The Adventures of Young Gabriel Celtic

By J.T. Lewis

The Adventures of Young Gabriel Celtic is a Middle Grade/YA series that focuses on the misadventures of Gabriel Celtic as a youngster. Always inquisitive, he follows his intuition in search of mystery and adventure. Unfortunately, things don't always turn out quite like he planned.
Stories:
The Great Plane Robbery
The Russian Coin
The Abandoned Mine
Hiawatha's Treasure
No Man's Land
The Wolf Creek Bandit (A preview of the Pepper and Longstreet Mysteries)

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.T. Lewis
• Release date: Aug 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311436474

J.T. Lewis

Mystery abounds in the books of Amazon Best Selling Author J.T. Lewis.Living in Southeast Indiana with his wife, J.T. has always loved a mystery. Striving to bring readers a story packed full of action, adventure, and suspense has led to his current selection of titles.His first full length novel, Murder! Too Close To Home, was the beginning of the acclaimed Adventures of Gabriel Celtic series, and was voted #1 on Goodreads Best Debut Mystery Series list. The thriller/adventure series continued with Gabriel's Revenge,followed closely by In Case of Death as well as The Book of Gabriel in 2014. The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic is as series about the life of Gabriel Celtic...an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary adventures!Another new series, The Nick Behr Mysteries, starts with the story Kidnap Inc., where we get to meet Nick Behr...as well as all of the people that have crowded into his head! Fighting against the craziness of his life while trying to solve the murders of the current case sometimes leads the story to veer off-kilter a little. This unexpected result has caused the story to be labeled, "One of the funnest mysteries I've read in quite some time!"Also added to J.T. Lewis' series list this year...The Artifact Hunter! Jesse Flanagan is just a guy who enjoys making a profit from the antiquities he buys and sells. When one of his discoveries suddenly puts him in the cross-hairs of assassins, he must change his whole life as he goes underground to try and reclaim his life!An electrician by trade, at night JT Lewis morphs into a fictional detective with a keyboard, a transition that suits his need for creating exciting stories for his ever-growing audience.Find and follow JT Lewis @:http://jt-lewis.blogspot.com/https://www.facebook.com/JTLewis.Authorhttps://twitter.com/JTLewis_Bookshttp://www.wattpad.com/user/JTLewisAuthorhttp://pinterest.com/jtlewisbooks/https://www.facebook.com/Murdr.Too.Close.To.Homehttps://www.facebook.com/gabriels.revengehttps://www.facebook.com/ThePepperAndLongstreetMysterySeries

Book preview

The Adventures of

Young Gabriel Celtic

By

J.T. Lewis

Copyright 2012-2014 J.T. Lewis

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please 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, please return to retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. The

names, characters, places, and incidents are products of

the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and

are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to

persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or

organizations is entirely coincidental.

******

Contents

The Great Plane Robbery

The Russian Coin

The Abandoned Mine

Hiawatha’s Treasure

No Man’s Land

The Wolf Creek Bandit (Preview of Pepper and Longstreet Series)

About The Author

The Great Plane Robbery

1958

GB Celtic turned off the radio, shaking his head in aggravation.

They haven’t a clue who robbed the bank today Grace. It’s like they just disappeared off of the face of the earth.

His wife finished setting the table before walking across the room. Sitting on the arm of her husband’s chair, she hugged his arm and laid her head on his shoulder.

Don’t worry G, our money is insured, it’s probably already been replaced.

I’m not so much worried about the money Grace, but we must have the worst police force in history. How can they completely lose a pair of bank robbers?

Raising her head, she pecked her husband on the cheek. You’ll have to solve that mystery after supper. Why don’t you call over to Jimmy’s house and tell Gabe it’s almost ready?

That kid sure gets around for an eight year old, GB mumbled as he rose from the chair and made his way toward the phone. It started ringing at him as he approached.

Hello?

"Collect call from Mr. Gabe Celtic," The operator intoned. "Do you accept the charges?"

Why would my father be calling collect? GB wondered to himself.

Sure operator, I’ll accept the call.

"Go ahead Mr. Celtic."

Why are you calling collect dad. GB said smiling. Did your car break down?

Silence

"Dad…?"

Gabe? GB asked excitedly at the sound of his son’s voice. Where are you? I thought you were at Jimmy’s house?

"I’m at the airport…in Mount Pleasant."

WHAT? That’s a hundred miles from here!

"Yeah…I kinda got my tail in a wringer here. Can you come pick me up?"

"You are in a world of trouble son. I haven’t even started getting mad at you yet."

"I know….I’m sorry. Oh and dad…?"

Yeah Gabe?

"Bring your gun."

***

Eight year old Gabe Celtic was in heaven.

Having ridden his bike over to his friend Jimmy’s house earlier that day, he had discovered that his friend was gone. His mom had probably drug him off to a doctor’s appointment; Jimmy always had a cold or something.

Gabe shuddered at the thought…he didn’t like doctors.

Not knowing what else to do, Gabe set out to explore a little. Coming up to the corner of 4th Street, Gabe stopped his bike. This was the far boundary of the area he was allowed to go by himself. Passing this corner meant at least a month of being grounded, as well as extra chores.

If he got caught.

Glancing around the neighborhood, he saw that there was nobody around; no one that would squeal to his parents anyway.

There was a place he wanted to go, a place he had always wanted to go. And it was way past 4th street.

