The Delaware Detectives
The Delaware Detectives
By Dana Rongione
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Published by
A Word Fitly Spoken Press
Cover Illustration: S.A. Welland
Interior Illustrations: Gene Papke and S.A. Welland
Copyright © 2012 Dana Rongione
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author, except where permitted by law.
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Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without help from the following people:
Abby and Jamie - Thanks for allowing me to use your names for this story and for taking your time to review the book and add some valuable insights and ideas.
Emily and Brandon - You have no idea how valuable your input was to me during the process of editing this book. Thanks for everything!
Christi and Kelly - Thanks for reading through the rough draft and giving me some ideas, as well as edits.
Aunt Tracy - I can't thank you enough for the editing you did on this project. You're such a blessing!
Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Stamp Collection
Chapter Two: An Introduction
Chapter Three: The Creepy House
Chapter Four: Searching For Treasure
Chapter Five: Uninvited Guests
Chapter Six: Hiding Places
Chapter Seven: The Hunt Continues
Chapter Eight: A Time of Rest
Chapter Nine: Dear Aunt Sally
Chapter Ten: Out of Time
Chapter Eleven: Big Trouble
Chapter Twelve: It’s True
Chapter Thirteen: Fame and Treasure
Glossary of Terms
Questions
About the Author
Chapter One:
The Stamp Collection
“Abby, can I sleep in your room tonight?” Jamie asked from the doorway after Pop-Pop (that's what we call our grandfather) had sent us off to bed.
“Again?” I questioned. “You’ve slept in my room every night since we got here. What’s wrong with your room?”
“It’s creepy. That big stuffed owl on the wall keeps looking at me, and I’m not so sure that it’s dead. It looks very alive to me. Please, Abby!”
I completely agreed with Jamie about the stuffed owl. That thing was spooky, and his dark shiny eyes seemed to follow me everywhere I went. I was extremely relieved that I did not have to share my room with that terrifying creature, but I could not let my little brother know how I felt. “You know, for an eight-year-old, you sure are a chicken.”
Glaring, Jamie responded, “And for a big sister, you’re not very nice.”
“All right, fine!” I said as I flopped down on my bed. “But this is the last time. Tomorrow you’re sleeping in your own room—creepy owl or not.”
Jamie bounced into the room and onto the bed across from mine. While staying at Pop-Pop’s house for the summer, Jamie and I were sleeping in the two upstairs bedrooms. Jamie’s room consisted of two beds, a night stand between the beds, a dresser, a closet, and a small table. The creepy owl was the only decoration on the walls. My room was connected to his by a simple doorway with no door. It had similar furniture, but thankfully, no stuffed owl. My room also contained the attic doorway, a small cut-out in the wall covered by a plywood door that fastened with a simple latch.
As I turned out the light that night, I wondered how I was going to fulfill my plan. I wanted to look in the attic again, but how was I going to sneak in there with my little brother in the same room? I thought about it for several minutes until I heard the soft, even breathing coming from the other side of the room.
“Jamie, are you awake?” I asked.
No answer.
“Jamie,” I said a little louder. “Are you awake?”
Still, no answer. My plan might just work out after all, I thought. I knew my brother to be a heavy sleeper, so I slipped out of my bed and put on my pink robe and fuzzy slippers. I grabbed my “emergency bag” from beside my nightstand. This bag contained a few snacks, a couple of sodas, a book, and some other odds and ends. I never went anywhere without my bag. I tiptoed across the room to the attic doorway and slowly lifted the latch. As I swung open the small door, it made a terrible scraping sound. I looked back over my shoulder to see if Jamie had awakened. He was lying in the same position with his eyes closed. I breathed a sigh of relief, crept through the doorway, and shut the door behind me. In the darkness, I felt along the walls for a light switch. I knew there had to be one because Pop-Pop had turned the lights on when we were in the attic this morning. I was beginning to lose hope of finding it when I felt something tickling my face. I reached up, and my hand came in contact with something that felt like a long string. I grabbed it, gave it a tug, and the attic lit up.
I blinked at the sudden brightness and then made my way towards the old dusty book I had found earlier that day. When I spotted it, I settled down on the floor and placed it in my lap. As I opened the book and looked through the many pages of stamps, I could not help but be excited. I love old stuff! It felt like Christmas to me.
I first discovered the stamp collection when Jamie and I were exploring the attic this morning. At first glance, it appeared to be an old photo album, but as soon as I opened it, I knew we had found something special. This collection was awesome and probably worth a lot of money. There were even stamps dating back to the 1800s. Being a history lover, I practically drooled as I turned the yellowed pages.
I don’t know how long I had been in the attic when I felt a pang of hunger. Thinking how smart I had been to bring my “emergency bag,” I grabbed the bag and rummaged through it. “That’ll work!” I said to myself, pulling out a bag of chips and a soda. I had only just begun to enjoy my snack when I heard a quiet thump. Oh, please don’t be a rat! I thought. I sat still trying to decide from which direction the sound had come, but the sound had stopped. I was beginning to think I had imagined the noise until I heard it again, and this time I was sure it was something much bigger than a rat.
“AAUUGGHH!” I screamed as I jumped up, dropping my chips, my drink, and the stamp collection. I looked toward the source of the noise but couldn't see past the brightness of the attic light. All I could make out was a dark figure moving towards me from the shadows. I stepped back. The figure came closer until it stood directly under the light. “Jamie? You scared me half to death! What are you doing up here?”
“I woke up a little while ago and thought that you had gone to the bathroom. But when you never came back, I thought maybe you had come back up here. I guess I was right.”
“How did you open the door without making any noise? It let out a terrible scrape when I opened it.”
“I don't know,” Jamie said. “Maybe it just doesn't like you.”
