“Yes,” he agreed. Rules were rules and he had never asked to change them before. But this was important. Suppose they came to clean out the old house tomorrow and the puzzle was gone! Could he leave for school earlier tomorrow without having to say why, get the puzzle safely out on the way to school? Or if he could not, might one of the others?

In one bite he ate the rest of the brownie and went to look up phone numbers, taking them alphabetically so that Ras—George Brown—was first. With luck Ras himself answered.

Kim had not thought out ahead of time what to say, and now he fumbled for the right words. After all, Ras did not know, could not know, that he had been working the puzzle, too.

Also, it was not very helpful when he said, “This is Kim” to have Ras say, “Kim who?”

“Kim Stevens. I wait at the bus stop with you.”

“Sure.” But there was such a note of bewilderment in Ras’s voice even now that Kim was discouraged. He could only hurry on and hope for the best, though he was a little afraid that the other boy would not listen to him.

“I know—about the dragons. I—I put together the yellow one this afternoon!”

For a long minute there was no answer at all. Kim felt almost as cold inside as he had on the wall of that long-ago city. Was Ras going to be angry with him, or even hang up? The silence stretched very long indeed before the other said, “Something happened to you, didn’t it?”

“Yes! And, Ras, what about it—the you-know-what—if they come to clear out the house? Could—could you come over after supper and talk about it? Maybe even if we wait until tomorrow it will be too late.”

“I’ll have to ask. What about Sig—Artie?”

“I’m going to call them.”

Ras went away from the phone to come back with a promise of “after supper for sure.” Kim had been looking up Sig’s number in the book, had his finger under it ready for the second call. And he had luck when he reached Sig, for Artie was still there, so he got them both and gathered two more promises.

When they arrived he was waiting impatiently. Father had the TV on to listen to the news, and Mother was back on the phone talking about the bake sale, so he took them straight up to his room. Sig and Artie sat on the bed, looking about them with open curiosity. Ras had the desk chair, but Kim stood, eager to begin.

“You’ve got a groovy place.” Sig studied the shelves up on the wall, holding the things Father had brought back from Hong Kong and Japan and Korea. “Hey—look—there’s a dragon!”

He pointed to a wood carving.

“That’s from Taiwan,” Kim said impatiently.