The Gum Tree Gang and the Mystery at the Old Queenslander (8 page)

"You missed the fun. We
discovered the Black Hole,"
Matthew
gloated.

"Don't worry Tracey, you only missed a lot of
dust. I'll

go first; I'm the eldest,
and tallest," Krystal announced.
She was
really keen to get into the attic and see what

was up there.

"You can go. But watch out for spiders,"
Kevin teased. "I love spiders," Krystal retorted.

"There's probably no
spiders, just an odd snake."
Matthew
stirred Krystal.

"That does it!" Krystal
exclaimed. She leapt up,
grabbed the edges
of the hole, and pulled herself up. She
was
not going to be put off by scare tactics.

Soon she was looking down.
She took her mini torch
from her pocket and
shone it around the new area. As she
shone,
she started moving along on her hands and knees, and soon only her
feet could be seen by the other three.

"Looks cool," Krystal called out.

Matthew immediately started
climbing into the hole,
followed by
Kevin.

Tracey clambered into the
cupboard and stood looking
up at the three
for a few moments, then hesitantly climbed
up. The four were in a row with Tracey next to the
hole,
her feet dangling into the
cupboard.

"We'll have to be careful to
walk on the beams, 'cause
we might go
through the ceiling. Follow me," Krystal
yelled out as she continued her crawl across the
rafters.

The three followed.

"There's a trapdoor here."
They could hear her voice
from up the far
end of the attic. "It's stuck!"

Soon the four were sitting around the
'trapdoor'.

"Let me have a go." Matthew
leaned forward and
pulled the edge of the
door. "It's stuck," he added.

"That's what I just said. It
needs to be pushed to get it
free," Krystal
repeated.

"Wonder where it leads to?"
Kevin murmured, trying to
work out how far
they had come. "Why don't Matt and I
go and
see where it is?" Kevin turned back towards the
cupboard.

Krystal and Tracey agreed
and the two boys crawled
back along the
rafters.

Krystal turned her torch off
and the girls waited while the boys climbed down. They could see
faintly without
their torches on. Some
light seemed to be filtering
through the
tin roof.

"Did you find anything in
the walls?" Krystal asked
Tracey as they
waited.

"No, only a few cracks in
the timber. I would like to
check out the
bricks in the fireplace. But this is really
cool. Imagine, our secret hideout in the attic," she added in
a 'suspense tone'.

~~~~
Chapter fifteen
~~~~

Party Time

After a few minutes, they
heard the familiar voices say,
"We're
here!"

"Where is it?" Krystal yelled out, thumping
her foot on the trapdoor.

"Here," a voice replied.

"Where's 'here'? At the back
of the house?" Krystal
yelled, restraining
herself from saying something nasty.

"Oh! On the back verandah.
We can't reach. Be back
in a minute."
Krystal and Tracey heard the boyish voices trail off.

After a moment the girls
could hear excited voices,
footsteps and
some hammering going on.

The two boys had gone to
find something to stand on.
They found an
old wooden crate in the yard and after
hammering a few nails in it to make it secure, stood on
it.
They could now reach the trapdoor quite
easily.

Matthew pushed for a few
moments, then he jumped
down off the box
and Kevin had a go.

Krystal and Tracey pulled from inside.

"Use the hammer," Krystal yelled down at the
boys.

"Hammer," Matthew said,
handing Kevin the hammer.
Kevin thumped at
the door, and suddenly they could hear
a
cracking noise.

"Is it busted?" Matthew
asked as he held the box
securely for
Kevin.
"I don't know. It's coming unstuck.
Wanna have a go
again?" Kevin leapt down
from the box. He didn't want
to get into
trouble for breaking something.

Matthew climbed onto the box
and took the hammer
from Kevin. He gave the
trapdoor a few gentle taps with
the handle
of the hammer. The trapdoor creaked again.
Dust blew down on Kevin as the trapdoor opened.

"Got it." Krystal's voice could be heard in
the attic.

Tracey shouted "Hurray".

Suddenly two heads were
looking down through
another black hole.
Two faces looked upwards. The four
grinned.
They did it!

"Let's celebrate," said
Tracey happily. "I brought
something
special. They're in my bag in the room with
the cupboard. I'll go back and get them." She started
making her way back along the beams.

"Trace, please bring my bag
too. I've got some
biscuits, and my radio.
We can have some music for the
party,"
Krystal suggested.

Matthew and Kevin decided to
try the trapdoor hole for
size. In a moment
they were sitting in the attic, legs
dangling through the trapdoor.

"This is like a real adventure," said Matthew
happily.

~~~~
Chapter Sixteen
~~~~

Shopping Plans

They could hear Tracey
dragging something along the
beams.

Krystal quickly switched on
her torch and shone along
the beams until
she lit up a hand and a face.

"I put the rest of our
things in the bottom of the
cupboard, just
in case anyone comes, and I have here...,"
Tracey said as she undid the straps of her bag, "some
mixed lollies, and a can of `koula'. It's really
nice; Mum
bought me one when we went
shopping; we can share it.
I brought four
straws," she exclaimed as she produced
four
coloured drinking straws from her bag.

