Sweet Trail Mystery
Titles in GEMS
Eggs on Legs
Jean Ure
Cat Brace Face
Danny Pearson
Deep Trouble
Danny Pearson
Malekin
Jane A C West
Once Upon a Time
Tommy Donbavand
Pony Mad
Roger Hurn
Pink Football Boots
Ian MacDonald
The Sweet Trail Mystery
Ian MacDonald
The Best Day Ever!
Roger Hurn
The Terrible Tale of Melody Doom
Tommy Donbavand
Badger Publishing Limited
Oldmedow Road,
Hardwick Industrial Estate,
King’s Lynn PE30 4JJ
Telephone: 01438 791037
www.badgerlearning.co.uk
The Sweet Trail Mystery ISBN 978-1-78147-479-2
ISBN: 9781781476826 (Epub)
ISBN: 9781781477946 (Mobi)
Text © Ian MacDonald 2013
Complete work © Badger Publishing Limited 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
The right of Ian MacDonald to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Publisher: Susan Ross
Senior Editor: Danny Pearson
Design: Julia King
Illustrator: Mark Penman
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Contents
Chapter 1 Sweets
Chapter 2 The factory
Chapter 3 Rope trick
Chapter 4 The Fridge
Chapter 5 The tower
Blackpool Tower
Questions
Vocabulary:
familiar
introduce
landmark
photocopier
stuttered
wrenched
Main characters:
Chapter 1
Cola-bottles. Jelly beans. Sherbet pips. All gone.
It was the same everywhere. All the sweets had vanished.
“Sorry, nothing today,” sighed Mr Patel. “Maybe next week, eh?”
“You said that last week,” groaned Millie.
“What’s happening, Mr P?” added Sami.
Mr Patel just stared at his feet.
“No worries, Mr Patel,” said Jade.
***
Maths. Miss Scritch was in full flow. “... I have fifteen packets of fruit gums. There are twenty sweets in each. How many fruit gums altogether? Sami?”
“Miss, we ain’t got no fruit gums, Miss!” said Sami.
The teacher scowled. Poppy Swan shot her hand up. “Three hundred, Miss.”
“I’d be happy with just one,” muttered Sami.
At last, the bell went for the end of school.
“If old Scritch goes on about sweets again, I’ll go mad!” complained Sami.
“Yeah... bet she’s doing it on purpose,” said Millie.
Just then, an ice-cream van pulled up at the kerb. “Not seen that one before,” said Jade.
“Who cares – race yer!” shouted Sami.
Millie was there first. She peered over the counter. The outside of the van was brightly decorated with pictures of lollies, choc-bars and cornets. On the roof was a giant, plastic ice-cream cone. But the windows had been blacked out, making it strangely dark inside.
“A giant whopper, please,” said Millie, holding out a few coins. No reply.
“Er... anybody there?” she began.
From out of the gloom came a large hand holding a dripping cone. Startled, Millie stepped back, her coins clattering to the pavement. Inside the van, a shadow moved.
Sami began picking up the coins, but Jade had wandered to the back of the van. One window was slightly open. She could just make out a brown cardboard box against the glass. Taking a pencil from her bag, she poked at the box.
Suddenly, the van set off down the road.
Something like small, pink stones trickled out of the open window. Sherbet pips!
Chapter 2
It was easy enough to follow the trail.
The sherbet pips made a pink line down the middle of the road. Now the children stood outside a long, grey building. A sign lay broken on the ground.
Getting in was no problem either. Someone had torn the door off its hinges! Jade went first, the others following behind.
“What’s happened here?” breathed Sami.
Scattered across the floor were levers, wires and switches. Metal bars were twisted like paper. A rubber belt spilled from a machine like the guts of a dead animal.
“Why would anyone want to do this?” asked Millie.
Before anyone could answer, a sound made them stop – footsteps crunching over broken glass.
“Quick, hide!” hissed Jade.
Near the wall was a row of lockers. Jade pulled at one of the doors. She bundled Sami and Millie inside, then scrambled into the last one.
It was pitch black. Only a faint glimmer of light showed through a small window in the door.
The sound of crunching began again. Jade pressed her eye to the window, trying to make out the dark shapes in the room. Something was moving. Something big.
Suddenly, Jade’s locker moved. Panicking, she pushed at the door. It was jammed shut.
Then the locker rocked back and stood still. Jade peered through the window.
She saw the factory door open. There, framed in the light from the doorway, stood an enormous man.
The door slammed shut. And from somewhere outside came a familiar sound – the tuneless jingle of an ice-cream van.
Chapter 3
Jade held the scrap of paper which she had picked up in the factory. Scribbled in red pen was a handwritten note:
Jade flipped the paper over. There was some more writing on the back. It was hard to read because there was a toffee stuck in the middle.
“Yum!” said Sami. He reached over, peeled off the sweet and popped it into his mouth.
“Sami, you idiot!” gasped Millie. “You’ve just eaten our next clue!”
It was true. Some of the printed letters were now missing.
Jade stared hard, trying to see the missing letters. Sami and Millie just looked blank.
“Got it!” said Jade. “The Old Windmill.”
It was beginning to get dark as the children arrived.
Some wooden steps led up to a door, but Jade ignored these. Instead, she walked around the building to where a rope hung down from a beam near the roof. She held it out to Millie. “Can you climb this?”
