Read Online The Dragon in the Driveway by Kate Klimo, John Shroades - Free Book Online

the earthmover’s engine fired up, blasting them with boiling-hot diesel fumes.
    “Run for it!”
Jesse screamed.
    Emmy exploded across the pasture and up the hill. Jesse and Daisy took off after her, but Jesse’sshoelace got tangled in something. He sprawled face-first into a fat thistle plant. Jesse turned over, his face stinging with nettles and his head reeling. For a minute, he didn’t even know where he was. Daisy tugged at his arm and pointed frantically at something. And then, as his senses returned, he saw the earthmover about to back over him. Its backing-up signal beeped ominously. Jesse rolled aside just in time to avoid being crushed beneath the giant rear wheels.
    The earthmover continued to move in reverse until its massive body completely blocked their escape route.
    “This way!” Daisy screamed. She took off toward the Deep Woods, the backpack slamming against her shoulder blades as she ran. Jesse scrambled to his feet and headed after her across the pasture. The earthmover was right behind them. It wasn’t moving quickly, but fast enough for them to feel the massive metal scooper on the front bumper nipping at their heels. If one of them were to trip and fall, St. George would either scoop them up or run right over them.
    As Jesse gaped at the dark wall of trees looming up before him, he had a sudden vision of St. George rolling into the Deep Woods, the earth-mover leveling acres of trees as it churned afterthem. Jesse caught up with Daisy and pulled her off to the side. He dragged her, stumbling and staggering, around to the back end of the earthmover, where he shouted over the motor’s thunder, “The door in the earth!”
    Gasping for breath, with the sweat streaming down her face, Daisy nodded.
    They took advantage of the time St. George needed to turn the earthmover around to rush back toward the barn. First Jesse and then Daisy leaped into the hole, bumped down the steps, and landed on their behinds on the root cellar floor.
    “Safe!” screamed Daisy.
    A great dark shadow loomed overhead, blocking out the sky. Jesse lunged for the backpack and unzipped it. He tossed the flashlight to Daisy and pulled out the ball of string. Quickly, he tied one end of the string to a stanchion of the canning shelves, just as dirt began pouring down on their heads.
    He looked around frantically for Daisy, but she was already waiting for him at the entrance to the mine tunnel, beaming her flashlight like a beacon. He reached her and spun around. They both watched as a cascade of rocks and earth poured into the root cellar, flowing toward the tunnel.
    Emmy’s voice, like a golden bell, rang in Jesse’shead:
The sky is falling! Run, Chicken Little! Run!
    Daisy shouted over the noise of the churning earthmover. “Where’s Emmy?”
    Jesse shouted back, “The laurel bushes!”
    There was an alarming series of muffled explosions. Then there was silence. Dirt now covered the mineshaft entrance completely.
    Daisy’s face looked ghostly and grim in the flashlight’s beam. “Well, that’s that, I guess,” she said.
    “Maybe Emmy will come back with the magic shovel and dig us out,” Jesse said.
    “Then shouldn’t we stick around?” Daisy asked.
    “I’m worried that the mine might keep collapsing. I think we need to get away from this spot for now,” Jesse said. “Besides, if my hunch is right, this tunnel winds up beneath the Deep Woods clearing.”
    Daisy didn’t want to say that if Jesse’s hunch was right, then St. George had them trapped either way. So she shut her mouth and turned to lead the way into the tunnel. Jesse followed, unraveling string from the big ball as he went. Daisy was a little surprised that she wasn’t
more
terrified. Maybe she was too thankful to be afraid; thankful that St. George hadn’t squished them flat with the earth-mover, that Emmy had made it safely to the laurelbushes, that Jesse was with her and she wasn’t alone.
    As she walked, she shone the flashlight all