The Clue in the Papyrus Scroll

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  “Your grandfather and I knew,” Mrs. McGregor reminded them. “But the Argents couldn’t find out from us.”

  The children spent the trip telling Mrs. McGregor everything they had done until the driver let them out in front of the museum. The car that had been behind them didn’t stop. It went past and disappeared. Violet was relieved.

  They went inside to a woman who sat at a ticket counter. “We’re looking for a Dr. Douglas,” Jessie said. “Does he work here?”

  The woman shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. We don’t have anyone here by that name.”

  “We’re stuck then,” Violet said. “What do we do now?”

  “Wait, I just thought of something. Remember Benny’s idea about Douglas being a first name?” Henry went back to the desk and asked the woman if anyone there had a first name of Douglas.

  Once again she said, “I’m sorry. We don’t.”

  “Thank you.” Disappointed, Henry turned to walk away.

  “Wait,” the woman called. He turned back around. “I’d forgotten. Dr. Brown goes by a first name of Grant, but Grant is actually his middle name. He goes by D. Grant Brown, because his father is an archaeologist too, another Douglas Brown. Does that help?”

  “Yes!” Violet cried.

  “Is Dr. Brown here?” Jessie asked.

  “Dr. Brown does some research here, but he’s not in the museum at the moment. He is out at Stonehenge with a group of visitors giving them a tour.”

  “Is he coming back here after the tour?” Henry asked.

  The woman shook her head. “No, we are having a reception here tonight. Dr. Brown hates parties. I believe he is going home after the tour.”

  “We’ll go to Stonehenge then and try to find him,” Henry said.

  “We have something very important to give him,” Violet added.

  “Let me call the visitor center then,” the woman said. “I’ll have them hold the proper tickets for you, the ones Dr. Brown and his group are using. Those are the ones that allow visitors to walk among the stones at sunset. Other times of the day you have to look at the stones from a pathway.” She made the call and then told the Aldens, “It’s all arranged. You should hurry though. The site closes soon.”

  The Aldens started to rush out the door. Jessie stopped and turned back to the woman at the desk. “How will we recognize Dr. Brown?”

  The woman laughed. “You’ll know him, or at least you’ll hear him. He’s a tall man who talks in a loud voice, and he talks a lot. If for some reason he’s not talking, you can recognize him by his jacket. He always wears it. It’s brown with a fuzzy white collar that looks like mice have been chewing on it. His wife keeps throwing it away, and he keeps rescuing it from the rubbish bin.”

  “It shouldn’t be too hard to find someone like that,” Henry said.

  The driver was waiting for them and took them straight to the visitor center. They jumped out just in time to see a group of people getting on a tram. Henry ran up to the window and explained who they were. The woman at the window gave him the tickets and said, “Hurry, you’ll just make the last tram.”

  On board the tram, they watched as the vehicle went around a curve and they could finally see the circle of stones.

  “They’re giant!” Benny cried.

  “They didn’t look so big in the puzzle,” Violet added.

  “Some people used to call Stonehenge the Giant’s Dance, because they thought only giants could have built it,” Henry told them. The stones rose out of the ground in the middle of a huge grassy field. Their dark gray color made them stand out against the bright blue sky.

  “They are a little spooky,” Benny said. Violet nodded her head in agreement.

  As they got out, Jessie said, “That must be Dr. Brown.” She pointed to big, tall man striding over the field toward the stones as the group of people behind him scurried to keep up.

  Henry said, “Let’s catch up to him, and then we can talk to him when he’s done giving his tour.”

  They caught up and stood at the back of the group. Dr. Brown was waving his arms around enthusiastically. “Fantastic, don’t you think?” his voice boomed. “Think what a great effort it must have been to lift these massive stones into place, all without the use of modern equipment.” He went over to one and stood looking up at it. “Astounding!” he continued. “It also took tremendous effort to get the stones here. These kinds of stones are only found miles away. It must have taken hundreds of people to move them.”

  A woman in the group raised her hand. Dr. Brown said, “What’s your question? Speak up!”

  “Why was it built?”

  The big man grinned. “It’s a mystery and one I’ve devoted my life to solving. I’m having a grand time working on it. All we know is that the reason must have been very important. There are many, many theories, but nothing we can prove. I wish we had written records from when it was built, but we don’t. That’s why it’s called a prehistoric monument. For those of you who don’t know, ‘prehistoric’ means before recorded history. Here’s another fact for you. Many people don’t know that there are standing stones all over Great Britain, Ireland, and Northern France. Some are just a single stone and some are in groups. Stonehenge is the most famous because it is so large and so many of the stones are still standing.”

