For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
“I really would like to find that clue, or the treasure, before we leave,” I said to Jenny. “We will talk about that in the morning,” she said, “tonight I am staying in here with you, just in case you have trouble.” “Okay, that might be wise,” I said. The night passed quietly, and I slept well. In the morning I was feeling great, so we went back to that ghost town to look around some more.
John and Stanley had wandered off further away from the main cluster of buildings and came back after about half an hour, quite excited. They had found another log building and it was still standing complete. We all went over that way and went inside to look around. It was fairly large and had four rooms in it, plus some old furniture, not in very good condition.
We began to look around and John found a hollow spot in the floor of a bedroom. There was an old, small trap door beside the bed, but no way to open it. The big old bed did not move, so Angel began turning the knobs on the four bed posts. On turned and the trap door opened. In the large hole was a large metal box which John brought out and set on the bed. It had an old, rusty padlock on it which was not hard to break off.
Inside that box was a nice leather pouch, full of diamonds and a few other jewels. Under the pouch were a large number of gold coins, American coins, nice and shiny. They were all from the 1850s. There was a note also which read, “To which of my heirs finds this, here is your inheritance, enjoy it.” It was not even signed, very strange indeed. Right then Storm came running inside as fast as he could. I had sent the cats back to watch our vehicles.
Meowr, he whispered to me. “Okay everyone, outside, it is playtime,” I said, and most of our team vanished into the forest, with Tuva going up a small hill and beside a rock. Jenny, Sigurbjorn, Kristina and John stayed with me. We stayed inside and waited a bit until we heard noises outside. We went out and there was Mandar and his men, 15 of them. “Well, my good man,” said Mandar, “did we find another clue, or the treasure this time?”
“I do not understand how you can find me,” I said to him. “Oh my, that is really quite simple,” he said, “you are not hard to follow at all. I just wanted to give you time to find something before I showed up. But I am surprised you do not have your whole team with you, that is very foolish on your part. And now, what did you find for me? And please, do not resist, I have you outnumbered this time and I do detest using violence on such an admirable opponent.”
“I am sorry Mandar,” I began, “but we were hired by the heirs to find their inheritance, so it must go back to them.” “My good man,” said Mandar, “surely you did not believe the story those criminals told you. There are no living heirs whatsoever, I have checked quite thoroughly.” “We checked these people also, and everything they told us matches what we found,” I said, not believing Mandar at all. “That is because you checked out the names they gave you, which are just an alias that they use at times,” he said, “but check out their real names and you will then believe me.
However, I must insist on having that treasure right now, or my men will take it by force.” “I do not think so,” I said smiling, “just look around you, my team has you surrounded. Also, look up on the hill, over by that large rock. She had been in the Finnish military and is an excellent sniper. She has you in her sights right now, and she will not miss. If you move at all, it will be your last move, so please, tell your men to put their weapons on the ground.”
“Oh, very well,” he said, and he ordered his men to put their weapons down, “but please, check out these names before you do something foolish. Chuck and Sylvia Bowden.” I called Annelie and she checked the names. Mandar was correct, they were crooks and used different aliases, including the names they gave us.
Annelie kept checking on the family and Baldwin was checking with his lawyers about the treasure and who has the right to keep it. Since these people were not part of the family, and no other family members were alive, then Baldwin said we can keep the treasure. It has been about 170 years, so keeping it would not be a problem. So, I suggested to Mandar that I would be willing to share a portion with him. Suddenly my head felt like it was going to explode, it came on me so suddenly that I screamed and fell to the ground…
To Be Continued.
Β©2022 Steve McLeod.
