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Mystery May

Now You See Them, Now You Don't - The Lost Colony, Part 3

Now You See Them, Now You Don't - The Lost Colony, Part 3
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   2.84

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    amosh, breastbone, capsule, Croatoan, flipflop, grazed, hyperventilating, instantly, Manteo, mode, prickle, prunella, reality, sniggle, stocky, Ummm
     content words:    Fruity Blast, New World, Lost Colony, John White, But John White, John Smith, But Smith

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Now You See Them, Now You Don't - The Lost Colony, Part 3
By Toni Lee Robinson 		  
1     We heard the brush move behind us. All four of us turned. Our backs were up against the log posts. "We should be using the shield—," Prunella started to say. At that moment, the brush parted. We froze.
 
2     A figure stepped out of the shadow, a stocky man with bronze skin. His head was topped with a spike of dark hair. He wore an animal skin around his waist. His chest was covered with black markings. A long bow swung in his left hand. His right grasped an arrow.
 
3     He stood before us, staring. My brain did a flipflop. I tried to get a grip on reality. The fact was that we were face to face with one of the native people of Roanoke in 1587.
 
4     Beside me, I heard Rocky take a breath. "Ummm...Hi," he said, lifting his hand to wave. The man jumped back. He started to lift the bow and fit the arrow to the string. We gasped and cowered against the log wall. He looked at us and lowered the bow.
 
5     The man scowled and muttered words that sounded like "Wapposh amosh." Then, as quickly as he had appeared, he vanished back into the trees. For a long moment, we stood looking at the place he'd disappeared. Then we all collapsed against the logs. I think it was the first breath I had taken in several minutes. I felt wobbly all over.
 
6     "We just about got skewered! He was going to shoot us! Let's get out of here!" Rusty was hyperventilating. I patted him on the back.
 
7     "Calm down, Rusty," I said. "The guy was probably watching us through the trees for quite a while. If he'd wanted to shoot us, he could have done it any time."
 
8     "We're wasting time," Rocky said. "We've got to find out what happened to the missing people before we have to go!"
 
9     At that moment, I felt a vibration against my side. My belt buzzer was going off. It was too late. Our time was up. We all groaned.

Paragraphs 10 to 25:
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