Treasure Hunt (6 page)

‘Look! They thought we would be travelling around in flying cars!’ Alex laughs.

‘And is that an alien sitting in the classroom?’ Mika giggles.

‘Well, I’m sure they couldn’t have imagined that we would be watching this on TV!’ Edwina’s mum says. ‘The world was a very different place back then.’

The expert gently places the bundle of letters back into the box. Then she promises that they will organise an exhibition of all its contents at the museum. ‘Meanwhile,’ she says, ‘we want to thank the five clever children who uncovered this treasure. Would you five please step forward?’

The camera pans over all the excited kids in Billie’s school, waving and jumping about. Finally, it rests on the five nervous faces of Billie and her friends as they walk towards the mayor.

‘Three cheers for the Secret Mystery Club!’ Billie’s dad calls out as on-screen Billie shakes hands with the mayor. Everyone joins in. ‘
Hip, hip, Hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!
’

‘Well, we can’t really call it the Secret Mystery Club now,’ Alex says.

‘True,’ Billie says. ‘We’re definitely not a secret anymore. Everybody knows about us now.’

‘Just when I’ve joined, too!’ Edwina says, looking a bit sad.

‘Don’t worry,’ Billie says, smiling mysteriously. ‘I’m sure I’ll come up with something else just as fun!’

The End

The character of Edwina is based on the winner of the Newest Member of the SMC Competition.

Treasure Hunt

published in 2014 by

Hardie Grant Egmont

Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

This ebook is also available as a print edition in all good bookstores.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.

eISBN 9781743582671

Text copyright © 2014 Sally Rippin

Cover illustration copyright © 2014 Aki Fukuoka

Series design and internal illustrations copyright © 2014 Hardie Grant Egmont

Design by Stephanie Spartels

Illustrations by Jon Davis, based on original characters by Aki Fukuoka

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