Chapter 1 BACKYARD SPIES

 

  Dudley Day whispered, “I spy an anthill!”

  Henry Heckelbeck joined his best friend to watch the ants. They both wondered if the ants had secret tunnels inside.

   

  “I spy a bird’s nest!” cried Henry, pointing his binoculars at the treetops. “Wouldn’t a nest make a cool hangout?”

  Dudley stood up and said, “Yeah. So would an anthill.”

  Then Henry spotted a red-orange cat in the garden.

  “I spy something FURRY,” he whispered. The cat belonged to the next-door neighbors. Henry had nicknamed him Kevin.

  Dudley tiptoed to Henry’s side. “Let’s follow it!” he said.

   

   

  The boys tracked Kevin along the stone wall and down into Henry’s dad’s vegetable patch. Kevin stopped and chewed on some spinach.

  “Ew!” the boys cried.

  Then Kevin trotted toward the house and leaped onto a windowsill.

  The boys crouched under the window. They slowly stood up to spy on the cat, but Kevin bounded away.

   

  Now the only things in the window were Henry and Dudley.

  Henry could see his sister, Heidi. She was inside the house with her friends Bruce Bickerson and Lucy Lancaster. Then Heidi saw Henry.

   

  “HEY!” she shouted at her brother. “Quit SPYING on us!”

  Henry and Dudley ran away before they got blamed for anything else Kevin did.