  Other people asked questions and Dr. Brown answered them all, striding back and forth in front of the stones waving his arms around the whole time. When there were no more questions, he said, “The tram will take you back to the visitor’s center. I’m going to stay a bit and walk back.”

  The group moved off. Jessie walked up to the archaeologist. When he saw her, he said, “If you have another question, I’ll be happy to answer it, but you’ll have to hurry. You don’t want to miss the tram. It’s more than a mile back to walk it.”

  “I don’t have a question. Well actually I do, but not about Stonehenge. Are you a friend of the owls?”

  A Brush with the Enemy

  The man looked at her with the same puzzled expression Dr. Archer had worn when they had approached her. He also had the same reaction to Jessie’s question, bursting into a loud laugh. “I certainly am.” He looked around eagerly at them. “Does this mean it’s been found?”

  “We do have something for you, but we don’t know what it is.” Henry took the case out and handed it to Dr. Brown. “The code is 1808.”

  Dr. Brown put in the code and then lifted the lid carefully. “Oh,” he said as he looked inside, “it is a rare beauty, even for such a wee thing. I’ll be glad to see it back where it belongs.”

  “What is it?” Violet asked.

  “That is a good question,” Dr. Brown said. “We’re not exactly sure, though it was some sort of decoration either worn by a person or placed on a weapon. It was found at a burial site near here along with some other artifacts. We don’t know the name of the person buried there, but he must have been very important because of the gold found with him.”

  “How can that little piece of gold be important enough for someone to want to steal it? Did they want it because it was made out of gold?”

  “Not necessarily. While gold is valuable, this is far more valuable because of its age. We know so little about Stonehenge that everything we find from the time period it was built in is very important.”

  “That’s what Dr. Archer said about old things found near the Great Pyramid,” Benny told him.

  “Dr. Archer is right, whoever they are,” Dr. Brown said. “I want to get this back to the museum. Since you’ve come a long way to bring this to me, would you like a quick tour of the museum?” He laughed. “If you haven’t discovered it already, I love to lecture.”

  Their car followed him in his car back to the museum. When they got out and joined him at the entrance, he was frowning. “All these cars in the parking lot! I forgot about the reception. We’ll just go in and keep to ourselves. Maybe no one will notice us.”

  Henry thought it would be difficult for Dr. Brown t
o go unnoticed anywhere, but he didn’t say anything. They followed the archaeologist inside. He carried the case very carefully in two hands as if he was afraid he’d drop it.

  The rooms were crowded with people who were standing around talking in small groups. It was very noisy. “This is not a good time for a tour,” Dr. Brown told the Aldens and Mrs. McGregor. “If you can come back tomorrow morning, I can show you around without all this foolishness. They aren’t even looking at the displays!”

  Dr. Brown took them to a display case in the corner where there was an empty stand and a sign that read, “Bush Barrow Lozenge.”

  “What’s a lozenge?” Violet asked. “I thought that was a cough drop.”

  “That’s one meaning,” Dr. Brown said as he put in a code on a lock on the side of the display case. “It also can refer to something that is diamond shaped, like our little treasure.”

  He punched in the code on the case holding the gold piece, opened it up, pulled out the lozenge, and set it on top of the case. Just as he went to open the door of the display case, a women yelled, “I see a rat! It’s right there! Look out, don’t step on it!”

  Some people screamed, and excited voices filled the museum. Everyone started moving around, looking down at the floor for the rat.

  All of the sudden, Dr. Brown yelled “Stop!” and then Benny felt someone bump into him. The person pushed past him and into the crowd. He just caught a glimpse of tall woman with a blond ponytail.

  “Someone grabbed the case! It’s gone!” Dr. Brown shouted, so loud everyone except the woman froze. She was still moving, and because everyone else was still, she darted around them easily and out the door.

  “Stop her!” Dr. Brown yelled again, but that turned out to be a mistake. Everyone moved then, crowding toward the door so no one could get out very quickly.

  By the time the Aldens and Dr. Brown made it out to the parking lot, the woman was nowhere in sight.

  “It was Anna Argent,” Benny said. “I saw her. She looked just like she looked on the train.”

  They went back inside. “I’ll call the police,” Dr. Brown said. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

  The rest of the guests were asked to leave, and the Aldens and Mrs. McGregor stood waiting for Dr. Brown to finish his call.

