Showdown with the Shepherd

by Marianne Hering

  Just then the Whoo! sound came again. Patrick also heard wings flapping.

  “It was a real owl,” Beth said, giggling.

  Patrick saw two torches bobbing. The guards were coming back to the catapult.

  “Quick. Before they see us,” Patrick said.

  Patrick, Beth, and David made their way out of the woods. They crawled in the tall grass until they reached the brook. They walked across it slowly, careful not to slip on the wet stones.

  Finally, they came to the Israelite camp and the tent of David’s brothers.

  The sky was now turning from black to gray. Morning was coming. And so was the fearful meeting with the giant Philistine.

  Patrick lay awake. He hoped his slipknot would really slip.

  The Battle

  Suddenly a trumpet sounded.

  Beth woke and looked at her cousin. He was sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

  “Good morning,” Beth said.

  “Good morning,” said Patrick, mumbling.

  David’s brothers were busy gathering their weapons. They’d already dressed in their armor.

  Beth peeked outside the tent. A column of soldiers moved along the path. They were heading toward the front line.

  David came around the tent’s corner. He held his sling in one hand. His leather bag was slung across his shoulder and hung at his side.

  Beth pointed to the bag. The bottom of it was wet. “Did you drop it?”

  David shook his head. “I went to the brook early this morning to choose five smooth stones,” he said.

  Another trumpet sounded. This time it came from the Philistine side.

  “We’d better go,” David said. “And may God be with us.”

  The Israelite soldiers made way for David. Patrick and Beth followed him. They passed King Saul, who sat on a large chair. He nodded to them sadly.

  David and the cousins emerged from the wall of Israelite soldiers. They faced the valley.

  The sun was bright. Beth had to squint to see everything. Ahead, Goliath stood on a huge rock. Beside him was Hugh, who smirked as usual. And in front of both of them stood a shield bearer.

  “Oh no!” Patrick said. “I forgot the shield.”

  “And I forgot the banner,” Beth said.

  David smiled warmly. “Do not fear,” he said. “God is our banner and shield.”

  Far behind Goliath stood a long wall of Philistines. Beth swallowed hard. If the two armies came at each other, the three of them would be caught in the middle.

  “This is where you stop,” David said to Patrick and Beth.

  “You don’t want us to come with you?” Beth asked.

  “You’re not part of this fight,” David said. “As the champion, I must go alone.”

  Patrick and David shook hands. Beth suddenly hugged David. He smiled at her and turned and walked toward Goliath.

  Beth prayed that Hugh wouldn’t be able to change history.

  The giant stepped away from Hugh and his shield bearer. Goliath moved forward to the edge of the rock.

  “Who will challenge me?” he shouted. Goliath seemed to ignore David and directed his challenge to King Saul.

  David took a few steps forward. “I will,” he shouted.

  The giant acted as if he couldn’t tell where the voice had come from. “Did I hear something?” he asked. “Was it a gnat? A mosquito?” He looked back at the Philistine army and laughed.

  Goliath turned again and looked down at David. “This is your champion?” the giant asked. “He is but a child. Where is his armor? Where are his weapons?”

  “You come with a spear and a sword. I come in the name of the living God,” David said in a loud voice.

  The giant leaped from the rock and stood on level ground. Beth felt the ground shake.

  “Come and fight me, boy,” Goliath shouted. “I will flatten you like a bug.”

  David took a stone out of his bag. “Today, the Lord will deliver you to me,” he said.

  Again, Goliath laughed.

  David shouted, “Today I will defeat you and your army. Then everyone will know that there is a God in Israel.”

  The giant suddenly roared. He lifted his spear and charged toward David.

  Beth thought her heart would burst. She grabbed Patrick’s arm. They both stepped back.

  Goliath splashed through the brook. He was on the Israelite side now. Goliath’s footfalls rumbled like thunder.

  David ran quickly toward the battle line. Then he dropped a stone into his sling.

  The giant kept coming.

  David swung his arm and the sling back. Then he brought it around his side and over his head. The sling snapped forward, whip-like. The stone flew out.

  Beth turned and grabbed Patrick. She pushed her face into Patrick’s chest. She couldn’t bear to see what happened next.

