The Clue in the Papyrus Scroll

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  Alex went inside but then came right back out. “A letter was just delivered for you. Maybe this is the message you were waiting for last night.” She handed an envelope to Jessie before going back inside.

  Jessie was about to open it when Benny pointed at it, “There is something written on it. Right there in the corner.”

  “It’s a little drawing of an owl!” Violet said.

  “Then it’s definitely from Tricia,” Jessie said, excited for a new clue.

  Violet picked up the paper and unfolded it. “And this is another riddle!” She read it out loud.

  A clever man he was,

  Who knew jigsaw puzzles would be loved by many.

  If you visit the country from whence he came,

  You will be one step closer to completing your task.

  She read it again and then said, “It doesn’t say figure out who invented jigsaw puzzles. I don’t know what this means: Who knew jigsaw puzzles would be loved by many.”

  “We’ll have to research jigsaw puzzles. I’ll be right back.” Jessie ran upstairs and got her laptop, bringing it back down to the terrace. She searched through some sites and then said, “Jigsaw puzzles were first made popular by a man named John Spilsbury. He lived in England. The riddle makes sense then: A clever man he was, / Who knew jigsaw puzzles would be loved by many.”

  “If you visit the country from whence he came, / You will be one step closer to completing your task,” Henry read. “Our next stop is England.”

  “Yay!” Benny said. “I love England.”

  “Me too. But we don’t know where to go once we are in England.” Violet pointed out.

  “I’ll call Emilio,” Henry said. When Emilio picked up the phone, Henry explained the clue and how they had solved it. “So we know it’s England, but that’s all we know.”

  He listened for a minute and then told the others what Emilio had said. “He thinks we will get more information soon, or at least before we arrive in England. Since it’s about a ten-hour flight, he wants to leave early in the morning. We’re to stay here for another night.”

  “That means we get to feed the giraffes again!” Benny said.

  “Yes,” Jessie said, though she was worried that they still didn’t have any idea how to solve the riddle about the king.

  They spent the rest of the day at the hotel exploring and watching the animals. Snuffles followed them everywhere, bringing them sticks until they understood she wanted to play fetch. They learned all the giraffes’ names and helped name some of the baby warthogs. Violet declared she had decided that baby warthogs were as cute as baby pigs. Dinner was served in a big dining room by candlelight. Alex explained, “We don’t have electricity in this room on purpose, so people can experience what it would have been like when this house was first built.”

  As much as they enjoyed the day, Jessie kept waiting for a message, but none came.

  By bedtime, Henry brought up that they still hadn’t received a new clue. “I wonder if there was a mix-up, like Dr. Archer giving the necklace to Ken instead of keeping it to give to Christina.”

  “I think it will come in the morning,” Violet said.

  She was right. As soon as they were finished with breakfast and had brought their bags down, Alex came out of her office. “Your driver is here,” she said. “And we’ve gotten another message for you.” She held out a piece of paper. “This one was phoned in to us. The desk clerk wrote it down. It doesn’t make sense to me, but maybe it does to you.”

  Jessie took it. “It says, Beware. Sometimes an owl is not an owl, but a crow instead. And we all know crows like to steal shiny objects. Who is the crow?”

  “That’s very strange,” Henry said. “We’ll have to think about that.”

  The driver came in the front door. “I’m sorry to rush you,” he said, “but I’m supposed to get you to the airport as soon as possible.”

  “I hope you can come back and visit sometime,” Alex said.

  “We will,” Henry assured her. The others nodded and said their good-byes. Benny waved at the giraffes as they drove away.

  Once they were on the main road, Henry said, “Would you read the message again?”

  Jessie did and Benny said, “Crows do like shiny things, but how can an owl be a crow?”

  “I think it means someone working for the Reddimus Society is really a thief,” Henry said. “The message says crows like to steal shiny things. Maybe Tricia did steal something from the museum.”

  Jessie shook her head. “It’s too hard to believe. Why would Tricia take the time to make arrangements for Christina to stay at such a nice hotel if Tricia was busy planning on stealing something?”

