The Gum Tree Gang and the Mystery at the Old Queenslander (9 page)

Krystal felt determined to
persuade her Mum to let her
use nail
varnish. She glanced over at Matthew and
Kevin. They were busy having a lively conversation.

"Meet ya at the Lolly Shop
at quarter past," whispered
Matthew.

"Right," replied Kevin,
glancing around to make sure
nobody was
listening. The other children seemed quite
unaware of their excitement about Monday.

How could they concentrate
on a Bible lesson when
such an adventure
awaited them, Kevin thought, as Mrs. Croft opened her books and
began to pray.

At the end of the prayer the children said a
big "Amen."

"The Lesson today is about
Jeremiah. He suffered for
the sake of
righteousness...," she continued, then told the
class about the terrible time Jeremiah had down in the
dark, muddy, damp hole. An old water hole. She
told
them how he almost died! "But God had
plans for
Jeremiah..." Mrs. Croft continued
the interesting story
while the children
listened intently.

Later, as they completed
their workbook, the four could
really
relate to Jeremiah with all that mud on him.

Krystal thought about her
dirty nails. Imagine having
dirt caked on
everywhere! And no hot showers! She
really
felt for Jeremiah as she filled in the blank squares
in her book.

Kevin thought of the black
hole they discovered. At
least they had
torches. It must have been dark in that
black place where Jeremiah had to stay by himself. But
the LORD was with him.

Tracey enjoyed filling in
the verse.
Though our sins be
as scarlet they shall be white as snow,
she wrote.

The teacher had explained
that the 'scarlet' was really a
deep
blackish purple.

"Probably like mulberry
stains," Tracey murmured as
she wrote. She
was glad that Jesus had washed all her
sins
away. She loved her Saviour deeply as she thought
of how he went through so much for her. Her nail
varnish covered up the stains under her nails, but the dirt was
still
there. She knew Jesus had
cast her sins as far as the east
is from the west!
She
thanked Jesus in her heart for
cleansing
her and making her white as snow inside.

Matthew felt for Jeremiah in
the dark place. He must
have been brave, he
thought in awe.

~~~~
Chapter Eighteen
~~~~

Stop Thief

Somehow Monday came at last.
After school, Krystal
and Tracey sat in the
attic of the old Queenslander,
waiting
anxiously for the boys to arrive.

"Did you and Matt get into
trouble after our
adventure?" Krystal asked
her friend.

"No. Mum was busy cooking
something special in the
kitchen, and Dad
was in the workshop. We managed to
have a
shower and change before they saw us at dinner.
Actually, Mum commented on how spick and span we
looked. She was happy to lend me her nail varnish.
She
said I was becoming a real little lady.
Somehow that
made me feel bad," said Tracey
sadly.

"I know how you feel! I wish
we could tell our folks
about all this, but
I don't think they'd appreciate it," said
Krystal, sighing.

Tracey shared the last of
her drink just as they heard the
boys
coming.

The trapdoor moved at the
back of the attic, and in a
flash two
schoolbags came sliding through the attic,
followed by two boys.

"What happened?" Krystal
asked as the two settled on
the
beams.

"Yeah, what happened?" Tracey joined in.

"Hey, one question at a
time." Kevin grinned. "Matt,
you
start."
"I'm thirsty. Need a drink." Matthew
looked at Tracey.
"Oops...sorry, we just
drank all my spare. Sorry," she
repeated.

"Here, have some `lemo'."
Kevin reached in his bag
and produced a
yellow can.

"Great, thanks!" Matthew
prised the seal and gulped a
mouthful. "Mm,
it's a bit warm. Well, we went to the
Lolly
Shop and waited until Nathan and Davo arrived."
He paused to wipe his mouth with the back of his
hand.

"So they did steal something?" Tracey's eyes
sparkled.

"I didn't say that. Just
wait. Okay?" Matthew glared
at his sister.
"They both went into the shop. Kevin
stayed
outside, watching. I followed Nathan and he sort
of darted from one spot to another. I'm sure he
put
something in the inside pocket of his
jacket. It's one of those ones with pockets everywhere. A bomber
jacket.
Really cool..."

"Tell the story please,
Matthew," said Tracey sternly to
her
brother.

"I'm tellin' it! Well, I
sort'f followed him towards the
counter to
see what he did. He put a bar down and took
some money out of his pocket. It all looked normal."
Matthew shrugged his shoulders.

"So you didn't really catch
him stealing, did you?"
asked
Tracey.

"Not really..." Matthew stopped short
again.

"Go on Matt, tell the rest
of the story," urged Kevin.
"Well," said
Matthew, "I left the shop after Nathan, and
then Mr. Smith called me back. He asked me what I
wanted to buy! I said `nothin'...." Matthew's lips
felt
dry. He gulped another mouthful of
lemo.

"So, what's wrong with
that?" Krystal felt concerned
about
Matthew's sad expression.

"He told me someone was
pinchin' stuff at his shop,
and he was
watching me." Matthew gulped another
mouthful. Lemo spilled down his chin onto his school
shirt.

"So I went into the shop and
bought a drink - lemo. But
Matt's really a
hero. He found this!" said Kevin as he
took
a small roll of paper out of his pocket.

