The Mystery of the Pirate's Treasure (6 page)

“What do you think it's supposed to mean?” M.E. said.

“A bottle of soda pop?” Luke added. “It makes no sense. Are we supposed to search for an actual bottle of soda? Are we supposed to drink some soda? I don't get it.” He lifted his New Orleans Saints cap and scratched his head.

“I have no clue,” said Cody. “Maybe we're supposed
to write down ‘soda pop' and unscramble it, like an anagram.

M.E. jotted down the words and tried to rearrange them. She came up with:

sad poop
(Everyone laughed.)

popas od
(They laughed again because it sounded like, “papa was odd.”)

sopadop
(Which made no sense even if it was “soap a dope,” but it was still funny.)

spodapo
(Which made no sense at all and wasn't even funny.)

“Just write down ‘soda pop' for now and we'll see what comes next. Maybe it will make more sense then,” said Quinn.

Cody jotted down the clue in her notebook. The kids continued following the trail markers while keeping an eye out for other hidden messages. Cody knew there had to be at least three more, because there were four lines to be filled in on the card. They had to stay alert to the other signs, too, so they didn't miss any and go the wrong way. Cody recorded all the symbols they found on their
route, and soon her notebook page was full.

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

Suddenly, Cody spotted another square with some pebbles inside and two twigs outside. “Guys, another message!” she announced.

Quinn, Luke, and M.E. gathered around the square.

“Eight pebbles inside this time,” Quinn said, after counting them. “That means eight paces.”

“The arrow is pointing that way,” said Luke, gesturing to the left.

“Can I try to find the message this time?” M.E. asked. The others nodded and made way for her
to begin her paces. Her legs were shorter than the other kids', and Cody was a little concerned her steps might be off a pace when she finished. Taking that into account, Cody scanned the area where M.E. stopped.

“The message should be here somewhere,” M.E. said, looking up at a tree that towered over her. The others glanced around, too, until finally Quinn said, “There! I see it—on that big rock! The message is written in chalk.”

Sure enough, Cody saw the message that Quinn had indicated. This time it was a drawing of an animal.

“A duck?” M.E. asked, blinking her eyes.

“A goose?” Cody added, noting the longer neck.

“Maybe it's a swan,” Quinn added.

“Or a turkey?” asked Luke, grinning.

Cody smiled at him. “I think you're the turkey,” she said playfully.

“All right, so what do we have so far?” Quinn turned over the card. In the space underneath where he'd written “soda pop,” he jotted down “duck-goose-swan?”

“Soda pop duck goose swan,” Luke repeated. He said it again faster, then slower. Finally, he shrugged. “Dude, I got nothing. Figuring out the path is easy, but this part of the puzzle is hard. You guys solve it yet?”

The others shook their heads. Cody was finding this trail puzzle to be more difficult than she'd expected. She wondered how the other students were doing. As a Code Buster it wasn't getting the first s'mores that she really cared about—it was solving this puzzle!

“Let's keep going,” Quinn said, noting the next trail marker. They waved to the parent volunteer as they passed by and continued along the path, being careful to follow the instructions and keep away from poison oak. Along the way they spotted a tower and marked it on the map. They'd been walking for nearly ten minutes, and Cody wondered how much farther they needed to go before arriving at the “building” shown on the map. She thought about getting out her cell phone and using Google Maps to look at the topography, but decided that
was cheating. Besides, following the route markers was more fun. And they had at least two more clues to go.

Five minutes later Luke spotted another hidden-message symbol. This one led to a tree where they found a little rubber ducky hidden at the back.

“A rubber ducky?” M.E. said. “Seriously?”

“Well, it's definitely not a goose or a swan,” Quinn said.

“Or a turkey,” Luke added.

Cody picked up the rubber duck and turned it over. Written on the bottom in black marker were the letters “CK.”

“Look,” she said, “the two letters have a red circle around them, with a line drawn through.”

“Ooookaaaay,” Luke said. “So what does that mean?”

“Maybe it's a rebus,” Cody said. She loved rebus puzzles, where pictures stood for words, like a picture of a sheep—a ewe—meant “you.” Sometimes the puzzles added or subtracted letters from the picture words. For example, if there was a picture
of some meat, minus the letter
T
, that could mean “mea” or “me.”

“You mean duck without the ‘c-k'?” Quinn asked. “That would be du …”

“Or ‘duh'!” said Luke, laughing.

“Well, it doesn't make much sense, but let's write it down,” Quinn said. “Soda pop, duck, goose, swan, duck without the c-k, duh.”

The puzzle was beginning to drive Cody crazy. Nothing she'd ever worked on was this hard. What was Ms. Stad trying to do? Not let anyone have s'mores?