  “We need to find out who left the messages,” Violet said. “If it wasn’t Emilio or Trudy or Mr. Ganert, who would it be?”

  “Let’s call Trudy,” Benny said. “She might know.”

  Jessie dialed Trudy’s number. She listened and then said, “There’s no answer, just a message to leave a message.”

  “We’ll have to wait until we get on the plane to ask,” Henry said. “Emilio might know.”

  Mr. Ganert was waiting impatiently for them when they arrived at the airport. “We should have been in the air an hour ago,” he scolded. “Where is that Emilio? He’s never on time.” He looked out the window, grumbling under his breath. When he turned to go back to the cockpit, he pointed at a package laying on one of the seats. “Someone delivered that for you.”

  Jessie picked up the package. “There’s a little drawing of an owl on it,” she said as she unwrapped it. Inside was a cloth bag with a drawstring. She opened it. “It’s a big bag of puzzle pieces. So that’s why we got the riddle about the jigsaw puzzle.”

  Violet took the bag from Jessie and looked in. “This looks like a hard puzzle. There are lots and lots of pieces in here.” She reached in and took out a handful.

  “They’re tiny pieces,” Benny said. “Like the big puzzles we all do together at home that have thousands and thousands of pieces.”

  Jessie laughed. “Maybe not thousands and thousands, but there may be at least one or two thousand for this puzzle. Is there anything besides puzzle pieces in the bag? It will be extra hard if there isn’t a picture of what the puzzle looks like when it is finished.”

  Violet looked again. “There’s nothing else in here.”

  “Here comes Emilio,” Henry said. They looked out the window. The copilot came dashing out of the terminal carrying some bags. A man followed behind him carrying more. When the two got to the plane, Emilio called out, “Anyone up there? I need some help. Someone take these and put them in the galley. No one will go hungry on this trip.”

  Mr. Ganert came out of the cockpit as the children went to help. “Just put the bags in the storage area and shut the door,” he ordered. “You can put things away after we take off. Let’s move.”

  Everyone rushed to get the bags secured, get in their seats, and put on their seatbelts.

  They had just buckled in as the plane rolled down the runway and took off. “I’m getting used to this,” Violet said, “though I miss our boxcar.”

  “I do too,” Benny said.

  “Our boxcar will still be there when we get home, though I miss it too. And Watch and Grandfather and Mrs. McGregor.” The seatbelt light went off, so Jessie unfolded the table between the two sets of seats. “I think we should work on the puzzle first and then the riddle. What do you think?”

  Everyone agreed the puzzle was the place to start. “Let’s make a plan,” Henry said. “Benny, you are good at finding the edge pieces, so that’s your job. The rest of us can start sorting by color.”

  As soon as they started sorting, Violet said, “All these pieces have writing on them.” She held up one piece. “This one has a C and an O on it.” She picked up another piece. “And this one has a D and a U on it.”

  “You’re right! It has to be another clue!” Jessie said. “We’ll put it all together and then figure out how to flip it ov
er to read the back.”

  They got to work. Emilio checked on them every so often. They also remembered to ask Emilio about the messages sent to the hotel.

  “It wasn’t me,” he said. “And Mr. Ganert never has anything to do with those sorts of details. I’ll ask Trudy when I contact her again.” He sat down and tried to fit a puzzle piece into the right place. When he found it, he shouted, “I did it!” He leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “Say, do you want to hear a puzzle joke? What did the alien say to the jigsaw puzzle?” he asked, his eyes lit up with glee.

  When no one could answer, Emilio cried, “I come in piece and you come in pieces! Get it? ‘I come in piece, P…I…E…C…E’ instead of ‘I come in peace!’ That’s a good one.” He burst into laughter. He was enjoying himself so much, everyone else laughed too.

  “I get it,” Violet said. She explained it to Benny.

  “That’s funny,” Benny said, still giggling. He repeated the joke so he could remember to tell it to Grandfather.

