Who Won the War? by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Page B

Jake.
    “Yeah,” he said.
    “Was it really a coal mine?” asked Beth.
    “I don't know,” said Josh. “Maybe it was a silver mine or lead or something. It's been closed for as long as I can remember.”
    “If Dad ever finds out we were up here …,” said Josh.
    “So don't tell him! Nobody's going to get hurt. We're not going to do anything stupid,” said Jake.
    “Just coming up here was stupid,” said Wally.
    “So go home, then!” Jake growled, but nobody turned back.
    There was a tall fence with barbed wire at the top surrounding the entrance to the mine, and every twenty feet or so, there was a NO TRESPASSING sign. But, as the kids soon discovered, the fence was in poor repair, and it did not take them long to see that if they jiggled and shoved at the gate, they could make the opening just wide enough for a person to slip through, providing that that person was a kid who held his breath and turned sideways.
    “Listen, be careful,” Beth warned as Eddie slipped through.
    “Heck, nothing to it!” said Jake, going in after her.
    The others watched uneasily from outside, holding on to the fence.
    At first it appeared that Eddie and Jake were going to walk ten feet apart and not even speak to each other. But as they got closer to the tunnel, Caroline could see that they were at least talking. Now they were four feet apart … still talking. And finally they took a few steps together toward the tunnel entrance.
    “Oh, man!” breathed Wally. “We don't even know what's in there.”
    “They'd better not fall in!” Peter said worriedly, his voice a little shaky. “We told Dad we wouldn't go in there, not ever, ever, ever.”
    “What if they go inside and it caves in on them?” said Caroline.
    “That's why we're not supposed to go in,” said Josh.
    Jake and Eddie appeared to be thinking the same thing, because even after they reached the tunnel entrance, they both looked up and around, hesitant, it seemed, to go any farther.
    Eddie turned to the others, by the fence, and waved.
    Was this a final goodbye? Caroline wondered. Would this be the last memory she'd have of her sister? The weak smile, the wave from the entrance to the mountain, which at any moment could come roaring down onto her head?
    Jake and Eddie started through the entrance, and then they disappeared.
    Suddenly there was a shout. A yell. Popping up from brush at the side of the mountain was a big burly man in a dirty white T-shirt.
    Jake and Eddie must not have got three feet inside before they came tearing out of the tunnel and almost collided with him. For a moment the man had Jake by the T-shirt, but Jake broke loose and he and Eddie ran pell-mell back down toward the gate.
    “Get out!” the man yelled hoarsely. “Get out! You stay outta there. You get out of here and don't you never come back!”
    He was twice their size, but Eddie and Jake were faster. On they ran, stumbling and tripping, the man in pursuit, until they reached the gate, white-faced and panting, and slipped through the opening. All theHatfords and Malloys ran like the wind, the man bellowing at them from the other side of the fence.
    “I'll find you out; don't think I won't!” he shouted.
    Caroline tripped and fell, but Beth yanked her up, and now they were far enough down the mountain that they could stop and catch their breath.
    “That was close!” Eddie panted, holding her sides.
    “Who do you suppose he was?” gasped Jake. “He just came out of nowhere!”
    “He didn't have a uniform or anything,” said Wally. “He didn't look like a guard.”
    “He looked half crazy to me,” said Beth.
    “Old Man of the Mountain!” said Josh. “Maybe he lives in there, like a troll or something.”
    “What do you think he would have done if he'd caught us?” Jake asked Eddie, still breathless.
    “Arrested us, probably,” said Eddie. “He didn't have a gun, did he?”
    “I don't think so,” Wally said.
    “Should we sneak back up and try to figure out who he