Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names of characters and their professions are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Elizabeth Singer Hunt
Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Brian Williamson
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First Edition: March 2019
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Photograph of James Marshall, discoverer of gold, at Sutter’s Mill from the Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-137164 DLC (b&w film copy neg.)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017963211
ISBNs: 978-1-6028-6579-2 (paperback), 978-1-6028-6580-8 (ebook)
E3-20190123-JV-NF-ORI
CONTENTS
COVER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
THE WORLD
GLOBAL PROTECTION FORCE ALERT
THINGS YOU’LL FIND IN EVERY BOOK
DESTINATION: CALIFORNIA
HISTORY OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH
GOLD MINER’S TOOL KIT
GOLD 101
THE STALWART FAMILY
GPF GADGET INSTRUCTION MANUAL
CHAPTER 1: THE CODED LETTER
CHAPTER 2: THE GOLDEN DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 3: THE BREAKING NEWS
CHAPTER 4: THE PORTAL
CHAPTER 5: THE GOLDEN MISSION
CHAPTER 6: THE FOOL’S GOLD
CHAPTER 7: THE AMBUSH
CHAPTER 8: THE DIVERSION
CHAPTER 9: THE PORTABLE RESCUE
CHAPTER 10: THE HOOK
CHAPTER 11: THE ABANDONED TOWN
CHAPTER 12: THE BOSS
CHAPTER 13: THE BOUNCING TOOTH
CHAPTER 14: THE SURPRISE
CHAPTER 15: THE NOSE KNOWS
CHAPTER 16: THE FAREWELL
CHAPTER 17: THE NEW RECRUIT
THE SECRET AGENTS JACK AND MAX STALWART SERIES
SEE WHERE THE ADVENTURE BEGAN…
JOIN JACK AND MAX IN THEIR OTHER ADVENTURES…
For Callie. Woof!
THE WORLD
GLOBAL PROTECTION FORCE ALERT
THE WORLD’S MOST PRECIOUS TREASURES ARE UNDER ATTACK!
Secret Agents Courage and Wisdom recently thwarted an attempt to steal the Emerald Buddha from the Grand Palace in Thailand. The GPF believes that the mastermind behind this crime was also behind the thefts of Picasso’s Acrobat painting and a Fabergé egg from Russia. If this is true, we have a madman on our hands.
All agents must be prepared to travel at a moment’s notice. Anyone witnessing someone or something suspicious should report it immediately to Gerald Barter, the Director of the GPF.
Louise Persnall
Assistant to Gerald Barter
THINGS YOU’LL FIND IN EVERY BOOK
Global Protection Force (GPF): The GPF is a worldwide force of junior secret agents whose aim is to protect the world’s people, places, and possessions. It was started in 1947 by a man named Ronald Barter, who wanted to stop criminals from harming things that mattered in the world. When Ronald died, under mysterious circumstances, his son Gerald took over. The GPF’s main offices are located somewhere in the Arctic Circle.
Watch Phone: The GPF’s Watch Phone is worn by GPF agents around their wrists. It can make and receive phone calls, send and receive messages, play videos, unlock the Secret Agent Book Bag, and track an agent’s whereabouts. The Watch Phone also carries the GPF’s Melting Ink Pen. Just push the button to the left of the screen to eject this lifesaving gadget.
Secret Agent Book Bag: The GPF’s Secret Agent Book Bag is licensed only to GPF agents. Inside are hi-tech gadgets necessary to foil bad guys and escape certain death. To unlock and lock, all an agent has to do is place his or her thumb on the zipper. The automatic thumbprint reader will identify him or her as the owner.
GPF Tablet: The GPF Tablet is a tablet computer used by GPF agents at home. On it, agents can access the GPF secure website, send encrypted e-mails, use the agent directory, and download mission-critical data.
Whizzy: Whizzy is Jack’s magical miniature globe. Almost every night at 7:30 p.m., the GPF uses him to send Jack the location of his next mission. Jack’s parents don’t know that Whizzy is anything but an ordinary globe. Jack’s brother, Max, has a similar buddy on his bedside table named “Zoom.”
The Magic Map: The Magic Map is a world map that hangs on every GPF agent’s wall. Recently, it was upgraded from wood to a hi-tech, unbreakable glass. Once an agent places the country shape in the right spot, the map lights up and transports him or her to his or her mission. The agent returns precisely one minute after he or she left.
DESTINATION: CALIFORNIA
California is known as the “Golden State.” Gold was discovered here in 1848. Its state flower is the golden poppy.