  “I can’t believe Anna Argent found us,” Henry said.

  “I can’t either,” Jessie said. “Violet, you must have been right about someone following us.”

  Violet wasn’t listening. She had caught sight of something on the floor by the edge of a display that gleamed against the carpet. Running over to it, she picked it up. “It’s the lozenge!” she cried.

  Dr. Brown heard her. He hurried over and she gave it to him. Wonderful!” he said. “It must have fallen out when that woman grabbed the case. Thank you, young lady! You have sharp eyes.”

  He opened the display, placed the lozenge on its stand, and then closed and locked the case. “There. It will be safe now. We’ve upgraded our alarm system since the theft. I need to go call the police again and tell them they are no longer needed. Thank you again.”

  The Aldens said good-bye to Dr. Brown, relieved they had managed to deliver the third artifact safely. “Is it time to eat now?” Benny asked.

  “It is,” Mrs. McGregor said. The driver took them first to a restaurant for dinner and then after that followed Mrs. McGregor’s directions. She showed him where to turn in at a lane with a sign that read, Danby Bed and Breakfast.

  “Here we are,” the driver said as he pulled up in front of a farmhouse at the end of the lane.

  “Can you drive around to the side of the house?” Mrs. McGregor asked him. “We are in a cottage next to the main house.”

  He did and when the headlights lit up the cottage, Violet said, “It looks like a cottage from a fairy tale!” The little stone cottage had a thatched roof and an old wooden door. Next to the door stood a clay pot full of daffodils.

  “I like it,” Benny said, “even though there aren’t going to be giraffes at breakfast.”

  “I have the key,” Mrs. McGregor said. “I checked in earlier before I came to meet you.”

  It was warm and cozy inside. Everyone put their things down. Henry lit a fire in the fireplace, and Mrs. McGregor made them some hot chocolate.

  When they were settled around the fire, Jessie said, “I wish we could figure out where Tricia is. What she said about roads has to be a clue, but I don’t know how we’d figure it out.”

  “What did she say?” Mrs. McGregor asked.

  “She said she was going where all roads go. We don’t know any place like that.”

  Mrs. McGregor laughed. “I think I do. There is an old saying, ‘All roads lead to Rome.’ I suspect Tricia Silverton went to Rome.”

  “Do all roads really lead to Rome?” Benny asked and then tried to answer his own question. “They can’t because the ones in the United States don’t. They can’t go under or over the ocean.”

  “No, but back when the Roman Empire covered most of Europe, the Romans built many roads that really did lead to Rome,” Mrs. McGregor explained. “There were older roads that led to other places, but the saying has stuck ever since then.”

  “Let’s FaceTime Trudy,” Jessie suggested.

  When Trudy heard what Mrs. McGregor had told them, a big smile crossed her face. “You’re right. She probably did go to Rome. She’s got a small apartment there because she is in the city so much. I’ll give you the address, and once you arrive you can go there and ask her landlady if she has seen her. I almost forgot! What about the artifact?”

  Jessie explained everything. “Terrific!” Trudy said. “You are all doing a great job. I feel like we are close to figuring out what Tricia is doing and getting the rest of those artifacts back where they belong. Anna Argent should realize by now that she is not going to outsmart you. I’ll call Emilio and let him know the plans.”

  It was arranged that they would leave for Rome the next morning, and Mrs. McGregor was to go with them. On the plane, Mr. Ganert was his usual grumpy self. Emilio was not in a happy mood either. He didn’t tell any jokes or ask any questions about their adventure the day before.

  “What do you think is wrong with Emilio?” Violet whispered as the plane took off.

  “I don’t know,” Jessie said. “Maybe he’s just tired of being around Mr. Ganert all the time. That wouldn’t make me happy either.”

  When the plane landed in Rome, there was a call from Trudy. Her happy expression from the night before was gone. “There’s been a change of plans,” she told them. “Mr. Carter is meeting you at the airport. Go with him and then call me later.”

  “What does he want with us?” Henry asked.

  “He didn’t say, just that it was important.” Trudy hung up before they could ask more questions.

  Mr. Carter was waiting for them. As they came down the stairs, they could see his expression. He was not happy.

  Where All Roads Lead

  Mr. Carter greeted Mrs. McGregor and then turned to the children. “There is someone who wants to talk to you.”

  “Who?” Henry asked.

  “Inspector Donati,” Mr. