The Goose's Gold (3 page)

Josh and Ruth Rose followed Dink through the living room to the porch. They sat on the front steps.

“What’s going on?” Josh asked. “I wasn’t through with those cookies!”

“Remember the guy I told you about at the airport yesterday?” Dink asked. “Talking on the phone?”

Ruth Rose grinned. “Yeah, the cook you thought was planning a robbery.”

Dink turned around and looked through the screen door. “I think it was Spike!”

Josh and Ruth Rose just stared at Dink.

Finally, Josh said, “What are you talking about, Dinkus?”

“I recognized his voice!” Dink said. “The guy at the airport said the same thing, that some old cookies were loaded.”

Josh shook his head. “So?”

“Don’t you see?” Dink said. “Maybe he meant Gram Hathaway’s friends are loaded—loaded with money!”

Suddenly, the door opened, and Gram’s friends began coming out. They all seemed excited about investing with Spike and Chip.

Then Spike and Chip came out carrying the box of gold. Gram Hathaway followed them onto the porch.

“Thanks for calling us a cab, Mrs. Hathaway” Spike said. “Do you really think your friends will help us out?”

Gram Hathaway smiled. “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised. I’m going to talk to my banker on Monday morning!”

A yellow cab pulled up, and Spike and Chip climbed in with the box. They waved out the window as the cab sped away.

“Wasn’t that fun!” Ruth Rose’s grandmother said. She stepped back into the house. “There are plenty of goodies left if anyone is hungry!” she called through the screen door.

“Thanks, Gram!” Ruth Rose said.

“She’s pretty excited,” she added after her grandmother had gone inside.

“I would be, too, if I was gonna get rich,” Josh said.

Dink stood up. “Well, I don’t think she’s gonna get rich,” he said. “I think she’s gonna get robbed!”

“ROBBED!” Ruth Rose yelled.

“Yeah,” Dink said. “Spike and Chip could just take off with your grandmother’s money.”

“But what about all that gold they just showed us?” Josh asked.

Dink shook his head. “I don’t know about that, but I do know what I heard.”

“You know what you
thought
you heard,” Josh said. “Besides, you don’t know it was Spike. You never saw the guy on the phone.”

“But I did see his feet!” Dink said. He told Josh and Ruth Rose about the tattoo he’d seen on the man’s ankle.

“It’s a good thing I’m such an observant young man,” Josh said. “I know how we can settle this whole thing.”

“How?” Ruth Rose asked.

“By finding out if it really was Spike that Dink heard on the phone.”

Dink looked at him. “And how do we do that, oh observant one?”

Josh grinned. “Easy. We get Spike to show us his tattoo!”

“Good idea,” Dink said. “Let’s go to the dock.”

“Hold on,” Ruth Rose said. She opened the screen door, grabbed some towels, and yelled, “GRAM, WE’RE GOING TO THE BEACH!”

Ruth Rose tossed towels to Dink and Josh as they walked down the side-walk. “What if Spike’s still wearing long pants?” she asked.

“Dink will think of something,” Josh said. He grinned at Dink. “Right?”

Dink shook his head. “This was your idea. Besides, you’re the observant one!”

They thought about it as they walked. When they reached the boat dock, they still hadn’t figured out what to do.

“I know,” Josh said. “I’ll tell him Dink is thinking of getting a tattoo! Then Spike will show us his!”

Dink laughed. “Kids can’t get tattoos, Josh,” he said.

A few moments later, the kids reached Spike and Chip’s boat slip. But the boat wasn’t there.

“They’re gone!” Ruth Rose said.

“Now what?” Dink asked. “Should we wait till they come back in?”

“Why don’t we hang out at the beach for a while?” Josh suggested. “That way we can have fun and watch for the boat at the same time.”

“Okay” Ruth Rose said. “But we can’t stay out late. Gram will worry.”

“Last one in kisses pelicans!” Josh yelled. He thundered down the dock and leaped onto the beach.

The kids swam, searched for shells, and buried Josh in the sand. By five o’clock, their skin was itchy with sun-burn and salt.

“Look, isn’t that their boat?” Ruth Rose asked.

A white boat was pulling in at the end of the dock.

“I think it is!” Josh said. “Come on!”

The kids ran back along the dock. They reached the boat as Chip was securing the lines. Spike was behind the wheel, just shutting down the motor.

Both men were wearing T-shirts and jeans. Spike’s ankles were covered.

“Did you go diving?” Josh asked.

“We dive every day,” Spike said, stepping onto the dock. He patted his stomach. “Right now, I need a couple of burgers. Ready, Chip?”

The kids walked with Spike and Chip to the end of the dock and said good-bye.

“We still didn’t see a tattoo,” Ruth Rose said as they headed for her grandmother’s house.

“No, but I saw something else,” Dink said. “They finished painting the name of the boat. It’s the
Golden Goose.”

Josh looked at him. “So?”

“The guy at the airport said something about drowning a goose,” Dink said. “Maybe that’s the goose he was talking about!”

“But what does it mean?” Ruth Rose asked. “Boats don’t drown.”

Dink shook his head. “I don’t know.”

A few minutes later, they saw Ruth Rose’s grandmother. She was weeding in her front garden.

“Hi, Gram!” Ruth Rose called.

