Boxcar Children 54 - Hurricane Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

Violet. “Come on, Benny.”
    She and Jessie and Henry wanted Benny to find his made-up pirate map so they could go on their treasure hunt.
    But when they pushed the door of the study open, they stopped in shock.
    “Oh, no!” cried Violet. “What happened?”

CHAPTER 6
Gold Coins and Iron Bars
    E verything’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