“By Jove, let’s get cracking. Ned sent me a communiqué, and I have some clues to the temple where the Golden Paw is rumored to be hidden.”
“Right you are,” Rusty said. He turned to Bartlemore. “We’ll be discussing our plans in private. Should you choose to follow us from this point forward, it will be at your own peril.”
Bartlemore seemed unfazed by the comment. He just smiled, nodded, and motioned for Charlie to keep “filming.” Now that Andy knew the camera Charlie held was fake, it made him nervous to see it pointed at Rusty.
Bartlemore never said exactly what kind of weapon it was. I wonder what it does.
Rusty motioned for the group to join him in the nearby shack. Andy was the last one to go inside, and when he glanced back at Bartlemore, the man gave him a slight nod.
Andy returned it. He knew what he was supposed to do, but he was having a hard time not feeling torn in two by Bartlemore’s proposal. It made him sick to think that the people he’d trusted with his life might also be traitors.
I wish my grandfather were here, Andy thought. He’d know what to do.
A sudden thought made Andy halt in his tracks. The Zoomwriter had the ability to send wireless messages! He could telegraph his grandfather when he put the pen into transmission mode!
Feeling a surge of relief, Andy reached into his coat pocket for his pen. His eyes widened as he patted desperately at the pocket. It was empty!
Where is it? He removed his jacket and probed every possible hiding place. After a few moments of searching, he realized with a terrible, sinking feeling what had happened. He’d left his pen on the counter at Trader Sam’s. He’d been in such a hurry to catch the plane, he’d left his most precious possession behind.
Andy’s face paled. As he took his seat with the others in the abandoned shack, he felt like crying. How could I have been so stupid?
Rusty began giving details of the mission, but Andy barely heard him. His mind was spinning. All he could think about was the pen—the only gift his grandfather had ever given him—and how priceless it was. Now he might never see it again. This was his big second chance to prove himself, and he was blowing it!
Andy felt sick to his stomach as Cedric took over the meeting and outlined the dangerous route that they would have to travel to the location of the Golden Paw. His odds of surviving the mission and coming out on top seemed to be at an all-time low.
The next morning, the group was delighted to find a carrier pigeon from the Jungle Air Mail service waiting with a message from Yaw. Rusty had discovered it when packing their gear for the first leg of the journey to the Temple of the Golden Paw and had happily shared the news with the others.
Andy Stanley spotted with Bartlemore by local shopkeeper. Flying back to HQ to refuel. Awaiting further instructions.
Y.R.
“Good ol’ Yaw!” Rusty exclaimed. “She’s just fine. I’ll let her know we have the boy.”
Andy bristled at the word boy. He was twelve! He wasn’t a kid who needed to be babysat by the others! Andy glanced at Abigail to see if she’d noticed the slight, but it didn’t appear she had. Even so, Andy made a vow to himself to do what it took to improve his standing with the group. He’d show them that he was one of them, not just some kid tagging along on their mission.
Suddenly, a thought entered Andy’s mind that he hadn’t considered before. If what Bartlemore said was true and Rusty was a spy, was it possible that he was trying to get under Andy’s skin? What if Rusty was deliberately trying to get Andy to quit the mission? Rusty knew that Andy was Ned Lostmore’s grandson and that he would report everything to him.
Was it possible? Rusty hadn’t seemed too eager to have him along on the mission. In fact, he had only agreed because Ned had ordered him to. Rusty had looked concerned when Andy showed up with Bartlemore. At the time, Andy had assumed Rusty was just concerned for his safety, but what if the real concern was that Bartlemore and Andy had found them?
As Andy helped the others load their gear, he resolved to keep a close eye on Rusty. The more he thought about the bush pilot, the more suspicious he grew.
This “boy” is a lot smarter than they realize, Andy thought, and he was comforted by the idea as he helped Cedric lift a particularly heavy pack onto one of the mules they would be taking into the jungle.
When everything was loaded up, Rusty called out, “We walk from here.” Then he added a comment directed at Bartlemore, who was also up and ready to follow them. “I’m warning you for your own good, Bartlemore. We’ll be following a treacherous path. For your own safety, you should take that plane of yours and fly back to Hollywood.”
Bartlemore flashed him a large grin and waved. “We’ve come too far to go back now, but thank you for considering our well-being.”
Andy noticed that Bartlemore’s grin faded when Rusty turned around. The actor nodded at Andy and gave him a knowing stare, as if to say Remember what we talked about.
The group set off at a brisk pace, heading from the edge of the Amazon into a thicket of trees and heavy undergrowth. Andy, who had been given the task of leading one of the two mules that had been left for their use at the hut, soon found that his charge was particularly stubborn and not at all interested in the idea of going
