The Mystery of the Pirate's Treasure by Penny Warner Read Free Book Online

missy, I do,” Chad said.“Years ago there was a treasure hunter—supposedly a descendant of Bouchard—first name, Franco. Rumor has it that he came close to finding it.”
    The students’ eyes widened.
    â€œBut he mysteriously disappeared while searching for the buried loot. That was more than forty years ago. All they found was a knapsack with a journal containing cryptic notes and an old map of the mission and surrounding area. Oh, and a single piece of eight.”
    â€œIs that a gold doubloon?” another student asked.
    â€œNo, mate, the piece of eight is a Spanish dollar. It’s made of silver, not gold.”
    Chad continued talking about the Spanish currency, even showing them a real silver coin from a black velvet pouch he had in his pocket, but Cody’s mind was wandering. What had the old sailor said a few minutes earlier about a treasure hunter coming close to finding the treasure? What if the treasure wasn’t buried, but hidden in some other way? Chad had just said that some of the mission’s treasures, like the cross that was dipped in silver, weren’treally all that valuable. If you can coat things in silver, maybe you can coat some treasures so they
don’t
look so valuable.
    Quinn turned to Cody and whispered in Pig Latin so no one could understand him: “Ee-way eed-nay oo-tay ee-say at-they ap-may!”
    Code Buster’s Solution found on this page
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C had continued with his presentation, distracting Cody from the treasure hunter’s map and coded notebook. Luke took notes on Chad’s explanation of nautical navigation, jotting down phrases like, “batten down the hatches,” which meant prepare the ship for a storm, and “beat to quarters,” which meant get ready for battle. Cody could just picture Luke on a pirate ship, climbing up to thecrow’s nest to look for other ships, or sword fighting on the plank like Peter Pan.
    Quinn was fascinated by the sextant, a small instrument that looked like a complicated protractor with a spyglass attached. Chad told the students that sailors and pirates used sextants to plot the ship’s course at sea by measuring the angle between two objects, like a star in the sky and the distant horizon. Cody had a feeling Quinn would get one the next time he went to the military surplus store. Then all he’d need was a ship.
    Meanwhile, M.E. studied the map abbreviations that Chad had shown them. It was different from Ms. Stadelhofer’s map and indicated how the sailors marked the waters. She’d already learned most of them, and was comparing his symbols with the ones on Ms. Stad’s map. Cody was fascinated by how many different symbols and codes there were. The American Indians had their markers—tied grass. The trailblazers had theirs—arranged rocks. And the sailors even had symbols for the open seas … and for buried treasures. Cody found theorienteering symbols the most interesting. It seemed like everything on a map could be marked with a symbol—bridges, fences, towers, benches, ponds, pits, trees, bushes.
    If they actually got a chance to see the treasure hunter’s map, Cody hoped the Code Busters would be able to interpret some of the markings. Wouldn’t it be awesome if the map actually led to a treasure?
Yeah, right …
    â€œLunchtime!” Ms. Stad announced, after the students had had a chance to explore the museum. It was noon and Cody was hungry, in spite of the snack she’d had earlier. “Let’s meet in the courtyard in five minutes,” Ms. Stad said.
    Quinn caught Cody’s eye and began finger spelling.

    Code Buster’s Key and Solution found on this page , this page
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    Cody nodded, then pulled M.E. and Luke aside and finger-spelled the same message to them. Whilethe other students slowly filed out of the museum, the four Code Busters lingered, pretending to be interested in some of the artifacts near