Jack Pepper and the Whitby Treasure

By Martin Tarpey

‘Jack Pepper and the Whitby Treasure’ is an exciting contemporary adventure story set in Whitby on the wild Yorkshire coast. Jack and his three friends are ordinary average Year 7 children who attend a Leeds comprehensive school and they have an amazing adventure which makes them world famous millionaires.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Martin Tarpey
• Release date: Nov 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301018109

Book preview

Jack Pepper and the Whitby Treasure

Martin Tarpey

Published by Martin Tarpey at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Martin Tarpey

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, lease purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Heroes All

Chapter 2 - Destiny Beckons

Chapter 3 - The Hand of Glory

Chapter 4 - Home Sweet Home

Chapter 5 - The Golden Roman Eagle

Chapter 6 - A Desperate Plan

Chapter 7 - Stairway to Circles

Chapter 8 - Life and Death

Chapter 9 - Roman Treasure

Chapter 10 - Real Gold

Chapter 11 - Dangerous Fame

Chapter 12 - Excalibur

Chapter 1 Heroes All

Jack Pepper scratched his ginger head and yawned, he was bored. He didn’t like history. His freckled face split into a cheeky grin as he winked at Lucy and Grace, the sooner the lesson ended the better.

He wanted to talk to them both, he liked making them laugh. Jack was popular in class and that made him feel good. All the kids seemed to like him, but he didn’t know why, unfortunately his history teacher was not a member of the Jack Pepper fan club.

The lesson was nearly over but old Williams kept droning on and on about Romans. He had been talking about this dead man’s hand, that had magical powers that put everybody to sleep, or something like that.

The class seemed to be listening to this load of rubbish about a museum and a dead murderer who had his hand cut off whilst his corpse was swinging in the gallows with the crows pecking his eyes out. Not very nice!

Jack couldn’t be bothered with it all, most kids he thought, spend their time day dreaming, just switching on their attention now and again to keep out of trouble.

He looked round the class, Grace seemed to be listening. Lucy gave him a wave when Williams wasn’t watching; she had the knack of listening even when it looked as if she wasn’t. This was a gift that Jack wished he had, but when he was day dreaming, the empty expression on his face gave him away. All the kids knew when Jack was in dreamland.

Jack was more interested in the bluebottle buzzing round and round the window, trying to escape that hot stuffy room. He gazed at a breathless Jimmy Wall out on the sports field finishing a cross-country run and flopping exhausted onto the grass. Jack loved to run and wished that he was out in the fresh air. He could run without getting tired, his ginger head flying over the turf, he could run further, and faster than anybody else in Year 7. He could beat them all. He had always been a good runner and would have liked to swap places with Jimmy Wall, who could be in here listening to all this rubbish about magical dead hands. It would serve Jimmy right, he was such a big head.

Jack switched on his attention for a moment, listening, as Ben answered all the teacher’s questions, saying something about Whitby.Good old Ben, he knew everything; the kids didn’t call him ‘the Brain of Britain’, for nothing. He could answer questions before they were even asked, well, almost.

Suddenly an icy voice cut through the air as the teacher began to show his famous temper

‘It looks as if this magical hand has been at work on you Jack Pepper, it puts people to sleep you know!’

All the kids switched on fast, this looked interesting. The secret code of the classroom told them all that Jack had gone too far lately and old Williams was going to have him.

Williams despaired as the blank look on Jack’s face told him that the boy had been daydreaming again and even his fascinating stories about famous museums had failed to rouse his interest. Mr Williams persevered, he had to keep trying, he had spent his career trying to make boys like Jack Pepper think, and work a great deal harder.

‘All right then, I’ll make it easy for you, since I’ve just spent the lesson on it.Just tell us what you know about the Romans. Come on Jack tell us what they are famous for and what they did. What did they make? What did they build? What did they create?’ But Jack just stared blankly at him, his mouth slightly open in bewilderment.

‘Tell us anything you know about the Romans! Have you ever heard the name Roman before lad?’ screamed Williams. The vacant look on Jack’s face infuriated the teacher as he realised that his lesson and funny jokes had been wasted. Jack Pepper didn’t know anything; he was not even prepared to try. Williams felt a complete failure, but he wasn’t going to tolerate this idleness.

Jack was on the ropes and Williams was going in for the knockout, he was just fed up with his lazy slapdash approach. He wasn’t having it. Things had gone far enough and Williams was drawing his line in the sand.

The class were enjoying this; it was a good way to end the half term, a bit of excitement at last. Most of the classroom rogues really enjoyed watching somebody get into trouble.

‘Come on Jack,’ bellowed Williams. ’I can’t ask you any easier questions, it’s impossible. We are waiting lad!’

Williams worked himself up into a sweat as his normally blue face took on the colour of boiled beetroot. He was going to get some satisfaction here.

