Title: So much for gold
Author: Stav
Age: 9

WARNING: This tale is NOT for anybody who gets scared easily

“Hello, my name is Sam. I am a spy detective. Today I will tell you my tale. Questions at the end please. I hope you will enjoy…

One beautiful October I was sent on a secret mission to find two known dangerous thieves. I’ve got to say nobody (even me) knew their names, but we did know they love gold and kidnap children for it. Right now, the last child who was captured  belonged to the Quirt family. We knew they wander around the brown mountains since that’s where they collect the gold, and give back children-mostly alive… I told you this is a spooky tale…

So, I was on my way dressed up as a berry picker heading straight to the brown mountains (which was a well known berry picking site). I hoped nobody would suspect me, since many people believed there were lions in that area, so it was abandoned (except for some birds) and so I could have been found easily.

Still, with all my trouble I some how enjoyed this walk. As I started whistling to myself, some thing hard, shattered, and heavy hit my leg. Before I could guess what it was, I heard voices coming from not so far away but getting closer. Without thinking, I slipped the heavy mysterious thing into my pocket and hid behind berry bushes.

Through the small spaces between the leaves I saw two men, and in the middle, a short bound man. The short man had a sack covering his head. The man standing on the right was dressed in green, his mask was brown, and he held a rope which was connected to the short man. The man on the left seemed to be very strong and he was dressed in green and brown as well. The short man was struggling, so I guessed he was not their friend.  The two men seemed to be looking for something. They were getting very angry, and said many things which I could not hear. They seemed to ask the short man questions, and every time he answered (by nodding his/her head), they got even angrier. The more they asked and searched, the more frightened I was. I had to check what that thing was, I did and it was a bag. Could they be the dangerous thieves? Were they looking for the bag? Was the short man a prisoner? A child? At that moment I got so scared that I started to shiver.

That was not really smart to do since that was the way the man holding the rope saw me. The only thing I could do was pretend I saw and heard nothing, and was berry picking. That would have been a good reason to shiver, truly scary.

‘Hey there’ the masked man said. I pretended I did not hear.
‘Sir!’ he shouted quietly
‘Oh! Hi, I do not hear well you see…’ said I surprised.
‘What might you be doing here?’
‘Sorry?’
‘What brings you HERE?’
‘Aaah… the wonderful berries of-course’
‘But you must know about the lions’
‘Lions?’ That is only a tale!’
‘But we saw them…they hurt our friend’s cheek you see…very fierce lions they are…I think no one would dare come here…’
‘I think some people are just not sure…like that lady who came here…..so brave and scared.’ that was one of my ways to find information, listen to his answer.
‘What lady?’ he asked in an angry sort of way
‘well I do not know her too well, though she came here and suddenly stopped and ran away as if she were scared, or had forgotten something very important.’
‘Oh…’ he said looking very surprised, and confused.

The rest of the conversation is not important since I already knew what I wanted to know. I was just making-up excuses to go and they seemed to want to get rid of me, so it was not too difficult. By now you are probably very eager to know how what I said helped me-so I’ll tell you. When the man was surprised and confused, I knew that he was surprised because he thought the lady was the captured child’s mother, why would she run away? That helped me be more sure that they were really the thieves.

I had a very busy time when I reached town. If I tell you what I did, the whole story would be ruined.

At night I dressed-up as Mrs. Quirt, the captured boy’s mother, and took the bag with me. Then I headed into the forest.
I walked all the way to the tree (where I found the bag) and put the bag down, then walked very fast back to town.

When I woke-up at the morning I heard a loud knock on the door. Slowly I opened the door, very happy to see my boss, smiling.
‘Your plan worked!’ he said very happily.
‘My plan? Really?’
‘Then why do you think I’m here?’ said he, a little more sternly
‘Oua-oo-e sorry… So the little bag of gold truly saved the day’
‘Yes, but it did not do it alone’
‘Well…yes.’
‘The thieves had many tales about them not hurting anyone, just wanting gold…they say the hurt children were just that way since the parents did not collect them in time, but even if this story’s true, what they did was illegal, so they’re secure in jail now. ‘
‘Well they deserve it! So much for gold…’
‘Yeah!’

Now I guess this conversation is not too important. Especially if you want to know what my plan was. Well, I did not go to the forest alone that night. Police men came too. They waited near the bag, and when the thieves took it and left the boy, they followed the thieves straight to their hideout. The boy was also to be saved. Then the thieves were sent to jail.

The small bag of gold did save the day. Just so you know, I was really scared as well; so you are not the only ones.

THE END

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