CHAPTER 6
Even though they were in the shade, it was getting very hot.
Tim took a swig from Paul’s bottle of water. “Wow, I am thirsty,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d get so thirsty in the woods, especially so close to the lake. I’m going to take a break from searching.” He sat down on a fallen log.
“Giving up?” Paul said. He was walking in a circle around the edge of the clearing.
“Just taking a break,” Tim said. “I’m getting a little sick of this.”
He put his head back and took a long chug of water. As he looked up at the sky, he spotted something.
There was a twinkle coming from one of the trees. When he looked closer, he saw that it was perched on a branch. And it wasn’t a bird.
“Hey, what’s that?” Tim asked.
“What’s what?” Tyrone said.
Tim pointed up into the tall tree in the center of the clearing. “Right there,” he said. “Something’s twinkling on that branch.”
Paul went over to Tim and looked up. “I see it,” Paul said. “Between those branches. Right?”
Tim nodded. “Do you think someone put the cache all the way up there?” he asked.
“It’s possible,” Paul said. “I’ve heard they’re sometimes really hard to find. There’s one in Antarctica, even.”
“The south pole?” Tim said in disbelief.
“Yep,” Paul said.
“So how do we get it down?” Tim asked, gazing up at the cache.
Paul looked up at the tree. “We should probably get help, or forget about it,” he said. “That thing is way too high up for us to reach.”
Paul started walking back in the direction of the beach.
“What?” Tim said. “And let Brent win the prize?”
He got up from the log and walked over to the tree. “No way,” Tim said. “We can get it ourselves.”
“How?” Paul said.
“We’ll climb up and get it,” Tim said. “Obviously.”
Paul stared up at the cache, twinkling on the branch above them. “Okay,” he said finally. “But I’m not going to be the one to climb up there.”
“Give me a boost,” Tim said. “If I can get up to the lowest branch, I can climb the rest of the way.”
Paul seemed unsure, but he shrugged and went over to the tree.
“One, two, three,” Tim said. Paul boosted him up with his hands.
With a little work and a stretch, Tim got both hands on the bottom branch. Grunting, he pulled himself up and took a seat.
“Made it,” he called down. “Easy.”
Tim got to his feet on the branch. He kept one hand on the trunk of the tree and looked up. He could still see the twinkling light above him.
It wasn’t too far now, and he could tell it was a small metal box.
“Yup,” he called down. “That’s definitely the cache. Give me two minutes, and I’ll toss it down.”
“Okay. Be careful!” Paul said.
Tim wrapped his arms around the trunk and shimmied up a little, just enough to grab the next branch.
Working like that, Tim climbed another ten feet up until he was at the branch with the cache at its end.
“You’re really high!” Paul called up. “Be careful!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Tim shouted down.
He took a slow step onto the branch. It shook a little, but it was pretty thick.
“Not far now,” he whispered to himself. But the branch was shaking a lot. He got down and crawled a little more.
Just then, he heard a crack.
“Whoa,” he said quietly.
“You okay?” Paul called up. “I heard a crack.”
“Yeah,” Tim said. “I have to concentrate.”
Tim crawled out a little more and tried to reach for the box. It was still a foot or more out of his grasp.
He took a deep breath and crawled out another couple of inches.
Crack!
“Careful!” Paul called up.
Tim held on tight to the branch. He looked down at Paul.
Paul was way down there, he realized suddenly. If this branch broke, Tim could really get hurt.
The box looked close now. “Maybe I can just tap it,” he said to himself. “Then it will fall, and Paul can get it, sign the log, and throw it back up.”
It seemed like a good plan.
Tim leaned forward as far as he could, reached out his arm, and . . .
CRACK!
The branch shook violently and bent, then snapped. Tim fell.