed back toward the cabin. All except Eddy who quickly climbed up one side of his fort, grabbed the heavy case, slid back down, and tossed it through the front entrance. Then he hurried to catch up with the others.
“What do you think is inside?” Rusty whispered.
“Yes, let’s get inside,” Eddy’s father answered.
Eddy shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever it is, now it belongs to us.”
“What did you say?” his father asked.
“I…I’m sure glad this cabin belongs to us.”

http://www.maxbooks.9k.comNEWSPAPER CAPER, TERROR AT WOLF LAKE, NORTH WOODS POACHERS, MOUNTAIN CABIN MYSTERY, BIG RIG RUSTLERS, SECRET OF ABBOTT'S CAVE & LEGEND OF THE WHITE WOLF, are compared by readers and reviewers to Tom Sawyer, The Hardy Boys, Huck Finn, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Scooby-Doo, Lemony Snicket, and adventure author Jack London.Reviews http://www.maxbookreviews.blogspot.com

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