Mayflower Treasure Hunt (4 page)

The man pointed a hundred yards to the left. “The Provincetown Historical Society says they landed over there, where that small grove of pine trees grows right up to the water’s edge,” he said.

They thanked the man and hiked toward the pine trees. The spot was silent except for the whisper of a breeze blowing through pine needles. A few seagulls floated overhead. Dink felt strange, realizing he might be standing where Pilgrims had once walked!

“Okay, if you’re that Mudgett guy and you land here, what do you do next?” Josh asked.

“He wouldn’t be alone,” Ruth Rose said, reading from her guidebook. “There’d be other crew members in the boat and some passengers. It says kids
came ashore to get exercise, and women came to wash clothes.”

“Mudgett would want to find a private place to hide the jewels,” Dink added. “Somehow he must have found the rock we saw in the picture.”

“But there is no rock,” Josh said, looking disappointed.

“Maybe it’s underwater now,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe the beach that was here got covered up!”

“Oh great,” Josh said. “We have to find a rock under the ocean?”

“I’ve never read anything that says the beach where they landed is underwater now,” Dink said.

“I haven’t, either,” Ruth Rose said. “If Mudgett really had the jewels with him, he’d want to go as far away from other people as he could. So maybe he found the rock further away from the shore.”

“But the drawing shows the rock near the beach,” Josh said, pointing to his own sketch.

“There are some more cottages on the other side of that little bridge,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe someone knows about the rock.”

The kids trekked over the bridge and walked up to the first house they came to. A woman opened the door. “Yes?” she said.

Josh showed her his sketch. “We’re trying to find this rock,” he said.

The woman took a close look at the sketch. Then she shook her head. “I don’t remember ever seeing anything like this,” she said. “Sorry, kids.”

The door swung shut, and the kids started to walk away.

“Hey, I just thought of something,” the woman said, opening the door again. She pointed toward a tall, bare tree. “There’s a little park there. It’s called Rock Park. There are a few big boulders, but nothing tall and pointy like the one you showed me. Anyway, good luck!”

The kids hurried toward the tall tree. Beneath it, they found a couple of benches and a set of swings. There was a sandy place near a row of flat rocks partly buried in the sand. Dink saw a plastic pail and a little shovel under one of the benches. The whole area was
Surrounded by boulders as tall as Ruth Rose.

“Well, unless the rock shrank over the years, it isn’t here,” Josh said.

Dink noticed something shiny on one of the boulders. He walked over to see what it was. “Hey, guys, check this out,” he said, kneeling to read a brass plate.

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose whipped around to look at the flat rocks that had once been a tall rock. A few people were walking near the park. Dink wondered if they had come on the ferry.

Dink noticed someone sitting on one of the benches. She was hunched over,
with a long shawl covering her head and most of her face. It was the same old woman he had seen on the ferry.

“You see that woman?” Dink whispered to Josh and Ruth Rose.

“What about her?” Josh said.

“I think she’s following us!” Dink said. “She was watching me on the ferry, too.”

“Maybe she’s just following the trail of the Pilgrims, like we are,” Ruth Rose said. “She looks like she’s sleeping.”

“How did she get here so fast?” Dink said, keeping his voice low. “One minute that bench was empty, and then she appeared out of nowhere!”

“Dink, a lot of the people on the ferry-were probably coming here,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe that woman wanted to see the place where the Pilgrims landed.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Dink said.

“You know, if this was a tall rock
before it fell over, one of these five pieces must have been the pointy top,” Josh said. “Like in my drawing.”

The kids looked at the five flat rocks. They were all in a row. A few inches of each rock was exposed above the sand.

“If the rock fell over straight, the top part should be one of the two end ones,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe there was a hole in the top of the rock, and that’s why Mudgett hid the jewels there.”

“You’re right, Ruth Rose,” Josh said. “So let’s dig around the two end pieces first.” He dropped to his knees and started scraping sand away from the flat rocks. Dink and Ruth Rose joined him.

Dink grabbed the plastic pail and shovel. The old woman was still on the bench. Her chin was on her chest, and she was snoring quietly.

Dink handed the shovel to Ruth Rose and the pail to Josh. “I’ll try to find
something else to dig with,” he said. He walked toward the tall tree and found a dead branch. One end was sharp and flat, perfect for scooping sand.

Josh was examining his sketch again. “Which of these two end rocks seems to have a pointy end?” he asked. “That should be the top, the eagle’s mouth.”

