Storm Tide by Kari Jones Read Free Book Online Page B

almost funny. But Dad shakes his head and goes back to the motorboat. He jumps on board, and a minute later he waves something in the air and hops back onto the dock and then to shore.
    â€œI knew this would come in handy one day.” He holds up a tiny crowbar. While I hold the box steady, Dad slowly, carefully, taps around the edges until the solder crumbles away.
    Before I lift the lid, I look at each person in turn. Ellen’s face is bright red. Mom holds her head in her hands. Dad is breathing heavily, and even Mark is staring at the box.
    I lift the lid. “What is it?” says Ellen in a flat voice as I lift a circle of brass out of the box. I shake my head. I don’t know. Tears sting my eyes and I blink. Until now, I didn’t realize how much I expected there to be gold or jewels in this box. But there isn’t. There’s just this circle of brass. Worthless. Nothing. All that chasing after Joseph for this!
    I’m about to let it fall back into the box, but Dad takes it from my hands and says, “I think it’s a mariner’s astrolabe.”
    â€œYeah…,” I say slowly. I’ve heard of astrolabes, but I’ve never seen a real one. It hangs from Dad’s hand like a huge old watch with holes. Instead of two hands inside the circle, there is only one, with points at either end.
    We’re all silent for a minute. Flashes of gold and silver and jewels skip through my mind. I swallow to hide my disappointment.
    â€œHow does it work?” I ask.
    Dad holds the astrolabe in front of him so he is looking through one of the holes. “You line up one of the holes with the sun, then move this arm around until the sun shines through another hole, then take your reading off these notches along the side.” He pushes at the arm, but it’s stuck and doesn’t move.
    â€œIt’s broken,” I say.
    â€œCrusted in salt and water,” Dad says.
    â€œAnd they navigated with these?” asks Ellen.
    Dad nods. “A long time ago.”
    Ellen steps back. “I don’t get it. Why would anyone call this treasure?” She’s trying to hide it, but I know Ellen’s disappointed too.
    Dad’s face is red with excitement. “Kids, think about it. Astrolabes were used between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. After that they were replaced by compasses.”
    It takes a minute for what he’s saying to sink in, but then I say, “So this could really have belonged to Juan de Fuca.”
    Dad nods. “Yeah, it could have.”
    I take the astrolabe from Dad and hold it like he had, so the light shines through it.
    â€œYou mean I could be holding something that Juan de Fuca held? I could be holding something that he used to navigate his ship along the coast of British Columbia?”
    Dad nods again, and this time he grins. “You’ve found a real treasure, kids.”
    Mom’s laughing and crying at the same time. Mark’s just standing there with his mouth hanging open. Ellen’s eyes are bulging. They all look like they’ve just been stunned. I bet I look the same, because I sure feel that way. I’m touching history.
    A minute ago I thought this was worthless.
    The thought makes me shudder, and I carefully place the astrolabe back in the box.
    Dad sits down next to me. “Simon, this could mean many things, you know.”
    â€œCould it mean Juan de Fuca sailed down the strait, not just across the mouth of it?” I ask.
    â€œIt could, if the riddle is true,” says Dad.
    I lean into him, unable to speak.
    Then Mark clears his throat. “Sorry to remind you of this, but there’s still the matter of that man out on the rocks.”
    â€œYou’re right,” says Dad, standing up. “I’ll come with you. I think there’d better be two of us.”
    Mom, Ellen and I watch as Dad and Mark gun the boat and round out of the bay to the headland toward Joseph.
    It