THE NINTH NUGGET by Ron Roy

A boy won a free trip to a dude ranch. As a gift he gave a free trip to his friends. The dude ranch is in Bozeman, Montana. They arrived by a small airplane. There are many things to do on the ranch, like horse riding, roping and panning for gold. One day, Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose went panning for gold. Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose went to a lake and started searching around for rocks. Then Josh found a rock in the pond. It was a gold nugget. Josh was excited about finding the gold nugget and seeing how much it was worth. When they went back they weighed it to see how much it was worth. They locked it up in a small metal box like a safe. Then they went for a horse ride. When they returned the nugget was stolen.

My favorite part is when Josh , Dink and Ruth Rose try to find the thief. They searched for clues and suspects. Josh thought it was Thumbs, the ranch hand. Dink did not think it was Thumbs. They were at dinner and they came up with an idea. They decide to search the cabins. They thought it was someone staying at their ranch. Josh, Dink and Ruth Rose said they had schoolwork to do. They went out side and it was dark. They decided to split up and search the cabins. Josh searched Thumbs cabin. Dink searched Ed’s cabin. Ruth Rose searched Fiona’s cabin. They did not find the gold in anyone’s cabin. Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose sat outside of the cabins and watched as someone came back to the cabin. They looked through the window and watched and watched the person packing. You will be surprised to see what happened next.
Chris