Sally worked better alone, and Cindy was happy to leave her and join Adam on guard duty. Actually, happy may have been a poor word to describe Cindy’s state of mind. Adam had seen her scared before, but never like this. In their minds, they could both still hear Mr. Patton’s screams. But there was no sight of him. Cindy stayed close to his side as they patrolled the narrow aisles of the store. The minutes crept by.

“There are so many explosives in here,” Cindy whispered finally. “If they do break in and we have to use our flamethrowers, we’ll probably blow ourselves up.”

“We have to be careful,” Adam agreed. He gestured to what looked like a box of dynamite. “How did Mr. Patton ever get this stuff? You’d think it would be illegal.”

“Everything is legal in Spooksville,” Cindy said weakly. The words seemed to choke in her throat. Her eyes filled with tears. Adam touched her side.

“What is it?” he asked.

She put her hand to her head. “I keep thinking of Watch. I wish he was here with us. I wish we could take him with us in our balloons.”

Adam patted her on the back. “I keep thinking of him too.”

Cindy wiped at her face. “You must think I’m acting like a sissy. I don’t usually cry. But since I’ve been here in this town, it’s been one crisis after another.”

“Yeah. But at least you never get bored.”

Cindy forced a smile. “That’s true.”

Again Adam gestured to the box of dynamite. “I think we should load some of this into our balloons. You never know when it may come in handy.”

“Why? You saw that the grenade didn’t even stop the cold creature.”

Adam paused. “I know that. I just have this feeling—I can’t explain it. I think we might want this dynamite later.” Adam bent over and studied the boxes. “Here, there are fuses and detonators and everything. I want to haul some up onto the roof. Will you be all right down here for a few minutes?”

Cindy glanced uneasily around the shadows. “Don’t be gone too long.”

Adam was surprised when he got back up on the roof to see that Sally and Bum nearly had the balloons together. In reality there were not many parts to assemble. Bum even had one of them already filling with hot air. The burner was blasting away beneath the huge canopy as Adam walked over and set down his case of dynamite.

“We should be able to take off in a few minutes,” Bum said.

“Good,” Adam said. “I want to take these explosives with us.”

Sally looked up from her work. She was hooking the ropes onto the balloon gondola that would carry at least two of them aloft.

“The more firepower the better,” she said.

“How is it downstairs?” Bum asked.