Mystery of the Pirate's Map

by Charles Tang

  It seemed for a moment that they would get away cleanly. But no sooner had they reached the end of the alley than someone at the other end shouted, “There they are!”

  All the children turned at the same time. The reporter and photographer were standing there. Everyone remained still for just a second, then the two men started running.

  “Let’s go!” Henry cried, and the Aldens took off.

  The children reached the other end of the lot at the same time the two men exited the alleyway.

  “We need to go back!” Jessie said breathlessly.

  “Back? You mean the way we came?” Henry asked, still running.

  “No, back to the sidewalk, where all the people are!” Jessie told him. “We’ll lose them in the crowd.”

  As if they had rehearsed it a hundred times, all four children turned right at exactly the same moment. They ran up a gently sloping driveway that led to the main road, then made a sharp left turn when they got to the sidewalk.

  As Jessie had predicted, there were people everywhere. And since the Aldens were smaller than most of them, they had little trouble blending into the crowd and becoming invisible to the newspapermen.

  “Now what do we do?” Violet asked. “They’ll keep looking until they find us!”

  “Do you see Grandfather anywhere?” Jessie asked.

  Henry took a long and careful look around. “No, nowhere.”

  “Let’s go into one of the stores!” Benny suggested.

  Jessie ran a hand through her little brother’s hair. “That’s our Benny, always thinking.”

  “We can hide in that saltwater taffy place!” he added.

  “Yeah, that’s our Benny,” Henry said. “Always thinking . . . about food!”

  The children laughed. “It’s a good idea, Benny,” Jessie said, “but we really should hide in a store that no one would expect us to go in.”

  “Well, we’d better hurry,” Violet pointed out. “Those two men should be coming up that driveway any moment!”

  The children looked around for just the right shop. Which one looked the least interesting to a youngster?

  “There!” Jessie said, pointing. “The antique place!”

  The others turned and saw the sign YESTERYEAR ANTIQUES.

  “Hey!” Violet protested. “I like antiques!”

  Jessie grabbed her sister’s hand and took off. Henry and Benny followed close behind. “I know. I do, too. But who would think to look for four children there?” Jessie said.

  Henry looked back to see if the two men had made it to the street yet. They appeared just as the children reached the front door of the shop. Fortunately the men didn’t notice.

  A little silver bell jingled as the children went in. “Let’s get to the back, where they won’t be able to see us if they walk by,” Henry said.

  The back of the store was dimly lit and smelled of must and mildew—as if the whole building were as much of an antique as the things that were in it. The Aldens found themselves surrounded by hundreds of fascinating items from years past: dishes, furniture, paintings, and even some old toys. It didn’t take them long to forget about the two men who had been chasing them. There was so much to see!

  For the first time in the last fifteen minutes, they felt as though they could relax. There was nothing to fear here, in the quiet back room of this peaceful little store.

  Or was there?

  “Well, hello there,” a deep and familiar voice said. The children froze. Then they turned and saw someone standing in the open doorway.

  Winston Walker.

  “Oh, no,” Jessie said softly.

  Walker looked positively delighted. He clapped his hands once, then rubbed them together. “What a pleasant surprise! I didn’t know you children were lovers of fine antiques!”

  “We’re not,” Henry told him. “We’re just looking for a present. For our grandfather.”

  Walker’s face lit up with joy. “A present? How very thoughtful of all of you! What do you have in mind?”

  “We haven’t decided yet,” Jessie said. She didn’t like the way Walker was talking to them. The words were nice, but the way he said them made it sound like he didn’t mean them.

  “Well, there are lots of nice things in here. I come here all the time. It’s one of my favorite stores down on the shore. Of course, most of the things in here are very expensive. Possibly more expensive than you children could afford.”

  None of the Aldens liked the sound of this. How did he know what they could and couldn’t afford?

  “However, if you kids had a little more money in your pockets, then I’m sure you could have anything in here that you wanted.”

  “Maybe,” Henry said with a frown. Now he wasn’t sure what was worse—being outside with those two men or being in here with the snobby Winston Walker.

  Walker stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Now, let’s see, how could you kids get some more money? Hmmm.” He snapped his fingers and looked brightly at Benny. “I know! You, young man, could sell me that piece of the map that you found! And this time, I’ll double my first offer to two thousand dollars. Now, that’s a lot of money for a little fellow like you to have. I never had two thousand dollars when I was your age—whatever that age might be. So, do we have a deal, young man?” Walker said, taking his wallet out of his back pocket. “It just so happens that I have the cash on me right now.”

  “Even if he said yes, he doesn’t have the piece of the map with him,” Jessie said.

  This didn’t seem to bother Winston Walker at all. “That’s quite all right, quite all right. I’ll come by the house in which you’re staying and pick it up later. I trust you.”

  “How do you know where we’re staying?” Violet asked suspiciously. The others were wondering the same thing.

  “Oh, I make it my business to know such things. Yes indeed.” Walker carefully counted out twenty hundred-dollar bills, then held them out to Benny. “So, my young friend, do we have a deal or don’t we?”

  “I really shouldn’t without my grand—” Benny began to say.