California became the thirty-first state in the United States of America on September 9, 1850. There are more people living in California than any other state. Nearly 40 million people live there.
The Golden Gate Bridge, one of the world’s most famous bridges, is located in San Francisco, California. It’s painted orange so that people can see it through the fog. The largest living tree on the planet, a sequoia nicknamed “General Sherman,” lives in California. It may also be one of the oldest. Some think it could be 2,700 years old.
Death Valley, the hottest place in North America, is in the southern part of the state. The hottest temperature ever recorded was 134°F (in 1913).
California is home to the lowest and highest points in the continental United States. Badwater Basin in Death Valley is 282 feet below sea level. Mt. Whitney soars 14,494 feet above. The first Disneyland opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California. It was created by Walt Disney, the genius behind Cinderella, Mary Poppins, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
California is an agricultural state. It grows many things including grapes, olives, garlic, lemons, avocados, almonds, strawberries, and broccoli.
Black bears, mountain lions, bobcats, bald eagles, quail, and diamondback rattlesnakes call California home. Whales, sea lions, and dolphins swim off its coast.
HISTORY OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH
James Marshall in front of Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California.
On January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered gold in Coloma, California. He found it near a sawmill he was building next to the American River. He and his boss, John Sutter, tried to keep their discovery a secret. In 1849, word got out. Hundreds of thousands of people (mostly men) from
around the world moved to the area to strike it rich.
Some came from faraway places like China. Others traveled across America by horse and by foot. The journey was filled with danger.
Travelers met with disease, starvation, dehydration, poisonous reptiles, bad weather, and accidents. It could take up to seven months just to get to California’s gold country. Sadly, many men, women, and children died along the way.
Once there, miners had to work hard to find gold. Many “panned” for it by standing in the river and swirling gravel, dirt, and water around in a steel pan. If they were lucky, gold flakes or nuggets would settle to the bottom.
The people who sold equipment and supplies to the desperate miners were the ones that made reliable money.
At least 100,000 Native Americans died during the California Gold Rush. Greedy miners killed them for their land and gave them deadly diseases.
By 1852, “easy-to-find” gold was hard to find. The California Gold Rush ended in 1855.
GOLD MINER’S TOOL KIT
GOLD 101
Gold is a precious metal. Its chemical symbol is Au.
Pure gold has a yellow, slightly reddish hue.
Gold is thought to have been created from the collision of collapsed stars billions of years ago.
Gold is extremely heavy and dense. It’s denser than lead and nineteen times denser than water. That’s why gold sinks to the bottom. Although it’s heavy, gold is soft. This means it can be easily spread and shaped.
Gold can be beaten into extremely thin sheets. It’s also used in jewelry.
Gold is worth more than $1,000 per troy ounce.
THE STALWART FAMILY
Jack Stalwart: Nine-year-old Jack Stalwart works as a secret agent for the Global Protection Force, or GPF. Jack originally joined the GPF to find and rescue his brother, Max, who’d disappeared on one of his missions. Eventually, Jack tracked Max to Egypt, where he saved him and King Tut’s diadem, or crown.
Max Stalwart: Twelve-year-old Max is a GPF agent too. He was recruited after filling out a questionnaire online, and pledging his young life to protect “that which cannot protect itself.” Max’s specialty within the GPF is cryptography, which is the ability to write and crack coded messages. Recently, Max narrowly escaped death in Egypt, while protecting King Tut’s diadem.
John Stalwart: John Stalwart is the patriarch of the family. He’s an aerospace engineer, who recently headed up the Mars Mission Program. For many months, the GPF had fooled John and his wife, Corinne, into thinking that their oldest son, Max, was at a boarding school in Switzerland. Really, Max was on a top secret mission in Egypt. When that mission ended, Max’s “boarding school” closed, and he returned home for good. John is an American and his wife, Corinne, is British, which makes Jack and Max a bit of both.
Corinne Stalwart: Corinne Stalwart is the family matriarch. She’s kind, loving, and fair. She’s also totally unaware (as is her husband) that her two sons are agents for the Global Protection Force. In her spare time, Corinne volunteers at the boys’ school, and studies Asian art.
GPF GADGET INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Spy Scope: The GPF’s Spy Scope is the perfect gadget for spying on criminals without them knowing. Its flexible black wire can bend to reach around corners, under doors, and through small keyholes. Mounted on the top is a hidden camera that syncs directly with the screen on a Watch Phone.
Diversion Safe: When you need to hide your top secret items in plain sight, use one of the GPF’s Diversion Safes. The GPF’s Diversion Safe is a realistic-looking object with a hidden compartment inside. Agents can choose from a number of options including a clock, book, hairbrush, soda can, flowerpot, water bottle, and rock. An agent can also make his or her own. Just follow the instructions found in the GPF’s Secret Agent Training Manual.
