Solve-it-yourself mystery
What a beautiful day!” 12-yearold Daphne said, admiring the flowers around her. “Best so far this summer!” Mabel Fitzgibbon agreed. As was their tradition, she and her niece strolled through Pottsville Park, sipping lemonade on the clearest day of the season. This year, Daphne was collecting flower petals for a camp art project and held a basket that was nearly full.
“What a re- leaf ! ” Daphne giggled, never missing an opportunity to make a pun. “With so many beautiful options, I’m going to have the best-looking wreath at camp.”
Mabel laughed as they drained their drinks and continued on to a historic plaque that stood in a clearing. Each year, they stopped and read about the Legend of the Lost Gold, a tale of unrecovered treasure buried by the British during the Revolutionary War…treasure rumored to be on the very land where the Pottsville Park existed now.
“You think it’s true, Aunt Mabel?”
“Well, it’s certainly fun to imagine!” Mabel smiled.
Daphne raised her cellphone for a selfie with Mabel before they started walking again.
“What would you do with a bag of gold?” Daphne asked.
Mabel would never quit her job as postmaster, but she’d love to take her friends on a week-long cruise and donate the rest to her church.
But before she could answer, they took a turn on the trail and nearly collided with Adele.
The Pottsville Park Ranger stood with her arms folded, glaring down at a man in an eight-foot-deep hole. Wearing a T-shirt, blue jeans and steeltoed work boots covered in mud, he waved a metal detector across the ground near his feet.
“That’s Prospect Pete!” Daphne giggled. “At least, that’s what the hole town calls him.”
Mabel wasn’t sure if Daphne was laughing at Pete or the pun. She should correct her niece and tell her to mind her manners: Pete was an adult, after all. But Daphne hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true. Folks at the post office always talked about Pete and how the man was always digging for something.
“He must have been digging all night to create a hole that size,” Mabel observed.
“No doubt,” Adele looked down at Pete, again. “You need to get out of that hole, Pete! You hear me? This is protected land. You can’t be digging around here!”
Pete ignored her, scanning the ground. The metal detector let out a long, high-pitched beep. “Ya hear that?” Pete said, excitement in his eyes. “I ain’t leaving here without that gold.”
He put the metal detector aside and picked up his shovel anew. “Folks at the Pottsville Historic Society will finally take me seriously.” Pete sniffed. “When I found that bronze axe head from the Revolutionary War, they didn’t care. When I found that uniform button from the Civil War, they didn’t care. But this… this they won’t be able to ignore.”
Mabel knew the old biddies who sat on the board, and she doubted that Pete could do anything to change their overblown opinions of themselves or their rigid rules on who could be a member.
Adele looked back at Mabel. “Pete and I’ve been going round-and-round about this for the past hour. If he doesn’t come out of that hole willingly, I’m going to have to call the sheriff.”
“And the fire department,” Mabel added. Pete was getting up in years, and she doubted he could climb out of the hole on his own.
“What if Prospect Pete is right, Aunt Mabel?” Daphne asked. “What if he finally found the lost gold?” Mabel shook her head. Daphne frowned, clearly confused. She put down her basket, circled the hole and seemed to consider Pete’s predicament. Suddenly, her eyes went wide. “Poor Pete.”
“I’ll tell him he’s wasting his time” Mabel said, “while you call the fire department.”
Q: What did Daphne discover? A: Turn to pg 51