The deadly quiet continued with the whole class silent as the tomb, spellbound with the drama that had come from nowhere, like a summer storm. Only the buzzing of the frantic bluebottle could be heard as Jack stalled as long as he could, he was waiting for Ben to come to his rescue. Jack had a good sense of timing, but he was leaving it very late, perhaps too late.

Old Williams could smell blood; he’d finally snapped. It happens to them all thought Lucy, thinking it was like a cowboy film she’d seen on television. Grace felt helpless, she didn’t know what to do or say, it had all happened so quickly. But Ben rode to Jack’s rescue suddenly blurting out,

‘The Romans built a real civilisation here sir, they were crucial to England’s development.’

Mr Williams looked annoyed, very annoyed, for Ben had saved Jack Pepper yet again, getting him off the hook once more. He kept on doing this to help his pal, but it wasn’t good enough. Jack Pepper would never improve at this rate; there was something wrong with the boy. He just wasn’t trying.

‘Ben, I keep telling you not to call out. You’re too keen lad. A good example to you all eh! Isn’t that right,’ Williams muttered glancing round the class as his anger began to subside and tension in the classroom gradually eased. Some of the kids were angry that Ben had spoiled their fun.

Williams didn’t want to upset Ben who was his star pupil, but he knew the game Jack was playing. After all he’d been a schoolboy himself, sometime, a long time ago, before time began! He glanced threateningly at Jack with eyes as sharp as razors.

‘You need to mend your ways lad. I’m not having poor standards from you or anybody else in this class. It’s the half-term holiday next week, sort yourself out and come back here like a giant refreshed, ready to work harder than you’ve ever done before or I’ll have you moved into a lower set. Do you understand?You need to do what the Romans did and seize the day. I am speaking to you in English! Are you receiving me loud and clear?’

The scarlet hue had faded from Mr William’s face to be replaced by his usual blue look on his bony face. But the strangled anger in his voice told the whole world that he meant business. Jack Pepper was now public enemy number one; he had run out of places to hide.

Jack grinned sheepishly at his tormentor as the afternoon bell rang, mercifully ending the school day. He moved out of that room at supersonic speed.Thank goodness it was Friday afternoon with the holiday to come. Marvellous! He waited for Lucy by the lockers, he was always first there and she was nearly always late.

‘Come on, I’m in a hurry’, he said. ‘Dad’s going out tonight and it’s my turn to get the tea; I’m not sure what we’re going to have either. There’s not much in the house.’

‘Hang on a minute, I’ve got to wait for Grace,’ she replied.‘She’s lending me her new magazine for the weekend.’

Lucy was a very pretty, high -spirited girl, full of fun and always ready for a laugh. She started teasing Jack about his history lesson.

‘You might not know much about the Romans Jack, but you could have gone on about that silly Hand of Glory, he’s always banging on about. It’s his favourite subject. I reckon he’d like to spend his holidays in that dusty Whitby museum, looking at that dead man’s hand. The thought of it makes me feel sick,’ she said, pulling a funny face.

‘I reckon old Williams will be coming after you next half term, he means what he says you know, I think he’s spiteful with a nasty temper. You’d better find out all you can about this Hand before then. Talk to Ben, he knows more than I do; he knows all about it, he says it was used by burglars in the olden days. Ben wants to be an archaeologist you know.’

She tickled Jack under his chin as Grace’s smiling face appeared at last and the three of them walked down the school drive to join the bus queue, talking about how Jack had made old Williams lose his cool.

Everybody called Jack, Lucy and Grace the ‘terrible threesome’. They lived near each other, had started nursery school on the same day and had been in the same classes throughout their infant, junior and comprehensive schools. Despite their constant falling out and falling in again, they had always been the best of friends and always shared each other’s problems.

Grace lived with her mum and though they didn’t have very much money, she always wore nice clothes. Grace had a lovely blonde pony tail that came half way down her back and getting tangles out every morning was often very painful. She wanted her hair to be cut short like Lucy’s, it was so much easier to manage, but her mum wanted it to stay long.

Some of the boys at Grace’s junior school used to tease her by pulling her hair ribbons out, but one day Jack saw her crying and he told the boys to stop doing it and it never happened again.

The bus bay was crowded with youngsters milling round, pushing and shoving each other. It was all right usually when the teachers were there, but if they were late down to the queue, or there was a bus short that day, then there was trouble. Today all the kids were particularly excited because it was the start of the holiday and they were livelier than usual.

Ben was standing quietly in the bus bay; his spectacles perched on the end of his nose. He didn’t have many friends because he had just moved into the school and he was also rather shy. His classmates respected him because he seemed to know as much as the teachers, more than some of them in fact. He was a kind of mascot to kids and he would help anybody with their homework.

Ben seemed to explain things simply and easily so that people could understand. He knew everything about everything, especially science and history.

The teachers thought he was brilliant and even though he was in the youngest class in the school he was seen as a star pupil with a glittering future. He said he wanted to be an archaeologist when he grew up and he smiled