  Henry leaned down to look more closely at the section where Emilio had put a piece. “I know what this is. No wonder it’s all gray and green. It’s one of the most famous sites in England.”

  The Giant’s Dance

  “Tell us!” Benny said.

  “It’s a place called Stonehenge,” Henry explained.

  “You’re right!” Jessie said. “I remember seeing a picture of it.”

  “That’s a funny name for a place,” Violet said. “What is it?”

  Jessie took out her notebook and drew some shapes on it. “It’s an amazing monument made of giant stones. They’re placed in a big circle like this.” She tapped her pencil on the drawing and then drew a bit more. “Some of the stones are topped with other giant stones. It’s very, very old, and no one is sure why it was built. It’s hard to draw exactly. Let’s finish the puzzle. Then you can see what it looks like.”

  Henry fit another piece of the puzzle into place. “And we need to see what is written on the back. The sooner we finish the puzzle, the better.”

  “I’ll leave you to it,” Emilio said. “Mr. Ganert and I will figure out the closest airport and notify Trudy so she can make some arrangements for us.”

  Everyone kept working. When they got hungry, Jessie helped Emilio get out some of the food that he’d brought aboard. There were plenty of snacks, and later in the day he set out food for dinner. They ate quickly so they could get back to the puzzle.

  Eventually, Violet said, “There must be some more edge pieces, Benny. We should have that part all put together by now.”

  “There aren’t,” Benny said. “I looked all through the pieces three times.”

  “Let’s look one more time,” Jessie suggested. “Sometimes it’s easy to miss them.”

  All four of them looked but couldn’t find any. “That’s a bad sign,” Henry said. “If there are edge pieces missing, there might be inside pieces missing too.”

  When the last piece fit into place, it was clear the pieces for the bottom right corner of the puzzle were missing. “I hope the clue on the back is all there,” Jessie said. “I hope it was written in the middle of the puzzle.”

  “Let’s turn it over and see,” Henry reached for the puzzle.

  “It will all fall apart if we move it!” Violet said.

  “We can slide it onto one of the trays in the galley,” Jessie suggested. “And then use another tray to help us flip it over.”

  It took all four of them to slide the puzzle onto the tray and then turn it over.

  “Does it say anything?” Benny asked eagerly.

  “It just looks like lots and lots of letters,” Violet said. The back of the puzzle was filled with rows of random letters. “Is it really a clue?”

  “It’s a word search puzzle,” Henry said, “the kind where you have to look in either the rows or the columns or diagonally to find the hidden words.”

  “You’re right! I see a word!” Violet said, running her finger across the middle of the puzzle. “This spells out ‘DOCTOR.’”

  The rest of the words took much longer to find. “Remember we need to look at diagonal words and even words spelled backward,” Henry said. Eventually, they found only three words: DOCTOR, MUSEUM, and DOUGLAS.

  “I think there were some important words in the part that’s missing,” Violet said.

  That isn’t much of a clue,” Jessie agreed. “The last message was about Dr. Archer, so this one might be about a Dr. Douglas. And he must work at a museum.” Jessie got out her laptop and read through some information. “There are a lot of archaeologists named Douglas.”

  “See if any of them work at Stonehenge,” Henry said.

  Jessie tried a few different words. “Nothing comes up in a search.”

  “What if Douglas is a first name?” Benny asked.

  “Good thinking, Benny. Let me look some more.” After several minutes, Jessie sat back and sighed. “There are a lot of archaeologists who have Douglas as a first name too, but I can’t find one who works at Stonehenge. I don’t think I’m searching the right way, and there is so much information.”

  “I’ll try,” Henry said. He didn’t have any luck either. After several minutes he closed the laptop. “There is a museum close to Stonehenge in a nearby town. I suppose we can go there first and ask if a Dr. Douglas has anything to do with the museum.”

  “That’s a good plan,” Jessie said. “Maybe we can at least figure out the riddle and open the case.”

  Jessie read it again:

  Some called me king of this place.