  Mr. Walker’s charm slipped away for a second. “Him again!” he barked. The children froze.

  Then Walker’s smile returned. “I mean . . . him? Well, maybe I could throw in a little extra just to be nice.”

  “Grandfather’s not interested in your money!” Jessie said.

  “Oh, is that right? Well, good for him. I admire that.” He looked back at the youngest Alden. “So what do you say, Billy?”

  “It’s Benny,” Benny corrected him.

  “Huh? Oh, yes, of course. So how about it, Benny? Would you sell me that piece of the map?” Winston Walker asked.

  “I’m sorry,” Jessie said, taking Benny by the hand and leading him back toward the front of the store, “but we have to be going now. We’ve got to find our grandfather.”

  “But I—I . . .” The Aldens didn’t hear the rest of Winston Walker’s sentence. Newspaper reporters or not, they would rather be running around in the crowd than in a little antique store with that rude man.

  Fortunately, neither the reporter nor the photographer were anywhere in sight. The children found their grandfather about fifteen minutes later, looking for something to read in a paperback bookstore.

  CHAPTER 7

  The Helpful Mr. Ford

  After hearing of his grandchildren’s latest adventure, James Alden decided they would eat dinner that night in the kitchen rather than on the front porch, where they might be seen.

  As they all quietly ate their meals, Tom read the latest article about John Finney’s treasure in a paper called the Atlantic Informer. The picture of Benny that Meredith Baker had taken on the beach was still the only one the newspapers had, so they kept running it over and over again.

  “Says here John Finney’s treasure is probably worth more than ten million dollars,” he announced. He stroked his chin and added, “I wonder who made up that number?”

  Violet, who was looking down at anoth
er paper while cutting her steak, said, “This one says it’s worth only four million.”

  “Mine says six,” Benny chimed in through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

  “Mine says six, too,” Jessie added. Her newspaper was the same one that ran the first story and picture a few days before.

  Tom said, “Maybe it is six.”

  Henry shook his head. “I don’t know. This one here says twelve.”

  Tom whistled. “Wow, twelve million dollars. That’s quite a high price to put on a treasure no one’s even seen in nearly two hundred years.”

  All the wild stories surrounding the map and the treasure had become so silly that neither Tom nor the Aldens could take them seriously anymore.

  “Hey, Benny, according to this story, you’re eleven,” Violet said, giggling. “I didn’t know you were older than me!”

  Grandfather said in a grumpy voice, “And the Atlantic Informer thinks you’re from California.”

  “The next one will say I’m from Mars!” Benny told them, and everyone, including Grandfather, broke out into laughter.

  When things settled down, Grandfather said, “We really will have to do something soon, before the situation gets any worse.”

  “Like what?” Henry asked.

  “Like either you try to find the treasure or you let Winston Walker have the last piece of the map,” suggested Grandfather.

  “I . . . I don’t like that second idea,” Benny said.

  “I don’t, either,” said Jessie. Violet and Henry nodded in agreement.

  “Then you’ve got to find the treasure without that missing piece,” said Grandfather. “And that’s not going to be very e—”

  The front doorbell rang. Tom got up to answer it. He knew it couldn’t be one of the guests because they all had keys.

  The man Tom found on his front porch was so tall and muscular that he almost looked like a giant. A tiny blue knapsack was slung over his shoulder.

  “Can I help you?” Tom asked.

  “Is this the house where the boy who found the old bottle is staying?” the man asked.

  “Can I ask what your interest in the boy is?” Tom wanted to know.

  “My name’s Jack Ford. I used to work for Winston Walker,” said the man. “I was with him in Brazil when he found the third piece of the map. I have a feeling you’d like to know what it looks like.”

  Tom just stood there, speechless. Then he invited Jack Ford inside.

  They all went into Tom’s study. Jack sat in the comfortable chair by the fireplace, his knapsack lying beside him like a sleeping dog.

  “First of all, you should know that Winston Walker is a bit crazy. He’s obsessed with that treasure,” Jack began.

  “Obsessed?” Benny repeated, not sure what the word meant.

  “He thinks about it all the time,” Jack said, pointing to his own head. “It’s like the only thing in the world that he cares about.”

  “Oh . . . yeah,” Benny said. “We already noticed that.”

  “Why were you in Brazil with him?” Henry asked.

  “I was a digger, which means I was good with a shovel,” said Jack. “I’d been all around the world doing that kind of work. But working for Winston Walker was a horrible job. He made us sleep in ratty tents and eat lousy food. We had to work nonstop ten hours a day, and we didn’t get Saturdays and Sundays off.”

  Violet said, “That’s terrible.”

  “That’s exactly what he was,” said Jack, nodding.

  “Then why did you keep working for him?” Jessie asked.

  Jack frowned. “Because I thought there’d be a big payoff. I thought as soon as the job was finished, he was going to give us all a huge chunk of money.”

  “Why did you think that?”

  “He told us whoever found the next piece of the map would get a huge bonus.”

  Benny said, “You found it, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did. It was under a big banana tree, about a foot down in the ground.”

  “In a bottle?” Benny guessed.

