Once upon a time, there lived a thirteen-year-old boy named Jake. He had black hair, blue eyes, fair complexion and did not look extraordinary in any way. An average teenager. But, Jake was far from average. He lived in an ordinary house in the countryside with his parents and little sister. Jake was a boy who loved adventure. He always wanted to solve mysteries and problems. Soon, he would experience the quest of a lifetime.
Jake did not wait for opportunities to come to him, he went looking for them. Jake had involved himself in two incidents so far, both with remarkable success. But, he still was not well known within police circles. Little did he know, that his next adventure would change his life forever. Next to his house was a forest with a lot of coal mines located within it. However, all the mines had been abandoned because the reserves of coal had been depleted and now there was no coal left in them. Jake had a strange attraction towards this place because he had a feeling that something might happen here. For this reason, Jake always carried a torch, some string and a penknife around with him just in case he found himself stuck in a tight situation.
Our story begins on a pleasant and sunny day. Jake was as usual roaming in the forest near the tin mines. Although he had never been inside any of them, he had always wondered what he would find inside them. A route to an underground hideout? Vast gold reserves? Who knew? It so happened that Jake had made up his mind to go into some of these mines that day to find out what they concealed. Jake had brought a very long rope from his house just in case he needed it.
As he entered the first mine, he walked a few meters when he reached a dead end. An unfruitful start. He hoped the second mine would yield some result. In the second mine, after walking a few meters, Jake suddenly lost visibility. He immediately switched on his torch and continued forward. After about ten minutes, he reached the end of a cliff. He would have surely fallen to his death had he not looked down in time. He was about to turn around when he saw some sort of light glinting at the bottom of the deep chasm. Daylight? Gold? These questions pestered Jake till his curiosity overcame his reluctance to go forward.
Jake found a huge and strong rock to which he could tie the end of his rope. He was planning to rappel down into the chasm without a harness of any kind! Blood was pounding in his head. He was scared to go forward, but how could he call himself an adventurer if he was not prepared to take risks? Luckily for him, there were grooves in the wall which provided traction for his shoes. The chasm stretched for about half a kilometer in the downwards direction. After a tiring journey, he reached the bottom. The path built for the mine carts started here and Jake decided to follow it as he could see the light glinting in that direction. The light was much brighter now and the excitement of an adventure spurred Jake to go forward. When he reached the source of light, what lay before his eyes left him flabbergasted.
He was standing in an underground drug manufacturing factory! The light that he had seen was coming from a fireplace and the smoke was being exhausted through another mine next to this one. The factory was filled from ground to ceiling with racks that held test tubes, flasks, funnels, spatulas, measuring cylinders, chemicals and other items required to make drugs. Jake’s first thought was to run out of there and inform the police. But a part of him wanted to stay and figure out more. Suddenly Jake heard voices! He dived behind one of the racks and hoped that the men would not see him there.
Two men appeared from a doorway and they were talking with each other. One of them said, “How much have we made today?” The other replied by saying, “About six thousand rupees.” Jake then began to crawl on his hands and knees towards the exit when one of the men spotted him. “What was that?”, he said. Jake froze. “What was what?”, said the other. “That…” Both the men blocked Jake just as he was about to leave. “Well, hello there.”, said the first one and then punched Jake in the stomach with so much force that Jake was sent flying across the room and collided with the wall. Jake then blacked out.
When Jake regained consciousness, he found himself tied to a chair. He could feel his penknife in his pocket which was within his reach. He now knew that he could free himself. The men were not in the room but they would be back any moment. So, Jake knew that he had to work fast. After about two minutes, he had cut through the ropes and had freed himself. Thirty seconds later, the men returned to the room. Jake was still on the chair with his hands behind his back. Jake wanted to mislead them into thinking that he was a scared, small boy. Then the interrogation began. “What do you want, boy?”, said one. “Yeah, what do you want?”, said the other. He was clearly the dumber of the two. “I accidentally slipped and fell into the mine and I could not find my way out.”, said Jake. “I saw a light and thinking it to be daylight, I followed it and found myself here.” It looked like they had bought the story and had relaxed their guard. This was when Jake struck. He landed a punch in one of their faces and kicked the other in the stomach. Both of them blacked out immediately. He used his own string to tie the men’s hands and legs together.
Jake then collected a few of the test tubes and chemicals to use as evidence for the police. He then quickly made his way out of the mine the same way he had come. He marked the mine by cutting into its wall with his penknife and then immediately ran to the police station. After showing them the items, he brought them back to the mine. About four to five policemen had come along with them and it took longer to get down than expected. When they entered the room, the men were nowhere to be found. As they looked for the men, both of them jumped out from behind one of the racks and ambushed them! Somehow, they had broken free from their bonds and planned an ambush! What followed was a fistfight as they could not use fire arms or the whole place would blow up due the chemicals. Finally, the police overpowered them, handcuffed them and took them back to the police station. The police offered Jake a reward but all Jake asked for was a few cases to be brought to him to solve. The policemen happily agreed to this. In addition, they gave him a new watch and a cash prize of one lakh rupees. Jake did not stop exploring and on went on to do great deeds.
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