“Actually, another boy and girl found it before we did,” Violet said. “There was a stuffed armadillo inside. It looked just like the one we found in the Walk in the Park cache with you.”
“In fact, the kids who found it said it was the same armadillo,” Jessie added. “They said it was a travel bug, but we never found out what that meant. What is a travel bug, Andy?”
“A travel bug is something that travels from one cache to another,” Andy explained. “Sometimes a travel bug has a goal. For instance, maybe it’s trying to visit caches in all fifty states, or maybe it’s trying to visit cities that start with a certain letter. If you can help it reach its goal, you can take it. Otherwise you should leave it for someone else to take.”
“How can you tell whether something is a travel bug or not?” Henry asked.
“If it’s a travel bug, it should have a tag attached to it that tells you it’s a travel bug. There will be a tracking number on the tag. You can use that number to get to the travel bug’s own page on the geocaching website and see where the travel bug has been.”
“Cool!” Benny said.
All of a sudden the Aldens heard raised voices behind them. They turned and saw the brown-haired boy and girl in matching denim jackets arguing with a dark-haired boy wearing a green baseball cap.
“Tell us!” the girl demanded as she flipped her braid over her shoulder. “Tell us how many caches you guys have found this month.”
The boy in the baseball cap shook his head. “I’m not going to tell you,” he said with a grin. “But it’s probably more than you’ve found!”
“It is not,” the other boy argued. “Otherwise you’d tell us how many you’ve found.”
The Aldens looked at each other. “Isn’t that the same boy and girl we ran into out when we were looking for the Chipmunk Challenge cache?” Jessie asked.
“I think so,” Violet said.
“That’s Zack and Zoe Zeller,” Andy said. “The other boy is David Greene.”
Mr. and Mrs. Zeller led their children to one side of the crowd and Mr. and Mrs. Greene led their son to the other side.
“Hey, are we going to start this meeting or not?” Mr. Greene called out.
“I wonder where Cal is,” an older man said, checking his watch. “Our meeting was supposed to start ten minutes ago.”
“I don’t think Cal has ever missed a meeting,” Andy’s dad, Mr. Robertson, said.
“There was one time he missed one,” Mrs. Zeller said. “He was out of town. But he gave someone else a key to the nature center so we could get in.”
“We could try calling him,” Andy said.
“I’ll try,” Mr. Zeller said. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. “I think I’ve even got his cell phone number right here.”
Mr. Zeller dialed, then put his phone to his ear.
Everyone waited.
After a couple of seconds, Mr. Zeller said, “He must have his phone turned off. It didn’t even ring once.”
“He’s probably on his way,” Mr. Robertson said. “Maybe we should just go ahead and start without him? It’s a nice day. I don’t mind holding our meeting out here. Do any of you?”
No one did. So they all made themselves comfortable on picnic tables, benches and the grass. Then, as president of the club, Andy’s dad called the meeting to order.
Everyone went around and introduced themselves, and Andy introduced the Aldens.
Then Mr. Robertson asked, “Is there any new business to discuss?”
“Yes.” Mr. Zeller raised his hand. “There are a few caches in the area that seem to be missing.”
Jessie and Henry looked at one another. Were these the same caches that they couldn’t find?
Mr. Greene chuckled. “Are you sure they’re missing? Maybe you and your family just couldn’t find them.”
Mr. Zeller frowned. “Of course I’m sure.”
“We always find the cache when we’re out geocaching!” Zack called out.
“I don’t know,” David teased. “I can remember one that you guys had a little trouble with last summer.”
“That’s because the river was high and we couldn’t get to it,” Zoe said hotly. “We knew where to look.”
“I’m telling you, some of these caches are missing,” Mr. Zeller said. “And I think they’ve been stolen!”
“Stolen?” Several people gasped.
“You know, we were out looking for the Squires Point cache the other day and we couldn’t find it,” a woman in a blue scarf said.
“Hey, that’s one of the ones we were looking for,” Benny spoke up. “We couldn’t find it, either.”
“I don’t know about that one,” Mr. Zeller said. “But I know for a fact the Happy Hollow cache has been stolen.”
“How do you ‘know for a fact?’ ” Mr. Greene asked with a smirk.
Mr. Zeller looked irritated. “Because we’ve been to that one before,” he replied. “There was supposed to be a travel bug in there, so we thought we’d pick it up and take it to another cache. But when we arrived at the spot, the cache wasn’t there.”
“When did you look for it?” a young college student asked. “My roommate and I looked for it a week ago. It was right where it was supposed to be.”
“This was just a couple days ago,” Mr. Zeller said. He turned to the Aldens. “When did you kids go looking for it?”
“Two days ago,” Henry replied. “We couldn’t find Muffy’s Hideaway, either. But we’re brand new geocachers. Maybe we just couldn’t find them.”
“I don’t know,” an older man in overalls said. “My wife and I were out looking for that Muffy’s Hideaway yesterday and we couldn’t find it, either.”
“I hate to say it, but I think Mr. Zeller is right,” said the woman in the blue scarf. “I think we have a thief on our hands.”
