Book Details

	Chase By: Haas, Jessie Published By: HarperCollins ePub for Digital Editions Price: $13.99 PDF for Digital Editions Price: $13.99 Mobipocket Reader Price: $13.99 Microsoft Reader Price: $13.99 PDF for Digital EditionsePub for Digital EditionsMobipocket ReaderMicrosoft Reader	EBOOK OPTIONS ADD TO CART ADD TO WISHLIST TELL A FRIEND RECEIVE ALERTS
	When Phin Chase witnesses a violent murder, he knows he must leave town. But no matter how fast he runs and where he hides, there is always someone close behind. Who is it? And what does he want? Set in the aftermath of the Civil War, this adrenaline–laced novel features a horse with the ability to track like a bloodhound, a resilient hero, a mystery that will keep readers hooked, and a relentless chase across a wide swath of the American Midwest. Ages: 10 –14

Excerpt

Chapter One

Engelbreit

Phin surfaced from the book with a start and sat listening; for what, he wasn't sure.

It was hours later, the lamp pale and unneeded, the sky blue, with a glowing red-orange streak at the horizon. Engelbreit was sleeping late this morning. Dawn usually found him up and breakfasting, then off to the mine to meet the incoming shift. In these troubled times it was best to be on hand early, to smell out whatever mischief had brewed overnight.

But Engelbreit was only just stirring in his blankets. That must be the sound that had startled Phin. Then why was he still listening? Why was he thinking of his mother?

He glanced down at the great poem he'd been so deep in moments ago. They'd never shared Leaves of Grass. It was two weeks after her death that he'd discovered Engelbreit and his books.

There were twenty-two of them on the shelf next to the table. Four had to do with coal and engineering, but there were novels, history, and poetry, too. Engelbreit wouldn't loan them. He'd caught Phin reading a novel left on the bench outside his door. "Come anytime," he'd said. "If I'm asleep, don't wake me. Just light the lamp and read."

For ten months now Phin had come almost every night. It felt more like home than the empty room behind Murray's Tavern. He missed her less here, and more. Isn't this beautiful? he kept wanting to ask her; or What do you think? And he'd look up from the page and remember.

But this wasn't one of those times. He didn't feel sorrowful, just—uneasy.

He leaned to blow out the lamp as Engelbreit rose, shoved his feet into his boots, and opened the front door wide. The sun was just coming up.

Engelbreit went out, dipped water from the barrel, and washed his face and hands. He came back in, leaving the door open. It was early autumn. The breeze brought a spicy smell from beyond the coalfields.

"Do you ever sleep, boy?" He rubbed his palms over his face; broad, bearded, maned like a lion. His calm blue eyes looked curiously at Phin, who shrugged. Sleep was hard to come by at a saloon. Sometimes he slept in the early morning, when things got quiet, or he'd slip away to the stable and bed down in the hay. Engelbreit didn't know that, and he didn't know much about Engelbreit. What they spoke of when they got the chance was books, and they didn't get the chance often.

Engelbreit drove his men like a demon, so the talk ran at Murray's. Phin had seen him come home, this demon, as soaked with sweat as any black-faced miner; throw himself on the bed and lie there wide-eyed, too exhausted to sleep. He'd seen him at his figures, shaking his head. The numbers didn't come out right. Working like a demon wasn't enough, for him or anyone else these days.

Engelbreit bent to kindle a fire in the stove. The sun struck a golden spear through the doorway. "Have some breakfast, since you're here?"

Just then a shadow crossed the sunbeam on the floor, then two more shadows. Shoulders. Hats. Like dark dolls the shapes lengthened over the clean-swept boards. Phin looked around.

Ned Plume came first, walking straight to the door with a revolver in his hand. He carried it down by his side, casual as a man with a dinner pail. He was tall and straight and his shoulders swung easily. The two behind were nervous and had been drinking.

There was time for one word. "Sleepers," Phin said, and Engelbreit turned from his breakfast.

Turned slowly. It was already too late. His eyes were fearless, and Plume raised the gun and fired. Red blossomed on Engelbreit's shirt and he fell back. When his head struck the iron stove, the look in his eyes didn't change. He was already gone.

Phin had seen dead men. In coal country in 1875, you did.

But Engelbreit. The sun through the open doorway, bright rose of red on his shirt. Engelbreit's calm eyes—The next shot would slam into Phin. He refused to turn and see it. Engelbreit's face would be his last sight on earth—

Footsteps, a rustle of clothing. Hands grabbed his upper arms, hard and hot as iron from the forge. He was jerked around to face Ned Plume.

The morning light gilded Plume's face. He looked handsome and noble, like a dime-novel hero, as he raised his gun again.

Phin swooped out of his body to a high corner of the ceiling. He saw the gun leveled at him, a shabby boy with a mended tear in the top of his cap. The boy looked calm, as detached as Engelbreit. Plume squared his jaw, squared it again, and his knuckle whitened on the trigger.

Abruptly he dropped his gun hand to his side. "This one I can't do."

Phin fell back into his body, a shrinking prison of fear. "He knows something," said the man holding him. " 'Sleepers,' he said."

But everyone knew the Sleepers. You pretended not to, but you did. And working at Murray's—an Irish tavern, in an Irish mine town—you'd have to be blind and deaf not to. The Sleepers—Molly Maguires, Ancient Order of Hibernians, to give them their other names—were the Irish defense force. Or they were a band of thugs; opinion was divided, even among the Irish.

Phin knew about the secret passwords and handshakes; about the coffin notices, threats with black coffins drawn on them to scare off oppressive bosses. He knew about the body masters who headed each local group. He knew about the gunmen. But everyone was aware of those things. He'd known everything, and nothing; certainly nothing worth dying for, until now.

"You do it," Plume said. The hands holding Phin jerked. Plume laughed. "Not so easy, is it? But here's a plan—"

"Who is the kid?" a voice outside asked.

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