They continued on their journey quietly, lost in thought. Cody went over all the clues in her mind but still couldn't come up with a solution. She checked the list with the four blank lines. They still needed one more part of the puzzle before they could really try to decipher it.

Just after she found a pond and marked it on the map, Luke spotted the next hidden-message symbol. It led to a nearby hole in the ground with a small sign stuck in the dirt. It read, “Who lives
here?” with an arrow pointing to the hole.

Cody bit her lip, trying to come up with all the animals that lived in holes.

“It has to be some kind of burrowing animal,” M.E. said.

“Duh,” Quinn said. “There are about a million animals who live underground.”

“Besides Bugs Bunny?” Luke asked, grinning.

Cody shook her head at his lame joke.

M.E. began listing burrowing animals: “Well, there are rabbits, chipmunks, moles, gophers, groundhogs …”

“Wait!” Cody said, noticing something on the other side of the sign. “There's a picture on the back.” The Code Busters peered behind it and saw a drawing of a small slender animal. It was about a foot long, with reddish brown fur, a white belly, and a long tail.

“Oh,” M.E. said. “That's a weasel.”

Cody bet she was right. M.E. really knew her animals.

“You're sure?” Luke asked. “Looks like a rat to me.”

“You can tell by the white belly,” M.E. said. “And they burrow.”

Cody sat down on a nearby rock and wrote down “weasel” on the last space on her card.

She read over the answers they'd filled in, then announced, “Guys! I know! I know the answer to the puzzle!”

Code Buster's Solution found on
this page
.

A
nother nursery rhyme?” Luke asked, rolling his eyes. “What are we, kindergartners?”

Cody laughed. But then, Luke always made her laugh. She thought he should be a stand-up comic when he grew up. But she knew he had other plans. With his strength and fearlessness, he would no doubt end up in some kind of professional sport—like Olympic skateboarding. Either that, or become a stuntman.

“Just write it down for now,” Quinn said, busily jotting the title into his own Code Busters notebook. “I'm sure it will be important later.”

The others did the same, then closed up their notebooks, stuffed them into their backpacks, and continued down the path. After a few more yards, M.E. spotted another one of the parent chaperones and alerted her friends.

“You made it!” Mrs. Vamvouris, Spencer's mom, said. “You reached the end of the trail! Good job! We're meeting over at the courtyard by the mission to wait for the others. You'll find snacks and drinks there.” She pointed across the street, where other students who had completed the trek were gathered.

“Cool,” M.E. said. “I'm starving. I hope they have something good.”

As the four Code Busters headed for the courtyard, Cody looked at the historic mission. While she expected to see a small decaying building, worn by weather and time, the Carmel Mission seemed to be in perfect condition, and quite beautiful. She spotted a sign that read,
MISSION SAN CARLOS BORROMÉO DEL RÍO
CARMELO
—the official name of the mission. Another sign pointed to other buildings on the grounds, including the Junipero Serra School, the Basilica Church, and several museums.

The tall, round church inside the courtyard was the most eye-catching. The white adobe building featured two towers, a dome, and several crosses at the top of the highest peaks. To Cody, the mission didn't look as if it was more than two hundred years old! She couldn't wait to see inside.

The kids found a seat in the courtyard and enjoyed their boxed juices and trail mix. All except Quinn. He was too busy reciting the nursery rhyme under his breath and trying to figure out what it meant.

“That's not how it goes,” M.E. said, when Quinn was finished. “I learned it like this.”

“You're both right,” Cody said, looking at her cell phone. “I did a search for the rhyme, and there are lots of versions. Here's another one.”

“Chicken coop? Possum? Never heard it that way before,” Luke said.

“Here's another one,” Cody said.

“And another,” she continued.

“How come there are so many versions?” Quinn asked, scrunching up his nose and looking confused. “How are we supposed to figure this puzzle out if one rhyme has a chicken coop and another one has treacle—whatever that is.”

Cody didn't have time to look up the word
treacle
. Ms. Stad was waving two fingers in the air, trying to get the students' attention. Slowly, they stopped their conversations and settled down.

“Welcome to Mission San Carlos Borroméo del Río Carmelo,” Ms. Stad said. “Congratulations on finishing the hike! Hopefully, you found the hidden clues and figured out the secret message.”

Quinn raised his hand. “We figured it out, but we still don't understand it!”

Ms. Stad gave a knowing smile. “Just keep it in mind as you continue on your adventure. Now it's time for another piece of the puzzle. Our parent volunteers will hand you a paper with some pirate words and phrases. See if you can figure out what they mean before we begin our tour of the mission.”