“Wait a minute,” Henry said. “Isn’t it possible that someone who doesn’t know about geocaching took a couple of caches?” After all, the Aldens had almost walked away with a cache themselves, not knowing what it was.
“I’d believe that if it was just one cache that was missing,” the man in overalls said. “But there are several missing. I think someone is taking them on purpose.”
“Do we know how many caches are missing for sure?” Mr. Robertson asked. “Or which ones are missing?”
No one did.
“I’ve got a list of all the caches hidden around Greenfield,” Mr. Greene said, holding up a brown folder. “Maybe we should look for them all at once and find out which ones are missing.”
“That’s a great idea,” Mr. Robertson said. “Let’s divide up the list so that everyone here gets to look for two or three caches.”
“If we can search over the weekend, maybe we can all meet again on Monday to report what we’ve found,” Mr. Zeller said.
As everyone got up to leave, Mr. Robertson glanced over at the Aldens. “Are you kids interested in helping out?”
“Sure,” Henry said.
“Why don’t you see if you can find these two.” Mr. Robertson tore off a sheet of paper and handed it to Henry.
The children looked at the paper. Their assignment was to find the ‘Nesting Place’ cache and the ‘Round the World’ cache.
“We’ll look for these this afternoon,” Jessie promised.
“Do you think there really is a thief stealing all the caches?” Benny asked his brother and sisters as they headed home.
“I don’t know,” Henry said. “It’s possible that some of us just haven’t been able to find some of the caches.”
“But there are quite a few people who looked for some of the same caches,” Jessie said. “It’s strange none of us could find them.”
“And Mr. Zeller said his family had been to the Happy Hollow cache before,” Violet added. “So they knew where to look for it, but they still couldn’t find it. That makes me wonder if someone is stealing the caches.”
“But who would do such a thing?” Benny asked. “
And why?”
Jessie shrugged. “It’s a mystery.”
Chapter 5
The Search Is On!
“Let me get this straight,” Grandfather said after Henry explained what they wanted. “You want me to give you a ride to the new mall, but you’re not sure you’re actually going to the mall?”
Violet giggled. “That’s right.”
“We’re looking for more geocaches,” said Jessie. “That’s why we don’t know exactly where we want to go.”
“Ah.” Grandfather nodded knowingly. “More geocaching. Sure, I’ll give you a ride. I have some errands to run out that way, anyway.”
“Thank you, Grandfather,” the children said.
“Should we bring Watch?” Benny asked as he scratched his dog’s ears.
Everyone else turned to look at Watch, who wagged his tail when he heard his name.
“Of course we should bring him,” Violet said. “He’s our geo-dog! A lot of people at the geocaching club had dogs.”
“Okay, Watch,” Henry said, clapping his hands. “Let’s go find your leash.”
Watch barked once, then ran for the back porch, where they kept his leash.
Henry snapped the leash to Watch’s collar, then they all got in the car.
Violet and Benny sat in the back seat and watched the GPS as Grandfather drove toward the new mall. They had the GPS set to find the ‘Nesting Place’ cache first.
Benny announced when they were 5 miles from the cache. Then 3 miles. Then 2 miles. Then 1 mile. When Grandfather pulled into the mall parking lot, the GPS still said they were half a mile from the cache.
“That’s okay,” Henry said. “Half a mile isn’t far to walk.”
Grandfather pulled up in front of a small coffee shop across the street from the mall. “I’ll go run my errands, then I’ll come back here and read the paper,” Grandfather said. “I’ll meet you in the coffee shop in an hour and a half.”
The children agreed. Then they got out of the car. Henry held Watch’s leash and Benny held the GPS.
“So, which way, Benny?” Jessie asked after their grandfather had driven off.
“That way,” Benny said, pointing to the shopping center.
Henry saw how close they were to the building, then glanced down at the GPS in Benny’s hand. “I wonder if it’s behind the mall,” Henry said.
“Maybe,” Violet said. “Let’s walk around and see.”
There was a small parking lot behind the mall and a wide grassy area behind that. The grass went all the way to the woods. A row of bluebird houses sat at the edge of the woods.
“Ah, now we know where the ‘Nesting Place’ cache got its name,” Jessie said.
Something in the woods caught Watch’s attention. He started barking and pulling on his leash. The Aldens looked toward the woods and spotted four people dressed in matching blue jackets: a mom, dad, and two kids. They stopped at the edge of the woods and stared back at the Aldens.
“Hey, isn’t that the Zellers?” Benny asked.
Violet squinted. “It’s hard to tell for sure from way back here, but it does kind of look like them,” she said.
“Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Zeller!” Benny called, waving his arms. “Is that you?”
The people, whoever they were, immediately turned around and disappeared into the woods.
“That was strange,” Henry said.
“Maybe it wasn’t the Zellers after all,” Jessie said with a shrug. “How far are we from the cache, Benny?”
“Not far,” Benny replied. “About 80 feet.”
The Aldens followed the GPS until the arrow started spinning. Then they started looking around.
They were right between two bluebird houses. There were no trees or bushes for a cache to be hiding in.
“Do you think it’s inside one of these houses?” Jessie asked.
“I wouldn’t think so,” Henry said. “I don’t think the birds would like that very much.”
