Read The Gum Tree Gang and the Mystery at the Old Queenslander Online

Authors: Marie Seltenrych

Tags: #sleuth detective mystery childrens

The Gum Tree Gang and the Mystery at the Old Queenslander (5 page)

Krystal had difficulty in
concentrating at first, but as
she read on,
she found the reading becoming more
interesting. It was about the women who first went to
the

tomb and found it empty.
Jesus had risen. The women
must have felt
very excited, Krystal thought, but still the
men didn't believe them. She felt annoyed with the
unbelieving disciples. They reminded her of
Matthew and Kevin. As she read verse eleven, she emphasised,
and they did not believe them. She glanced at
Kevin. He
didn't bat an eyelid!

She felt even more
determined to prove to Kevin and
Matthew
all that had happened today. She hoped that the
four guys would turn up again tomorrow to prove what
Tracey and she had said.

~~~~
Chapter Nine
~~~~

Inside the Old Queenslander

Everything seemed boring at
school the next day! Krystal
felt sure the
classroom clock had stopped. It was only
half-past two. She had remembered to wear her watch
today, so checked the time. Yes, it read: 2:30
p.m. The
next thirty minutes seemed like
hours as Krystal waited
impatiently. A few
minutes before school finished, she
had her
bag packed and was ready for closing prayers.
She noticed Tracey had packed her things too!

When the bell went, they had
to restrain themselves
from hurrying and
bumping other children as they left
the
room.

Krystal managed to be first
through the school gate.
She put her bag
down at her feet and waited restlessly for
Tracey. She checked her watch ten times in the next two
minutes before Tracey's neat figure was seen
hurrying
through the gate. Tracey smiled as
she came close to
Krystal. Krystal picked
up her school bag and heaved it
onto her
shoulders, then started walking as Tracey joined
her.

"We'd better hurry. We don't
want anyone to start
yabberin' and keep us
late." Krystal sounded annoyed.

"We're the first to leave.
I've never seen you pack
up so quickly."
Tracey tried to calm her friend.

"I thought you'd never get
here. You took exactly two
minutes longer
than me!" said Krystal crossly.
"Sorry."
Tracey gave her friend a sheepish smile.

"It's okay." Krystal could not resist smiling
back.

As they came towards the old
Queenslander, they
walked faster. There was
not even a car in sight. Soon
they were in
the shade of the big gum tree, and were
hidden by the bushes around the house.

"Nobody's here yet. Let's go
inside." Krystal bounded
up the steps.
Tracey looked cautiously around before
joining Krystal at the door.

Krystal pushed the
right-hand side of the door, and immediately it creaked and opened
inwards. The girls
moved quickly inside and
stayed still, listening for noises.
All was
very quiet.

"Oh, no! I forgot to bring
some sheets," said Krystal,
placing her bag
in the cupboard.

"I remembered." Tracey undid
her bag and pulled out
two small sheets,
one white, and one patterned with red
and
black triangles. "These were the only old ones I
could find." She shoved her bag into the cupboard
and
handed the patterned sheet to
Krystal.

The girls put the sheets over their
heads.

"Woo." Tracey waved her arms under the white
sheet.

"I can't see," Krystal murmured through the
patterned sheet. She pulled her sheet off. "We could make some eye
holes."

"Well, they are old sheets.
I suppose we could always
sew them up again
if we needed to." Tracey put her sheet
over
her head and marked the eye holes with her fingers.
Krystal did the same.

"We need scissors." Tracey
tried to tear the sheet with
her
fingers.

"Got it." Krystal bit a
small piece out of her sheet.
"Use your
teeth." She spat the bits into her hand.

"Good one." Tracey chewed a couple of holes.
"Tastes awful." She spat the bits on the floor.

"Litterbug," said Krystal,
putting her bits in her pocket.
"Sorry,"
Tracey bent and picked up her bits. "Yuk,
they're wet." She shoved them in her pocket.

"It's worth it." Krystal put
the patterned sheet over her
head and
peered through one hole. "At least one works."
The other hole was near her chin.

"You look funny with
side-eyes," said Tracey,
laughing, trying
on her costume. She peered through two
holes.

"You were always better at
sewing than me," said
Krystal, praising her
friend.

"And biting?" Tracey giggled
and 'swooned' around
the room. "Just wait
until that brother of mine comes."

"Yup, let's hope they come
before the others do."
Krystal took her
sheet off and pushed it into the cupboard
on top of her bag. "Let's look around the place. We can
make a dash for it if we hear someone
coming."

"Yeah, it's not much fun
without somebody to scare,"
said Tracey,
folding her costume and placing it neatly on
top of her bag.

"There's another door at the
end of the hallway."
Krystal headed out of
the 'cupboard' room and towards
the far end
of the house. Tracey followed. They tried to
turn the brass knob of the door at the end of the
hallway,
but it wouldn't open.

"This must've been the back
door. I think there's a
verandah at the
back of the house too. We'll have to go
around the outside of the house to check that out."
Krystal gave up trying to open the
door.

Tracey stared at the locked
back door. "'We should
make a map of the
layout. I wouldn't like to get stuck in
here. There seems to be no way out except through the
front door. I'm not so sure I like the idea of
being
trapped in that cupboard either.
We'll have to find
another way out of the
place Krystal. It's too risky." She
shivered.

