Steemjammer: Through the Verltgaat by John Eubank Read Free Book Online Page A

have grabbed him and made him answer some questions!”
    The girls stared at him wide-eyed. He took a deep breath and looked down. Obviously they hadn’t seen the green-clad man reaching for Angelica, which Will was sure he’d been doing.
    “I’m not certain,” Giselle said delicately, “but I think that would have been ‘against the law.’”
    “Yeah,” he begrudgingly admitted.
    Kidnapping his sister and taking her away in an airship would have been illegal, too, he thought, but not wanting to upset them, he dropped it. Hopping down, he picked up the letter.
    “Open it,” Giselle urged.
    “No,” Angelica said. “It’s wrong to read other people’s mail.”
    “If Dad’s back when we get home,” Will said, “then we hand it to him. Otherwise, we read it.”
     
    ***
     
    Giselle hadn’t wanted to even think about her situation earlier. It stressed her too much, but as they neared Beverkenhaas, she decided to tell them what happened to her father, Deetricus Steemjammer. Henry’s twin brother, he was younger by about twenty minutes, and Will and Angelica called him Uncle Deet.
    “It happened last week,” she said, staring at the slowly passing scenery. “The sleeping boat had sprung a leak. Mom was off sewing for people, and Dad sent me to the junk boat to get some tar. By the time I got back, he was gone. Vanished.”
    She and her parents lived in a brightly painted cluster of houseboats in Muddy Creek Bay, off Lake Erie. The sleeping boat housed their bedrooms, while their junk boat, fashioned after the Chinese sailing vessel of the same name, was used for storage. The living boat had a parlor, dining room and galley or ship’s kitchen. The steam boat not only towed them around, it housed their boiler. When anchored, a network of pipes ran from it to their other vessels.
    “Did it sink?” Angelica asked.
    “No,” she said. “I figured Dad was busy below decks, so I patched it. But when I looked around, he was gone. I did hear a weird splash, but it was too far away from the boats to have been him.”
    A stray thought caused Will to frown. “A splash? Know what that makes me think?”
    “He didn’t fall in!” his cousin said defensively. “And even if he did, he’s a really good swimmer.”
    “I don’t think he drowned. I meant that creepy guy and his airship.”
    “Huh?”
    “What if he kidnapped your dad, and the splash came from him cutting the sandbag so he could get away?”
    Giselle furrowed her brow skeptically. “Is that even possible? He didn’t look that big, so how could he have carried my dad up a rope ladder?”
    “I guess it was a dumb idea,” Will admitted. “What did Tante Yvette say?”
    Their Aunt Yvette was Giselle’s mother.
    “Not much,” she said bitterly. “They never tell us anything, except annoying little fairy tales to keep our minds busy. Don’t you hate it?”
    Will wanted to nod. Part of him did hate it, but he was loyal to his parents and preferred not to criticize them. Angelica seemed relieved he didn’t answer.
    “Anyway,” Giselle continued, “Mom’s totally freaked out. She detached the steam boat and went to Buffalo. One of her cousins lives there, and she thinks he might know something. I told her I’d stay with you and ask Uncle Henry to help. But now this.”
    “Three of them,” Will said, “just gone.”
     
    ***
     
    Back at Beverkenhaas, there was no sign of Hendrelmus, though Will said he wanted to look around, just to be sure. The girls went to the kitchen to make a quick snack, after which they planned on joining him. Angelica sliced bread and began toasting cheese sandwiches.
    “Has Uncle Deet ever vanished before?” she asked.
    “Not as often as your dad,” Giselle said, slicing peaches into a bowl of cream. “He went away a couple of times, but Mom made him stop. I think he was with Uncle Henry, looking for Aunt Muriel.”
    That was Will and Angelica’s mother, Muriel Calhoun Steemjammer, who’d mysteriously