The Mystery of the Pirate's Treasure (3 page)

Ms. Stad held up a larger version of the grid:

Code Buster's Solution found on
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.

“Duh,” said Matt. “I did that, but the letters didn't make any sense.”

“It was a puzzle,” M.E. said. “Like a hidden-word search. You had to solve it to figure it out.”

“She's right,” Ms. Stad said. “There are words hidden in the grid. They run horizontally, vertically, and even diagonally. They relate to a theme.”

Cody and her friends had quickly figured out what kind of puzzle it was when they'd found it. They made puzzles like this for one another all the time. Five of the hidden words jumped out at Cody immediately—the ones along the edges of the puzzle. The Code Busters had circled the words when they spotted them, then written them all down. Soon they had a list of twelve random words. All of the leftover letters—the ones not circled—were in alphabetical order.

Ms. Stad went to the whiteboard. “All right, class. Those of you who found the hidden words, please raise your hands and I'll call on you to share them.” Stad wrote down the words as they were called out.

“It still doesn't make any sense,” Matt argued.
“It's just a bunch of random words.”

Cody raised her hand. “It's a word anagram,” she said. “You have to rearrange the words in order to make a sentence.”

“Right, again!” Ms. Stad said. “So which word comes first?”

“Who!” called out Stephanie.

“Raise your hands, please,” Ms. Stad reminded the class. She wrote the word
Who
on the board. Once the words were placed in order and the puzzle was solved, Ms. Stad read the sentence out loud.

“Awesome!” Bradley said. “I love searching for pirate's treasure. This is going to be totally fun.”

Matt the Brat turned and frowned. “Dude, there's no such thing as hidden treasure in California. They only find that kind of stuff at the bottom of the sea.”

Ms. Stad grinned at the class. “I guess we'll find out soon enough. As you know, we've been studying our state's history and the settling of the American West. We've also just learned about mapping. We may not have the battlefields of the South or the fishing ports of the Northeast, the pioneer trails of the
Midwest, or even the pirates along the East Coast. But we do have our unique California missions—you learned about them in fourth grade—and we'll be taking a field trip to the Carmel Mission. There, you'll learn about mission life in the 1700s and visit the tiny room where Junipero Serra, founder of the mission, lived. Father Serra helped explore and colonize the area that became our home state, California.”

The class cheered at the idea of a field trip. But Cody felt a little disappointed. The Carmel Mission? It was hardly Gettysburg or Plymouth Rock or even the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.—places she'd always wanted to see, where history really came alive.

Ms. Stad seemed to read her thoughts. “You'll be seeing real California history on this trip, class. The missions are among the oldest buildings in the state, constructed between 1769 and 1833. If it weren't for the missions, we might not be here today. Each mission was built thirty miles away from the last—a day on horseback, three days on foot—so that travelers
could stop, rest, and have a meal before moving on to the next mission.”

Cody couldn't imagine walking three days from one place to the next. Things had really changed.

Ms. Stad rang a bell to get the students' attention again.

“Bells were important back in the mission days. They were rung at mealtime, as calls to religious services, during births, and at funerals. Bells were also rung to warn people of danger. One of your assignments during our trip will be to identify all the mission bells you can.”

Cool
, Cody thought. This
would
be like a treasure hunt. She wondered what other kinds of bell codes there were. Maybe the Code Busters could make their own. One bell for “Listen!” Two bells for “Come quick!” Three bells for “Danger!” Ms. Stad rang the bell again to quiet the kids. “Also, we'll be camping overnight and hiking the Mission Trail Nature Preserve.”

More cheers from the students.

“And that's not all. Matt, you said there were no
pirates and no buried treasure in California. But that's not true. We
do
have one pirate—the only known pirate in California. His name was Hippolyte de Bouchard. He and his men landed in the Monterey Bay to search for treasure that was rumored to have been hidden by the missionaries!”

A pirate named Hippolyte?
Cody thought.
A hidden treasure at a mission? An overnight field trip? A hunt for mission bells? This is going to be awesome!

A
fter school, Cody and M.E. headed for the Code Busters Clubhouse. The girls trudged up the hillside talking excitedly about the upcoming field trip to the Carmel Mission.