She looked up and waved.

“Tomorrow we go back to the boat and try again,” Dink said, keeping his voice low. “You guys with me?”

“What if Spike’s still wearing long pants?” Ruth Rose asked.

“Then I put my plan to work,” Dink said.

“What plan?” Josh asked.

“I tell him about the tattoo contest,” said Dink.

Josh stared at Dink. “What contest?”

“The one I just thought up,” Dink said, tapping his head. “I’m gonna hang a poster down by the dock. The poster will announce a tattoo contest. Then I’ll tell Spike and Chip about the contest. If Spike has a tattoo on his ankle, he might mention it, or even show it to us.”

“Dinkus was in the sun too long,” Josh whispered loudly to Ruth Rose.

“I think it’s brilliant!” Ruth Rose said. “Come on, I’ll ask Gram for paper and markers!”

Dink jumped out of bed. He shook Josh by the shoulder. “Josh, get up! We’re going back to the dock!”

Josh opened one eye. “Time izzit?” he asked sleepily.

Dink glanced at the clock next to his bed. “Almost eight. Hurry up!”

Dink dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. He washed, brushed his hair, and grabbed the poster he’d drawn the night before.

“Come on, Josh!” he said, hurrying downstairs.

Ruth Rose was sitting at the table, spreading peanut butter on a bagel.

“Gram’s out for her morning swim,” she said. She pushed the plate of bagels toward Dink. “Where’s Josh?”

Dink sat down and reached for the strawberry jam. “Still waking up,” he said.

Dink unrolled the poster as Josh stumbled into the kitchen. His red hair was sticking straight up, “This plan had better work,” he said. “I was dreaming I was King Midas. Only everything I touched turned to chocolate!”

Josh got a bagel and read Dink’s poster through sleepy eyes. At the bottom Dink had drawn a man’s arm with a tattoo of an owl.

“What happens when a bunch of people with tattoos show up, and there’s no contest?” Josh asked.

Dink shrugged. “We have to find out if Spike has that tattoo on his ankle. Can you think of another way?”

Josh just shrugged.

“All right, then. Let’s get going,” Dink said.

They each grabbed an apple and headed for the dock. Dink carried the poster and four thumbtacks.

Even this early, people were strolling along the concrete pier. Dink tacked the poster to a light pole.

“Okay, now let’s go find Spike and Chip,” he said. They hurried to the dock.

A few people were on their boats, drinking coffee and enjoying the morning sun. The
Golden Goose
was tied at its slip.

Not a sound came from the boat.

“Think they’re still asleep?” Josh asked.

Dink shrugged. “I don’t hear any snoring.”

Ruth Rose peered through one of the round cabin windows. “Nobody’s down there,” she said.

“Look, the door’s open,” Josh said. “They must be here.”

Dink stepped onto the boat deck and knocked on the wood. “Hello?” he called. “Anyone home?”

Dink hopped back onto the dock. “Maybe they went out for breakfast,” he said. “Let’s wait.”

The kids sat in the sun. A pelican waddled along the dock, stopping at each of the boats. A woman tossed him some bread.

Josh pulled his book out and began reading.

“Listen to this,” he said. “‘No matter how long it has been on the bottom of the ocean, gold stays shiny. But silver requires several days in a special chemical solution before it looks shiny again.’”

Josh looked up. “Yesterday, Spike told everyone they cleaned the gold and silver with vinegar!”

The kids looked at each other.

Dink got up and stepped aboard the
Golden Goose
. He walked around the deck, looking at everything and peeking into corners.

He stopped near an oxygen tank propped against a bench, then came back to the dock.

“That tank’s empty,” he told Josh and Ruth Rose.

“How do you know?” Josh asked.

“There’s a round window with a dial,” Dink said. “The little arrow is pointing to E.”

“So maybe they used up all the oxygen and haven’t filled it up yet.”

“Maybe,” Dink said. “But I don’t see any other diving equipment.”

Ruth Rose stepped closer to the deck. “Maybe they keep it down below,” she said. She looked at the guys. “I say we check it out.”

“Me too,” Dink said.

Josh glanced back toward the pier. “What if they come back and catch us snooping?” he said.

“We’ll tell them my grandmother sent us,” Ruth Rose said. “I’ll say she wants to ask them more questions.”

“I think they hang pirates,” Josh said.

“Josh, just looking on someone’s boat doesn’t make us pirates,” Ruth Rose said. “If they’re trying to cheat my grandmother, I’m gonna find out! Come on, we won’t touch anything, we’ll just look around.”

She hopped aboard the boat and scooted down the cabin stairs. Josh and Dink followed.

The three stood in the middle of the small cabin. “What a smell!” Ruth Rose said.

“They aren’t very neat, are they?” Josh said. The beds were unmade, and the tiny kitchen was a jumble of dirty dishes and glasses. The small eating table was covered with sticky-looking stains.

Dink glanced into a few dark corners. “I still don’t see—”

“Shh! I heard something!” Ruth Rose said. She pointed above their heads. Suddenly, they all heard footsteps.

The kids looked at each other, wide-eyed.

Josh’s face was white.

Dink looked around the small cabin, then rushed toward a narrow door in the back.

He yanked the door open and motioned for Josh and Ruth Rose to follow.