Everything’s a mess!” said Jessie.
The piles of neatly stacked papers were scattered everywhere, all over the study.
“Look!” said Benny. He pointed. “The wind must have blown through the open window.”
“It couldn’t have, Benny. We didn’t leave the window open,” said Henry. “Someone must have opened it and climbed through.”
Jessie went over to the window and bent to examine it. “You’re right,” she said. “See?” The others crowded around her and stared at a black smudge on the recently painted windowsill. “That looks like a dirty, smeared footprint,” said Jessie.
“All our hard work! Why would someone do such an awful thing?” said Violet.
“Maybe it was Mrs. Ashleigh’s son. Maybe he came and did it to scare her so she would sell the house,” said Jessie.
“No! I know what they were doing,” said Benny. “They were looking for a map for Mr. Fitzhugh’s pirate treasure! They were going to steal it!”
“How do you know that, Benny?” asked Henry.
“Because they didn’t find it. Here it is,” Benny answered triumphantly.
Benny picked a piece of paper up off the floor from just beneath the edge of the desk. He held it up.
It was the pretend map that Henry had made.
“It is a map, Benny. But maybe not the map the thief was looking for.”
“It’s a pirate’s map,” insisted Benny. “It has a skull and crossbones in it, just like in my books about pirates. And there’s an X marking where the treasure is.”
Benny frowned. “But it has my name on it, too.” He studied the map for a long moment, then slowly read aloud, “Benny’s Pirate Map.”
He looked up at Henry and laughed. “You can’t fool me,” said Benny. “That’s a map you made. It’s not a real one.”
“It’s a pretend map,” said Jessie, laughing, too. “But there is a real treasure at the end of it.”
“Gold?” asked Benny.
“Not exactly,” said Violet.
“Oh, boy,” said Benny. “Let’s go on our treasure hunt right now.”
Henry looked around at the messy study. “Well, we might as well. We don’t have any good clues to the mystery here.”
The Aldens quickly put the papers back in boxes so they could sort them again later. Then they set out on Benny’s treasure hunt.
Benny was the leader. He held the map and, with Violet’s help, found the way. Watch ran ahead, sniffing and barking as they read the map.
“There’s a big tree drawn here,” said Benny. He looked at the map, then looked up and pointed. “There it is. We turn toward the sunrise by the tree, it says.”
He wrinkled his brow for a moment when they reached the tree, trying to figure out the clue. Then he said, “The sun rises over there. So we go that way!”
“Oops, Benny, you almost missed a clue,” said Henry.
Benny stopped so quickly that his older brother almost ran into him. He held the map up. “What clue?” he asked.
“Light house on the left, green house ahead,” read Henry.
“Oh!” said Benny. He turned and looked at the houses in the dunes until he saw a green one. He led the way across the dunes toward it.
On and on they followed the map.
Once, Jessie stopped and looked back over her shoulder.
“What is it?” asked Violet. “What do you see?”
“I had the funniest feeling . . . as if we were being followed. And I thought I saw someone in a gray raincoat. But I don’t see anybody now.”
“Why would someone follow us?” asked Violet.
Jessie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it was just my imagination.”
They came at last to the dunes near the beach. Henry leaned over and clipped Watch’s leash on. “To keep Watch from smelling the treasure and beating us to it,” he explained.
“We’re almost there,” said Benny. “We’ve almost reached the treasure!” Holding the map high, he ran ahead onto the narrow walkway made of boards that led through the dunes to the beach.
Benny’s footsteps clattered on the boards as he hurried to find the treasure.
Suddenly someone leaped out of the dunes by the walkway and grabbed the map.
“Hey!” shouted Benny. “Stop!”
But it was too late. The mysterious figure jerked the map from Benny’s hands and ran into the dunes and disappeared!
“Help!” cried Benny. “Stop, thief!”
“Benny’s in trouble,” said Henry. “Come on!”
They ran down the walkway. But Benny was nowhere in sight.
Henry cupped his hands to his mouth. “Benny!” he shouted. “Benny, where are you?
Suddenly Watch tugged at his leash. He pulled Jessie to one side of the walkway.
“Footprints,” said Jessie, pointing. “Good dog, Watch.” They jumped into the sand and began to follow the footsteps.
They hadn’t gone far when they heard someone shouting.
“It’s Benny! He’s over there,” said Violet.
With Watch straining at the leash, they ran as fast as they could through the sand.
And there was Benny, standing at the top of a sand dune with his hands in fists. He was scowling and his face was very red.
“Benny! Are you all right? What happened?” asked Jessie.
“Somebody stole the map,” wailed Benny. “And he got away.”
“What did the person look like?” asked Violet.
“He was wearing a big gray raincoat, and he had a brown ponytail. That’s all I saw,” said Benny. “I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman.”
“A gray raincoat!” exclaimed Jessie. “Then I was right.” Quickly she told Henry and Benny about the person she thought had been following them.
“But why would anybody follow us?” asked Henry. “And why would anyone steal a map that wasn’t even real?”
“Because he wants to steal my treasure,” said Benny. “Hurry. We have to get there before the thief does.”
“I think the thief knows that the map isn’t real by now, Benny,” said Jessie. “He probably won’t risk coming back.”
“But I remember exactly where your treasure is hidden,” said Henry. “We can still go find it.”
He led the way to a small tree near the boardwalk in the dunes and pointed. An X had been drawn on the trunk of the tree with white chalk.
“X marks the spot,” cried Benny happily. With Watch’s help he’d soon dug up a small cookie tin. “Gold!” said Benny when he took the top off the tin. Inside were some gold-wrapped chocolate coins that Jessie had bought at the island grocery store.
They ate some of the treasure as they walked home. All except Watch. “Chocolate is bad for dogs, Watch. Remember?” Benny told Watch.
As they walked and ate their treasure, they talked about the map thief.
“If someone thought that was a real treasure map, then someone really believes there is a pirate’s treasure,” said Jessie. “Maybe that’s why he broke into the study.”
“But Diana said nobody believes that there’s a treasure,” Violet reminded them. “She said it was just a story.”
“Maybe she said that to throw us off guard,” said Henry. “She did say she needed money.”
“She knew we weren’t going to be home, too. Remember? We waved at her as we drove away this morning,” said Violet.
Jessie said, “So did Jackie. She’s the one who invited us on the tour this morning. Maybe she’s the one who thinks that there is a treasure. Maybe she knows more than she’s telling us.”
“Like a secret about the buried treasure?” asked Benny.
“It could be,” Henry said.
“But she couldn’t be the one who was following us,” said Violet. “She has short black hair. The person in the gray raincoat had a brown ponytail.”
“Just like Diana,” said Henry.
They walked in silence, peeling the gold foil off the chocolate coins and eating them, and thinking about the mystery. But when they reached Mrs. Ashleigh’s house, they were no nearer a solution.
“Is this another mystery?” asked Benny happily.
“It sure looks that way, Benny,” said Henry.
“I wonder what will happen next,” said Violet.
She got her answer that very night. |