Double Eagle by Sneed B. Collard III

Author:Sneed B. Collard III
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV001000, JUV030060, JUV016200
ISBN: 9781561456062
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2011-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Kyle and I went up to my room the next morning after breakfast. “Let me see that coin again,” he said.

Ever since we’d found it, I’d been hiding the double eagle in a little slot between two boards on the back of my dresser. I reached behind the dresser now and pulled out the coin in the little plastic sleeve that protected it.

Kyle sat down on my bed and slid the double eagle out. He held it by its rims like I’d taught him and stared at it as if he were trying to will it into revealing some hidden information. The gold piece wasn’t talking.

“So,” Kyle said. “Let’s go over what we know. We got this gold coin that may or may not be real.”

I sat down next to him. “Right.”

“How it got in that fort’s anybody’s guess. Might be more in there. Might not.”

“Right.”

“If there’s more, we ain’t got the faintest idea where they are.”

“Right again. And don’t forget,” I added, “that someone else might know what we’re up to and might be watching what we’re doing.”

“Mm-hmm. So basically what we’re sayin’ is we’re pretty much outta luck.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Except that we still have this one coin.”

“Which may or may not be real.”

I flopped down on my back and listened to the depressing coo of the mourning doves outside my window. We’d hit a snag, but I wasn’t ready to give up. “Kyle,” I said, “The more I go over it in my mind, the more I believe that double eagle is the real thing. I mean, sure, someone could have minted it as a memento a lot later, but how would they come up with that particular design? And why hasn’t anyone ever heard of it?

“And,” I continued, propping myself up on my elbow, “if there’s one coin like that there’s got to be more. The only logical place for the others to be is inside of that fort.”

Kyle slipped the double eagle back into its sleeve. “Maybe. But don’t you think you might just be wantin’ something that ain’t true? Even if there was gold inside that fort, don’t you think someone woulda taken it out again pretty quick? If not durin’ the war, then after?”

Kyle was making perfect sense, but my mind didn’t want to believe we’d come to a dead end.

“C’mon,” Kyle said. “Let’s go down to the village. Instead of dreamin’ about phantom coins, let’s get us a couple rolls of real ones.”

I sighed and stood up. “Okay.” I returned the double eagle to its secret hiding place and was starting to put on my sandals when a thought stopped me. “Kyle?”

“What?”

“You remember that old guy we met at the beach, the first time we went fishing together?”

“That weird white-haired guy?” Kyle asked, walking to the door.

“Yeah.”

“What about him?”

“Well, you remember we were talking about the treasure hunters and he said he didn’t think they’d find any gold?”

“So what?”

“Didn’t you think he sounded like he knew something?”

“Sounded like he’d fried his brain in the sun.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.