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Chapter Seven
The next day an excited Daryll and Jasper went on their mission after breakfast. Diana, Skylar and Nicholas helped grandma make gooey butter brownies.
The two boys hid themselves well behind the two big oak trees and watched. For the next two hours they were bored out of their minds. Nothing happened, no one came out.
"Do you think it's a good idea? Nothing so far," said Daryll.
"Let's watch till lunchtime. If nothing happens, we drop the idea," said Jasper.
So they waited and waited when a man came to the mansion on a rickety bike and yelled,"Bob, you've sold me broken stuff."
The same man the children saw everywhere came rushing out of the mansion. He looked at the man in front of him and started explaining to him. The boys couldn't hear a thing. Edward Wellington came out wearing a dressing gown and spoke to the man.
After more arguments, the man calmed down and rode away. Then Edward Wellington scolded the man named Bob and banged the door shut.
Jasper and Daryll looked at each other. What was happening? What stuff was he talking about?
"I think he's talking about the stuff from the house that they sell to run the household, " said Jasper and Daryll agreed.
"You're right. Did you see this man in the car that day?" Asked Daryll.
"No, he looked very rich," said Jasper.
"Maybe he was selling something else to him," said Daryll.
"Could be," said Jasper, "However, we now know his name is Bob. "
They stayed till noon. "I'm hungry," said Jasper.
"Me too. Let's go home," suggested Daryll.
They were about to leave when the man named Bob suddenly came out of the house using the back door. He looked properly everywhere and then climbed onto his bike. He placed the food container that he was carrying onto his bike's front basket and started cycling fast.
"Where's he going with the food? Let's follow him, " said Jasper. Keeping a safe distance they climbed onto their bikes and followed him hiding behind the trees along the tree lined road.
The man rode towards Brighton Creek and unlocked the door of the Brightwell mill there. He looked all around him and disappeared inside. The boys hid their bikes and went discreetly towards the front door.
Opening it a little they tried to peek inside. The place was dark except for a small light coming from the basement area. Faint shouts and whimpers could be heard. Was there an animal inside? The sound of footsteps alerted them and they rushed outside and hid behind the bushes.
Bob came out with a pail and went near the creek. He filled the pail to the brim and carried it back inside.
After five minutes, he again came out, locked the door and rode away towards the mansion. What was going on? Was there someone living in the mills who needed food and water?
The boys were too hungry to do anything else. They went back home.
They took showers to freshen themselves and came down to the table to have lunch. Skylar and Diana were excitedly serving gooey butter brownies to everyone seated at the table. They were the desserts that they had learnt to make. Nicholas too started with them but soon lost interest. Instead, he completed some of his holiday homework from school.
Lunch was delicious. The boys hungrily tucked into the homemade barbecued cheesesteak pizza, chopped salad with pasta and scalloped potatoes. The gooey butter brownies were so heavenly that they couldn't control themselves. They were too stuffed to even move.
"I don't think I can eat anything for the next two days, " said Diana and they all giggled.
Their grandma chuckled, "Then you can't eat the lemon cake, the French toasts with strawberries and nutella whipped cream that your aunties and I are making for tea," said grandma and everyone groaned.
"Let's climb up and down the treehouse till we're hungry again," said Nicholas, bursting with curiosity at what took them so long at Edward Wellington's house.
"Yeah, good idea, let's go, " said everyone and they rinsed their plates and trooped out to the treehouse. They couldn't wait to discuss what happened.
"Now spill," said Skylar.
Daryll and Jasper told them everything. "Well, so this Bob guy is really up to something fishy, " said Nicholas.
"Yeah, and how do we find out if there's someone living in the Brighton Creek mill?" Asked Skylar.
"We could watch the guy, Bob everyday at lunch time," suggested Diana.
"Diana's right. If there's someone, then Bob will go there everyday and we could follow and see what we can find," said Daryll.
"And once we're sure that there's someone we could tell uncle Stanley and them involve the police and rescue the person," said Jasper.
"But what if it's an animal?" Asked Diana.
"It can't be. An animal would call out, bark, or whatever, not whimper in fear," said Nicholas. "Bob surely opened its mouth for eating. "
"Right, " said Skylar. "But do you think Edward Wellington is involved?" she asked.
"Don't know. We'll give him a second visit to find out," said Jasper.
"Let's wait till tomorrow to pay him a visit," said Nicholas. "In the meantime we could search for a picture of the missing map online."
"Yeah, good idea," said Skylar.
Jasper went to his room to get his laptop. He came back and started it. They searched and found a small picture of the map in an article on the official website of Virginia. There was an article about it stating that the security had been tightened at the museum. It also stated that the police were of the opinion that the thief might be looking for details about the mines.
"What mines are they talking about?" Asked Skylar in confusion.
They zoomed the map, everything was a blur but could not find any mine mentioned anywhere.
"What do we do now?" Asked Diana.
"Let's search for the town plan," said Jasper.
They all again peered in to the laptop and searched for the plan but couldn't find anything.
"Is there no way we could find out about the mines?" Asked Skylar, in disappointment.
"There is, let's ask grandma, casually, " suggested Diana and everyone's eyes lit up with hope.
