Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Mystery of the Missing Gold, Part Four
Stan had noticed that Mr. Beckel's turquoise stone was missing from his bolo tie. He had a sinking feeling that Mr. Beckel may have made the noises close to his tent in Bannack. The thought disturbed him.
Fair-minded Stan wanted to give his grandfather's attorney a chance to explain, so he retrieved the blue stone from his pocket. He passed it to Mr. Beckel.
"Is this yours?" asked Stan. Stan wondered why the attorney hadn't removed his tie if he noticed the stone was gone. Did the attorney even miss the stone? Had he been up all night and hadn't noticed it was missing? Why was he in Bannack? Stan patiently waited for the attorney to explain.
"Yes, that's mine, and I know I owe you an apology and an explanation. I should have told you when you first came in about my relationship with your grandfather," said Mr. Beckel. "We were really close friends, and I explored many ghost towns with him. I knew that he had put his gambling winnings into gold bars. He had told me that he would hide them in a ghost town, but I thought he was kidding. When I heard that the word Bannack was in your box, I realized that he wasn't."
"Why didn't he just put the gold bars into a safety deposit box for me?" asked Stan.
