Secret Scouts and The Lost Leonardo

by Mr.

  Lisa stared at the bookcase as if her feet were nailed to the floor. Her gaze didn’t stray, even for a second. Time seemed to stand still.

  “There’s a room behind the bookcase. A secret room!” Tom repeated loudly, while jumping up and down with excitement.

  Hearing Tom’s hollering, Sophie finally came to her senses. She could hardly believe her eyes. There was a gap. Part of the bookcase seemed to have shifted a bit to the left and into the wall, creating a narrow opening. The space behind the bookcase was pitch black.

  “A secret room in our house?” muttered Sophie.

  “That’s what I said!” Tom yelled, still jumping up and down. “We just discovered an awesome secret room! Yeehaaw!” Tom threw his hands in the air. He felt like a pioneer, an explorer, an adventurer!

  “Look at that,” said Sophie, pointing down. There was a dark shiny strip on the floor where the bookcase had just been.

  “It looks like some kind of rail,” Tom said without waiting for a reaction. “That means there are probably wheels underneath this section of the bookcase.” Pointing to the part of the bookcase that had rolled away, he dropped to his knees. Leaning forward and with his cheek pressed against the floor, he tried to look underneath.

  “Weird, I don’t see anything... maybe the wheels retract into the bookcase so that you can’t see them?” When he stood back up a tuft of dust was clinging to his chin. Under normal circumstances Lisa wouldn’t have found this very funny, but now she began to giggle uncontrollably. Sophie looked at her sister and started to laugh out loud, too.

  “Who would have thought you could have so much fun with Tom the Garden Gnome,” Lisa said, tears of laughter welling up in her eyes. That got Tom and Jack laughing, too.

  Sophie was the first one to regain her composure. “Guys, this is all very funny but we have to clean up the mess before my dad finds out we damaged his bookcase.” She gave her sister a look of urgency and then directed the same gaze at Jack and Tom. “Seriously, if my father sees this he’ll be so angry he won’t let me go on the school trip to Venice.”

  “Hang on, I want to know what’s back there!” Lisa said firmly. “We have enough time before Mom and Dad get home. If we’re quick about it, there’ll be nothing to worry about!”

  Sophie hesitated for a second, but eventually agreed. “Fine,” she said, turning towards the bookcase. “Let’s have a quick look and then try to slide it back into place.”

  “The gap is still too small, we won’t fit through,” said Tom, who had stuck his arm through the gap to feel around behind. “If we can slide it open just a few more inches, we’ll be able to squeeze through.” He carefully pushed against the part of the bookcase that had already moved. When that didn’t work he leaned against it with all his weight, but still nothing happened.

  “Come on Jack, help me out here.”

  Jack used the bookcase as a crutch and pushed himself up off the ground. He tried to ignore the pain and walked over to where his little brother was standing. Together they pushed as hard as they could.

  At first it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but then the bookcase suddenly began to shift. Accompanied by lots of loud cracking and squeaking, it suddenly moved a little bit more. They all leaped back in surprise.

  “I think there’s something on the rails. The bookcase seems to be resisting our pushing,” said Jack.

  The gap had widened to about eight inches. Sophie squeezed her head through to see what was hidden behind the bookcase. “I still can’t see anything. It’s too dark. The opening needs to be bigger.”

  “Can’t you fit through sideways?” Tom asked.

  “You want to try?” Sophie answered as if stung by a wasp. She gave Tom a withering look.

  Tom shrugged his shoulders and made a face. “Come on Sophie,” he said teasing her. “Just turn your body sideways, you’ll fit easily.”

  “Yeah right, you’re crazy. If I don’t know what’s in there, I’m not going in. I know what you guys are like. Once I slip through you’ll shut the bookcase and leave me in the dark with all those spiders and God only knows what else. No way, you can do it yourself!”

  “Come on Tom, stop pestering Sophie when you don’t even dare go in there yourself,” said Jack admonishingly.

  “Listen,” said Lisa, “you two are always acting so tough about everything, but now you want Sophie to go in first? A real pair of superheroes... NOT! So, which one of you is going to volunteer to go in?” She looked both of them straight in the eye, but neither one budged. “Thought so! Well Sophie’s right, first we need to make the opening bigger. Come on then, what are you waiting for?”

