Mayflower Treasure Hunt (2 page)

“We were very thankful when we landed,” the boat master said.

“We heard about a man named Mudgett,” Dink said. “Did he really steal stuff from the passengers?”

The man nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid so,” he said. “Poor Emma Browne lost her jewelry.”

“What happened to the thief?” asked Ruth Rose.

The boat master looked over the side of the ship. “He disappeared, missy,” he said. “When we landed, there was a terrible windstorm. We all stayed in our quarters to wait it out. The storm finally let up, but we never saw Mudgett again.”

The boat master leaned down. “Some think he escaped with the jewelry, then made his way back to England,” he said. “Myself, I believe he fell overboard and became a meal for sharks!”

Josh looked over the side of the
Mayflower II.
“There are sharks here?” he said.

The boat master laughed. “I don’t know about now,” he said, “but I saw quite a few during the crossing. They followed the boat to eat the kitchen leavings that the crew tossed overboard.”

“We want to see Plymouth Rock next,” Ruth Rose said. “Can you tell us where it is?”

The man pointed to a small concrete building not far away from the boat. “’Tis under that roof,” he said. “Be sure
to visit the Pilgrim Hall Museum, too. ’Tis a short walk from the rock.”

The kids left the
Mayflower II
, then hiked across a parking lot. They passed through a small grove of trees and came to a concrete building with columns in front. Behind the columns was a black fence. A few other people were standing by the fence, looking down at a large gray rock. The date 1620 had been etched into one side of it.

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose joined the people at the fence. Ruth Rose opened her guidebook to the right page. “No one knows for sure if the Pilgrims really stepped on this rock when they got off the
Mayflower,”
she said. “But the ship landed near here, so they might have.”

Suddenly Josh lifted his head in the air. He sniffed, turning his head into the breeze. “I smell food,” he said. “I’m hungry.”

Dink looked at his friend. “Again?”

“I’m a growing boy,” Josh said. “If I don’t eat eight times a day, my brain will shrink.”

Ruth Rose and Dink burst out laughing.

“Well, let’s go find food fast,” Dink teased. “We don’t want your brain to get any smaller!”

The kids chose a restaurant across the street from the Pilgrim Hall Museum.
They each ordered a tuna sandwich and hot chocolate. After they paid, Ruth Rose walked over to a game machine called the Iron Claw. It was filled with toy prizes.

“These things are rip-offs,” Josh told Ruth Rose. He dropped some change into a candy machine, got peanut-filled M&M’s, and shoved the bag into a pocket.

“Well, I want to get that stuffed mouse for my cat,” Ruth Rose said.

Using the joystick, she moved the iron claw until it was inches above the mouse. She pulled the stick forward, lowering the claw. Then she pushed the button on the stick, and the claw grabbed at the mouse. But at the last second, the claw snagged a plastic necklace.

“Told you so!” Josh said.

The claw brought the prize to the
little opening in front of Ruth Rose. With a rattle, the necklace landed in the tray. She pulled it out.

The necklace had a cheap tin chain and ten plastic “diamonds” the size of grapes.

“Oooh, look at those huge diamonds!” Josh teased. “Gee, that necklace must be worth about … NOTHING!”

“It’s not so bad,” Dink said. “And it’s probably worth more than the quarter it cost you.”

“Well, I like it,” Ruth Rose said. She slid the necklace over her head and tucked it beneath her sweatshirt.

The kids hurried across Court Street to the museum.

Inside, there were four little rooms. Each was filled with stuff from the
Mayflower
or from England in the 1600s. They saw furniture, cooking pots, and a hand-carved bench that came over on
the
Mayflower.
There were several paintings showing the
Mayflower
and some of its passengers.

Dink stopped in front of a glass display dome. Inside, he saw a quill pen and ink holder. A small sign said that these writing tools had belonged to William Bradford, the governor of the New Plymouth Colony. He later wrote a book called
History of Plymouth Plantation.

“Hey, guys, over here,” Josh said. He was looking at a list inside a frame. “These are the names of all the people who came over on the
Mayflower!”
he whispered.

There were 102 names on the list, written alphabetically. Next to the names were the dates when the people had died, many in the winter of 1620.

“Look, there’s Emma Browne,” Ruth Rose said. “It was her jewelry that
was stolen from the hold.”