“That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. How can a door like or dislike someone? Go back to bed, Jamie. I'll be there in a few minutes.”
I looked down at the book on the floor and groaned. The stamp collection was lying next to a puddle of brown liquid, and at least one page was splattered with soda.
“Look what you did!” I snapped at Jamie. “Now there’s soda all over Pop-Pop’s book. We’re going to be in big trouble!”
“We? I didn’t spill the drink,” Jamie said defensively.
I got down on my knees and slid the book away from the sticky mess. “I wouldn’t have spilled it either if you hadn’t startled me. What am I going to do? Quick, Jamie, go get some towels!”
“I didn’t make the mess. You go get the towels!”
“Jamie,” I said through gritted teeth, “please just g
o get something for me to dry this off with.”
“Fine,” he said, “but I’m not cleaning it up.”
In minutes, he returned with a towel. I picked up the soggy chips and the now-empty can of soda and wiped up the spill with the towel. As I picked up the stamp collection to dry it off, several of the stamps fluttered to the floor. “Great,” I muttered. “I guess the moisture caused the glue to wear off. Now these things won’t stick anymore. I am dead meat!”
“Yep, you’re right!” Jamie said.
I glared up at him. “Well, don’t just stand there. Help me pick them up.”
With a sigh, Jamie bent down and helped me pick up the stamps.
“Hey,” I said after a few minutes. “Look at this one. The back of this stamp has the letter ‘E’ on it. That’s strange. I wonder what it means.”
Jamie shrugged his shoulders and continued picking up the stamps. Suddenly he stopped and turned to me. “This one has a letter on it too—the letter ‘W.’”
Immediately, I began to turn over the stamps that had fallen out of the book. Most of them—but not all—had a single letter written on the back of the stamp. “T, D, H, N, E, U, S, O, E, F, C, E, R, B, E, Y, T, A, M,” I said as I looked at the row of letters. “What could they mean?”
Jamie’s dark eyes lit up. “Maybe it’s a secret message.”
“Yeah, right!” I said.
“No,” Jamie protested. “I’m serious. Maybe someone gave this to Pop-Pop, and this secret message leads to a treasure or something. That stuff happens all the time.”
I looked at my brother.
“Well,” he mumbled, “it happens a lot in books and movies.”
“You have quite an imagination,” I said. “If this was a secret message to Pop-Pop, he would have found it a long time ago. It’s probably just some old letters that meant something to someone at some time. I wonder though. . .”
“What?” Jamie asked.
“I just wonder if there is anything on the backs of these other stamps, you know, the ones that didn’t get wet.”
“Well,” Jamie said, glancing at the book and grinning, “there's only one way to find out.”
“Are you crazy? I’m already going to be in trouble. You want me to take more of them out of the book? No way!”
“But it’s the only way we’ll know if anything is on the back of them. Come on! Don’t you want to see the backs of them? Don’t you want to know?” Jamie said.
I knew better than to listen to him. After all, the letters were probably nothing. But my curiosity beat out my common sense, and I began to carefully remove each stamp. I started with the page that was splattered with drink. Some of the stamps that had not fallen off were damp, which made them easy to remove. I turned over each stamp as I lifted it from the book. Just as with the others, most of them had various letters on the back, but they were jumbled and made no sense. However, as I started on the next page, I found that the letters actually spelled out words. The stamps that were blank on the back were placed in between words as if to separate them. Once Jamie and I had removed and turned over all the stamps on the second page, the message was clear: where the water goes round and round.
“What does that mean?” Jamie asked as he read the message aloud.
“I have no idea, but that’s probably not all of the message.”
Jamie stood up and stretched his back and legs. “What do you mean?”
I pointed to the stamps that were spread out in front of me. “I mean that we still have all of these letters from the first page. They probably spell out the first part of the message, but I don’t know how we’re ever going to unscramble them.”
“Don’t you remember how they were laid out in the book?” Jamie asked. “The letters were probably in order just like they are on this page.”
“No, I don’t remember,” I said with frustration. “I had just started to look at this page when you came up and scared—um—startled me.”
I just stared at the letters, but Jamie sat down again and turned the stamps from the second page face up.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m just looking at something,” he answered as he studied the page.
After several minutes, Jamie smiled. “Yep,” he said, “that’s what I thought.”
“What?” I asked, puzzled.
“Look at the stamps on this page real close.”
I studied the rows of faces looking back at me—George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin. I studied the color of each stamp, from eerie yellows to rosy reds. “Okay, I don’t get it. What am I looking for?”
Jamie gave another sigh. “Do I have to do everything? Look at the dates.”
I turned my attention back to the page and gasped in excitement. “They’re in chronological order!”
“Chrono-what?” Jamie asked.
“Chronological order. It means in order of the dates. See.” I pointed at the first stamp on the page and moved my finger across the page. This first one here was made in 1881, and this next one, 1882, then 1883, and so on. All we have to do is put the stamps in order by the year they were made, and we’ll have the first part of the message.”
“I know that,” Jamie snapped. “I’m the one who told you they were in order. Remember?”
“It doesn’t really matter. The important thing is that now we can read the message.”
As we sorted through the stamps, I could not believe I had overlooked something so simple. How embarrassing to be outsmarted by my little brother! Luckily, no one else was there to see, but that didn't keep him from smiling that ridiculous I’m-so-smart smile.
After several minutes, we had the first page of stamps in order. We turned them over so that we could see the writing on the back of each stamp and stared at the message that was spread before us. “The secret may be found where the water goes round and round,” I read aloud.
“Yes!” Jamie shouted. “I knew it. It is about a secret treasure! I told you so!”
“We don’t know that,” I said, but I was beginning to wonder if he might be right. Could this be a clue to a hidden fortune? If so, what in the world did it mean?