  They all lined up again, ready to push. “Okay, I’ll count to three and then give it everything you’ve got! One, two, THREE!” Lisa shouted.

  The four of them pushed as hard as they could. More loud cracking and squeaking filled the room. The bookcase seemed to wobble slightly for a second, and then there was a sharp cracking noise. A long, thin piece of wood shot out from underneath the bookcase and came to rest on the other side of the room.

  “What was that?” Jack asked, his voice a little shaky.

  “It looks like a paintbrush,” Tom said. “Maybe that was what was stuck under the wheels and was jamming the bookcase.”

  “Whatever!” cried Lisa, “no time to chat. Keep pushing. COME ON!” she urged.

  They all pushed as if their lives depended on it and eventually heard a short, dull rolling sound and a soft cracking noise. It felt like the bookcase had rolled over a last piece of wood on the rails, because it suddenly began to slide away into the wall. The gap was now a two-foot-wide opening.

  Lisa gave the brothers a steely-eyed look and pointed towards the dark space. “You first.”

  Tom elbowed his brother. “Go on, you’re the oldest.”

  Jack stepped reluctantly through the opening, with Tom close behind him.

  Sophie and Lisa tried to follow the brothers’ progress, but it was so dark all they could make out was their shadows.

  “Ouch! I bumped into something!”

  “What?” they heard Tom ask.

  “A wall, I think, or a board. Something hard anyway.”

  “Hey!” Tom whispered to the sisters from the dark. “We can’t see a thing in here. We need a flashlight. Can you get your phone Sophie?”

  “It’s still in my backpack in the kitchen!” Sophie replied.

  “Give me a second,” Lisa said. She went to her father’s desk and opened one drawer after another, rummaging through a few of them. “Here, this will do!” She grabbed something from the top drawer and showed it triumphantly to her sister. It was a richly decorated, gold-plated lighter imprinted with a catacomb relief and gruesome-looking skulls in the middle of each archway.

  “What’s that?” Sophie said, appalled.

  “Relax, it’s only a lighter. Dad bought it in Antwerp last week. He wanted to show it to both of us, but you were too busy studying... as usual.” She flipped open the lid of the lighter and gave the wheel a flick with her thumb. A spark shot up from the flint, igniting a flame. It hung in the air for a few seconds before quickly dimming into a small flame. With the lighter in hand, Lisa stepped into the dark room.

  Sophie quickly grabbed the sketch from the desk and followed her sister.

  “That lighter is like really useful,” Tom said cynically.

  “Yeah, all we can see is you. Your head, I mean,” Jack added.

  Lisa began goofing around by making funny faces in the flickering light.

  Sophie ignored their banter, set the sketch against the wall, and ran to the kitchen to grab her phone.

  “I’ve got it!” she said when she got back to the secret room. With trembling hands she quickly tapped the screen. FLASH! Sophie’s telephone instantly shot a bright beam across the room.

  “Aah, my eyes,” cried Tom, theatrically covering his face with his hands.

  “COOL! What’s that?” his brother asked excitedly.


  “Flashlight Extreme,” Sophie said with a smile on her face. “Recently downloaded it. Nice, isn’t it?”

  “Very cool,” Jack said, trying to hide his frustration that he couldn’t afford a phone like that.

  Sophie put her phone down on the floor so that it lit up the entire space.

  “Look at all of this crazy stuff,” whispered Lisa as she took in the room. “There!” She pointed to a long wall opposite the opening. “Nearly the whole wall is covered by a gigantic painting, or whatever it is.”

  “I’m not sure what kind of paintings you’ve come across in your lifetime, but to me that’s just an empty canvas with a frame around it.” Jack said.

  “Look, there! In the corner on the floor, next to the opening. There’s a pile of artist’s stuff. That’s where the paintbrush on the rails came from!” Tom said.

  Everyone stared at the artist’s materials on the floor.

  “What’s that over there on the ground?” Sophie asked.

  “A skippy ball!” joked Tom.