Millie loved gymnastics. Climbing ropes was easy. In a few seconds she was at the top. Sami watched, holding the rope, as Millie began to tie it to a large sack.
“Hey!” Suddenly Sami shot up into the air; the sack passed him, going down.
Clambering through an open window, the children stepped into a small room.
From somewhere below came the sound of creaking, like ropes on a ship. Jade opened a door and they tiptoed down a wooden staircase. A second room. Here, a few sacks were piled by the wall.
In a third room, a large, stone wheel turned slowly and several rolls of paper lay piled on a wooden table.
Jade picked one up, untied the string, and unrolled it. “It’s a map of Rockpool. Look, the sea front... the tower... and there’s the funfair.”
Across these famous landmarks someone had drawn a large, red rectangle.
“So, you discovered my little secret,” said a voice.
Chapter 4
br /> There stood a little man in a smart suit. His hat was pulled low over his eyes. A pair of dark sunglasses perched on his pointy nose.
The man walked to the table and ran a bony finger across the paper. “Yes, this is my master plan. I shall knock down these awful buildings and build the biggest sweet factory the world has ever seen!”
“But we had sweets before,” said Millie.
“How stupid you are,” sneered the man. “I’ve shut every sweet shop in town, and smashed the factories. With no one in my way, I can charge any price I choose!” He laughed, a sound like a strangled chicken.
“Well, nice to meet you,” said Sami. “We’ll be off now.”
They turned to go, but a figure in the doorway blocked their path. It looked like a gorilla in a suit.
“Now, let me introduce myself. I’m Mr Big,” said the little man, “and this is Jimmy the Fridge.”
“What shall I do wid ’em, Boss?” asked the Fridge.
“I think a spell in the cooler,” snapped Mr Big.
“Wh... what’s that?” stuttered Millie.
“Let’s not wait to find out,” shouted Jade.
“Run!”
Jade charged at the Fridge and dived between his legs. While the big man made a grab for her, Sami and Millie dodged past. The children scrambled up the stairs, with the giant close behind.
In the next room, Jade grabbed a bag from the pile and hurled it at the doorway. White powder exploded everywhere. The Fridge stumbled in, flapping at the cloud of dust.
The children hurried back to the rope and slid down it.
Chapter 5
The lift rumbled up the tower. People on the ground below looked like dots. Jade clutched her bag tightly.
Inside were hundreds of copies of the factory plans, secretly printed at school. They would tell everyone just what the crook had planned. Then he would be stopped. Suddenly, the lift shook.
“What was that?” asked Millie.
Something was coming up the tower! Something very big!
“Hey, it’s gone dark,” gulped Sami.
A large figure was spread against their window. And then it was gone.
The lift rattled on. No one spoke. A bell sounded. The doors shuddered open. The children stepped out onto the narrow platform.
Mr Big and Jimmy were waiting for them. “We meet again!” said the little man.
He removed his hat. He took off his sunglasses.
The children gasped. “Miss Scritch!”
“Stupid girl, you left this on the photocopier!”
Jade groaned. The factory plan! “Now, hand over the bag,” snarled the teacher.
Jimmy stepped across and wrenched the bag from Jade’s grasp.
“Wait,” Jade held out some red writing on a piece of crumpled paper.
“You fools!” laughed the teacher. “He can’t read.”
But, under the words, Jade had drawn some pictures.
Even Jimmy could work that out. With a cry of rage, he clambered onto the rail. Then he began to climb the flagpole to the tower top.
Miss Scritch leapt forward and grabbed at the bag. But Jimmy held on.
They both pulled. For a second the bag held. Then a tearing sound and the bag burst open. Suddenly, the air was filled with paper: fluttering, spinning, tumbling down.
Miss Scritch slumped back against the rail. And began to sob.
Jade, Millie and Sami waited at the kerb on their way to school.
The new crossing patrol stood there, his yellow coat three sizes too small. He held out a lollipop.
“Sweets, eddy-body?” he said.
Blackpool Tower
The town in the story is based on Blackpool, which has a famous tower. The Mayor of Blackpool dreamed of having a tower like the Eiffel Tower, in Paris. The Blackpool Tower opened on 14 May 1894.
• In 1894, admission to the Tower was just sixpence.
• The Tower stands a colossal 158 metres high.
• It took 25,000 tonnes of steel to build its gigantic framework.
• During the famous Blackpool Illuminations, the Tower is lit by 10,000 light bulbs.
• Blackpool Tower has its own circus and ballroom.
Weird and wonderful
The Tower has seen many strange sights during its long history.
• Several ghosts are said to haunt the tower, such as an old Victorian gentleman and his little girl.
• In 1984, a gigantic model of King Kong was fixed to the side of the tower.
• Escape artist, Karl Bartoni, and his bride were married in a cage suspended from the Tower.
• Today, try standing on the glass floor at the Tower top – with the ground 150 metres below! Would you dare take ‘The Walk of Faith’?
Questions
Who is Mr Patel?
Why did the maths lesson drive Sami mad?
How did the children find their way to the factory?
Why did Mr Big shut sweet shops and smash factories?
Explain how Jimmy’s character changes by the end of the story.
What is ‘The Walk of Faith’?
Ian Macdonald, Sweet Trail Mystery
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