Superintendent Sam and the twins walked to the cocoa store, which was not far away. As it was saturday afternoon there was no one about and the store was closed. In a few moments Mr. Kade appeared and unlocked the store.
The agent said that he could scarcely believe Victoria’s story. ‘ Why!’ he exclaimed, ‘Mr. Boafo is one of our best customers. He sells us much more cocoa than any other buyer.’ ‘That may be so,’ replied the Superintendent, ‘ but he could easily be stealing from the back of the store and selling it to yuo at the front.’ ‘Good gracious!’ exclaimed Mr. Kade. ‘ I never imagined anything like that.’ superintendent Sam then said that he wanted to find out ifany bags were missing.’We must climb over the stacks of cocoa bags so that we can see ifany have been taken from the back of the store,’ he said.
‘oh, please, sir,’ cried Vincent, ‘let me do it. I can climb overthe bags quite easily.’well,’ laughed the superintendent,’ you are much younger than Mr. kade or I . I will tell you what I want you to do.’ The superintendent explained to Vincent that he wanted to know if there was a gap among the pile of bags at the back of the store. He said it might be in the middle or at one corner. The two men and Victoria watched as Vincent began to climb the stack of cocoa bags. When he reached the top he looked down at them and waved his arm. Then he was lost to sight as he crawled along the top.
Vincent was only able to crawl slowly because the cocoa bags nearly reached the roof. At last, he reeached the back of the shed. It was just as the Superintendent had thought. There was a large empty space among the bags of cocoa. Slowly, vincent turned and crawled back over the rows of bags. It was difficult climbing down the steep stack of bags but at last he reached the ground safely.
The agent was very angry when he realised that some of his cocoa was missing. He wanted the police to arrest mr.Boafo at once, but the superintendent would not agree. ‘I can’t charge him with stealing the cocoa until I am sure it really was Mr. Boafo. Victoria could be mistaken,’ he said. ‘But what are you going to do?’ inquired mr. kade anxiously. ‘ I am going to set a trap for the thief,’ replied the superintendent, ‘ and i want you to help me.’
Then he told them his plan was .Mr. Kade was to send all the cocoa in the shed to Accra as soon as possible. When the cocoa buyers brought in more cocoa it would be emptied out of the bags, inspected and weighed. Then when it was put back into the bags mr .kade would put in each one a piece of paper. On the paper would be the stamp of the cocoa Trading Company and mr. Kade’s own signature.
‘Do not let any of your clerks or labourers know about this,’ said the superintendent. ‘ Be sure also that you inspect all cocoa that is brought for sale, if any bag contains this paper you will then know who is the thief.’
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