It was a noisy evening at the Blue Mountain Quarry, and Luke was just finishing his work for the day. As he was shunting a car full of stone, he noticed something. There was a small yellow pebble in the mix, shining brightly.
"Skarloey?" Luke asked. "What's this?"
"What's what?" Skarloey said.
"This yellow stone, the shiny one." Luke said. Skarloey looked, and his eyes went wide.
"Why, Luke, that's gold." He said. "It's a very valuable stone, and worth a lot of money."
"It is?" Luke gasped. "Wow!"
"I shall tell Mr. Percival about your find. For now, put those trucks in a safe place. We wouldn't want to lose them." Luke nodded, and quickly did so, placing the line of cars onto a siding.
That night, Mr. Percival was most impressed with Luke's find.
"Well done, Luke. They're going to be doing more digging where the gold came from to see if they can find anymore." Mr. Percival commended. Luke smiled and blushed.
"Thank you, Sir." Luke said. Sir Handel rolled his eyes. Luke sure was getting a lot of attention for some silly stone. Then, Sir Handel had an idea.
"Well, Luke. I hope no pirates take your find." Sir Handel said, purposely bringing up pirates.
"Pirates?" Luke asked. "What are those?" Duncan realized what Sir Handel was doing.
"They're men who wear funny eye patches, and steal all sorts of valuable things." Duncan said. "Isn't that right, Peter Sam?"
"Oh, yes," Peter Sam said. "I hope you put your gold in a safe place, lest any pirates find it." Luke looked nervous. Duke sighed.
"Ignore them, Luke, the gold is fine. Pirates stay at sea. They're teasing you, that's all." Duke said. Sir Handel, Duncan, and Peter Sam were most disappointed their prank had not worked, but Duncan came up with a plan. He whispered it to Sir Handel and Peter Sam, who snickered and agreed to help him with it.
The next day, Luke was horrified to discover that his trucks were gone.
"Wh-What happened? They were right here!" Luke cried.
"Don't ask me," Merrick said, opening one eye. "I was sleeping." Luke was most upset.
"Oh, Mr. Percival is going to be cross that I lost it!" He moaned.
"You didn't LOSE it." Sir Handel said.
"It was stolen." Peter Sam continued.
"Stolen? By who?" Luke asked, hoping to obtain any evidence as to where the trucks were.
"By pirates." Duncan said. "I saw them, they swept in last night and snatched the trucks."
"B-But Duke said pirates stay at sea!" Luke spluttered.
"Oh no," Peter Sam said. "Duke was just trying to protect you from the truth. He did things like that to me and Sir Handel when we were your age." Peter Sam lied.
"Yeah, Luke. Pirates are INFAMOUS for sneaking into quarries, caves, and mines too. Anywhere gold may be. And it seems they found your stash."
"Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear!" Luke said nervously. "I have to get it back!" And he raced away. The second that Luke was out of hearing range, the three other engines burst out laughing.
"He fell for it!" Sir Handel laughed.
"He actually thought that's what happened!" Duncan chuckled.
"Oh, we got him good!" Peter Sam giggled.
Rhenaes almost collided with Luke as he went rushing around a bend.
"Whoa! Luke, slow down! What's the hurry?" Rhenaes cried.
"The gold I found the other day! Pirates stole it! Duncan saw them!" Luke explained.
"Pirates? Luke, I told you last night, pirates stay at sea." Duke said.
"Peter Sam says you were lying, that you used to do it to Sir Handel and him when they were my age all the time." Luke said.
"I did no such thing!" Duke spluttered. "But I did yell at them a lot, which is what I'm planning on doing now."
"Seems like they tricked you, Luke. I'll bet they hid the trucks somewhere." Rhenaes said.
"And I know how to get them back without having to yell." Skarloey said, with just the slightest smirk on his face. And he told the others his plan, to which they all agreed.
As the day went on, a fog darkened the quarry.
"Och, I can hardly see three feet in front of me buffers!" Duncan complained.
"Yeah," Said Peter Sam. "I can hardly see a thing."
"Oh, stop whining you two." Said Sir Handel. "I'm sure we'll be...fine." Sir Handel slowed his speech and squinted to try and make out four shadows in front of them.
"YAR!" One of them yelled, causing Peter Sam to jump. "Which one of ye land-lovers have been touchin' OUR treasure?"
"What do you mean, 'yer treasure'?" Duncan asked.
"Yeh know perfectly well what we're talkin' about, sea dog!" The second shadow barked.
"Yeh messed with our gold and we want it back!" The third hissed.
"Tell us where yeh hid it!" The fourth growled.
Sir Handel scoffed, "And why should we?"
"Because if yeh don't, weh'll push the lot of yeh off the terrace!" The first shadow shouted.
"And set yer paintwork ablaze!" The second spat.
"And turn what survives of yeh into cannon balls!" The third shadow screeched.
"Alright! Alright!" Peter Sam cried. "We'll tell you!"
"We hid it in a tunnel! Yeh know, the one by the end of t' quarry!" Duncan said.
"That'll be all." The first shadow said, coming out of the mist.
"Skarloey?" Sir Handel asked. Skarloey nodded. Rhenaes, Duke, and Luke followed suit and also came out of hiding.
"Y-You tricked us?!" Peter Sam asked.
"Yep!" Luke giggled. "Doesn't feel nice, does it?"
"Hey, Peter Sam," Duke said. "What was that about me lying to you all the time when you were younger?"
Peter Sam gulped, "Uh-Um, well, I-I didn't actually, uh...sorry, Grandpuff."
"Well, I'm off to help Luke get his trucks." Rhenaes said. "I hope you three have learned your lesson."
And they had.