Read Online The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein - Free Book Online Page B

from the bobbing green bottle.
    On this island, you shall find great treasure.

“Okay,” said Walter as he dragged a shovel into Billy’s yard the next morning. “I figured it out.”
    “You did?” said Billy.
    “Yuh-huh. It’s a black hole.”
    “Like in space?”
    “Exactly. Only this is the first one ever discovered on the planet Earth.”
    “I don’t know, Walter.”
    “Think about it, Billy. Black holes are portals to parallel universes like in your mom’s dissertation. Plus, a parallel universe would be the perfect place to hide treasure, because no one could find it unless they found your black hole first.”
    “But black holes have so much gravity, nothing, not even light, can escape. We wouldn’t be able to go in and come out the same way.”
    “Oh,” said Walter. “Right. Forgot about that. Guess I’m not very good at astronomy, either. Okay, skip the black hole. Let’s go find that treasure.”
    Billy grinned. “Come inside. I think I found us the perfect treasure-hunting partner.”
    Billy led Walter into Dr. Libris’s study.
    “Hey, Billy, you ever notice that the ceiling tiles in here are made out of metal?”
    “Yeah. Tin. The same kind are on the ceiling over the back porch, too.”
    “My dad says tin is a good conductor of electricity,” said Walter.
    “Huh,” said Billy. “And have you noticed—there’s a satellite dish in the backyard but no TV in the cabin?”
    “So
maybe
 … the tin ceiling picks up your electronic brain signals when you read a book and transmits them to the satellite dish, which beams them up to space, where they hit a satellite with a bunch of digital movie projectors that send holographic images down to the island or directly to the underwater cable my dad’s construction crew ran out there a couple years ago.”
    “Whoa,” said Billy. “Wait a second. They ran a cable out to the island?”
    “Yuh-huh. They spooled it off the back of a big boat. My dad said it was for the bird sanctuary’s telecommunications and Internet system. I asked him if birds use landlinephones and Web browsers. He told me that information was classified.”
    Billy thought about his encounter with Poseidon. Walter’s underwater cable might explain that.
    “Uh-oh,” said Walter, studying the books lined up in the case. “Stay away from that one.” He was pointing at
The Time Machine
by H. G. Wells. “We have enough weirdness already. You definitely don’t want to mess with the space-time continuum, too.”
    “Good point.”
    “You should pick
Treasure Island.
Get it? Island? Treasure?
Treasure Island!
”
    “I had the same idea,” said Billy. “But there’s no
Treasure Island
on any of the shelves.”
    “No
Treasure Island
?” Walter sounded bummed.
    “Nope. So I started thinking about other books with treasure or treasure hunters in them.”
    Walter snapped his fingers. “
National Treasure Two: Book of Secrets
!
Raiders of the Lost Ark
!”
    “Those are movies, Walter.”
    “Weren’t they books first?”
    “Nope. Sorry.” Billy opened up the bookcase and took out a midnight-blue clothbound edition of
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain. “But Tom Sawyer goes treasure hunting all the time. He’s an expert. He can tell us where to start digging.”
    “So we don’t waste a lot of time digging random holes like in that other book!”
    “Holes,”
said Billy.
    “Yeah. That one.”
    Billy sat down in the comfy chair, flipped open
Tom Sawyer
, and started reading.
    Tom lay awake and waited, in restless impatience. When it seemed to him that it must be nearly daylight, he heard the clock strike ten!
    In the distance, Billy heard a clock tolling ten times.
    “Did you hear that?” he asked Walter in an anxious whisper.
    “Nope.”
    Same as the day before. Billy heard stuff in the study; Walter didn’t.
    “Okay,” he said. “Here come the meows.”
    “Is there a cat in the book?” asked Walter.
    “Nope. It’s Tom Sawyer calling out to