GPF Kayak: The GPF Kayak is the world’s smallest portable kayak. Just open this square packet and watch as the boat instantly unfolds into shape. The GPF Kayak fits one person weighing no more than 175 pounds. Make sure to pair it with the GPF Oar. (See below.)
GPF Oar: The GPF Oar is a portable paddle that pairs with the GPF Kayak or any watercraft available. Just pull three times on this short tube and watch as the shaft expands in length. Uncapping the top end of the tube releases a blade made of flexible plastic, which hardens as soon as it touches the air.
Chapter 1
The Coded Letter
In a filthy Mexican jail cell, a prisoner sat on his bed holding a letter that he’d received that day. The note was written in childlike handwriting. There were twelve pink pony stickers scattered across the page. Anyone who looked at the note would think it was written by a little girl. But the prisoner knew better. It was a message from a member of his adult gang.
He pulled the first sticker off the page. The word “MEET” was written on the page underneath. Under the second sticker was the word “AT.” The third sticker revealed the time “11:30 p.m.”
After removing the rest of the stickers, the man studied the message.
Meet at 11:30 p.m. tonight. Gas station 5 miles due west. Gold awaits.
The prisoner grunted with pleasure.
BANG!
The door to the cellblock clanged open against the wall behind it. A skinny prison guard sporting a handlebar mustache entered the cellblock. He walked down the hallway and checked in on each of the ten prisoners. The inmate stuffed the note into this trouser pocket before the guard arrived at his cell.
“Lights out in five minutes!” shouted the guard in Spanish.
The prisoner nodded to the man. He’d already been in the prison for sixty days. He knew the schedule. At 10 p.m. every night, the lights went out. Most of the prisoners used the time to sleep. But not this prisoner. He used the nighttime hours to prepare his escape.
As soon as he’d arrived, the man had stolen a spoon from the prison cafeteria. Every night since, he’d used it to scrape at the soft wall near the floor of his cell. Just last week, he’d managed to make a hole big enough to fit through. Now that his gang was ready for him, all the prisoner had to do was escape.
CLICK.
The lights went out.
The prisoner waited for the other inmates to fall asleep. Then he moved the bedside table that was covering the hole to the side. He got down on his hands and knees and slithered through it. Once outside, he began to run.
In front of him was a tall barbed wire fence. A spotlight from above was zigzagging across the grounds. He waited for the light to move somewhere else, then he bolted for the fence.
He climbed it and thrust his body over the barbs. They ripped at his clothes and sliced into his skin. But the prisoner didn’t care. He was Callous Carl, the toughest treasure hunter on the planet. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he ran across the Mexican desert and toward the lights of the gas station ahead.
Chapter 2
The Golden Discovery
Nine-year-old Jack Stalwart was sitting at the kitchen table reading the latest issue of Archaeology Kids. Archaeology Kids or “AK” was a weekly magazine dedicated to stories of archaeological discovery around the world.
Archaeology was the study of history through the excavation of ancient places and objects. An archaeologist was the person who did the excavation. Not only were the magazine’s articles interesting, they were also necessary for Jack’s job.
Jack and his brother, Max, were secret agents for the Global Protection Force, or GPF. Their mission was to protect the world’s most precious people, places, and possessions. Nearly every night at 7:30 p.m., they were sent on dangerous adventures around the globe.
One of the stories in the magazine caught Jack’s attention.
EUREKA! GOLD DISCOVERED AGAIN IN CALIFORNIA!
An archaeologist has discovered a strongbox containing rare gold coins and nuggets from the California Gold Rush. Its estimated value is $25 million. The area where the box was found is less than ten miles from where gold was first discovered in 1848.
Du
ring that year, a worker named James Marshall discovered gold in the American River. He and his boss, John Sutter, decided to keep the discovery a secret. But in 1849, word got out and hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the area. This period in American history is known as the “California Gold Rush.” The people who came to strike it rich were known as the “49ers.”
The recent discovery of the gold is personal for the dig’s archaeologist, Mary Sutter. Mary is a distant relative of John Sutter, the man who owned the mill where the gold was found in 1848. Mary is currently cataloging the find and hopes to move the hoard to a more secure location within the week.
When asked for details about the treasure’s location, Mary just smiled. “I can’t tell you where it is,” she said. “But I can tell you that we are working to protect it.”
The Race for Gold Rush Treasure: USA Page 1