  Sophie reached down and tilted her phone to illuminate the floor and everything on it.

  “Awesome! It’s a giant globe,” Jack said.

  “And next to it? There, back in the corner, what’s that?”

  Jack looked at the gadget Tom was pointing to. “It’s some kind of... actually, I haven’t got a clue,” Jack said. “That’s a pretty odd-looking device. It has all these little spheres attached to it. Shine your light over here Sophie.”

  “Hey guys!” Lisa walked quickly over to the wall next to the opening. “Voila!” She flicked a switch on the wall, turning on a light hanging from the ceiling.

  The others spontaneously began clapping and cheering.

  Everyone then suddenly went quiet, as if realizing they were making too much noise. All four looked around in amazement. The burning light bulb lit up the whole room. It was an elongated space, as wide as their father’s study and about 6 feet deep, but without any windows. A thick layer of dust covered everything. An enormous canvas with a beautifully ornate wooden frame hung on the back wall. The canvas was about sixteen feet long and almost thirteen feet high. It just barely fit in the room.

  “How did they ever get that thing in here? And I mean, seriously, did they run out of paint or something?” asked Tom, staring at the white canvas.

  Lisa walked over to him, standing so close to the canvas that her nose nearly touched it. She studied the surface in detail and let her fingers slide slowly over the fabric. “It’s a painting alright, but it’s been painted over white, the entire canvas.”

  “Oh,” said Tom, sounding uninterested. “Probably not happy with the result.”

  Lisa looked at her sister, but Sophie and Jack were crouching in front of the strange device with the small spheres. It consisted of a flat, long wooden chest, which looked extremely well preserved. Attached to the top, and sticking out of the middle of the chest, was a metal tube, eight inches long and one inch wide, topped with a sphere. At the bottom of the tube, just above the chest, was a series of metal rods that extended out horizontally on all sides. Each rod was bent ninety degrees vertically, with a sphere sitting on top. The spheres and the rods were all different sizes and lengths.

  There were latches on the top right- and left-hand sides of the chest. Jack used his finger to carefully lift up the right latch, but it was empty inside. He closed it and opened the one on the left. “What the heck is that?” he asked Sophie.

  They were staring at a glass vial in the chest. It was sealed with a cork and held a clear liquid.

  “It looks like water.” Jack had already picked up the vial and was shaking it vigorously.

  “Are you nuts? Put it down! For all we know it could be poison or hydrochloric acid!”

  He reluctantly returned the bottle to the chest, closed the latch and then flicked one of the balls with his fingers, causing it to spin around on its own axis. “They look like planets!”

  “Yeah, I think it’s some sort of device that shows the earth and all the other planets. Cool.”

  Lisa was watching her sister and Jack from across the room when Tom suddenly shouted: “Check this out!” He was holding up a dusty old book.

  “What’s that?” Lisa asked, obviously excited by this new layer of intrigue.

  Sophie went over to look, too. “Show it to me.” She stuck out her hand and Tom handed over the book. She held it carefully and walked back out to her father’s study.

  “What are you doing?” Jack asked curiously.

  “I want to have a better look in the light,” Sophie said, picking up her phone from the floor on her way out.

  “I’m coming with you,” Jack said quickly.

  “Well, actually, we should all get out of here and put the bookcase back before my parents get home.” Sophie said. She set the book down on her father’s desk, stuck her head through the opening of the secret room and clicked her fingers to make sure Tom and Lisa were following.

  Standing side by side, Lisa, Tom and Jack bent over the desk to inspect their find.

  “It looks like a really old book,” Jack whispered.

  “Okay... that’s enough,” Sophie’s hand shot between Tom and Jack and slammed the book shut. “Not now! You seem to have forgotten that we have to get out of here before my dad gets home. We can study the book later. First, let’s get that bookcase back where it belongs!”

  “Sorry, you’re right. Tom, give me a hand,” Jack said decisively.

  The brothers stood next to each other, each grabbing hold of a shelf in the bookcase.

  “One, two, three!” They pulled as hard as they could and the bookcase slid smoothly back into place without any cracking or squeaking. Having expected more resistance, the boys tumbled back into the study, their arms waving wildly in a frantic attempt to keep their balance.

