Mayflower Treasure Hunt (5 page)

The sky was growing darker. Black
clouds had blocked the sun, and even inside the cabin Dink felt cold. He shivered, shut his eyes, and huddled deeper into his sweatshirt. The boat’s gentle movement made him sleepy.

“Wake up,” Josh said, giving Dink a nudge. “We’re almost at the pier.”

Dink opened his eyes and blinked. He had been asleep. Everyone was inside the cabin now. A wind had come up, and it had grown dark. Thick snowflakes were slapping against the glass. An early moon came and went behind black clouds. Lights in the cabin ceiling blinked on.

“It’s twenty after five,” Ruth Rose said. “Will your mom be upset that we’re late?”

“Probably,” Dink said. “But she’ll forgive us when we show her the you-know-what!”

The ferry began to ease into its
mooring place alongside the pier. The kids got in the long line of passengers snaking its way toward the exits. The old woman was a few people ahead of Dink in the line. She had wrapped her shawl over her head and shoulders. Dink wondered how far she had to walk in the blowing snow.

Ten minutes later, the kids were hurrying toward the Governor Bradford Hotel. The moon seemed to move with them. It was almost completely dark and still snowing. Dink could see their footprints on the now-white sidewalk.

“There it is!” Dink said as the hotel came into sight.

The kids brushed the snow off their shoulders and stamped their feet outside the lobby door. Dink pushed it open, half expecting to see his mother standing there with an annoyed look on her face.

A woman was at the counter. Her back was to the kids, but Dink knew this wasn’t his mother with the shawl, the matted gray hair, the ankle-length dress. It was the old woman from the boat, and she was talking to the clerk.

The clerk looked up and nodded toward the kids.

Dink felt his throat close up. Panicked, he spun around, grabbing for Josh and Ruth Rose. He yanked them back through the door into the snow.

“What’s going on?” Josh asked.

“It’s her!” Dink hissed. “That old woman has been everywhere we go, and now she’s in our hotel!”

“Dinkus, it’s not
our
hotel,” Josh said. “She could be staying here, just like us.”

“But I keep seeing her!” Dink insisted, watching through the window. The woman was hurrying toward the door.

“She’s coming outside!” Dink cried. “Let’s get out of here!”

The kids raced away from the hotel entrance. Dink pulled Josh and Ruth Rose behind a row of hedges near the street. The old woman was standing in front of the hotel. She was looking around, one hand shielding her eyes.

“She’s looking for us,” Dink whispered. “I was right—she’s after us!”

“But who
is
she?” Ruth Rose asked.

Josh giggled. “She’s Emma Browne’s ghost,” he whispered. “She knows you have her jewels!”

As they watched, the woman took a few steps toward them. She glanced down at the ground, then looked directly at the hedges.

“She saw the footprints!” Dink hissed. “She knows we’re here! Come on!”

With Dink in the lead, the kids took
off across the street. They hid behind a Dumpster and watched the hotel. The old woman was standing near the hedges now, bent over.

“Dink, we’re gonna freeze out here,” Josh said. “Our parents will find us on Thanksgiving, three ice sculptures!”

“Josh is right,” Ruth Rose said. “We can’t just stand out here all night.”

Dink blew snowflakes out of his eyes. “All she has to do is follow our footprints,” he said. “We have to hide until she gives up.”

“We could go back to the boat,” Ruth Rose said.

“The ferry?” Dink said. He spit snow out of his mouth.

“No, the
Mayflower
,” Ruth Rose said over the wind. “She won’t bother us with a crowd of people around.”

“It’s worth a try,” Dink said. He looked up at all the falling snowflakes.
“Maybe the new snow will cover our tracks.”

It took them only a few minutes to reach the
Mayflower II.
It sat in the harbor, rocking on small waves as the wind blew snowflakes around its dark shape. Over the wind, Dink could hear the sail ropes thunking against the tall wooden masts.

Dink found a trash can and lifted the lid. He pulled out a newspaper and handed Josh and Ruth Rose each a section.

“Let’s use these to wipe away our footprints,” he said.

The kids walked backward, brushing their footprints with the papers. When they got to the boat, they stuffed the newspapers inside their sweatshirts.

They ran up the gangway toward the fence and gate that let visitors onto the boat.

“The gate is locked,” Ruth Rose said.

“The
Mayflower
is closed.”

Dink turned and peered back the way they’d come. In his mind, he saw the old woman following their footprints. Would the snow cover them? Would she be fooled by their attempt to wipe their tracks away?

“Guys, I might have messed up,” Dink admitted. “If we’d stayed at the hotel, that woman couldn’t have done anything to us. Not with the clerk there. We could’ve just run up to our rooms.”

