Read Online Frognapped by Angie Sage - Free Book Online

job, you know.”
    It was a tough job, but about ten minutes later the shovel hit something hard with a big thud . As I scraped the earth away, Sir Horace—who had kept so quiet that I began to wonder if he had floated off somewhere—suddenly shouted, “I see it! My treasure chest!”
    Aha! Another success for the Spookie Detective Agency.
    Wanda and I dragged the chest out of the hole. It was really heavy and was just how you would expect it to be—dark, thick wood with a domed top. It was covered in metal studs and had two big iron bands wrappedaround it. In the middle was a great big brass keyhole.
    Sir Horace was really thrilled. Even though you could not see him, you could tell that his voice had a smile in it. A big smile. “My treasure, my treasure,” he kept saying, over and over again.
    â€œOpen it, open it!” I said. After all, it’s not every day you get to see treasure that has been buried for five hundred years.
    â€œOh,” said Sir Horace, and I could tell he was not smiling anymore.
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” I asked him, but he didn’t reply.
    â€œHe doesn’t have the key,” said Wanda. “That’s what was rattling inside his armor.”
    â€œHow do you know?” I asked her.
    â€œDeduction,” said Miss Smugpants.

    â€œWhat?”
    â€œIt’s what detectives do. They put two and two together and make four.” Wanda looked at me in a Nurse Watkins kind of way when she said that, although I don’t know why.
    â€œWell, if you know so much about where the key is, you can go and get it,” I told her. “ What’s that ?”
    Thump, thump, thump. There were footsteps up in the ticket office. Big, clompy footsteps.
    â€œIt’s Old Morris,” whispered Wanda.
    â€œShh…” I hissed. “It might not be Old Morris, it might be—”
    â€œNora, Nora…is that you?” Old Morris yelled grumpily. “I told you not to leave the door open. Anyone could have walked in. Nora? ”
    â€œWe’re trapped,” whispered Wanda. Shelooked really scared.
    We listened to Old Morris’s big boots clomping across the floor. The footsteps were right above us now and I knew that any minute he would find the open trapdoor.
    And then he found it. Very suddenly. Extremely suddenly, in fact. One minute he was stomping around shouting and the next minute he was flat on his back on the dungeon floor staring up at Wanda and me. He looked a bit surprised.
    â€œWell, hello, Old Morris,” I said in a friendly way, as I did not want him to feel that he had intruded on anything—even though he had. There are some times when you just have to be polite and I figured this was one of them.
    But Wanda is not polite like I am. “Let’s getout of here!” she yelled, and she was up the ladder in two seconds flat. I followed her—fast.
    â€œMy treasure,” Sir Horace groaned. “I have waited five hundred years to get my treasure back from the FitzMaurices. Five hundred years only to see it snatched from my grasp yet again. Aaarrghhhooooh .”
    â€œNow stop it, Sir Horace,” I told him in my best Aunt Tabby voice. “Just stop it. It will be all right. I have a plan.” Now it was Wanda’s turn to groan, but I ignored it.
    I slammed the trapdoor shut.
    â€œHey!” came a muffled yell from the dungeon.
    â€œHelp me shove the safe over the trapdoor so he can’t get out,” I said.
    â€œYou can’t do that,” said Wanda.
    â€œYes I can,” I said. “We don’t want him getting away with the treasure, do we?”
    Wanda shook her head.
    â€œHey! Let me out !”
    The safe was really heavy but we managed it. There was no way that Old Morris was going to get out of there in a hurry.

    â€œNow look,” I said. “The Fish Frolics Show is meant to start in a few minutes and if it doesn’t everyone,