  But she heard it. There was a loud crash. The Israelites sent up a loud cheer.

  “Goliath is dead,” Patrick said to her. “But Hugh is running away. We can’t let him escape!”

  The Fire

  Patrick took Beth’s hand. They ran along the front line of the Israelite army.

  “We have to get across the valley before the battle starts,” Patrick shouted to Beth. “We’ll go around the right side.”

  The soldiers paid no attention to the cousins. Their eyes were on David.

  Patrick glanced at the field. David was kneeling over the fallen giant. Then David picked up Goliath’s sword and raised it high. The blade glinted in the sun. There was a loud thud, and the Israelite army shouted again.

  Patrick’s gaze shot back to Hugh. He was waving his arms and racing through the Philistine line.

  On the hillside behind them, the trees seemed to sway. Several fell aside. Patrick realized that the trees had already been cut. The soldiers were knocking them aside to make way for the catapult. A group of men pushed the machine forward into the open.

  Hugh had now reached the top of the hill. He began to lead the effort. Patrick headed straight across the valley. Beth was behind him.

  From far to his left, Patrick heard David shout, “Attack!”

  The soldiers of the living God charged toward the Philistines.

  Then Patrick heard a loud cry from the men at the catapult. It sounded like “Fire!”

  The beam of the catapult swung upward. The bucket flung up and forward.

  “The knots are holding!” Beth cried out.

  Hugh must have noticed the knots and fixed them, Patrick thought. I have failed!

  A giant fireball shot like a comet toward the Israelites.

  Patrick and Beth stopped where they were. They watched the red-and-orange fire trail streak across the sky.

  The Israelite soldiers also stopped. They watched in awe, their heads tilted back. They didn’t know what to make of this ball of flame flying toward them.

  Wham!

  The ground trembled as the fireball hit the brook. The fireball sputtered and sizzled in the water.

  A handful of Israelite soldiers were knocked to the ground. Others rushed forward to help them. Some of the soldiers turned to run away.

  “Don’t be afraid!” David shouted to the confused men.

  This isn’t supposed to happen, Beth thought. Hugh is changing the story!

  Then David lifted the giant’s sword high in the air. “In the name of the living God,” he shouted, “attack!”

  Beth pushed at Patrick. “Go!” she said.

  Patrick and Beth got closer to the Philistines’ side. Patrick could see them pull the launch beam to the ground. They loaded the bucket with another boulder. It was smothered in tar.

  A Philistine put a lighted torch against the large rock. It burst into flame.

  Suddenly two of the ropes went slack. The bucket flipped on its side. The fireball fell out of the bucket. It hit the catapult frame. The catapult caught fire. The knots had slipped!

  The Philistine soldiers ran in every direction.

  “You did it!”
Beth shouted.

  Patrick spotted Hugh in the crowd. His face looked red with fury.

  The tar and fire quickly spread to the wood beams. They burst into flames.

  Patrick was relieved.

  He looked toward David and the Israelites. The catapult was destroyed. The Israelite soldiers ran toward the Philistine camp.

  Patrick saw David cross the brook. He no longer held Goliath’s sword. In one hand he held a sling. In the other hand, a stone.

  The soldiers fought fiercely. Israelite and Philistine swords clashed. Men thrust their spears at each other.

  “Hugh’s running away,” Beth said.

  “We have to follow him,” Patrick said. “We have to find him before he uses the ring.”

  “I don’t think he understands how it works,” Beth said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Patrick said. “We still have to get him back to England in his own time.”

  Patrick looked for a way around the battle. “This way!” he said.

  The cousins rushed toward the Philistine camp. By the time they got to the tents, no soldiers were left. Hugh wasn’t in his tent either.

  Patrick went back outside. He looked over the valley. Where was Hugh?

  “Hugh could be anywhere,” Beth said.

  Patrick shook his head. “His scheme failed. He must have an escape plan. He’ll want to get away in the Imagination Station.”

  Beth brightened up. “He’ll go back to wherever the Imagination Station dropped him off.”

  “But we don’t know where that was,” Patrick said.

  Beth thought for a moment. Then she said, “I think I know!”

  “Where?” Patrick asked.

