Thumb and the Bad Guys by Ken Roberts

now
there is excitement. We’re the excitement. Your plan worked. Just not quite the way
you expected.”
    â€œBut, they’re going to figure out that we’re the ones doing everything
pretty soon.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œWe have to tell them.”
    â€œAre you nuts, Thumb?”
    â€œIf we don’t, then everybody will be under suspicion. Besides, we
haven’t done anything wrong. We can explain.”
    Susan just stared at me, waiting for me to figure out something she
obviously knew but I was too stupid to even consider.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou’re going to tell them that we followed Kirk McKenna because we
thought he was a bad guy?”
    â€œNo. We can tell them we saw a footprint and discovered the trail
under the waterfall and found the shed. They’ll believe us.”
    â€œYou’re forgetting one thing, Thumb.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œWe don’t know what’s inside that shed and we don’t know why the
adults are keeping it a secret from us. I’m not willing to tell anyone until we find
out.”
    â€œI will not believe that my dad and your dad are bad guys, Susan.”
    Susan shrugged and tossed another stone. We both watched it skip and
both silently counted to ourselves. Eight.
    â€œHow often do you think Kirk McKenna goes up to that shed?” I asked
quietly.
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œAre you ready for one more stakeout?”
    â€œTonight?”
    â€œNo. Let’s assume Kirk McKenna goes up there every Friday night.”
    â€œFriday night?”
    â€œYou bet.”

    11
DIGGING FOR TREASURE
    ON WEDNESDAY MS.
WEATHERLY led the entire class up to Black Bear Hump.
    She was puffing pretty hard by the time we reached the pond. I tried
not to look at the waterfall and the stream that led out of the pond, but I did
glance. It seemed almost impossible for me to have missed seeing how you could get
to the other side.
    I looked over at Susan. She frowned and shook her head.
    There wasn’t enough room at Black Bear Hump for all of us to stand in
the small clearing, much less dig. Some of us, including Susan and me, sat on rocks
and watched and listened to Ms. Weatherly talk about Captain Cook and Captain
Vancouver and why they might have stayed in our bay when they searched along our
coast for water routes inland.
    While she talked, Big Bette and Little Liam divided the clearing into
squares with yellow yarn stretched between stakes. Ms. Weatherly said that
archeologists did that to keep track of where they dug.
    Robbie and his dad had made a wooden box that looked like a drawer
with a screen where the bottom should have been. While some of us dug, others sifted
dirt through the screen, looking for artifacts.
    â€œWhat will we find?” asked Big Bette, stopping for a moment to stretch
her back.
    â€œProbably nothing,” said Ms. Weatherly. “It’s only a possibility that
one of those explorers had a cannon placement here but even if he did, there may not
be anything left behind.”
    â€œBut what might we find?”
    â€œI don’t know. Coins. Broken bits of the ceramic pipes that sailors
used when they smoked. Buttons. It’s doubtful that we’ll find anything, but if we do,
it could be evidence of the first Europeans to ever visit this part of the
world.”
    â€œWow,” several kids whispered.
    I was watching Little Liam and Big Bette as they started to dig. It
looked like a lot of work so I held up my hand.
    â€œYes, Thumb?” asked Ms. Weatherly.
    â€œI don’t think I can take a turn digging,” I said, trying to sound
disappointed.
    â€œWhy?” asked Ms. Weatherly. I glanced around and could see Liam and
Susan rolling their eyes.
    â€œIt’s my thumb,” I said, holding up my real thumb, the thumb that Ms.
Weatherly thought was a fake. “Lifting a shovel full of dirt might put too much
pressure on the