Oh my goodness!!π²π³
You were supposed to go right home!! Why do you not listen?? Although I believe sharing the treasure with Mandar to be a great compromise!π
Will you make it to the clinic?? Will they be able to save you this time??π΅βπ«π΅βπ«π³π
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Well, I was feeling so good in the morning that I thought perhaps it was something else, not the ‘nowhere’ problem.π€ Hopefully we will make it back on time, but it is worse this time than other attacks.π―π¬π I think it’s only right to share with Mandar, he has helped us out, even though he has also hindered us too.π€π©πΌπΌπΌπ΅οΈ
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Well he did also take care of that pesky Brenda for you to…π€ I hope Mandar will accept your offer! You don’t have time to monkey diddle around!!π€¨π€¨π¬π¬
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Yes, he did do that too, and that is something to consider. Tomorrow we should find out if Mandar is satisfied with my offer or not, and if I’m even able to talk normally or not. A bad time for that to happen, right in front of Mandar.π―π©ππ΅οΈ
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Maybe he will feel empathy for you and help you to the plane??π¬
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Somehow I just can’t see him doing that, but you never know with Mandar, he is an odd man to figure out sometimes.π€π΅οΈ
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He did help with Brenda, and he did come to visit you when Kat was dying…ππ ya never can tell!!ππ
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That is true, he also kidnapped me once and had me roughed up a bit. Plus took a clue from us at gunpoint. That’s why he is hard to predict. But he does seem to have changed a bit toward us since Kat was killed.π€π©π΅οΈ
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It will be interesting to find out! I have an idea, but I’m not saying…π I want to see if I’m right!ππ
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Aha! Good thinking! But I think you might be falling out of the wrong tree.π€π΅οΈ
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I don’t like falling out of trees!π¬π³ It’s the sudden stop that hurts!π« But why do you say that?π€
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I know what you’re thinking, I think. But are you right or not, that is the question. Tomorrow we might find out!π€π΅οΈ
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I will let you know if you’re right after you write tomorrow’s chapter!ππ€π€π€
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I will be waiting to find out. I wonder if we will ever know where this treasure came from? And why did the original person hide it this way? Very odd way to leave it behind for one’s heirs.π€π΅οΈ
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Yeah!! It’s even a transcontinental treasure! Whoever it was did a lot of traveling back in the 1800’s! That was all by sailing ship too!!π³π²
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Yes, that makes it even more interesting, it would have taken a lot of time! It would be more sensible to at least stay in one country. π€ππ΅οΈ
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Maybe that should be your next case?π³π² Find out the story!! Sharpen those ole PI skills!!πππ
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I’m not so sure I am really that curious. Besides, we don’t get paid for something like that. The cats would never agree!π―πΎπΎπΎπ΅οΈ
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But it might be fun?π
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No, might be dangerous and no pay. π€π
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Oh!!!! You’re getting picky in your middle age!!π€¨ππ
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Yep, we only go where we are hired, none of this wandering about for nothing. ππ΅οΈ
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Sure…. but you need to survive first!!π€¨π€¨
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Yes, that would indeed be helpful. π―π΅οΈ
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Good thing Chung knows what you need! But ya gotta get there!!π€¨
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Yeah, and it’s a long drive down to Helsinki and our jet! π¬π΅οΈ
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Maybe Mandar has a chop chop you can use?π³
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Mandar always gets sick in helicopters, so he never uses them. π€π΅οΈ
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Hmmm….π€π€π€ you’re in deep deep dodo!!π¬π¬π³π²
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Yeah, I should have waited to collapse when we were on the jet already. Poor timing. This is not good, I don’t want to go back to nowhere!π¬π΅οΈ
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It’s seems to be converting into a one way road to nowhere!!π¬π¬
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And now, without Kat to help me, will I even try to fight it?π€π΅οΈ
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You have Muffin!! She’s been by your side since the beginning!! That should be more than enough reason to hang on!!π€¨
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But losing Kat has been hard on me, but Muffin might be my only chance this time. She needs to stay close and purr!ππ»π΅οΈ
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Plus MC and Storm too!
All three will be purring away trying to bring you back!!ππ
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Right, but first Muffin, the other two are on guard duty. πΎπΎπΎ
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Of course it would be Muffin first!!π
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Indubitably!
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Most certainly!ππ
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Must be on your lunch break.π
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I’m on break all day!!πππ Not much going today!!
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Oooo, good day!π
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It’s going by very slowly!