  She pulled out the hankie she had found in a bush. “It might be where he tied this. It was to mark the place where the Imagination Station brought him.”

  “It makes sense,” Patrick said. “It dropped us off in the same place.”

  Beth waved the hankie in the air.

  Patrick smiled.

  The two of them dashed away.

  The Escape

  Patrick and Beth came to the grove of trees where they had first arrived.

  The cousins looked on the path for Hugh’s boot prints. But they didn’t find prints of any sort. The ground was dusty and dry.

  Beth looked around nervously for the bear.

  “This is the tree we climbed to get away from the bear,” she said. She patted the bark. “See? These are the bear’s claw marks.”

  She looked up into the branches. She saw a pair of eyes glaring back at her.

  Beth shrieked.

  Patrick spun around.

  Hugh!

  “I can’t seem to get rid of you two,” Hugh said. He climbed down from the tree. “I heard you coming and thought you were a bear.”

  Patrick and Beth moved away from him.

  Hugh looked at Beth’s hand. “So that’s where my handkerchief went. I hung it on the bush so I would know where to meet the magic carriage.”

  Beth tossed it to him. “You can have it back,” she said.

  The handkerchief fell to the ground.

  Hugh leaned down to snatch it up.

  Beth saw the leather strap around his neck. Mr. Whittaker’s ring slipped out from under Hugh’s tunic. It hung in the air on the strap.

  Beth looked at Patrick. He had seen it too.

  Hugh straightened up. He saw the cousins’ gaze. His hand darted up to the ring. He wrapped his fist around it. Then he undid the small knot in the strap.

  “Tell me how it works,” Hugh said.

  “Give me the ring, and I’ll show you,” Patrick said.

  Hugh’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not a fool. How do I know you won’t use the ring for yourselves? You’ll summon the carriage and leave me here to die.”

  “But we’re not like you,” Patrick said.

  Hugh looked around. “Is this where you found the handkerchief? Is this where the carriage meets us?”

  Patrick held out his hand. “Let me have the ring,” he said. “We’ll find out together.”

  A growl came from somewhere in the woods.

  Hugh jerked his head toward the sound. “What was that?” he asked.

  Beth gasped. “It’s the bear!”

  “He must live around here,” said Patrick. “Hurry! Give me the ring!”

  Hugh looked as if he might give the ring to Patrick.

  But suddenly the bear appeared in the grove.

  Hugh cried out and backed away.

  “The ring!” Patrick shouted.

  “Hurry!” Beth cried. She moved toward the tree.

  Hugh said, “The ring summoned the carriage in the cave. Why won’t it summon the carriage now?”

  The bear looked at them. Then it began to walk toward them. Slowly, at first, and then it started trotting.

  Hugh lifted up the ring.

  The bear picked up speed.

  Beth screamed.

  Hugh pushed the ring onto his finger.

  The bear was charging at them now.

  There was a flicker of light nearby. Then the Imagination Station appeared. The door opened.

  Hugh rushed toward the machine.

  Patrick grabbed Beth and pushed her. “Go with him!” he shouted.

  The bear growled in anger.

  Hugh dove into the machine. The door began to close. Beth leaped for the opening and narrowly made it in. Patrick crashed into her. He pushed through the door just before it closed.

  They heard the bear growl again. Then the sound suddenly cut off.

  “Are you all right?” Patrick asked.

  “Yes,” Beth said. She was breathless. “I think so.”

  “Hugh?” Patrick called out.

  He didn’t answer.

  The cousins looked around inside the machine. Hugh wasn’t there.

  “What’s this?” Patrick said. He picked something up off the floor. He held it up.

  “Mr. Whittaker’s ring!” Beth said. “But where is Hugh?”

  And then everything went black.

  For the next part of the story, go to TheImaginationStation.com and click on the book Problems in Plymouth.

  Secret Word Puzzle

  Patrick and Beth wanted to follow Hugh to the Holy Land in Showdown with the Shepherd. Now you can follow your own mystery—and find the secret word.

  Find the correct path on the maze. Next write the letters you passed through in the boxes below the maze. Then you’ll know the secret word.

  You’ll also know which book of the Bible to find the story of David and Goliath.