"Waw, thanks Trace," Krystal said, passing a
straw to Kevin and Matthew.

Krystal reached into her bag
and brought out her little
pocket radio.
Family Radio Station, the positive
alternative, she recited. Slowly she turned the little
black
knob. "Got it!" The four sat quietly
for a few moments,
relaxing and enjoying
their party.

"Hey, this is great." said
Matthew. "Why don't we start
a
gang?"

"Krystal said this is a
'gang'!" Kevin turned to Krystal
as he
spoke. "What's the name of the gang, by the way?"

"We'll have to make one up.
How about, The Creepers
Gang?" Krystal
suggested, leaning forward to sip some
of
the koula, then added, "because we had to creep
through the attic."

"We just jumped up," Matthew
replied. "What about
The Rat Gang?
Rats live in attics," he added.

"I think we should be
The Cool Koalas,"
Tracey
suggested, brushing her pink
track top. "They're cute and
they
climb."

"Sounds too frilly to me. I
think we should be
The
Aussie Bafflers,"
Kevin
suggested.

"Sounds like a bunch of
oldies," Krystal remarked. "But
we should
have some Aussie name. How about
The
Prickly Possums?"

"Or,
The Gum Tree Gang,"
Tracey
added.

"That sounds Australian. I
like it," said Krystal,
encouraging her
little friend.

"Sounds okay, I suppose," said Kevin,
disappointed that his suggestion had not been accepted.

"That's cool! At least I
won't forget what it is with all
the gum
trees around here!" Matthew concluded.

"Okay, officially we are
now
The Gum Tree Gang.
Everyone agree?" Krystal raised her drinking straw like
a
gavel.

"Agreed," three voices
echoed. Krystal brought her
straw gavel
down.

"Now to the business
of
The Gum Tree Gang,"
said
Krystal, taking out her notebook
and pencil. "Kevin, did you tell Matt about the Jupiter
bar?"

"Oh, I forgot. You tell
him," said Kevin, gulping a
mouthful of
koula.
Three munching faces turned towards
Krystal.

"It's about that bar you
found Matthew. The one you
and Kevin
ate."

Matthew stopped sucking his lolly for a split
second.

"Well, I figured it might've
been stolen. They called it
`loot' ."
Krystal paused for a breath. "I think you and
Kevin should check on Nathan and Davo and see if they
are stealing. I've seen them at the Lolly Shop on
their
way to school. What d'you reckon?"
she questioned.

"I think she could be right.
They are acting a bit
strange. What do you
reckon Matt? Think we could
track them?"
Kevin asked.

"It might be more fun than
scaring girls." Matthew
flicked a crumpled
lolly paper at Tracey.

"Thanks a lot, Brother."
Tracey threw the wrapper
back.

"Hey, that's enough, you
two. Now, are you and Kevin
tracking Nathan
and Davo or not?" Krystal grabbed the
wrapper as it flew through the air.

"I think we should start
Monday morning then?" Kevin
suggested.

"Okay. Monday's a good day
to start. We can meet outside
•
the Lolly Shop before school, and catch the
crooks." Matthew felt really keen.

"That's settled then. We
should all work on a special
code, so we
can give messages to each other. Any
suggestions?" Krystal asked.

The three shook their heads.
"Okay, we can work on
that one," Krystal
continued. "Our next meeting will be
here
after school on Monday."

Three heads nodded.

"Let's clean up and go
home," said Krystal,
straightening her
legs, picking up her lolly wrappers and
putting them in her pocket. "We can have a
lolly-wrapper
fight with these," she
added.

The four clambered down through the
cupboard.

"Oh, no! I'm filthy. Look at
me!" Tracey brushed dust
off her pink
tracksuit which was now a dull grey colour in
many places.

"My jeans are yuk!" said
Krystal, slapping her thighs.
Clouds of
dust blew around the four.

"This is the best way to get
rid of dust." Matthew
jumped wildly
around.

Kevin decided to try that
too. "It doesn't work. Your
face is still
grubby," Kevin said to Matthew as they both
jumped.

Matthew wiped his face with
his sleeve. That just
smeared more dirt
over his nose.

Tracey produced a hankie
that had been right at the
bottom of her
tracksuit pocket. It was almost black after
she and Krystal had used it to wipe their faces.

"I give up. We'll just have
to run for the shower when
we get home, and
hope nobody sees us," said Krystal, as
she
grabbed her bicycle from the back of the tank stand.

In a few minutes the
children reached their special
meeting
corner. "See ya tomorrow," they yelled as they parted
company.

~~~~
Chapter
Seventeen
.~~~~

Down in a Dungeon

Krystal stared at her nails.
For the first time in her life
she wished
she had some nail varnish. She had tried so
hard to get all the dirt out, but her fingernails still had
dirt
under them. She noticed they were
cracked and uneven.
"Yuk!" she mumbled as
she hid her hands under the
pages of her
Bible. She looked at Tracey who was sitting
next to her. Tracey had nail varnish on! Krystal stared
at
her friend's pretty pink
nails.

Tracey noticed and smiled.
"Borrowed Mum's," she
whispered, waving her
hand delicately.