The Great Gold Robbery Read Online Free

down into an ugly grimace.
    The Secret Gourds exchanged looks.
    “What if we gave you a hundred?” Helge said tentatively.
    “What do you take me for? He’s my brother!”
    “Oh, well then,” Hallgeir said, and they turned around to leave.
    “Wait!” the girl said.
    They turned around again. “Yes?”
    “Two hundred,” she said, rolling her eyes and holding out her hand.
    THE ELDERLY COUPLE stared at the tiny, eager, redheaded boy, who was so small he was barely visible behind the sales counter in the store they’d just walked into.
    “No,” the elderly man explained. “We don’t want to buy a hang glider, we’re just a little lost. I told you. So if you could please just tell us which way to go so
we get out of this backwoods, godforsaken South Trøndelag place to somewhere where there are
people
.”
    “Not only will you receive a thirty percent discount and an extra set of tent poles so that you can also use the hang glider as a tent in the event that you’re forced to land in the
mountains,” Nilly said, now hopping up and down on top of the counter, “you’ll also receive a bag of charcoal!”
    “Now you listen to me! My wife is afraid of heights, so we’re never going to—” the man continued to protest.
    “And that’s not all!” Nilly yelled. “You’ll also receive a map of South Trøndelag, western Sweden, and half of eastern Norway!”
    “No, no, no! Which way to the highway, boy?” the man yelled.
    “If you buy one, just one, little hang glider, I’ll throw in a map that will show you how to get out of here and find your way to Gothenburg or northeastern
Blåfjella-Skjækerfjella all by yourselves. And since it’s such a beautiful day today, I’ve just decided to throw in one packet—no, not one, but
two
packets of
hot cocoa mix! So, what do you say?”
    “No!” the man bellowed, slamming his fist down on the counter so hard that his anxious, acrophobic wife shuddered, causing her hat to slide to one side, where it hung at a funny
angle.
    Nilly nodded. “I can see that you need a little time to consider my offer, my good man. Well, well, then it would be a pleasure for me to explain to you how to get out of here. It
shouldn’t be that hard. As you can see, everyone else has already figured out how to do it. No one’s here!”



Nilly continued, “I just wonder if I could be so bold as to ask you if you wouldn’t mind dropping this postcard in the mail for me once you reach civilization. It’s to my
friends, Lisa and Doctor Proctor.”
    The woman nodded, pushed her hat back into place, and took the postcard while the boy spread out the map and started explaining to the man how to reach civilization. She read the postcard.

    Nilly stood out in front of the store, waving as the old couple’s car disappeared down the country road, kicking up a cloud of dust behind it. The sound of its engine faded away, and all
that could be heard was cautious birdsong from the vast forests that surrounded the hangar, which bore a large banner that said SALE ! HANG GLIDERS 30% OFF
WHILE SUPPLIES LAST !!!
    But as Nilly stood there, he heard something else. A voice. It was coming from the air somewhere far above him.
    “Heh-heh, Nilly! NILLY! Look!”
    Nilly put his hand up to block the sun and peered up at the hang glider circling in the air above him. A person wearing a snug-fitting red bodysuit, which was extra tight over his potbelly, and
a pair of glasses with lenses so thick they looked like big marbles, dangled underneath the glider.
    “Look at me! I’m Petter! I’m the one and only Petter! New record, Nilly! I flew almost to Denmark and back! Hurray for Petter!” the man in the red bodysuit—who it
appeared might be named Petter—sang and bragged, grinning down at Nilly, who was waving up at him frenetically.
    “Great, Petter!” Nilly yelled back. “But watch out, don’t you see the—”
    There was a crunch and an ominous creaking from the frame and wings of the