Fool's Gold by Eric Walters Page A

that was stupid.
    â€œYou’re to be trusted because a member of your family is dependent on you being trustworthy,” he explained. “These two men are family.”
    â€œThey’re your cousins or something?” Jack asked.
    The three of them looked nothing alike, so I couldn’t imagine them being related.
    â€œNot cousins,” he said. “More like brothers. We’re a family business. Everybody in the organization has taken an oath, and we would never turn our backs on our brothers. I would trust these two with my life, so you should trust them too.” He paused and then chuckled slightly. “Actually, you are trusting them with your lives, and your mother’s.”
    He was right, and that thought made me feel shivery all over.
    â€œBesides, nobody would ever double-cross me,” he said. “If they even tried I would hunt them down like dogs and kill them, slowly and painfully.”
    I knew that threat was aimed at us.
    â€œAnd one more thing,” Jack said. “Have them dress like they’re going fishing and bring along fishing rods and a tackle box and bait.”
    â€œVery smart. That way if somebody sees you they’ll think you’re just a couple of kids with theirfathers out on a little fishing trip. My compliments. You boys have really thought this through. I had my doubts at first,” he said, “but I think if anybody can pull it off, you two can.”
    â€œWe’ll hold up our end of the bargain. You just keep yours.”
    â€œMy word is as good as gold … as good as the gold you’re going to be bringing to me. Now, is there anything else?”
    â€œNothing. We’ll be there.” Jack hung up the phone.
    I tilted my head to the side so I could see Jack’s watch. It was a few minutes before seven. We were hidden behind some bushes, close enough to see the road but far enough not to be seen by anybody driving by. It was still early enough in the evening for the road to be well travelled. We’d seen lots of cars and a number of big trucks—some of them probably coming from the DIL munitions plant in Ajax, just down the road. That was where our mother used to work. It always made us nervous that she was working in the middle of a factory filled with explosives.
    We were happier when she started working at Camp 30—not that being just a couple of fences away from five hundred German prisoners-of-war was that much better. Now, I just wished she were working at the factory instead of being where she was tonight.
    â€œThey should be here by now,” I whispered.
    â€œIt’s just a minute past seven. They’ll be coming. They want the gold. It only seems like they’re late because we’ve been waiting so long.”
    Jack had made us come to the meeting stop over an hour before the agreed time. He said he wanted to be in a place where he could watch things in case they were going to try to pull a fast one on us, maybe bring along extra people or something like that. I hated waiting but I knew that it was the smart thing to do. From where we were we could see everything that was coming or going along the road for half a mile in each direction. The only way somebody could come up on us was from behind, and that wouldn’t work. First off, since we were in position, staying quiet, nobody would even know where we were to sneak up on us. And second, anybody coming through the woods would make enough noise for us to hear them approaching. We were safe.
    â€œI’ve been thinking about how we have to act around these guys,” Jack said quietly.
    â€œI’ll try to be calm.”
    â€œNo, I was thinking you should act scared.”
    â€œBelieve me, I won’t have to act scared.”
    Jack smiled.
    â€œI can do it. I just don’t understand. Why do you want me to act that way?”
    â€œYou know how when a duck is sitting on the water it looks really calm but its legs are