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Douglas backed off and stared at his companions, who had heard the voice fro what to do

‘You got nothing more to say?’ called Grandpa fro; you knohere to find me I’ll expect you there soon’

‘Yeah, yes, sir’

Doug and the boys were silent as they listened to Grandpa’s footsteps echo throughout the haunted house, along the hall, down the stairs, out onto the porch And then, nothing

Douglas turned and Tom held up the burlap sack

‘You need this, Doug?’ he whispered

‘Gimme’

Doug grabbed the gunnysack and scraped all the chess pieces up and dropped them, one by one, into the sack There went Pete and Tom and Bo and all the rest

Doug shook the gunnysack; itsound like old men’s bones

And with a last backward glance at his ar started down

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Grandpa’s library was a fine dark place bricked with books, so anything could happen there and always did All you had to do was pull a book from the shelf and open it and suddenly the darkness was not so dark anymore

Here it was that Grandpa sat in place with now this book and now that in his lap and his gold specs on his nose, welcoered for an hour

Even Grand ani place to be refreshed And Grandfather was always here to offer cups of good clear Walden Pond, or shout down the deep well of Shakespeare and listen, with satisfaction, for echoes

Here the lion and the hartebeest lay together, here the jackass became unicorn, here on Saturday noon an elderly h, eating bread in the guise of sandwiches and pulling briefly at a jug of cellar wine