Fool's Gold by Eric Walters Page B

moving really fast?”
    â€œUm, yeah, I guess, but what has that got to do with us?”
    â€œWe have to be the opposite of that duck. We have to be calm underneath, thinking things through, but on the surface we have to appear to be nervous, unsure, to throw them off. We want them to see us as just a couple of stupid kids who don’t know anything, who they don’t have to worry about.”
    â€œAnd while we’re acting scared on the surface, we’re thinking, and they won’t realize we’re thinking.”
    â€œThey’ll underestimate us,” Jack said. “It’s just like Bill once told us: when they train spies they tell them to put on a big smile, or even act like they’re simple or stupid, so that nobody suspects them.”
    â€œThat all makes sense. I just wish they’d get here.”
    â€œWe didn’t give them much time,” Jack added.
    â€œAll part of the plan.”
    That was my idea. I figured if they only had a few hours to get here, they wouldn’t have enough time to plan something. All they could do was react to what we told them to do.
    â€œThey might have had trouble getting the raft,” Jack suggested.
    â€œMaybe. Speaking of the raft, we have to be sure to put ashore before we get to the waterfall,” I said.
    The creek had a sudden six-foot drop about half a mile past the trestle.
    â€œOh, yeah, I forgot to mention that part of my plan,” Jack said. “We’re going over the waterfall.”
    â€œWhat!” I exclaimed.
    â€œYeah. I figure if we go over the waterfall we’ll all end up in the drink, and that would be good.”
    â€œHow would that be good?” I asked.
    â€œBecause both of those guys are going to be packing heat, and I read that guns that get wet don’t work,” he explained.
    â€œThey don’t?”
    â€œNope. I read that someplace. We want to get the gold out but we don’t want them to kill anybody.”
    â€œThat makes sense. I’m just not looking forward to going over those falls again.”
    The first time we’d gone down that way—while drifting on inflated inner tubes—we hadn’t known about the waterfall. We’d gone flying over, plunging beneath the water in the pool at the bottom before breaking the surface and dragging ourselves to shore. That was one of the scariest moments of my life … up until then, anyway. There had been lots worse since, and I had a nasty feeling there were lots more still to come.
    â€œThe other reason I want to travel by raft is so that we can see if we’re being followed,” Jack said.
    â€œFollowed by who?”
    â€œBy some more mobsters. It’s important to know how many of them we’re dealing with. I figure westop before we hit the trestle, maybe hide under the branches of that big willow tree, just float there. We can tell them we have to wait to see if there are any guards watching from the trestle.”
    â€œI’ve never seen a guard on the trestle before,” I said.
    â€œNeither have I, but they don’t know that. Then if somebody is following us they’ll drift right into us. Does that make sense?”
    â€œThat’s good thinking.”
    â€œSomebody’s got to use their head for more than just holding a hat. I only wish I had all the rest of it worked out.”
    â€œI’ve been thinking about the rest of it too.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œWell, even if this all works, what’s to stop them from simply taking the gold and killing us and Mom?”
    â€œI thought about that. That’s not going to happen.”
    â€œBut won’t they be worried about us telling somebody what happened, you know, turning them in?”
    â€œThey probably figure that everybody is like them and we’ll take the money and just shut up. They don’t think that we’d squeal on them, because it would get us in hot water.”
    â€œI