The Mummy's Curse by Penny Warner Read Free Book Online

is the letter
e
. Then there’s a square turning inward,the symbol for the letter
h
.…” He continued reading the rest of the list until they had a series of what seemed to be random letters. “So what does this all mean?”
    â€œI’m stuck,” Luke said, shaking his head.
    â€œI don’t get it either,” M.E. added.
    Cody took a deep breath. She hated giving up, especially when it came to code busting. After all, this was her passion.
    Cody looked at the letters. “Maybe it’s an anagram,” Luke said. Luke and his
grand-mère
loved to solve anagrams together.
    Cody rearranged the letters. “
Youre foshe
?” she said aloud. “
Hoo see fury
?” She tried several more combinations. Finally, one word made sense: “Horus!”
    â€œThat’s it!” Quinn said. They quickly completed the two other words.
    Cody sat up, excited. “Talk about steganography. The answer has been right in front of us the whole time!”
    Code Buster’s Solution found on this page .

S o, did we solve the puzzle?” M.E. asked.
    â€œThe Eye of Horus,” Quinn said. “That has to be it.”
    â€œI guess so,” Cody said, looking over the answer, “but it seems like something’s missing. It was almost too easy.”
    â€œWell, there’s only one way to find out,” Luke said. “We show it to Ms. Stad and see what she says.”
    The kids found their teacher in the museum lobby, checking the papers of a few other students who had also completed the puzzle. Ms. Stad read over theirpaper, but instead of a prize, they each received a small card with a question mark on the front. Cody took her card and flipped it over. On the other side was another drawing of an eye, but this one looked different from the one in the triangle. It was fancy, with black strokes around the lid, a long eyebrow, a curl coming out of the eye, and what seemed like a tear. It reminded her of the necklace Ms. Cassatt was wearing.
    On the bottom of the picture were the words “How many Eyes of Horus can you find in the museum?”

    Cody read aloud the note written underneath the drawing. “The Eye of Horus was often found carved or drawn on an amulet, and was used for protection, power, and health. If you look closely, you’ll see the design is actually made up of seven different hieroglyphs used for mathematical measurement.”
    â€œInteresting,” Quinn said, after Cody finished reading. “Well, let’s go see if we can find all the Eyes.”
    They returned to the first of the four rooms and began scouting for Eyes of Horus. It wasn’t an easy task, since there seemed to be Eyes all over the place. After locating as many as they could find, the Code Busters marked them on their papers and headed for the next room. Finally, in the last room, Cody spotted another Eye of Horus artifact, but there was something odd about this one. It sat alone on a pedestal inside a clear case the size of an upended shoe box.
    â€œThis looks almost exactly like the necklace Ms. Cassatt has on,” Cody said. “And like the Eye of Horus Dr. Jordan was working on. Only the iris is green like Ms. Cassatt’s necklace, not blue like the one in the lab.”
    Cody tapped one side of the case that protected the valuable artifact. A small side door popped open.
    Cody jerked her hand back and glanced around.
    â€œWhoa!” Quinn said, staring at the case.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” M.E. asked.
    â€œThe side of the case—it opened!” Cody said. She glanced around for security guards, but they were nowhere in sight.
    â€œUh-oh. You busted it,” Luke said, his eyes wide.
    â€œI did not!” Cody protested. She tapped the door to close it, but instead it ricocheted and bounced back open again. “Somebody left it unlocked!”
    â€œSeriously?” M.E. said, staring at the Eye.
    â€œDude!” Luke said.