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Have a nap! That always helps make time go faster.π
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I’d like to! But I’ve got to be online and able to respond so no sleeping on watch today!ππ
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Oh, good thinking, don’t want to be caught napping for sure. Must go, back to cleaning.π
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Enjoy!!πππ
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Yep.π
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Heheheπ€π€π€
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Good morning Dusty! Finished working?
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Oh yeah!!…..π€π€ How about you? Are you still functional??π€π
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Yep, just needed some relaxation which I nearly got today except I needed to deal with the broken feeder pole before the bear came back to finish it off and maybe do some more damage to the deck.π€π
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Did you get repaired,?π€
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You mean me or the feeder? The feeder can’t be repaired, kinda like me. I need a whole new idea. My landlord came by this afternoon as I was dismantling it and he thought I should wait until winter. I explained the problem with that and he understood. But, what to do is something I do not know.π€
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I meant the feeder pole.. but you should be repaired also!!πππ
I’m sure you’ll find a solution π π
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If the bears only came at night it would be easy to find a solution, but when they come during the day too, that makes it hard. I have been tearing my brain apart today (didn’t take long considering the small size) trying to figure it out but nothing. Sigh.π€π
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Maybe your landlord was right? Wait until the bears go to sleep. That will give you time to come up with a solution π
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I won’t need a solution then, the bears will be gone. But, there’s a problem. Birds set their winter territory now, so they can find the best food sources for winter. And once done, they stick to those areas, except larger birds. But I would lose the chickadees, nuthatches and grossbeaks. Just the way it works, birds need to do that for surviving the winter. I would still get a few birds, but not many different kinds. And that slows down the photo opportunities too. π€π·π¬
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Then you need to find someone to stand watch for you while you work on it. Maybe smokey the Bear downstairs??π€
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I’m not working on anything yet, I need to find the solution first and it must come fast. Birds disappear fast, but they don’t come back fast. And I need to put up the new feeders while it is still somewhat warm, another problem. I might just have to give up feeding this winter. Sigh. Uh, he’s not downstairs, he’s upstairs and he works during the day. π€π
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Oh! I always thought you were upstairs π€π Oh well… up or down… maybe on the weekend??π€
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Besides I don’t need help watching, I need ideas, I can make enough noise to keep bears away! ππΉ
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Maybe you should ask Muffin πππ€
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She just stared at me like I’m from another planet. So much for that idea. Oh, and the neighbor isn’t upstairs, he’s in front and I’m behind. Kind of like side by side only its front and back. But he’s a story higher than me.π€π
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Ah huh…π so he’s upstairs??π€¨
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No, he’s beside me, except in front, but he’s higher up than me. Nothing up above me but a roof, so he can’t be upstairs, he’s out front but a story higher than me, but he’s not upstairs.π€π€―
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In some places that would be considered upstairs!ππ
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No, no, upstairs is on top of my place, his place is not on top, it’s above, but beside, big difference.ππΉ
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Sure…. if you say so!!π€£π€£π€£ππππππ Maybe we shoukd ask the Muffin??π€
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She said she agrees with me on this one!ππΊMeow? yes, I will get your treats.
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Way to go Muffin!π I told you I could get him to give you a treat!!π€π€π€π€πΉπΉπΉπ»
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Maybe Kat is related to Mandar…π€ Interesting thought…Are you being controlled by the chip ? Who wants to kill you now ? Maybe the sniper is a double agent and she shot you ! π€π²πΌπΌπΌ Canβt wait to see what happens now !
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We checked all of Kat and Jenny’s relations, there are a few, but none wanted anything to do with the girls due to their past. Mandar was not on the list. I don’t have a chip yet, Chung had removed all of our old chips since Brenda was using them to follow us. The new chips will be better so that can’t be done. But they are only alarm chips to tell others we are in trouble and how to find us. They do nothing else. I’m sure there are still many people who would want to kill me, but this is just a reaction to the “nowhere” drug. π€π©πΎπΎπΎπ΅οΈ
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