“I can’t tell yet,” Ruth Rose said. She was twenty feet away from Josh, tossing sand out of a hole she’d dug at the very end of the rock.

The kids dug as the afternoon grew colder and the sun disappeared behind some clouds. Dink checked his watch. “We have to be on the four o’clock ferry no matter what,” he said. “It’s three-fifteen now.”

They dug faster and faster. Piles of sand grew around their knees. They uncovered all sorts of things that had gotten left behind over the years: empty
bottles, a button, part of a comic book.

“Guys, my rock is getting narrow! I think it has a pointy end!” Ruth Rose said. The boys scrambled over to where she was digging. Ruth Rose had exposed about two feet more of the rock. They all helped her dig until the entire end was visible.

It did taper to a kind of point. But they couldn’t find a hole where anyone might have hidden something. It was impossible to tell if this part of the rock was the same as the eagle’s mouth in Josh’s sketch. Or if this had been at the very top of the rock when it was still standing.

Dink felt disappointed. He’d begun to get excited about solving this 400-year-old mystery. Maybe someone else had found the stolen jewels years ago. Heck, some squirrel could have carried them off!

“Let’s dig this whole area up,” he said. “There might be another section of rock that’s buried.”

Their two-foot hole became three feet deep and three feet wide. Dink’s fingers were sore, and one of his knuckles was bleeding.

“Yuck!” Josh yelled suddenly, falling back on his knees. “I found a dead animal!”

Dink looked at what had made Josh’s face turn white. It was about the size of a hamster and covered with rotted brown skin.

Dink used his stick to lift the thing out of the hole. The brown skin fell apart.

“OH MY GOSH!” Ruth Rose yelled.

It wasn’t an animal skin at all. It was a decayed leather bag. As it fell away, something still hung from Dink’s stick.

It was a necklace.

“The
Mayflower
jewels!” Dink said.

Tiny roots clung to it. Still, the metal looked like gold, and held at least fifteen blue gemstones.

“We were right!” Josh said. “Mudgett hid the loot here, then drew that picture as a map!”

Dink pulled his stick over and dropped the necklace into Ruth Rose’s hands. “I’ll keep it in my sweatshirt pouch,” she said. She gathered up the remnants of the leather bag and put that inside with the necklace.

Just then the kids heard a long, loud
horn blast in the distance.

“It’s the ferry!” Dink said. He checked his watch. “Quarter to four. Let’s go!”

The three kids took off running. As Dink passed the bench where the woman had been dozing, he noticed that she was gone.
How does she keep disappearing?
he wondered as they raced across the beach toward the ferry landing.

With only a minute to spare, they tore up the walkway to the
Sea Witch’s
outer deck. Out of breath, they stepped into the cabin and huddled on a bench.

“Still got it?” Dink whispered to Ruth Rose.

She nodded and patted the lump in her sweatshirt pouch.

The final horn blast sounded, and the kids sat back. Dink closed his eyes. The boat’s engine came to life and they
slowly began to move. Dink grinned. He couldn’t wait to tell his mom about their adventure.

“She’s baaaack,” Josh whispered in Dink’s ear.

Dink opened his eyes as Josh nudged him.

The old woman had taken a seat not far from where the kids sat.

Dink stared at her.
Don’t get paranoid
, he told himself.
She could be just another tourist. Maybe she just wanted to see the place where the
Mayflower
first landed. She’s probably some nice old schoolteacher trying to learn more about the Pilgrims. Or maybe she’s a writer, doing research for a book. She’s not a witch who disappears, and she’s not following us!

Dink relaxed. He watched through the windows as two kids and their parents tried to persuade seagulls to
snatch food from their fingers.

“What should we do with the … you-know-what?” Ruth Rose asked.

“Sell it and get rich,” Josh said.

“Sell it to who?” Dink asked. “Who’d buy it?”

“We’re not selling anything,” Ruth Rose said. “That … package belongs to that poor woman who lost it.”

“She’s dead,” Josh said.

“She might have relatives,” Dink said. “Her heirs should get it.”

Josh giggled. “Maybe I’m her heir,” he said.

As the kids talked, Dink glanced over toward the old woman. At least she wasn’t staring at Dink this time. She was gazing out the windows. As Dink watched, she took something from a pocket and slipped it into her mouth, then sat back and closed her eyes.