[Child of the 7th Age]

Cami, and Marigold, and Bowman had spent much of the next afternoon at Bag-end working on the decorations for the party. Cami and Marigold sat on one side of the room making a flower chain, and Bowman on the other working on a large paper dragon. At least there were no fights or loud squabbles. Once or twice, she and Bowman had glared at each other over who should get first dibs on the glue, but, with that one exception, things were generally quiet.

After they'd worked for a while, Cami told the others she had to run, "I left my jacket over at Miz Loeblia's the other day. Plus she's making me clean up the mess in the fireplace."

Cami ran out the door and was soon on Miz Loeblia's doorstep. Miz Lobelia had her come inside, and work for several hours cleaning up the last of the mess from the infamous chimney sweep incident. Cami finally gathered up the ashes, and finished scrubbing out the hearth.

It was at that point that Miz Lobelia politely interrupted and asked her to go out to the henhouse to collect some eggs. Wanting to be cooperative, Cami ran out to the shed and began to look under the broody hens. When she came to the last hen, she was surprised to find something soft under the hay. It seemed to be a green cloth of some sort. Tugging on the edge of it, a waistcoat soon emerged that was conspicuously missing a button--the very button that Cami had found near the path where Belle had fallen. Someone had obviously put the coat there, hoping to hide it. Someone who thought the presence of that coat looked mighty suspicious, and might tie him in with what had happened to Belle.

Cami stuffed the waistcoat under her skirts, thinking it might possibly come in handy for keeping Lotho in line. Cami ran back inside, and went into Lotho's bedroom where Miz Lobelia said she'd left her coat. Cami picked up her coat and was about to leave, when a cluster of five silver coins on Lotho's table suddenly caught her eye. The coins were spilling out of Lotho's little change purse. Cami picked up the coins and looked closely at them. She gasped in disbelief. These had to be the same coins that Mister Bilbo had given to her.

Cami remembered three of Bilbo's coins had deep scratches on the back. Just like three of the five silver coins neatly stacked on Lotho's table. This couldn't be a coincidence. For the first time, she recalled how she had dropped the money in the bakery and Lotho had helped her pick it up. He had obviously slipped the pennies in her purse and kept five of the silver coins.

Cami was about to snatch up the silver coins to return them to the rightful owner when Miz Lobelia hastily came through the door. Cami nervously turned, muttered her good byes and scurried out the door, sprinting back in the direction of Bag-end, hoping to catch Marigold and Bowman before they left for the day.

As she ran, she thought. We could tell Mister Bilbo about this and let him handle it. Or we could figure out a way ourselves to get Lotho to return the money! She liked the last idea best and wondered how they could manage it. Then she remembered the waistcoat under her skirts and grinned. Surely there had to be a way to confront the boy with the truth and pressure him to give the money back.

Cami ran up to Bag-end and rang the bell. Mister Bilbo ushered her into the drawing room where Bowman and Margold were just finishing their work. "Come here you two," she whispered. "Look what I found in the Sackville-Baggins house, and you won't believe what else was there!" Then she leaned forward and told the two children about everything that had happened and her idea for getting even with Lotho.

"We could all be heroes!" Cami pointed out jubilantly. For the first time, the three children had a goal they could all agree on....wanting to get even with Lotho! They agreed to meet again the next afternoon and set up a little plot of their own.

[ March 13, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]