“It’s too late to worry about that now,” Ruth Rose said. “Besides, it was my idea to come to the
Mayflower.
I didn’t know it would be closed.” She peered through the locked gate. “Let’s climb over the fence. If we can hide on the
Mayflower
, she’ll never find us.”

“She’s right,” Josh said. He put his arm around Dink’s shoulder. “We can pretend we’re the Pilgrims during their
first snowstorm in America!”

Ruth Rose began climbing. The boys found toeholds and followed her.

Once they were inside the fence, they ran aboard the
Mayflower II.
The ship looked ghostly under a covering of snow. The wind blew snow into their faces and froze their eyelashes.

“We have to get out of this snow,” Josh said. He blew into his hands.

“Okay, let’s go downstairs,” Dink suggested. He led them past the dark galley. Now that they were out of the wind and snow, they felt warmer.

They climbed down the stairs to the deck where the Pilgrims had lived and slept. It was completely dark, only the moon’s dim glow making its way into the space. Dink stopped over the grate that led down to the hold.

“This is creepy,” Josh whispered. His voice shook, either from cold or fear.

Dink peered down through the grate into the darkness. “It’ll be warmer down there,” he said, pointing.

Suddenly they heard a thump on the deck above them. They jumped, bumping into each other. Josh fell over a pile of something and sprawled onto the floor.

“It’s her! Help me move the grate!” Dink whispered.

The three kids tugged the wooden grate about fifteen inches. “A few more inches and we can fit!” Dink said.

“How do we get down there?” Ruth Rose asked. “It’s deep!”

“There are some mattresses right below us,” Dink said. “I remember them!”

“Are you sure?” Josh asked.

“No,” Dink said.

And he jumped.

Dink landed on the straw mattresses and fell backward onto the wooden deck. He knew he was on the very bottom of the boat. The wood felt cold and slimy under his fingers. He tried not to think about what he was touching. He moved out of the way and looked up. “Come on, it’s okay!” he whispered.

Ruth Rose jumped next, and Dink helped steady her landing.

“Come on, Josh!” she said.

Dink could see Josh’s silhouette against the moonlight behind him. Suddenly his head vanished.

Dink froze. Could the old woman have grabbed him?

“Josh!” Dink gasped.

And then Josh was falling through the air. He landed with a
whump
on the top mattress.

“I think she’s on the boat!” Josh whispered. “I heard footsteps!”

The kids grabbed a couple of mattresses and dragged them into a far corner.

“She must be looking for us!” Dink said.

“If she notices the open grate, she’ll know we’re down here!” Ruth Rose said.

They sat and stared at the open space in the deck above them.

Dink could barely breathe. “She must know what we found, and she wants it,” he said, keeping his voice to a whisper.

“How would she know?” Josh asked.

“She might have seen us dig it up,” Ruth Rose said.

Dink remembered his surprise at seeing the old woman on the bench while they’d been digging.

Suddenly Ruth Rose gasped. She
pointed at the rim of the opening over their heads. A dark shape was moving slowly around the edge.

Dink thought it was the woman, but the shape was too small to be her head.

“It’s a rat!” Josh choked out.

“What does it want?” asked Ruth Rose, wriggling closer to the boys.

Josh dug the M&M’s bag out of his pocket. He stood up and walked beneath the opening. Using his best pitch, he threw the candy up and out of the hold. The rat disappeared.

“Aren’t you glad I didn’t feed those to the seagulls?” Josh asked Ruth Rose.

“You’re my hero,” she said.

The kids sat huddled together. Dink was shivering.

“Guys, how will we get out of here?” Ruth Rose asked into the darkness. “I didn’t see a ladder when we were here this morning.”

“I have no idea,” Josh said.

Dink thought he heard something. He strained his ears, keeping his eyes locked on the opening.

They all heard the next sound, footsteps coming down the stairs from the top deck.

A head in silhouette appeared over the edge.

Dink shoved himself as close to the wall behind him as he could.

“I know you’re down there,” a hoarse voice said, floating into the hold. “And there’s only one way out. I’m kneeling on the rope ladder.”

Dink didn’t recognize the voice.

“Do exactly as I say, and I’ll drop the ladder for you,” the voice went on. “I’m going to lower a basket. Put the jewels in it, and the next thing I send down will be the ladder.”

The voice paused. Dink could tell
that Josh and Ruth Rose were trembling.

“If I don’t get the jewels, you’ll stay here all night, maybe longer,” the voice said. “Pretty soon the rats will discover you, and—”

“We’ll do it!” Ruth Rose suddenly cried out. “I have the leather bag and the jewels. It’s a necklace. You can have it-just promise you’ll let us out!”