The Knight at Dawn

land.
    â€œHe’s gone,” whispered Annie.
    Jack shivered in his wet clothes as he kept staring at the blackness.
    â€œI’m cold,” said Annie. “Where’s the Pennsylvania book?”
    Jack heard Annie fumble in the darkness. He kept looking out the window.
    â€œI think this is it,” said Annie. “I feel a silk bookmark.”
    Jack was only half-listening. He was hoping to see the knight’s armor gleam again in the distance.
    â€œOkay. I’m going to use this,” said Annie. “Because I think it’s the right one.Here goes. Okay. I’m pointing. I’m going to wish. I wish we could go to Frog Creek!”
    Jack heard the wind begin to blow. Softly at first.
    â€œI hope I pointed to the right picture in the right book,” said Annie.
    â€œWhat?” Jack looked back at her. “Right picture? Right book?”
    The tree house began to rock. The wind got louder and louder.
    â€œI hope it wasn’t the dinosaur book!” said Annie.
    â€œStop!” Jack shouted at the tree house.
    Too late.
    The tree house started to spin. It was spinning and spinning!
    The wind was screaming.
    Then suddenly there was silence.
    Absolute silence.

The air was warm.
    It was dawn. Far away a dog barked.
    â€œI think that’s Henry barking!” Annie said. “We
did
come home.”
    They both looked out the tree house window.
    â€œThat was close,” said Jack.
    In the distance, streetlights lit their street. There was a light on in their upstairs window.
    â€œUh-oh,” said Annie. “I think Mom and Dad are up. Hurry!”
    â€œWait.” In a daze, Jack unzipped his backpack. He pulled out the castle book. It was quite wet. But Jack placed it back with all the other books.
    â€œCome on! Hurry!” said Annie, scooting out of the tree house.
    Jack followed her down the ladder.
    They reached the ground and took off between the gray-black trees.
    They left the woods and ran down their deserted street.
    They got to their yard and crept across the lawn. Right up to the back door.
    Jack and Annie slipped inside the house.
    â€œThey’re not downstairs yet,” whispered Annie.
    â€œShhh,” said Jack.
    He led the way up the stairs and down the hall. No sign of his mom or dad. But hecould hear water running in the bathroom.
    Their house was so different from the dark, cold castle. So safe and cozy and friendly.
    Annie stopped at her bedroom door. She gave Jack a smile, then disappeared inside her room.
    Jack hurried into his room. He took off his damp clothes and pulled on his dry, soft pajamas.
    He sat down on his bed and unzipped his backpack. He took out his wet notebook. He felt around for the pencil, but his hand touched something else.
    Jack pulled the blue leather bookmark out of his pack. It must have fallen out of the castle book.
    Jack held the bookmark close to his lamp and studied it. The leather was smooth andworn. It seemed ancient.
    For the first time Jack noticed a letter on the bookmark. A fancy M.
    Jack opened the drawer next to his bed. He took out the gold medallion.
    He looked at the letter on it. It was the same M.
    Now this was an amazing new fact.
    Jack took a deep breath. One mystery solved.
    The person who had dropped the gold medallion in the time of the dinosaurs was the same person who owned all the books in the tree house.
    Who
was
this person?
    Jack placed the bookmark next to the medallion. He closed the drawer.
    He picked up his pencil. He turned to theleast wet page in his notebook. And he started to write down this new fact.

    But before he could draw the M, his eyes closed.
    He dreamed they were with the knight again. All three of them riding the black horse through the cool, dark night. Beyond the outer wall of the castle. And up over a moonlit hill.
    Into the mist.

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Magic Tree House #3
Mummies in the Morning

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    Excerpt copyright © 1993 by
Published by Random House Children’s Books,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

“It’s still here,” said Jack.
    â€œIt looks empty,” said Annie.
    Jack and his seven-year-old sister gazed up at a very tall oak tree. At the top of the tree was a tree house.
    Late-morning sunlight lit the woods. It was almost time for lunch.
    â€œShhh!” said Jack. “What was that noise?”
    â€œWhat noise?”
    â€œI heard a noise,” Jack said. He looked around.