  “Uh-huh, the exact same type of bottle you found,” Jack told him. “I was by myself, and I ground out the cork with a stick. I wanted to make sure the piece of paper inside was part of John Finney’s treasure map before I went yelling about it. About a year earlier, some other guy thought he’d found it, but he was wrong. Winston Walker fired him.”

  “How mean,” Jessie said.

  “Winston Walker could be very mean when he was angry. Like I said, he wasn’t the nicest guy in the world. But anyway, I shook the paper out of the bottle, and sure enough, it was the third piece of the map,” Jack said.

  “What did Walker do?” Henry asked.

  “Well, I went over and showed it to him, and he was as excited as a little kid. All the other workers cheered and carried me around on their shoulders. That night, Walker took us to a nice restaurant. The next morning he gave us our money and sent us back to the United States. But I never got that bonus he promised. He said he’d send it to me, but he never did. In fact, I never heard from him again.”

  Grandfather said, “Was it a lot of money, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  “It was five thousand dollars. That might not be a lot of money to him, but it sure was a lot to me. Still is.” Jack went on to tell them that he had been sending money to his mother back in the United States. She lived alone and didn’t have enough money. He had told her about the bonus, then called her when he found the piece of the map. They were both very excited. He promised to give her the money so she could finish paying for her house.

  “That’s so awful,” Violet said sadly. “And to think I felt sorry for Winston Walker.”

  “Oh, you still should,” Jack replied. “His greed is a disease, just as bad as any other, and worse than some. It controls him.”

  “So then why have you come here?” Tom asked. “I mean, why are you so willing to tell us what the third piece looks like? How come you’re not interested in getting the piece Benny found so you can have the treasure for yourself?”

  “Because I don’t want to end up like Walker,” Jack replied. He became thoughtful. “If I found the treasure and became rich, I might start acting like him and thinking like him. He thinks money brings you happiness, but he’s one of the unhappiest people I’ve ever known. And because he’s so unhappy, he makes other people unhappy. I’m not saying all rich people are unhappy, but he certainly is.”

  Suddenly Violet did feel sorry for Walker all over again, although she didn’t say so.

  “I made a promise to myself—if I was alive when the last piece was found, I swore I would go to the people who found it and let them know what the third one looked like. I know Winston Walker hasn’t let anyone else see it. Only two people in the world know what it looks like—Winston and I.” Jack took a sip of the lemonade Tom had given him. “Either way, I’ve always had a good memory, and I know exactly what’s on that third piece. I’ll be glad to tell you about it. I saw Benny’s picture in the paper while I was at my home in upstate New York. I’m glad that someone else has a chance to find that treasure.”

  Tom took out the drawing that Violet had made of the three pieces of the map and laid it on the table. The missing part was in the lower left-hand corner.

  With pencil in hand, Jack slowly and carefully began adding the final images. There were some more trees, a few rocks, and, strangely, a bird sitting on its nest. He drew six of these, all of equal size.

  “Is that a . . . a nesting bird?” Jessie asked.

  “Yes. I was surprised by that, too. I’m not sure what it means. Birds nest all over the world,” said Jack.

  “This is probably the first time anyone’s seen this map in its complete form in two hundred years,” Tom said almost in a whisper.

  “Can you tell where the treasure is, Mr. Harrison?” asked Henry.

  Tom scratched his head. “No, not yet. I guess it would be safe to say this is the ocean over here,” he said, pointing to the squiggly
lines. “And these trees . . . well, they could be any trees. Same with the rocks. But the birds . . . why do they seem familiar?”

  He walked around the room, stroking his chin while the others kept studying the map. He stopped at the window and stared into the backyard. There were some birds fluttering around the feeder he had hung from one of the trees. He watched them for a moment, hoping they would help him remember. But nothing happened.

  And then it hit him.

  “The nature trail!”

  Everyone turned at once. “Huh?” Henry grunted.

  “There’s a nature trail over near the bicycle path. I used to go there with my students. About a mile down, there’s a bird sanctuary. The Department of Environmental Protection declared the area a protected nesting site so no one could build on it. Birds have been nesting there for hundreds of years!” Tom rushed over and looked at the completed map again. “That has to be it. It has to be. And this part here, where the X is . . .” He tapped the spot with his fingers. “That must be the little grove of pine trees. They’re very, very old. That has to be it,” he said again, softly to himself. “It has to be. . . .”

  CHAPTER 8

  The Final Offer

  “Okay, so do we have it all figured out?” Tom asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning. It was nearly ten o’clock now.

  Jack Ford had been gone for about two hours. Before he left, he wished them all good luck. He had shown no interest in finding the treasure.

  Henry nodded. “I think so. We all get up before sunrise. You and I go to the shed in the backyard and get the shovels. Then we load them into Grandfather’s station wagon, which is parked around the corner.”

  “Right” Tom said.

  “While we’re doing that, everyone else can gather up some food and something to drink,” Henry said. “And then we all sneak out to the car and head for the nature trail.”

  “Now, what happens if we don’t—” Jessie began, then was abruptly cut off.

  “Well, isn’t this nice?” said a deep, powerful voice. All heads jerked up, and there in the doorway stood Winston Walker.

  “How did you—” Tom began.