"You're right. I wonder if
we could get out one of the
boarded up
windows..." Krystal stopped to listen. "I
think I hear something! Quick!" She ran towards the
cupboard room.

Tracey followed.

The two girls clambered into
the cupboard and closed
the door. All
seemed quiet.

Tracey put her 'costume' on in a flash.

Krystal wrestled with her
sheet, while Tracey looked for
a crack in
the door.

"It's hard to see in this
thing." Tracey moved her eyes
up and down
the door.

Krystal looked through one
of the holes in the sheet,
then crouched
down. "Okay, I'm ready! I've found a
good
periscope hole. I'll watch. Try the other side of the
door."

"Here's one!" Tracey
exclaimed, bundling the sheet
around her
knees.

"Shh, they're here," Krystal whispered.

They could hear voices. The
front door creaked as it
opened.

Tracey started feeling faint
again, and was glad she was
on her knees.
She hoped they were Kevin and Matthew.
She
would enjoy scaring them. What if they were Nathan
and Davo, should they scare them too? Tracey
decided to leave the decision to Krystal.

Krystal's heart beat fast
with excitement. They were
probably Kevin
and Matthew, she thought. But what if
they
were Nathan and Davo? If they scared them they might stop doing
whatever it was they were doing. On
the
other hand, she pondered, they would never find out
what it was they were up to. No, it was best to
keep still
if Nathan and Davo turned up
before Kevin and Matthew.
They just had to
find out some more. Krystal's mind was
made
up. She hoped Tracey was ready for anything. The
footsteps stopped, then started again, accompanied
by
soft whispers.

Two figures came into the
room. Krystal's heart
seemed to miss a
beat. Could they be Nathan and Davo?
No,
they were too quiet. They must be Kevin and
Matthew, she reckoned.
Both girls gave
a sign of relief when the two figures
turned out to be their brothers.

"Now!" Tracey heard Krystal
whisper through the
dark.

Tracey's sheet nodded.

Krystal made a soft wooing noise.

Tracey joined in.

Matthew and Kevin stopped in
the middle of the room.
Matthew yelled,
"I'm gettin' outa here...," and started
heading towards the front door.

Kevin stood still, looking
around. "Wait...," the girls
heard Kevin
call to Matthew.

He stopped and looked back
at Kevin. His face was
bright in the
darkness. He rubbed his forehead with the
back of his hand, and seemed ready to make a dash for
the front door.

"Woo," Tracey and Krystal
moaned together, then
started
giggling.

"I bet the girls are here." Kevin stared at
the cupboard.

"Yeah, I think you're right
mate. I bet it's them, getting
back at us!
I think they're over there," said Matthew,
heading cautiously towards the cupboard.

Krystal and Tracey moved
right back into the corner of
the cupboard
tripping over their sheets, almost falling on
top of each other with laughter. Matthew tried to pull
the
door open from the bottom.

"Let's jump up when the door
opens," Krystal
whispered.
T
he door flew open.

"Boo." The two girls leaped
up. A sheet made a ripping
sound. Matthew
jumped back.

For a split second Matthew
stared. "My sheet." He
pointed at Krystal.
"You tore my sheet."

"Sorry Matthew." Krystal's
head emerged from a large
hole in the torn
sheet. "I stood on it."

"I knew it was you, trying
to scare us," said Matthew,
still shaking
from the fright.

"Well, we did," said Tracey,
as she pulled her white
sheet off "And you
never use that sheet. It was just
lying at
the bottom of your wardrobe."

"Well, it's wrecked now," Matthew
scowled.

"We'll sew it up, won't we
Tracey." Krystal tried to
sound cheerful as
she stepped through the large rip. She
really hated sewing.

"We can try." Tracey sounded
unsure as she stared at
the now very large
hole.

"Yeah, Christians shouldn't
play games with ghosts and
things. Dad said
so. There's only the Holy Ghost in the
Bible." Kevin stared at his sister.

"You won't tell Dad, will
you? Please promise you
won't. And I won't
tell Dad you scared us yesterday,"
Krystal
begged.

"It's a deal; I promise."

"It was fun." Krystal smiled at Tracey

She nodded, grinning from ear to ear.

"I knew this was a rip off.
Where are those four guys
you said would be
here?" Kevin had his hands on his
hips.

"Look, they could be here
any minute. Hide in here.
Give us your
bags." Krystal held her hand out.

The boys flung their bags up
and Tracey pushed them
into the corner of
the cupboard. Matthew hopped up on
the
ledge of the cupboard, with Kevin right behind. It
was a tight squeeze for the four in the
cupboard.

"Vacuum packed," Matthew whispered.

"This is dumb. What if they
don't turn up?" Kevin
questioned, as he
tried to find a spot for his left foot.
Krystal glared at the boys in the dark. "Be a bit patient.
Remember Job. Shh...," she added.

"What about our reward?"
Matthew mumbled.
"Quiet!" Tracey
scowled.

The girls hoped the Car Gang
would be here soon,
before the boys made
too much noise. Just then, as if in
answer
to the girls' thoughts, footsteps and voices could
be heard clearly. Boards creaked as people
walked
through the house. They seemed to go
towards the room
with the fireplace, then
came towards their cupboard
room.

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