Below the passenger list was a shorter list of
Mayflower
crew members.

Dink quickly found Lawrence Mudgett. Next to his name was a question mark and “November 1620.” “This is the guy who stole it,” Dink reminded Josh and Ruth Rose.

A man had walked up behind the kids. “They never found him or the jewelry” the man said.

The kids turned and looked at the man. He was dressed in khakis and a blue shirt. His black hair was cut short.

“My name’s Clint,” the man said. “I’m a docent, a fancy word for ‘guide.’ I’m really an actor, but I do this for extra money.”

He opened a plastic container of mints, popped one in his mouth, and held the container toward the kids. “Want one? They’re cinnamon-flavored.”

“No, thank you,” the kids said.

Dink introduced himself and Josh and Ruth Rose. “We’re staying at the Governor Bradford Hotel,” he said. “Our families are going to have dinner on Thanksgiving Day like the Pilgrims did.”

“If you’re interested in Lawrence Mudgett, I can show you something,” the man said.

He led them to a stack of thin booklets piled on a table. The title of the booklets was
Mudgett and the Missing Jewels: A Muddlesome
Mayflower
Mystery.

The kids each took one of the booklets.

Ruth Rose opened her guidebook. “This says the
Mayflower
landed in another place before they came here to Plymouth,” she said.

“Right, that was up near Province-town,” Clint said. He popped another mint. “The crew spent about a month
there exploring. But they couldn’t find freshwater, and winter was coming. So the
Mayflower
set sail again, and ended up here in Plymouth. Some people figure Mudgett hid the loot in Province-town, where they first hit land.” Clint shook his head. “Can you imagine what those jewels would be worth today?”

Dink was looking at a little frame. Inside the frame was a charcoal drawing on a piece of cloth. It looked like a child’s drawing of the
Mayflower
anchored near a shore. There was a beach with trees and big rocks. One rock was tall and very narrow with a pointy top. It leaned to one side and looked like it was ready to fall over. The rock resembled an eagle with its beak pointing up at the sky. The picture also showed a small boat on the shore, carrying about ten passengers.

“What’s this?” Josh asked, looking
over Dink’s shoulder at the picture.

“I think it’s supposed to be the
Mayflower
landing,” Ruth Rose said.

“Yeah, but where?” Dink asked. “I mean, is this the first landing, or is it when they got here to Plymouth?”

“They think it’s up the coast in Provincetown,” Clint said. “See those tall rocks? Some of them are still there.”

The docent pointed to a small sign on the wall next to the drawing. “Excuse me, I have more customers,” Clint said as he walked away.

Dink read the words out loud: “This drawing was found in the belongings of Mr. Lawrence Mudgett, who disappeared. It is believed that he drew the picture in November 1620, on the occasion of the first landfall.”

“Gosh, if Mudgett drew this,” Josh said, “maybe it’s a map of where he hid the jewels!”

Dink examined the drawing. “It doesn’t look like a map to me,” he said. “There are no directions or measurements, and nothing that says
‘X
marks the spot.’”

“Plus, it’s all smudgy,” Ruth Rose said. “This looks like a drawing done by some little kid, not a grown man. Why would Mudgett even keep it?”

“He’d keep it if it was a map telling where he hid the jewelry,” Josh said. “Maybe the guy couldn’t draw very well. Maybe he made it smudgy on purpose, so if anyone saw it, they wouldn’t know what it was supposed to be.”

Josh walked over and asked the woman at the door if she had a magnifying glass he could borrow. She found one, and Josh brought it back. He held it up to the drawing.

Ruth Rose giggled. “Josh is looking for a little sign that says ‘Jewels buried here!’”

“Very funny” Josh said. “I just think it’s weird that the guy everyone says took the jewelry also had this picture.”

“But we don’t know if he even hid the necklace anywhere,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe he had it with him when he disappeared. Maybe the jewels are inside some shark’s belly!”

“Right,” Dink said. “He could’ve kept the jewelry on him.” He looked at Josh. “Okay, I guess it does seem strange that Mudgett had this picture if it wasn’t important. But if Clint is right, this drawing shows where the
Mayflower
first landed, up on Cape Cod. If Mudgett really hid the jewelry there, how would he get back there once the boat reached Plymouth?”