The Mysterious Island Page 4

  Julie shot Eric a worried look. “That’s good enough. Come on.”

  They went to a door under the basement stairs.

  Eric quickly opened the door and turned on the light. Everyone piled into a small room. He closed the door behind them.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  Neal held up his right hand. His fingers had started to form a claw. “I don’t know about you, but I am!”

  Julie flicked off the light.

  Whoosh! The floor vanished instantly and the magic stairs appeared. Without wasting another moment, Eric darted down the steps.

  Each time he and his friends had gone to Droon, the stairs had taken them somewhere different. He wondered where the stairs would lead this time.

  “I see clouds!” Julie said. “We’re in the air!”

  Rrrr. A rumbling sound came from the clouds.

  “Sounds like something is coming,” Neal said.

  Suddenly, the clouds parted. A round silver shape passed slowly under the bottom step.

  “Whoa! It’s some kind of huge flying thing,” Julie said. The rainbow-colored stairs began to ripple under them.

  “As usual, the stairway is fading too soon,” Eric said. “We’d better jump.” Then he gripped his friends’ hands firmly.

  Together, they jumped.

  Plink! Plonk! Plunk! They landed on the ship.

  “There’s a hatch over there!” Julie shouted.

  Freezing wind blew over them as they crawled across the silver surface to a small door.

  Eric tried to open the hatch. “It’s locked!”

  Neal leaned over. He gripped a corner of the hatch with his clawed hand and twisted.

  Krrnch! The little door sprang open to reveal a metal ladder running down inside the ship.

  “At least being a bug makes me strong!” Neal said. “Let’s go!”

  One by one, the three friends went down into the strange flying ship.

  Text copyright © 1999 by Robert T. Abbott.

  Illustrations copyright © 1999 by Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

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  First Scholastic printing, August 1999

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-83340-0

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.