"Matt, that's great!"
exclaimed Krystal. She could not
bear to
see Matthew's face looking so sad.

"Might be," replied Matthew.
"Who cares. Mr. Smith
thinks I'm a low life
now."

"Don't worry, he'll soon
find out you're not. Let's see
what you
found." Tracey moved closer to read the note.

Kevin shone his torch on the
writing. "Can't make it
out. It's worse
than the first note you girls found."

The four children cluttered
around the note. Surely it was the next clue! Kevin kept the light
on the piece of
paper.

It read: SEllout, VEry fiNe
FOrds, yoUR TradE caN
stash your CAsh.
Don't delay, REep sWeet
gAins foR all
Deals.

"I know. I know! It's like
the other message. Look at
the strange way
the capital letters are!" exclaimed Tracey.
"Sure are strange. Nearly looks like my writing."
Kevin grinned at Matthew, trying to cheer him
up.

"Look, we could be on to
something. Quiet please!
Krystal
admonished, "we're trying to think!"

"I just can't believe it!"
said Matthew, after a moment's
silence.

Three heads turned to Matthew.

"That man nearly said 'Stop
thief . I felt really shamed
out," said
Matthew sadly. "I never want to go to that
shop again! Never!"

"Don't worry Matt, you got
the most important
thing...the next clue!
When the truth is revealed, Mr.
Smith'll
want your autograph - and he might give you
free `koula' for a year!" said Krystal encouragingly.
She
felt furious inside, and longed more
than ever to find out
what those boys were
up to.

Tracey was busy circling the
capital letters. Kevin was
helping.

"Got it!" Tracey exclaimed,
writing down the capitals.
SEVEN FOUR TEN
CAD REWARD

Tracey read the words. "I
wonder what it means?"
"Well, it could mean
that they meet either at seven, four or ten," Kevin
suggested.

"So far it's been at four.
Maybe we could try a different
time,"
Tracey reminded the others.

"If four is the usual time
they meet maybe we should
stick to that,"
Kevin suggested.

"Or seven," said Krystal.
"But that's a bad time to get
away from the
house. We always have our family Bible
time
then. But maybe we could take turns to come on
different days at different times."

"So, how can we decide?"
Tracey puzzled aloud.
"Ten o'clock at
night," Matthew mumbled.

"Ten at night! Why then?" questioned
Tracey.

"Well, didn't Nathan and
Davo say they should be in
bed. It can't be
four! Seven's a bit early, so it must be
ten," concluded Matthew.

"Matt's right. They did say
something about being in
bed. It has to be
ten at night," Krystal agreed.

Tracey yawned, "Gosh, surely it can't be ten
at night. I feel tired thinking about going out at ten at
night!"

"Well, what do you guys
think?" Krystal asked, staring
at the
solemn faces. "Ten at night or not?"

"That's what I said. Ten
o'clock at night." Matthew
nodded.

"I agree with Matt," said Kevin.

"Okay. But which night? I
don't want to come here every night. We'll have to choose one
night," Tracey
added.

"Didn't that Chevy guy say
something about a
Wednesday," said Kevin,
thinking hard.

"Yes - come to think of it -
he did mention Wednesday.
So, who wants to
come on Wednesday night? It sounds
like the
best night." Krystal felt excited.

"Wednesday!" Matthew nodded.

"I don't want to miss out. I
probably wouldn't sleep
anyway. I'll come if
you do, Krystal," said Tracey.

"I wouldn't miss it for the
world!" replied Kystal
We're all
in...great! Now, if the ten means ten o'clock,
then what do the other two numbers mean?"

"Maybe you add them up," Matthew
suggested.

"Eleven. So what would eleven mean?" said
Kevin.

"We might find out on
Wednesday. I think we should
get here a bit
earlier if we can. What about half past
nine?" asked Krystal, putting her lolly wrapper into
her
bag.

"It seems so late. And what
about the 'Cad' bit?"
Tracey asked as
everyone moved to leave. "D'you think
he's
the special guest?"

"Could be,"answered Krystal.

"Find out Wednesday," yodeled Matthew.

"Wednesday, at night,"
choruses joined in. The four
could not help
feeling excited about their coming
adventure.

"I'd better go back through
the cupboard," said
Matthew, having gotten
over his earlier depression. "I
want to
collect that piece of timber and put some hinges
and a handle on it."

"Yes, and we'd better make
sure we haven't left
anything lying
around," Tracey reminded the others, as
they crawled back along the rafters to the
cupboard.

~~~~
Chapter
Nineteen
~~~~

A
Dark Adventure

Krystal, Kevin, Tracey and
Matthew agreed to work hard
on Wednesday at
school, so that they might not get any
homework. They also agreed they would get to bed early,
and set their alarms to wake up again at nine that
night.
They could hardly wait for Wednesday
to come.

On Wednesday evening, Steve
Cormack said he
wanted to attend the prayer
meeting at the church. "Is
that okay with
you, Darling." He looked at his wife
Maureen.

Mrs. Cormack nodded. "That's
fine. I'll just put this
little one to
bed," she said, as she firmly held Kathy, who
had fallen asleep on her lap during the Bible
reading.

"Do you want a hand with her?" Steve Cormack
asked.