“I’m not surprised Walker turned up,” Tom said as he brought his fork to his mouth. He and Grandfather had made reservations at a nice restaurant called the Crab’s Claw Inn, right on Oyster Bay. “He has obviously been after John Finney’s treasure for years.”
“But how did he get here so fast?” Violet wondered aloud. “Does he live around here?”
“No,” Tom said, “but a man with that much money travels all the time.” Tom snapped his fingers. “He can be anywhere in an instant. He probably saw the story in the paper.”
“Speaking of which,” Grandfather said, reaching into his jacket pocket, “look at this.” He opened the front page of a different newspaper. This one was called the Daily Tribune, and there was Benny’s face again. It was the same picture as last time.
“This is one of the biggest newspapers on the East Coast,” Grandfather said. “Your story is getting around fast. Pretty soon Winston Walker will have a lot of competition for that treasure.”
“So what do we do?” asked Jessie.
“You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to,” Tom replied. “Or you can take Winston Walker’s offer if you wish.” He looked at Benny. “It’s your piece of the map, Benny, so it’s your decision.”
Benny had been playing with his food but not eating it. The others were beginning to get worried. It was a rare moment when Benny wasn’t hungry.
“I want to keep it,” he said firmly.
“So then keep it,” Tom told him. “Have you found out anything about the other pieces?”
The children looked at one another with silent, somber faces, which puzzled Tom. “What’s wrong?”
“We got a picture of one of them, piece number two, but the third piece, well . . . that’s the one Winston Walker found, and . . . he’ll never let anyone else see it or photograph it. He’s the only one who knows what it looks like. That’s what the book in the Lighthouse Library said.”
Tom looked at Grandfather, then back at Henry. “So what are you going to do?”
“We’re not sure yet,” Henry admitted. “We were thinking maybe we could put the other three pieces together and figure out where the treasure is from there, but . . .”
Tom frowned. “I doubt John Finney would make it that easy. Knowing him, he probably made sure you needed all four pieces.”
“That’s what we figured, too,” Jessie said.
Henry sighed, then smiled. “We’ll think of something,” he told them. He wanted to keep a positive outlook on the situation. But deep down inside, neither he nor any of the other Alden children had a clue as to what that something would be.
After they all got back from the restaurant, Tom and Grandfather turned in for the night. The children, on the other hand, decided to play a card game. They sat on one of the beds in the boys’ room. Watch was lying on the carpet near the doorway. Playing games with one another was something the Aldens always enjoyed. But tonight they enjoyed it even more because it helped them forget all about John Finney’s treasure for a little while.
“Do you have a . . . seven?” Jessie asked Benny, holding all her cards in a fan.
Benny giggled. “Nope! Go fish!”
Jessie frowned and took another card from the deck. Then she groaned and took another. By the time she got to her fifth, she was rolling her eyes and groaning. “Who taught him how to be such a good cardplayer?”
“Grandfather,” Henry said. “Remember? He taught all of us how to play.”
Caught up in their card game, the Aldens didn’t hear what was happening in Tom’s backyard. But Watch did hear something. He got up and hurried out of the room. The children, still playing cards, didn’t notice him.
When Watch got to the first floor, he ran to the door that led to Tom’s study and sniffed along the bottom. Then he began growling loudly.
“Do you hear that?” Violet asked. “I think it’s Watch.” The children ran out of the room and hurried down the stairs.
“Watch, be quiet!” Henry said when he got to the bottom. But Watch just kept barking and scratching at the door.
“He must hear something in there!” Violet said.
Without hesitating, Henry opened the door and pushed it back. Then he reached over and flicked on the light. The intruder was almost all the way out the window. If the children had waited another second or so, they wouldn’t have seen anyone at all.
Watch zoomed across the carpet, but the thief jumped down just in time. Then he—or she—hurried across the lawn, swiftly scaled the fence, and disappeared into the night.
Henry snapped his fingers. “Just missed ’em!”
Grandfather and Tom appeared in the doorway. “What’s all this racket?” Grandfather asked.
“There was someone in here!” Benny replied. He looked scared, so Violet came up behind him and draped her arms around him.
“What?” Tom said. “Did you see the person’s face?”
Henry shook his head. “No. When I turned on the light, the person was almost out the window.”
“How strange,” Tom said. “Nothing like that has ever happened here. Someone must know we have the fourth piece of the map.”
He went outside and apologized to the other guests who had awoken because of the noise. If any of them wanted to go to another bed-and-breakfast, he told them, he’d understand. But they all said no, they wanted to stay. They knew it wasn’t Tom’s fault. Since everything seemed to be under control, they all went back to bed.
Coming back into his study, Tom said, “Is anything missing?”
“Here’s the bottle,” Jessie said, standing by the desk.
“And there’s the piece of the map,” Henry said, pointing to it on the table.
“But why didn’t the person take it?” Jessie asked.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Tom said quietly. “Even if he wanted to draw a copy of it, he couldn’t do it in the dark. Is it possible he just put it down and forgot about it?”
“Maybe he—” Henry began, but then someone came walking into the room.
It was an elderly woman in slippers and a robe. Her hair was the off-white color of old piano keys, and it ran down her back in a long ponytail. She held the robe tightly around her body, as if she were chilly. “Tom? What happened?”
“Oh, hello, Mrs. Carter. How are you?” Tom asked.
“I’m fine, but you don’t look so good. I heard all the commotion,” Mrs. Carter said.
“We had a break-in,” Tom told her. “Mrs. Carter, these are some friends of mine. This is James Alden, and these are his grandchildren, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and the little fellow is Benny. Kids, this is Mary Carter. She’s my next-door neighbor.”
Mrs. Carter and the Aldens exchanged hellos. Then the woman said, “A break-in? Was anything taken?”
“It doesn’t appear so.”
“What were those flashes?”
Everyone looked confused.
“Flashes?” Jessie asked.
Mrs. Carter pointed to the windows. “There were flashes in here. I saw them from my sitting room while I was watching TV Quick bursts of light. About a dozen.”
Tom said, “I’m afraid I don’t—”
“Pictures!” Violet blurted out. “Someone was taking pictures! The light bursts were caused by the flash!”
Tom sighed and nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably exactly what it was. There are so many reporters and other treasure hunters around here now, it could’ve been anybody. John Finney’s treasure is probably so valuable, some people will risk getting arrested for breaking into someone’s house in order to get their hands on it.”
Then Grandfather added, “So, as you said, it could’ve been anybody.”
“Uh-huh, that’s right. But no matter who it was,” Tom replied, “they’ve got pictures of the last piece of the map now. So if you kids really want to find that treasure, I suggest you do it as soon as possible.”
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