CHAPTER 10
Back at the beach, the boys told Mr. Saber what had happened. Brent’s dad shook his head. “You guys did the right thing, getting out of there without trying to get the cache one more time,” he said. “Sometimes caches are hard to reach. On the website, that cache wasn’t listed as difficult, though. It should have been.”
Brent nodded. “You both could’ve gotten hurt,” he said.
Tim nodded. “But we didn’t,” he said. “And I have to admit, this proved that geocaching is pretty exciting. We should try it again.”
“Only not in a place with so many trees,” Paul added. Everyone laughed.
“So how did you guys do?” Tim asked Brent and Tyrone.
“We got to our cache and signed the book,” Brent said. “Therefore, we won the prize.”
He and Tyrone high-fived. Then Brent added, “Plus, check this out.”
Brent dug into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a big fishing lure.
Tim took it and looked it over. “What is it?” he asked.
“It’s a travel bug,” Brent said. “Some caches have them inside. You can go to the website and register that you found it, and then you put it inside a cache you find in the future. The person who first planted the bug gets to watch it move all over the country. We’ll go look this one up when we get home, and we might find it started clear across the country.”
“Or the world,” Tim said. “There’s a cache in Antarctica, you know.”
Brent and his dad laughed. “Sounds like you’re beginning to get into this geocaching stuff, huh?” Brent said.
Tim shrugged, but he smiled too. “I guess so,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. The satellites, the hunt, traveling all over the world. I didn’t realize how much there was to it, I guess.”
Tim could smell the dinner barbecue was already being fired up. Soon the sun would set, and the fireworks would begin.
“Well,” Tim said, standing next to Paul, “I guess we didn’t win the prize.”
Paul shrugged. “No big deal. Tyrone was on the winning team, so I’m sure he’ll let me use it, whatever it is.”
Mr. Saber looked at Brent. Brent nodded. Then Mr. Saber pulled out the small, wrapped box again. “Well, Tim,” he said, “Tyrone and Brent and I talked it over. We decided you should get the prize after all.”
“What?” Tim said. “But we didn’t even sign our log. I don’t deserve the prize.”
Mr. Saber handed him the box. “Trust me,” he said. “It makes sense for you to have it.”
“Um, okay,” Tim said. He took the box. “Thanks.”
Tim pulled the brown paper off the box. Inside was a brand-new GPS device. “Wow,” he said. “This is amazing. Thanks, Mr. Saber. But I can’t accept it. I didn’t win.”
Brent shrugged. “We already have GPS devices,” he said. “Now you can join us next weekend for another hunt.”
Tim smiled. “Sounds good to me,” he said. “I actually can’t wait!”
“School’s starting tomorrow,” Brent said. “It’ll be awesome to have this to look forward to on the weekends.”
“Yeah it will,” Paul said. “And we can even do it in the winter.”
“I think I need to get some better shoes,” Tim said, laughing.