The Mysterious Trapdoor

It was a bright sunny morning as David and his family pulled into the driveway of their new house. The shifting and unpacking of the luggage had already been completed a week ago.

David looked out of the car’s window at his new home.

It was a small bungalow with a small garden and a terrace. The interior was modern with three bedrooms and a large living room. The house was wonderful but there was a problem with the neighbourhood…... a robber problem. There were a pair of robbers in the locality and robbery was not very uncommon.

David and his brother Daniel along with their parents entered the house. The furniture had all been set. In the afternoon, when their parents were sleeping, Jack and his brother went out to explore the neighborhood. Having seen the locality, they returned home for dinner and went to sleep. Both of them went to school the next morning; they were attending the same school as before. Life went on as the days passed and they got accustomed to living in the new house.

One day, David was playing with Daniel in the garden when he ran over a place from where a creaking sound came. They went over to that spot and examined it carefully. It was really queer…...All they could see was a patch of grass. David wondered where the sound had come from. Finally, he dismissed it as a figment of his imagination. That night, he was woken up from his sleep by the occurrence of the same creeping sound. Was it a robber?

He dismissed the thought and went back to his sleep. The next afternoon when he and Daniel returned home, they went and examined the patch of grass in the garden again. David put his hand against the spot and pushed it hard. They were extremely surprised on hearing a creaking voice. David cleared away the grass with a lot of effort and unearthed a small wooden platform with a handle on it. He pulled at the handle with all his might and it opened outwards. They had stumbled upon a trapdoor!

Neither of them could understand why a trapdoor would exist in the middle of their garden. It seemed to be leading to some sort of a passage. Both of them climbed down the passage and after a while reached a dead end. As David looked around, he saw another small door with a latch on it just above his head. He pushed it open and both of them entered this new door. After having walked a small distance of around four hundred meters, they found themselves in the middle of a huge, dilapidated bungalow. They racked their brains to find a connection between the first trapdoor and the rundown house. They couldn’t come up with a reason and were exiting the house when they suddenly heard a voice from the floor above – “……. rob that house, third from the right. “ , “ The one with the new tenants ? “said another voice. “Yes, the same one.” replied the first voice. “No one will ever suspect us as no one knows about our secret trapdoor. It’s perfect!” ,said the first voice.

The voices went on talking about their plans and ended saying that they would rendezvous again at the same place the next evening at pm.

David was bursting with Adrenalin by now on their discovery of the secret hiding place of the robbers who had been operating in the locality. He was excited with their amazing discovery. Both of them were about to leave and were stepping out quietly when the wooden plank under Daniel’s foot made a loud creaking noise.

One of the voices shouted out “Who’s there?”. The brother’s held their breath and prayed that the robbers would not come down and discover them. “Leave it, there’s no one here.” said the second voice. Both brothers heaved a sigh of relief and ran out of the house.

They had to report this to the police. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Daniel was the first to enter the police station and started out speaking to the policeman he saw. However, in his excitement, he spoke so fast that the policeman could not make any sense out of it. David then explained everything to the policeman.

The next evening, just before pm, the police surrounded the house. The police did it in a secret manner so that no one could see them. Many minutes passed by and there was no sign of any activity in the house. After about half an hour, the police team was planning to leave when they heard the revving up of a car engine. They rushed to the backyard of the house where sure enough they saw the two robbers huddled up in the car. The police had caught them just in time!

The robbers were put in jail and a lot of the brother’s neighbours got their valuables back. After this, the robberies stopped in the neighbourhood. Everyone was grateful to David and Daniel for their bravery and the brother’s proud parents couldn’t have been happier.