“I've never been to Carmel before,” M.E. said, her long dark braid swinging down her back as she walked. Dressed in pink jeans, a Tinkerbell T-shirt, and rhinestone-embellished flip-flops, she looked out of place among the thick foliage and towering
trees. But then, so did Cody in her jeans, blue T-shirt, and red Chuck Taylors. Luckily, the fall weather was still mild, even in the shadowed forest. And at least Cody had on shoes that gripped the slippery, needle-laden path, instead of M.E.'s slippery flip-flops.

“My mom and I went to Carmel a few weekends ago to visit my aunt Abigail,” Cody said. “She lives in this little cottage with seven cats. It reminds me of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' She took us to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where we saw a bunch of sharks. Pretty awesome.”

“I love aquariums!” said M.E., who got excited about almost everything. “I wish we could go there on the field trip. I want to see the penguins and the stingrays and the eels and the octopuses.”

“I think it's
octopi
,” Cody said, correcting her.

“I hope there aren't any mountain lions at the campsite,” M.E. said, glancing nervously behind her and quickening her step. Cody sped up to keep pace with M.E. The girls had never actually seen a mountain lion in the eucalyptus forest, but others had spotted the big cat, so they were always on alert.

Moments later they reached the clubhouse. The original building had been destroyed by an evil pair of crooks who had tried to steal from Cody's neighbor, but the Code Busters had rebuilt it out of torn-down billboards, wood planks, and a camouflage parachute they'd bought at the army-navy supply store. Cody glanced around to make sure no one had followed them. She knew Luke LaVeau and Quinn Kee, the other two club members, were already there, because the outside lock was open. Then she gave the secret knock, tapping out two letters in Morse code:

M.E. did the same:

Code Buster's Key and Solution found on
this page
,
this page
.

Once they'd tapped out their initials, they leaned in and said the secret word of the day: “Yadnom,” which wasn't very easy to say. But then, it wasn't easy to say any of the days of the week backward.

Code Buster's Solution found on
this page
.

Cody heard the wooden two-by-four scrape across the inside of the paneled door. Someone was lifting the bar that blocked the entrance. Seconds later, the clubhouse door swung open.

“About time,” Quinn said, backing up to allow the girls to enter the tiny room. He checked his military watch to stress his point.

Cody shrugged. “We're sorry, guys. We would have been here sooner, but Stad kept M.E. after class for passing notes.”

M.E. rolled her eyes. “Yeah, thanks, Cody.”

Cody smiled guiltily as she set down her backpack and sat on the cool sheet metal floor. The kids kept their treasures—night goggles, flashlights, and other gear—hidden underneath the floor. Soft light filtered in through the translucent parachute roof.

The others joined her on the floor, sitting cross-legged, almost knee to knee.

“Dude,” Quinn said to Cody, “are you psyched for the field trip on Friday?”

She nodded. “I love pirates. I bet there's a pirate
code we can learn before we go.”

“ ‘Hornswoggle' means cheating someone out of money or treasure and stuff,” Luke said.

“Where'd you learn all that?” Quinn asked.

“Yosemite Sam cartoons,” Luke replied.

Quinn and Cody laughed, but Cody noticed M.E. had a distant look in her eyes, as if she hadn't been listening. Cody sensed something was up with her friend.

“Aren't you excited about the field trip, M.E.?”

M.E. came out of her daydream and shrugged again. “I've never been away from home before without my family. At least, not overnight.”

Cody frowned. This was the first time her class had gone on an overnight trip. She had to admit she was a little nervous about it, but the idea of going on an adventure excited her. “Yes you have, M.E. You spend the night at my house all the time.”

“That's different,” M.E. said. “Your house is only a couple of blocks away from mine. And I can go home any time I want.”

“So what are you afraid of?” Luke asked. Luke,
who was always doing crazy, daring stunts on his skateboard, didn't seem to have any fears. He was always the first one to take a chance or try something new. In the short time that Cody had known him, he'd gone zip-lining, entered a haunted house, competed in extreme skateboarding competitions, and had even eaten a live bug. Cody couldn't help but admire his courage. Maybe losing his parents back in New Orleans and having to move in with his
grand-mère
had made him tougher.

“I'm not
afraid
!” M.E. argued. “I just haven't slept away from home much.”

Cody put an arm around her friend. “You'll be fine. I'll be right there with you, and there will be tons of other people around. Plus, I don't think there are any mountain lions in Carmel, like there are around here.”