George Crane: Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Cracking the Puzzle

Since it was getting late for lunch everyone decided to go back home and come back to Mr. Cameron. After lunch at around 2 o’clock, the five of them went back to Mr. Cameron’s house. “Hi Mr. Cameron, we have found some interesting information”, said Harry.

They discussed the details. “Ok. So now, we must connect the information with the clue”, said Natalie

“And I have found out something else too. My great grandfather, Mr. Bradley Cameron, died in the year 1852, which was before Mr. Tom Crail’s death in 1856”

“But, if Bradley Cameron died before Tom Crail, then how come this 8th of August information is written on the paper”, asked George.

“Hmm…that’s a good question. Perhaps, my great grandmother, Mrs. Blaise Cameron could have written it”.

“This is getting very confusing. But before that, how can we be sure that this is the clue to the treasure”, asked Cathy “Well, I don’t think anyone will hide such a piece of information behind a painting and that too in an envelope”, replied Mr. Cameron

“And are you sure this is the entire piece of paper. Because I see a bit tore part right there”, said Nathan pointing to the bottom right corner of the paper.

“I don’t know”, replied Mr. Cameron “But where could the treasure be possibly hidden. Could it be the grave of Mr. Tom Crail?”, asked George

“But why would one hide valuable things inside someone else’s grave?”, asked Cathy. Wait…!!! What if the person mentioned here isn’t Tom Crail? Look, the paper only mentions 8th of August and not the year and isn’t the mayor of the town also known as ‘The man of the town?”, asked George.

“Yeah, that’s a good observation…”, said Mr Cameron. “I will search for more information regarding the mayors of the town who has ever been”, said Nathane who quickly took out his phone from his pocket and searched.

“But…there has never been a mayor who died on 8th of august, I guess we have no luck in finding that treasure”, said Nathane. “Hmm, but before this. Is there really any treasure? Anyone could have spread rumours regarding this and could have slid this piece of paper behind the painting. I don’t want to go searching for the treasure, if there isn’t any”, said Cathy.

“Of course, there is a treasure! My dad used to tell me about it almost every day and told me that I must find the treasure before anyone else. My dad had become old and never found any clue regarding the treasure. I was way too shocked the first time I heard about it and went to my friends and told them all about it by trying to show off. And gradually, the entire town knew about it.”

“Ok, that’s crazy”, said Natalie. “Yes, that was me, a ten-year-old crazy boy going about the entire town spreading the fact about that treasure.”

Everyone laughed. “Ok, so now let’s get back, where could the treasure be hidden?”, asked George. “Hmm, the 8th of august…”, said Harry trying to think hard about it and come back with a possible answer.

“Wait, I have a book which mentions the history of Crail. I will bring it in a second. Mr. Oliver took a book out of the bookshelf behind him and placed it on the coffee table so that everyone could read it.

“There are two events that took place on the 8th of August. The first was a very huge flood which took place in the year 1833 and the second event was that a group of thieves robbed almost the entire town in the year 1849!”, said George.

“Hmm, so the treasure could have been robbed but what connection does it have with Mr Tom Crail.”, asked Cathy confused. “We need to find out’, said Nathane.

“Wait! Look, the group of thieves was caught by the police seven years later after the robbery took place, which means the year 1856!”, said Mr,Cameron.

“Woah, that’s a clue right there, even Tom Crail died that year.”, said Natalie who couldn’t believe what she just heard.

George wasn’t paying much attention to what they were discussing. Instead, his eyes were focused on the piece of paper which contained the clue.

The first line,’ the 8th of August something terrible took place’ was a bit faded and not so clearly visible while the second line ‘the man of this town died’ was a bit clearer.

“Hey everybody, do you notice the slight difference in the ink on both part of the sentence?”, asked George “Yeah! Both the parts do look slightly different from each other”, said Nathane “And even the handwriting looks slightly different from each other”, said Cathy

“So that could mean the first part of the sentence was written by Mr Bradley Cameron when the robbery took place and the next part of the sentence was written by someone else..., possibly by Mrs. Blaise Cameron when the thieves were caught!”, said George

“Wow. So my great grandmother was the one who left the clue to the treasure”, said Mr. Cameron.

Everyone could feel the adrenaline rush through the blood as they were nearing closer to the treasure. “Ok…but where could the treasure be hidden”, asked George “We need to gather more information about the robbery of 1849. Let’s go to the library”, said Harry

“Oh God, I don’t want to go to the library again”, shouted Cathy.

“But we must go if we want to find that treasure”, said Nathane. “This time I am coming too”, said Mr Cameron.

The group of five friends and Mr Cameron went to the library. They were now sure that they will find that treasure. Nathane went to the librarian and asked whether the library had some old newspaper of the year 1849. The librarian took them to a small room full of shelves consisting of newspaper bundles stacked upon one other. She pointed to a shelf in the corner of the room with the numbers marked on it as 1830-1860.

“You will have to find the newspaper bundle of the year 1849 by your own, I have some work to do, I am pretty sure that you will find what you are looking for”, said the Librarian. The five children sat down near the shelf and Mr Cameron sat on a chair kept nearby and began searching for the newspaper. After one hour of an extensive search,

Natalie shouted with excitement “See, I got the newspaper of 8th August 1849. The headline read, ‘The entire town of Crail was robbed last night’. The article says that on the night of 7th August 1849, almost the entire town was robbed by a group of thieves who called themselves ‘the black bandit’.

They were the most wanted group of thieves of entire Scotland. There are no whereabouts as to where the thieves are and where the robbed items are hidden. The police are investigating, and they are hoping they would find the thieves.”

“Ok, so now we are sure that the robbery took place, now we have to find the newspaper mentioning that the thieves were caught”, said Harry. After thirty minutes, Cathy said, “I found it! ‘The black Bandit is caught’.

The article says that the ‘The black bandit is caught by the police force of Crail on 4th August 1856. They were found in a ship off the coast of Crail. The ship’s name was ‘Atlantic’.

The police searched the entire ship but couldn’t find the treasure anywhere at all”.

“OK, so the ship could have been a place where the treasure is hidden. What if there is some secret room inside the ship?” said Harry.

“But where could this ship be now?” asked Mr. Cameron. George took out his phone and searched for the Ship named “Atlantic”. He found many search results to it but finally found the one he had searched for.

He said, “Listen everyone, the famous ship of Atlantic is still present in the harbor of Crail.” “Wait really! So let’s go to the harbor right away.” They all quickly kept the newspaper bundle back in the shelf, thanked the Librarian and quickly went to catch the bus to the Crail harbor. The harbor was a very busy place and many people were there, some were the tourists who came for boat rides and the rest were the people who worked at the harbor.

It was a very crowded place, and anyone could get lost in the crowd. The ocean ahead in front of them was very beautiful though. “Children, stay close, I don’t want any of you getting lost”, said Mr. Cameron “Ok” replied the five of them together. Mr. Cameron quickly stopped a man who looked as though he was worker at the harbor. “Excuse me, is the Atlantic ship still here in the harbor”, asked Mr. Cameron. “Yeah, I have heard of the Atlantic ship, it is a bit far from here. You will have to walk from here all the way to the end of the coastline”, said the man pointing to the left. Crail had a very long coastline and they had to walk for almost an hour to reach the end of the coastline.