He quickly calculated the timing of making a quick trip there and back. He knew it was almost 4:00, and he would need to be back for sure by 6:00…supper time!

To his mind, that left plenty of time to explore.

The biggest problem would be the highway. His destination was a quarter mile out of town, and he had to take the highway to get there. He had to admit to himself that the thought scared him a little.

Shaking it off, he put his foot on the pedal and pushed down, starting the journey…and breaking the rules.

"You ain’t brave if you ain’t scared," he thought to himself, repeating Eddie Rickenbacker’s famous quote.

Gabe’s grandpa, Gabriel Celtic senior, had been in WWI and Eddie Rickenbacker was a hero of his. This fact alone also made him pretty close to a hero to Gabe.

His grandpa was his hero however. Gabe was also pretty sure that his grandpa wouldn’t have a problem with what he had just set off to do.

He was almost positive.

***

Ten minutes later, Gabe was there.

The airport!

Not much of an airport actually. A dirt strip running through a cornfield, with a couple of Quonset huts set up as makeshift hangars. But it had two things that Gabe had been hoping he would find: an untended plane, and no one around.

Moving behind one of the hangars, Gabe leaned his bike against it and made his way slowly around the building.

An old blue biplane sat in front of him, not ten feet away.

Glancing left and right to make sure he was alone, Gabe made his way to the old airplane.

Hot dog! Gabe shouted with enthusiasm as he climbed up on the wing and then leaned wide-eyed into the cockpit.

Wow!

Being a two-seater plane, he knew the pilot would sit in the back seat, so that’s where he needed to be. Pulling himself up over the edge, he plopped down in the seat. Finding a set of goggles, he happily slipped them on and grabbed the control stick.

Clear! He called out to the nonexistent ground crew as he reached forward and pretended to flip a switch. The motor roared to life in his mind’s ear.

Pulling the stick to take off, every move was accompanied by a sound effect of Gabe’s own making.

Red Baron ahead! He shouted over the air rushing past his ears. I’ll take him down boys! he yelled at the invisible planes flying in formation around him. You guys hang back.

Pulling the stick once more, he climbed into the clouds, working his way around so that his attack came out of the sun. Looking down to his right, he spotted the tri-winged plane of his adversary below.

Get ready to meet your maker Fritz! Gabe called over the side as he pushed the stick forward and to the right, bringing the bright red plane into his sights.

You’re mine now!

Dadadadadada, he yelled, mimicking the sound of his gun going off.

The smile on his face said it all…he had singlehandedly downed the most feared German ace of the war.

I told you guys I would…Jeepers!

He ducked immediately onto the floor of the cockpit.

Having looked to his left to brag to the rest of his imaginary squadron, he had spied two guys break out of the cornfield, running directly toward the plane. As he sat hunkered down on the floor, Gabe was beside himself.

"Dad’s gonna kill me," he whispered to himself as the threat of discovery ran rapidly toward him.

Looking around quickly for a way out, he realized that the seat-back had a hinge on the bottom of it. Acting quickly, he grabbed the top of the cushion with both hands and pulled.

The cushion popped down, revealing an access hole to the luggage area in the back of the plane. Seeing no other alternative, Gabe slid up on the seat and wormed his way through the tight hole. Turning then in the tight confines of the luggage hold, he reached up and pulled the back of the seat into place.

Jiminy Crickets! he whispered to himself when he realized that he still had the goggles on. Ripping them off quickly, he pushed the seat forward again, replacing the goggles where he had found them and clicking the seat-back in place.

At that moment, a hatch opened behind him as one of the men threw two canvas sacks in the luggage hold.

Get up there and get the engine cranked! The man yelled to the other before slamming the hatch shut.

A few seconds later, the plane vibrated violently as the engine roared to life.

Gabe’s heart was in his throat when he realized what was happening. Sliding back to the hatch on the side of the plane, he tried to get it open, hoping to jump out before the plane gathered too much speed.

There was no way to open it from the inside.

He could feel movement then, the plane wheeling its way to the runway. Knowing he was stuck, Gabe worked his way toward the front of the hold again, reasoning that may be the best place to be.

It felt like his stomach dropped to the ground as the old plane suddenly left the confines of the earth. The roar of the engine and the wind flowing by the plane was deafening.

Dad’s gonna kill me, Gabe lamented again over the noise, a cold sweat forming on his face. "He’s really gonna kill me!"

***

As the plane leveled off, Gabe realized suddenly that he was cold…very cold. There was a small amount of light leaking in through cracks in the canvas skin of the plane, and Gabe started looking around for a way to get warm.

Realizing that the canvas sacks were his only option, Gabe crawled over to them. Finding them to be old Army duffle bags, he discovered that one of them was only partially full. Being fairly small for his age, Gabe reasoned that he might be able to fit in it.

By now his teeth were chattering, so he untied the smaller duffle, his fingers barely working because of the cold.

Holy Cow! Gabe exclaimed as he got the bag open.

The duffle bag was half full of money!

Pulling out one of the stacks of bills, he saw $1,000 on the band holding together the $100 dollar bills.

There must be 20 of them in there, and the other one was completely full!

His chattering teeth brought him back to reality. Throwing the money back into the bag, Gabe crawled into it feet first. Pulling the edge of the bag up around his shoulders, he rolled the other bag next to him before