At first Samantha wanted some more time to feel bad about losing Uncle Paul. But she’d already done enough power moping to last a lifetime. She rolled up the note and shoved it into her pocket.

“The RAIN is gonna fall hard now,” she said. “Let’s go, Nipper.”

She looked over her shoulder.

“Nipper?”

He wasn’t there.

“Ugh,” she said, and marched back through the doorway to the chamber with the awful dark pit. Dennis was near the wall again, keeping a lookout for trouble or crackers. She continued along the wall, following the sounds of heavy objects being dragged across a muddy clay-tiled floor.

Nipper was back in the treasure room.

She hurried through the doorway. Then she stopped.

Samantha crossed her arms and watched as Nipper filled a bucket with sticks. They were made of different types of wood, and they all looked suspiciously like magic wands. He picked up a shiny gold ring with strange writing on it and a glistening pair of ruby-studded slippers. He tossed them both in the bucket and added it to a new stack of trinkets and treasures. Then he bent down and picked up a creepy-looking monkey’s paw.

“Enough!” she shouted.

Nipper stopped and looked up at her. He let the paw fall on the floor.

“We’re getting out of here now, and we’re leaving all this stuff right where it is,” she commanded.

Nipper started to protest, but she shoved him away from the treasure pile.

“Come with me now!”

Nipper stood where he was, frowning. Then he spoke very slowly.

“I…want…my…Yankees…back,” he said. “What else can I do?”

“You could at least say thank you to me,” said Samantha.

“Thank you?” he asked. “Thank you?”

“I saved you from a horrible, slimy death!” she shouted. “I think you should say thank you, and merci, and arigatō!” She grabbed his arm and began to pull him across the floor. “That’s ‘thank you’ in Japanese,” she added.

Nipper tried to pull away, but Samantha didn’t let go. She dragged him out of the room and along the curved wall toward the mouth of the tunnel.

“Okay, okay,” said Nipper. “I’m going.”

Samantha let go of his arm.

“But as soon as we get back to Seattle I’m never speaking to you again,” said Nipper. “Wherever you go, I’ll head in the opposite direction and stay one hundred percent angry with you forever.”

“That’s fine with me,” said Samantha. She looked Nipper straight in the eye and pointed at him. “Just don’t forget to leave everything you’ve stolen from this tomb.”

“Absolutely. I won’t,” said Nipper, covering his right hand with his left to hide the ring on his finger.

Samantha adjusted the umbrella on her shoulder, and watched to make sure Nipper and Dennis went first. They walked carefully around the room with the horrible pit and into the exit tunnel. One after another, they crawled out of the secret tomb, back up to the museum and the Temple of Horus.

They wound their way to the museum exit, across the pillar-lined courtyard, and back up the giant falcon’s tail, across its back, and up and over the rim of the hat on the massive statue’s head.

As they climbed through the secret hole, back down the ladder into the magtrain station, Nipper lost his grip and tumbled to the floor. As they walked down the ramp to reach the H-shaped magtrain car, he tripped on his shoelaces two separate times. Getting into the front bench, he bashed his funny bone on the side of his seat.

“Ouch!” he wailed, rubbing his arm.

Samantha glared at him. He put his arms close to his sides and gave her a weak smile.

She took her place in the middle seat, placed the Plans on the floor by her feet, sat Dennis on her lap, and pressed the button. Her hair stood up, and the tracks began to glow once more as the magtrain accelerated.

“You must really want that cursed thing,” she called to him. “I can’t believe you didn’t put it back where you found it.”

“I need it for something special,” he said, shooting her a look over his shoulder. “And I won’t let you boss me out of it.”

As he turned to face the front of the speeding magtrain, a bug flew up his nose.

The scorpion’s emerald eyes flashed brightly.

Samantha shook her head, while Dennis settled in comfortably. The car raced along swiftly but quietly through the tunnel.

Samantha noticed the soft buzzing sound again. It was definitely coming from Dennis, and it was really starting to irritate her. She inspected the pug’s neck carefully. The noise wasn’t coming from the Blinky Barker after all. It was coming from the dog collar—from a speck on the huge blue gem attached to its front. She squinted and looked even closer. It wasn’t a speck; it was a tiny electronic chip, and it was glued to the stone’s surface.

Suddenly everything made sense. “That’s how the ninjas have been tracking us,” Samantha said quietly. She yanked the gem free from Dennis’s collar and raised her arm, about to toss the gem onto the tracks behind them. Then she stopped…and smiled.

“Nipper,” she called. “Before we split up and always head in opposite directions and you stay one hundred percent angry with me forever, I want you to take this.”

She held out the big blue gem.

Her brother turned around and looked at what Samantha held in her hand. Silent and scowling, he grabbed the gem.

He held up his other hand and showed Samantha that he was pulling the scorpion ring off his finger. He grunted and stuffed both the gem and the ring into his pocket. Then he turned away from her as the magtrain car sped onward to Seattle, the Emerald City.