Hey! Check this out. Isn’t it cool?” Dustin said pointing excitedly at the sea urchin.

“Yeah, very cool,” muttered Joe, rolling his hazel eyes in boredom. “Listen, Will you please stop fooling around and help me with my task?” he added, looking annoyed.

“What?” Dustin inquired with a puzzled look on his face.

“Excuse me! We are supposed to find something interesting and fascinating for my stupid science project,” Joe said glaring at Dustin. “You know Mr Warner, the way he looks at me as though I have got an ugly wart on my nose, I really want to impress him.”

“Okay, okay…” said Dustin casting a last longing glance at the sea urchin.

Dustin and Joe were best friends. Joe’s science teacher, Mr Warner, had given them an assignment to bring up something interesting to the class related to their topic; Joe resolved to continue his search at the rocky beach near his house accompanied by Dustin, who was a nature freak.

“Hey, What about this shell, you can go with this fixed on your nose, surely that will be something interesting,” said Dustin poking Joe hard with his elbow.

Joe scowled and moved towards him in a threatening manner when Dustin grabbed his arms and pushed him down and ducked beside him.

“Hey! What ...” before Joe could complete his sentence; Dustin clapped his mouth shut and pointed over the rock frantically.

Joe followed his gaze and found a man, dressed in threadbare clothes, digging fiercely. Joe’s mouth opened in surprise and looked quizzically at Dustin who merely shrugged.

The man soon finished digging, placed something in the hole and began throwing dirt on to it, heap after heap. As soon as he finished, some policemen arrived and handcuffed him. They continued to ask him some questions but he seemed to be refusing, finally they hurled him into the police car and sped away.

Both of them were dumbstruck by the scene and looked at each other.

“What do you think?” asked Joe, breaking the silence.

“Why don’t we check it out?” inquired Dustin, his green eyes shone with excitement.

“What? No, I don’t think so,” Joe replied sounding alarmed. “Come on, what could happen? Don’t be a wimp ….” Dustin pleaded.

“I am not a wimp, I am just being sensible,” snapped Joe, but he stared into his big green eyes for a moment and then agreed.

They scrambled to their feet and began running towards the spot. They dug the wet ground with their hands, cool breeze was blowing their hair and their foreheads were damp with sweat when they found the thing the ragged man was trying to conceal. A diamond necklace!

Joe and Dustin exchanged looks of glee. That was certainly the same necklace that was stolen few days back from Mrs Cole’s mansion, their neighbour. Its picture had been in the papers. Dustin dug into his pocket and drew out a hanky; together they tied the necklace in it safely. Dustin placed it in his pocket and turned to look at Joe, who, like him was exploding with excitement.

“What do you reckon? Should we take it to the police station or to Mrs Cole?” asked Dustin.

“Police station that would be wise,” Joe retorted. They chatted merrily on their way to station. The officer was most delighted with their find, his bloodshot eyes that indicated he had not slept for the last 24 hours, sparkled with pleasure. He offered them a reward of $200. In addition, Mrs Cole, a kind old lady, bought them two bicycles and on discovering Dustin’s interest in aquatic life, she gave him a beautiful collection of sea shells that Dustin generously presented to Joe for his project.

At the weekend, Dustin and Joe decided to give themselves a treat at the seaside.

“So how was the project?” Dustin inquired Joe.

“Oh, it went very well,” said Joe airily and added, “Of course, thanks to you.”

“What do you think? We had a pretty good adventure,” Dustin added, patting the seat of his new bicycle. After helping themselves to the ice cream, they pedalled away, seated on their new gleaming bicycles.