TRAPPED IN A LIE

Bong, bong, bong …

The bell in the clock tower rang a few more times and then settled into silence.

“How many was that, Sniffs? Nine times?” Oliver shaded his eyes and scanned the horizon. Where was Audrey? She’d been visiting villagers all morning but was supposed to be here at 8:30—a half hour ago.

While he waited, Oliver watched an iron golem roam the courtyard, offering poppies to villagers. Other villagers traded with one another, calling out their wares.

Farmer Fran traded apples from her cart to a shepherd for some sheared wool. Miner Max offered gunpowder to Lefty in exchange for some leather armor. When Max offered more gunpowder to a fisherman for freshly caught salmon, Sniff’s nose twitched.

“That’s not for you, boy,” said Oliver. “Not unless you have something to trade for it. Do you?”

Sniffs cocked his head, as if he were thinking about it. Then he whined and laid down on his belly, resting his chin on his paws.

“Hey! Sorry I’m late,” huffed Audrey. She jogged toward them through the crowd. “You’ll never believe how many villagers saw creepers this morning. They said a whole army of the green mobs passed by town! It was like someone had a room full of them and then opened the door and just let them out.”

“You mean like a creeper trap?” asked Oliver.

Audrey shrugged. “Maybe. But who would want to trap a bunch of dirty creepers?”

Oliver pushed up his glasses and scanned the courtyard. “Someone who wants a lot of gunpowder.”

Audrey’s eyes widened. “Like someone making TNT?” she whispered. “But who?”

Oliver watched Miner Max walk away from the fisherman’s cart. He was limping a little.

“Max sure had a lot of gunpowder to trade this morning,” Oliver whispered to Audrey. “Should we question him?”

She nodded. “I’m on it.”

A few minutes later, they were talking with Max in front of his obsidian mine. “Yeah, I saw those creepers this morning,” he said. “Someone must have trapped them—one of my neighbors. In fact, I saw a warning painted on a sign yesterday afternoon.” He waved his arm and said, “Follow me. I’ll show you.”

The warning was written in red paint on a simple wooden signpost. It read:

“I don’t know who wrote it,” said Max, shrugging. “I’m just glad the creepers have cleared out.”

Audrey didn’t seem so sure the creepers were gone. She kept her hand on her sword.

Oliver sketched the sign into his notebook. Then he crouched beside the sign, searching for clues. He looked under and around it. Sniffs did, too.

As the dog’s nose brushed against the sign, a streak of red paint smeared across his snout.

“Oh, no! Sniffs, come here,” said Oliver. He tried to wipe off the paint, but poor Sniffs looked like he had just battled a hostile mob.

Then another thought struck.

“Miner Max, how did you hurt your leg?” Oliver called to the miner, who was limping up ahead.

“What? Oh, um, I fell into a ravine while I was mining. It’s no big deal.”

“Oh, okay.”

Something in Max’s voice caught Audrey’s attention. She fell into step beside him and whispered, “Do you know who built the creeper trap?”

Oliver nodded. “Max did,” he mouthed.

Why is Oliver so sure? Solve this Creeper Code for a clue. Read ONLY the words that come after the word “CREEP.” Then turn the page to solve the mystery.

Audrey cleared her throat. “Miner Max, are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell us about a creeper trap?”

The miner’s face fell. “You kids are on to me, aren’t you?”

Oliver nodded. “It was the wet paint on the sign that gave it away. You couldn’t have seen it yesterday afternoon—it wasn’t made yet. Did you make the sign, Miner Max?”

The miner sighed. “I built the creeper trap a week ago to collect more gunpowder. I need TNT for mining obsidian! But creepers kept slipping out. One exploded on the other side of the trap door this morning. That’s how I hurt my leg. And before I could fix the door, every last creeper crept out!” He hung his head.

Audrey’s eyes lit up. “Well that explains the creeper problem in Birchtown. One mystery solved.”

Miner Max nodded sadly. “I’ll go back into town and let the other villagers know.”

Oliver felt a little sorry for the miner as he limped back toward town. “Should we go with him?” he asked.

Audrey nibbled on a fingernail. “Not yet,” she said. “Do you think Max really used the TNT for mining? Someone used TNT to blow a hole into the blacksmith’s storage room and steal his emeralds, remember?”

Oliver shook his head. “Max didn’t steal any emeralds.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

“Because,” said Oliver. “If Max stole the emeralds, he would have been trading with them at the market this morning. You can buy a lot more with emeralds than you can with gunpowder!”

Audrey’s face relaxed into a smile. “So the miner was telling the truth after all. Should we help him go tell the villagers what happened?”

Woof! said Sniffs.

Oliver laughed and followed his dog back down the gravel road toward Miner Max—and Birchtown.