<3-1>

Meow!

"It's still here," said Jack.

"It 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.

"Shhh!" said Jack. "What was that noise?"

"What noise?"

"I heard a noise," Jack said. He looked around. "It sounded like someone coughing."

"I didn't hear anything," said Annie. "Come on. Let's go up."

She grabbed onto the rope ladder and started climbing.

Jack tiptoed over to a clump of bushes. He pushed aside a small branch.

"Hello?" he said. "Anybody there?"

There was no answer.

"Come on!" Annie called down. "The tree house looks the same as it did yesterday."

Jack still felt that someone was nearby. Could it be the person who'd put all the books in the tree house?

"Ja-ack!"

Jack gazed over the top of the bushes.

Was the mysterious person watching him now? The person whose name began with M?

Maybe M wanted the gold medallion back. The one Jack had found on their dinosaur adventure. Maybe M wanted the leather bookmark back. The one from the castle book.

There was an M on the medallion. And an M on the bookmark. But what did M stand for?

"Tomorrow I'll bring everything back," Jack said loudly.

A breeze swept through the woods. The leaves rattled.

"Come on!" called Annie.

Jack went back to the big oak tree. He grabbed onto the rope ladder and climbed up.

At the top he crawled through a hole in the wooden floor. He tossed down his backpack and pushed his glasses into place.

"Hmmmm. Which book is it going to be today?" said Annie.

She was looking at the books scattered around the tree house.

Annie picked up the book about castles.

"Hey, this isn't wet anymore," she said.

"Let me see."

Jack took the book from her. He was amazed.

It looked fine. Yesterday it had gotten soaked in a castle moat.

The castle book had taken Jack and Annie back to the time of knights.

Jack silently thanked the mysterious knight who had rescued them.

"Watch out!" warned Annie.

She waved a dinosaur book in Jack's face.

"Put that away," said Jack.

The day before yesterday the dinosaur book had taken them to the time of dinosaurs.

Jack silently thanked the Pteranodon who had saved him from a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Annie put the dinosaur book back with the other books.

Then she gasped.

"Wow," she whispered. "Look at this."

She held up a book about ancienet Egypt.

Jack caught his breath. He took the book from her. A green silk bookmark stuck out of it.

Jack turned to the page with the bookmark. There was a picture of a pyramid.

Going toward the pyramid was a long parade. Four huge cows with horns were pulling a sled. On the sled was a long gold box. Many Egyptians were walking behind the sled. At the end of the parade was a sleek black cat.

"Let's go there," whispered Annie. "Now."

"Wait," said Jack. He wanted to study the book a bit more.

"Pyramids, Jack, " said Annie. "You love pyramids."

It was true. Pyradis were high on his list of favorite things. After knights. But before dinosaurs. Way before dinosaurs.

He didn't have to worry about being eaten by a pyramid.

"Okay," he said. "But hold the Pennsylvania book. In case we went to come right back here."

Annie found the book with the picture of their hometown in it. Frog Creek, Pennsylvania.

Then Jack pointed to the pyramid picture in the Egypt book. He cleared his throat and said, "I wish we could go to this place."

"Meow!"

"What was that?" Jack looked out the tree house window.

A black cat was perched on a branch. Right outside the window. The cat was staring at  Jack and Annie.

It was the strangest cat Jack had ever seen. He was very sleek and dark. With bright yellow eyes. And a widegold collar.

"It's the cat in the Egypt book," whispered Annie.

Just then the wind started to blow. The leaves began to shake.

"Here we go!" cried Annie.

The wind whistled louder. The leaves shook harder.

Jack closed his eyes as the tree house started to spin.

It spun faster and faster! And faster!

Suddenly everything was still.

Absolutely still.

Not a sound. Not a whisper.

Jack opened his eyes.

Hot bright sunlight nearly blinded him.

"Me-ow!"

<3-2>

Oh, Man. Mummies!

Jack and Annie looked out the window.

The tree house was perched on the top of a palm tree. The tree stood with other palm trees. A patch of green surrounded by a sandy desert.

"Meow!"

Jack and Annie looked down.

THe black cat was sitting at the base of the tree. His yellow eyes staring up Jack and Annie.

"Hi!" Annie shouted.

"Shhh," said Jack. "Someone might heare you."

"In the middle of the desert?" said Annie.

The black cat stood and began walking around the tree.

"Come back!" Annie called. She leaned out the window to see where the cat was going.

"Oh, wow!" she said. "Look, Jack."

Jack leaned forward and looked down.

The cat was running away from the palm trees. Toward a giant pyramid in the desert.

A parade was going toward the pyramid. The same parade as in the Egypt book.

"It's the picture from the book!" said Jack.

"What are those people doing?" asked Annie.

Jack looked down at the Egypt book. He read the words under the picture:

When a royal person died, a grand funeral procession took place. Family, servants, and mourners followed the coffin. The coffin was called a sarcophagus. It was pulled on a sled by four oxen.

"It's an Egyptian funeral," said Jack. "The box is called a sar.... sar.... sar.... oh, forget it."

He looked out the window again.

Oxen, sled, Egyptians, black cat. All were moving in a slow, dreamy way.

"I'd better make some notes about this," said Jack.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out his notebook. Jack always kept notes.

"Wait," said Jack. And he wrote :

Coffin called sarcophagus

"We'd better hurry," said Annie, "if we want to see the mummy."

She started down the rope ladder.

Jack looked up from his notebook.

"Mummy?" he said.

"There's probably a mummy in that gold box," Annie called up. "we're in ancient Egypt. Remember?"

Jack loved mummies. He put down his pencil.

"Good-bye, Jack!" called Annie.

"Wait!" Jack called.

"Mummies!" Annie shouted.

"Oh, man," said Jack weakly. "Mummies!" She sure knew how to get to him.

Jack shoved his notebook and the Egypt book into his pack. Then he started down the ladder.

When he got to the ground, he and Annie took off across the sand.

But as they ran a strange thing happened.

The closer they got to the parade, the harder it was to see it.

Then suddenly it was gone. The strange parade had disappeared. Vanished.

But the great stone pyramid was still there. Towering above them.

Panting, Jack looked around.

What had happened? Where were the people? The oxen? The gold box? The cat?

"They're gone," said Annie.

"Where did they go?" said Jack.

"Maybe they were ghosts," said Annie.

"Don't be silly. There's no such thing as ghosts," said Jack. "It must have been a mirage."

"A what?"

"Mirage. It happens in the desert all the time," said Jack. "It looks like something's there. But it just turns out to be the sunlight reflecting through heat."

"How could sunlight look like people, a mummy box, and a bunch of cows?" said Annie.

Jack frowned.

"Ghosts," she said.

"No way," said Jack.

"Look!" Annie pointed at the pyramid. Near the base was the sleek black cat.

He was standing alone. He was staring at Jack and Annie.

"He's no mirage," said Annie.

The cat started to slink away. He walked along the base of the pyramid and slid around a corner.

"Where's he going?" said Jack.

"Let's find out," said Annie.

They dashed around the corner- just in time to see the cat disappear through a hole in the pyramid.

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