Benny walked all around one of the bird-houses. He jumped up to see the top, then peered underneath. “Hey, there’s something stuck under here.”
Henry, Jessie, and Violet bent down and looked under the birdhouse. A small black box about the size of a deck of cards was stuck to the bottom of the birdhouse.
“I don’t think that’s it, Benny,” Jessie said. “It’s not big enough.”
But Benny pulled the box off the bird house anyway.
“Hey, it’s magnetic. There’s a piece of metal screwed into the bottom of the bird-house and that’s how the box was stuck to it.”
Benny opened up the box. The inside lid read, Official Micro Cache. Congratulations! You’ve found it! The box held a folded paper that was half-filled with nicknames of geocachers and a tiny pencil.
“I think this is it,” Benny said. He held the box so everyone could see it.
“I think you’re right, Benny,” Violet said. “I read about micro caches on the geocaching website. They’re really tiny caches. You usually don’t trade anything in a micro cache. You just write that you found it.”
“Well, at least this one isn’t missing,” Henry said.
“It looks like this piece of paper is the log,” Jessie said as she took it out of the box and unfolded it. “Most people just signed their nickname and their date. Do you want to sign it, Benny? Then we can see if we can find the other cache.”
“Okay,” Benny said. He took the paper back from Jessie and laid it flat against the birdhouse. Using the birdhouse as a table, he wrote “Boxcar Kids” and the date in his best handwriting on the next line.
Then Jessie took the GPS and set it to the Round the World cache. “It looks like the other cache is three-quarters of a mile southwest of here,” she said.
Benny folded the piece of paper, stuffed it back in the box, and closed it up. Then he put the box back where he found it underneath the birdhouse.
“Let’s go,” Henry said. He gave a little tug on the leash and Watch turned around and headed back across the parking lot with the children.
They walked around to the other side of the mall, then followed the GPS straight west.
“Hey, look!” Violet pointed straight ahead. “There’s a little playground over there past those houses.” The playground sat on a triangle of land where three streets came together. It was just big enough for a tetherball, slide, and a row of swings.
“I didn’t know that playground was there. Did you guys?” Jessie asked.
“No,” Henry replied. “That’s one of the fun things about geocaching. It takes you places you might not have gone to otherwise.”
Benny leaned over and checked the GPS in Jessie’s hand. “Well, the GPS is pointing straight ahead,” he said. “And we’re getting close. Just a little over 200 feet to go. So I bet the cache is in the playground.”
“Isn’t ‘round the world’ a game you can play with tetherball?” Violet asked.
“I think so,” Henry said. “Maybe the cache is around the tetherball.”
They crossed the street and spread out around the tetherball post. There was a tree with a hollowed-out spot behind the tetherball area. Benny ran to the hollow, but there was nothing inside.
Jessie and Violet checked the swings. Henry and Watch checked under the slide. But nobody found anything.
“Where could it be?” Violet asked, turning around.
They checked the flower bed and all the stones around the flower bed. They checked bushes. Then they checked all the playground equipment again, just in case they’d missed something the first time. But they didn’t find the cache.
“I think this one is missing,” Henry said.
“Let’s check the whole playground one more time,” Jessie said. “I’d hate to think we just didn’t look in the right place.”
So the children combed the playground one more time. But they still didn’t find anything.
“I give up,” Violet said, plopping down on the grass. “The Round the World cache is definitely missing.”
“Do you think someone stole it?” Benny asked.
“I don’t know,” Jessie said. But she was wondering the same thing. Maybe there really was a thief who was trying to ruin the geocachers’ fun?
Chapter 6
Who’s the Thief?
There were a lot of people standing around outside the nature center on Monday when the Aldens arrived. Once again the door was locked.
“Doggie!” a little girl squealed as the Aldens joined the group. Jessie held Watch on a leash. There were several other dogs in the crowd, too.
The Aldens stopped and let the little girl pet Watch.
Just behind them, the Zeller twins were arguing with David Greene.
“We are way better at geocaching than you guys,” Zack claimed.
“Oh, sure you are,” David replied. “That’s why you guys couldn’t find one of the caches you were supposed to find over the weekend.”
“We couldn’t find it because someone stole it!” Zoe cried, hands on her hips.
“I think you just couldn’t find it because you’re not good geocachers,” David said.
The little girl had finished petting Watch, so the Aldens moved away from the Greenes and the Zellers. All that arguing made the Aldens uncomfortable.
“Remember what Andy told us? There’s a rivalry between those two families,” Henry said.
“That may be,” Jessie said, stopping to let Watch nuzzle noses with a beagle. “But sometimes their arguing sounds a little mean.”
The Aldens found Andy Robertson and his dad up by the door to the nature center. Mr. Robertson was talking to an older man with a red baseball cap. They all looked worried.
“What’s the matter?” Jessie asked.
“We’re just wondering where Cal could be,” Mr. Robertson said, scratching his chin. “Nobody here has heard from him in nearly a week.”
“We saw him at the dog park that day we met you last week,” Henry said. “But we haven’t seen him since.”
“Several people here have called him and left messages, but he hasn’t returned any of the calls,” Andy said.