Box That Watch Found by Gertrude Chandler Warner

let go!” a girl answered.
    “You’re not supposed to take them!”
    “We’re not taking them, we’re protecting them!”
    When the Aldens reached the top of the hill, they saw the Zeller twins and David Greene over by a huge tree stump. The Aldens had seen these kids arguing before, but never quite like this. David and Zack seemed to be playing tug-of-war with a metal box.
    “What’s going on?” Henry called out to them.
    Zack, Zoe, and David all froze as the Aldens got off their bikes and ran over to them.
    “They’re trying to steal this cache,” David said as he yanked the metal box out of Zack’s grip once and for all. “They’ve been stealing caches all over town. But I’m not going to let them steal this one.” He held the metal box tight against his chest.
    “Wait a minute,” Jessie said, turning to the Zeller twins. “You two have been stealing the caches?” The Aldens had been pretty sure the thief wasn’t the Zellers or the Greenes.
    “No!” Zoe said, clearly insulted. “We just told David—we’re not stealing them, we’re protecting them.” She pulled on the box again, but David backed away from her, still holding it tight.
    “Protecting them from what?” Henry asked.
    “From being stolen by the real thief!” Zack cried.
    “We’re only taking caches that have travel bugs in them,” Zoe explained.
    “Why?” Benny asked.
    “Some of these travel bugs have been traveling a long time,” Zack said. “And some of them have come from really far away. Like Europe. So we don’t want the thief to get them.”
    “One of the caches we took has a flag from Switzerland that has already traveled around the world three times.”
    Zack nodded. “We’ve got another one that has a racing car that belonged to a little boy in California,” Zack added. “It was one of his favorite cars, but he turned it into a travel bug so he could watch it travel around the country. Think how he’d feel if he found out the cache his car was in got stolen!”
    “Let me get this straight,” David said. “You guys didn’t take any of the first caches that went missing. You’ve only taken the last few. And you’re only taking ones with travel bugs in them?”
    “That’s right,” Zoe said. “And we’re leaving notes for the real thief that say ‘ha ha!’ As in ‘ha-ha, you didn’t get this one!’ ” She held up a note just like the one Andy had found.
    “We’ve kept track of where all the caches we took are supposed to go,” Zack said. “Once the thief goes away, we’ll put them back. But not until we’re sure they’ll be safe.”
    “Is that what you were talking about when we saw you in the woods after the geocaching meeting?” Jessie asked. “You said something like ‘maybe we should put them back.’ Were you talking about the caches you’d taken?”
    “Yes,” Zack said. “Zoe thought we should take the treasure out and put the empty boxes back where we found them. But I thought it would be hard to keep track of what belonged in which box if we did that.”
    “That would be hard to keep track of,” Violet agreed.
    “We started gathering up caches with travel bugs in them last weekend,” Zoe said. “In case you were wondering what we were doing behind the mall that day you saw us back there.”
    “I sure wish we knew who took all those other caches,” David said.
    “So do we,” Zoe said. “Our dad’s been talking to a lot of people in the geocaching club. If the real thief isn’t caught soon, we’re probably going to disband the club.”
    “My dad said the same thing,” David said. Nobody wants to keep the club going if somebody’s going to steal all our caches.”
    “Then we’re going to have to work hard to find the real thief before the club disbands,” Violet said.
    “Well, we know something about the missing caches,” Benny announced. “They were all hidden by the same person!”
    Zack, Zoe, and David all turned to Benny.
    “They were?” David