Jul 172021

When they were returning to the base, they heard a sharp cry. As they turned around to check, one of the men with them was lying on the ground motionless. Someone had killed him!

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I am sharing this story which has been written by my 10 year old son, Medhansh Dwivedi and was originally posted on his blog The characters in the story are fictitious but his writing is inspired by his recent love for Famous Five mysteries.

Once upon a time there lived a young boy named Calico Sprat who wanted to be a pirate. He was Born in 1703 AD in Rasare ,Couragea. (don’t know where is Couragea?…read here). When he was 13 , he left home and joined the Red Penent, a famous group of pirates from Couragea. Under the command of Red Rackhem-I , the then captain of Red Penents, Calico was one of the sailors of the battle of Harrjita also known as the battle in the Indian Ocean (to get more info read History of  Couragea-part one ). Once when he was 20 , he suffered a shipwreck with his crew in the middle of nowhere , all he just wanted to sail safely until the mainland with his gold ingots which he smuggled from a coastal island near Couragea. But he couldn’t communicate with the people at the mainland. He was feeling miserable and was in his tempers, but on the brighter side he was successful to ship the gold ingots to the island nearby, where they were shipwrecked . With no base the men couldn’t live properly, but Calico Sprat was not the one to give up so easily . He ordered his men to make a big wedge so that they can pull the ship out of the water and use it to make the base on the island. It took 5 to 8 months but their hard work paid of.

The Unknown guy

One year had passed and the base was made and everything was done. But people were bored as there was not much work left and also no entertainment. Calico thought and thought,  ‘Everything is ready now but no entertainment. My people are dying of boredom and still nothing comes in my mind.’ Then a brilliant idea struck him, ‘Why don’t we make a stage and do plays and singing competition .’ He shared his idea with his crew and they agreed with him happily. So he and five of his men got to work to build a stage . There was a lot of chopping noise coming from them but they continued working the whole day.

When they were returning to the base, they heard a sharp cry. As they turned around to check, one of the men with them was lying on the ground motionless. Someone had killed him! The men got terrified and ran for their lives including Sprat. They broke the news to the others crew members too, however Calico told them that no matter what they will not move out of the base . But still the killer came and two more men were found dead the other day. Sounds like Jack the Ripper?  Well here is his old version, anyway Jack the Ripper was not even born that time. This was becoming serious and mysterious.

The clues

Three men were killed but still the mystery was not solved. Everyone in the crew was scared stiff, so someone suggested that they sleep together. However still but more person was killed while they were sleeping. Sprat had enough of this, he had to find the killer and save his men. He asked everyone that they should all look for some clues to nail the killer. One of them said, that the ‘killer’ was fast.  But he was proved wrong by another crew member who he said ‘the killer’ was not really fast as he killed people who were sleeping at the edge of the base, so that he can hide quickly after killing. Sprat found that as a reasonable point. 

So now they had got one clue and they decided that they will sleep in the cover of darkness. Hence Sprat asked all his men to wear black clothes so they can’t be seen in dark. This plan worked out and killer got confused and no one was killed that night. Everyone was happy that they have defeated the killer but it was too early to celebrate.

After couple of days suddenly two more men were found dead. Now everyone started pursuing Sprat for permitting them to build rafts and boats so that they can leave the island. However Sprat told them that it is not safe, since all the resources they need were in the heart of the island and apparently the killer also was somewhere there.

The crew was surprised when Sprat mentioned about the second clue that they discovered a hut in the heart of the Island and they doubted that it was that of the killer. But one of the persons said, ‘What if, the killer is from our crew itself and hut is just a distraction? He might kill more people while we keep looking for clues here and there.’

This too was a valid point to which everyone including Sprat agreed. But now surprising no one was killed for some days even though the crew had no plan, this jigsaw puzzle was becoming more puzzling. Then since there was no murder for some time so the crew gathered for a group meeting to discuss more. They tried to put together the two clues but it was not giving any possible outcome. Firstly who would want to walk at the dead of the night just to murder people and that too the killer came from the heart of the island.

They tried all possible ideas but it was of no use until one day when someone dropped dead in the afternoon. They checked his body and they found he was poisoned. Now everyone was sure that the killer was amongst them. They all went to their beds in their rooms and locked the doors so they do not get killed.

The one 

After knowing that the killer was one from the crew itself, everyone was in a terrible state of mind. Three of them died because of the stress and two more died from the poison. The crew suspected Sprat as he was calling many ill days. They thought he was making poison. But they were wrong because when they entered his room he was there coughing. He told that he had found one more clue and handed a paper to them. When they saw the paper, it read east written on it, to which Sprat told that culprit is from a room facing east.

The men went outside with the compass and it showed them east pointing towards Calico’s room. Everyone was confused because Sprat was still coughing however everything was pointing to Calico being the culprit. Three men then went inside his room and there was Calico fully dressed and ready to attack them. He was just pretending to cough, when he got hit on the lungs and the three men took him out of his room to the common area. They told the other three who were alive that Calico was the culprit but then out of another room a twin of Calico Sprat showed up!!! Now they were confused then they tried to pull the face mask of the culprit whom they were carrying from the room. He had disguised like Calico Sprat and was the true culprit, it was not the captain but another person! He died the same sticky way he killed most of the men .

Now the mystery was over with the culprit being found and the pirates do not have fear of anything on the island!


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