Chapter IX The Rescue
Kayla heard footsteps. No need to try to get to my knife now! Kayla thought. Then she was picked up by Bill, and to her surprise, Pete pushed on a small rock on the wall, and the wall opened up! Kayla also noticed that the rock was darker than all the rest. And smaller, too, Kayla thought. Bill walked in, carrying Kayla, who thought she was still asleep. Pete stayed behind and pushed the wall back into place. Bill carried Kayla down stairs, into a room, and laid her down on the hard rock floor. She sat up in a sitting position, figuring there was no more need to pretend to be asleep, sense there was no one in the room except her and Bill. Just then the door reopened. Oh, great! Now if they want to talk they'll go somewhere else because they know I'm awake! But that proved wrong, when Bill came up and clonked her on the head, knocking her out. As her vision blurred, just before she blacked out, she saw Bill walk back to Pete, and heard him say, “That should do. Now we can talk in private.” He said more, but Kayla heard no more before she blacked out completely.

****
Meanwhile, back at Kayla's house, her parents were very worried. They had called the police, and lots of police had been searching all over town. But, had been unsuccessful, sense she wasn't even in town, which her parents nor the Police had any idea of.

****
When Kayla woke up again, she was in the same room she had been in before she was knocked out by Bill. And Bill was now gone. Her head was throbbing with pain. She sat back up. Pete was just sitting, looking at Kayla. Kayla glared at him, but he kept on staring, as though he were staring right through her. She got tired of staring, and turned her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him pull a bottle out of his coat pocket, and then Kayla had another concussion.

****
One of the Police officers had ventured into the next town, Roswell, because he thought there were enough police searching in the other town, so he could look in this town. He was the only one who thought she'd been kidnapped, the others thought differently. He came upon woods, and entered them. After a while of walking, he came upon cave, well hidden in brush and bushes and tall grass. He walked inside cautiously, and saw Bill, his back facing him, talking to Matt, his boss, earnestly. The police heard Bill say,
“Boss, we should go somewhere else before our hiding spot is discovered!”
“Even if they find us, so what? The little girl is to well hidden for any one to find. They would have nothing against us.”
That was all the Police needed to hear, whether it was Kayla they had kidnapped or not! He stepped out, in plain sight, pistol drawn, and said, “Sorry, mister, but it's already been found!”
He walked over, and checked them for weapons. Matt had two knives, a small pistol, and a poison dart. Bill only had a gun. When he had tossed their weapons aside, he said into his radio,
“Calling Police headquarters of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Come in.” “Jeremy, is that you?” The police heard the police chief say.
“Yes, sir. Look, I have two men here, and they seem to have kidnapped some girl. I over heard them talking. I need you to send some men down, so we can look around this here cave.”
“I can do that. But tell me, where are you?”
“I'm in Roswell.”
He gave him the directions to get where he was. And the Police Chief told him to be waiting outside the cave with the bandits so the other police would know where the cave was.
“Roger, Chief.”
“Alright, I'll get some men rounded up for you.”
“Thanks, Chief. Over and out.”
A couple of hours later, the police arrived, and the two men were taken to a police car, handcuffed. The chief police, whose name was Caleb Carson, and a few other officers walked into the cave with Jeremy.
They immediately began pushing on walls and kicking them to see if they could hear a hollow noise or open some secret passage. By chance, a police man named Perry had found the small rock and pushed on it. The hidden door opened, and he called out,
“Chief Carson! I found a door!”
The chief and the others came running. Caleb walked down the stairs, the others close behind him. In one corner he saw Kayla, tied up and gagged, asleep. He walked past Pete, who was also asleep, head on the a small table beside him. An open beer bottle lay on its side on the table, whisky draining out. “Drunk,” Caleb muttered under his breath. He walked over to Kayla and untied her and took the gag off, and put his arms under her, about to pick her up, but she woke up.
“Can you walk?” He asked.
“Don't know,” She smiled. “I haven't tried.”
She started to get to her feet, but Caleb said,
“don't bother. I'll carry you.”
He picked her up and brought her up the stairs, another police followed, with Pete in front, handcuffed.
Abby and Kayla's mother were outside the cave when the police and bandits and Kayla came out.
****
At the police station the bandits wouldn't tell them anything. Not even where the things they had stolen were even though they new the treasures were no good. Including the diamond. But, when Caleb asked why they had stolen a doll, all Pete said was,
"Its very valuable."
Pete, Bill and Matthew were all taken off to be locked up, and several police went back to the cave to make a search, and Kayla and Abby.
"I wonder where it could be?" Abby asked Kayla.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Kayla replied.
A few minutes later, Kayla went around a corner to search for the stolen property.
“I found it!” Kayla cried out suddenly.
“You found what?” Abigail asked as she ran toward Kayla.
“The diamond—Oh! And here are the other things they took, too!”
She held up the doll and the other things.
“Where was it?” Abby asked.
“It was under this,” she pulled a floor board up. “And these were on top of the floor board.”
She said pointing to a few crates and empty bags now stacked in a pile in the nearest corner.
“Wow!” Abby said looking at the diamond with admiration. “It's beautiful!” ****
Back at the police station, Kayla was rewarded two hundred dollars for finding the diamond, and for solving The Mystery of the Old House and it's “Ghosts.”
“You deserve half of it,” Kayla said to Abby.
“I do? I'm the one that was scared to go into the house.”
“Yeah, but you went in any ways. And I don't think I would have had the guts to go in by myself the first time. So you helped me. We proved that there weren't ghosts in that house at all!”
THE END