  Was I? That I will not say.

  Though much of its history is yet to be uncovered,

  The stones stand while the sun rises and sets.

  Find when the king’s treasures were discovered,

  And that will reveal one of them to you.

  But all kings in the end

  Trade diamond and gold for a leafy crown.

  “Some called me king of this place,” Jessie repeated. “Was there a king of Stonehenge?”

  “I’ve never heard of that,” Henry said. “Let’s look it up.” Jessie gave him her laptop. “I’ll just type in king of Stonehenge” he said, “and we will see what comes up.”

  He had to look through several sites to find what they needed. “In 1808 archaeologists discovered an ancient burial site three miles from Stonehenge. It was full of gold and bronze treasures. People thought the treasures must have belonged to a king, and because the site was close to Stonehenge, they came up with the King of Stonehenge name. Since then, other burial sites have been called that, but this one, called Bush Barrow, had the most valuable treasures.”

  “So 1808 has to be the code to the case,” Jessie said. “Find when the king’s treasures were discovered, / And that will reveal one of them to you. The ‘when’ is 1808.”

  “Try it!” Benny cried, bouncing up and down in his seat with excitement.

  Henry took the case marked with three dots out of the bag. “Jessie, it’s your turn to open one.”

  Jessie put in the code. The lock clicked open. Inside the case was a small diamond-shaped gold disk. Its burnished surface almost glowed.

  “I didn’t know something so old could be so shiny. What is it?” Benny asked, leaning over to see.

  “Maybe it’s a piece of jewelry,” Violet suggested.

  “Or maybe it fell off of something bigger, like some sort of vase or box,” Jessie said.

  “I don’t know what it is,” Henry said, “but if we find Dr. Douglas, he’ll be able to tell us.”

  Emilio came out of the cockpit to look at the artifact. “We’ll be landing soon at an airport not too far from Stonehenge. I hope you can figure out where this goes.”

  Violet looked out the window as the plane taxied to a stop. “There’s someone waiting for us. Two people, someone dressed like an airport worker, and…and…Mrs. McGregor!”

  Their housekeeper waved. The Aldens all waved back, eager for Emilio to open
the door. When he did, everyone rushed down the steps. Mrs. McGregor hugged them all.

  “We didn’t expect to see you,” Jessie said.

  “Your grandfather sent me to see how you were doing,” Mrs. McGregor said. “I’ve been concerned after we heard Tricia Silverton wasn’t traveling with you. As soon as we knew you were coming to England, I hopped on a plane and here I am.”

  “We’ve been fine,” Henry said. “We’ve seen some amazing sites and stayed in some fantastic hotels.”

  “And we fed giraffes!” Violet said.

  “We rode camels too.” Benny added.

  “That does sound like fun,” Mrs. McGregor said, giving Benny an extra hug. “I want to hear all about it, but we should let this man check your passports and then we can go.” Mrs. McGregor gestured at the airport worker who stood next to her.

  After the man was finished with the paperwork, Emilio, who had gotten off the plane with Mr. Ganert, said, “Let me know if you can find the right person and if you get a message telling us where to go next.”

  Mr. Ganert mumbled something about hating last-minute trips, and then without saying good-bye to the Aldens, he got back on the plane.

  As the Aldens and Mrs. McGregor walked out to the parking lot, Mrs. McGregor said, “The driver who picked me up in London after my flight is waiting for us. Do you know where we need to go?”

  Jessie explained about the museum, and once they got in the car, the driver told them he knew the way.

  The car wound around the narrow roads. Violet looked out the back window. “There is a car behind us,” she said. “It’s been there ever since we left the airport.”

  Jessie turned around to look too. “It’s probably just a car going in the same direction as us.”

  “Yes, it can’t be Anna Argent, or any other Argents,” Henry said. “They can’t know where we are. We didn’t know we were coming to England until last night. The only other people who know we’re here are Trudy, Mrs. Silverton, Emilio, and Mr. Ganert.”