  The bookcase looked as if it had never been moved in the first place.

  Sophie carefully ran her fingers along the exact spot where the two parts came together. “Wow! That’s really weird, you don’t see a thing.”

  Lisa also gave the bookcase a thorough inspection. “Yeah, really weird. I don’t see anything either.” Relieved, she picked up the book and handed it to Sophie. “Let’s get out of here now so Dad won’t suspect a thing!”

  Tom took a quick look around. Apart from the piece of paintbrush he had picked up from the floor, there was no further evidence of their discovery. He used his sleeve to wipe some dust off the desk, turned the lamp off, and followed the others into the kitchen. They looked around nervously, as if they were afraid that someone would catch them red-handed at the very last moment.

  “This is all really bizarre. What now?” Tom asked, breaking the silence.

  “We’ll go back tomorrow!” Lisa said confidently.

  “I’m going to hide the book in my room right now so Dad and Mom won’t find it... Oh no!” Sophie said suddenly. “We forgot Prattle’s sketch.”

  “So what? Nobody’s going to miss that thing, we’ll get it tomorrow,” Lisa said.

  “Well, I’m out of here. See ya!” Tom punched Lisa softly on the shoulder.

  “Bye,” said Lisa, as she walked out of the kitchen and towards the stairs.

  “No one is to breathe a word about this to anyone, okay?!” Sophie warned the others. “This is our secret!”

  “I’m not an idiot!” Lisa shouted from the stairs.

  “What are you doing this evening?” Jack quietly asked Sophie.

  “What do you think? I’m going to dive into that book with Lisa.”

  “Awesome. I’m very curious too. But I’ve got to go; my dad will be home any minute. See you tomorrow. Bye.” Jack sprinted out the door after his brother.

  A few seconds later, Sophie heard the crunch of gravel as a car pulled into the driveway. She quickly ran up the stairs to her room with the old book under her arm.

  “Psst, Sophie... Hey,” whispered Lisa, trying to grab her sister’s attention in the next room.

&n
bsp; Sophie went to her sister’s room and pushed open the door. Lisa was sitting comfortably on her bed with her back against the wall balancing her laptop on her knees.

  “Show me the book, I’ll Google it and see if I can find anything that resembles it. What do you think it is?”

  Sophie sat down next to her and put the book on her lap. Then the two of them gave it a thorough inspection. The book was bound in thick, stiff leather. In the middle of the cover hung a piece of leather in the shape of a loop. The book’s back flap tapered into a triangle, with a horn button at the tip.

  “You can open and close it like this.” Sophie demonstrated to her sister how the knot at the back slipped through the loop on the cover. Sophie looked in disgust at the dust on her fingertips. “Did you know that dust consists mostly of dead skin cells? Gross, right?”

  Lisa shrugged and carefully inspected the cover. “This is going nowhere,” she muttered. “No name, no title, nothing.” She pointed to some marks in the bottom left-hand corner of the cover. “What’s that? Is there something written there?”

  Sophie studied the marks up close and ran her finger over the leather. “L... D... or wait, maybe it’s an O? The D or the O is a bit smaller, I’m not sure. Then a V...”

  “LDV or LOV?” Lisa asked. “Open the book and see what’s inside.”

  Sophie loosened the knot. The pages were smudged with dark patches and had gone yellow in color. The text was in dark red, almost brown ink. Sophie ran her finger over the pages as she turned them one by one. Everything was handwritten, with drawings scattered here and there. Sometimes the sketches appeared in between the text, and sometimes they covered the entire page.

  “The text looks like it’s mirrored,” Lisa said.

  “Yeah, but even when I try to read it in reverse I don’t understand a thing,” Sophie said.

  “Here, this drawing. It looks like your iPhone. Old school style!”

  Sophie had to laugh at her sister’s joke.

  “Wait, go back a bit.” Sophie turned back a few pages and pointed. “Then this must be my green backpack!”

  They both cracked up.

  “Seriously Lisa,” Sophie took a deep breath. “This book is probably centuries old, so that’s definitely not an iPhone. But what else could it be?”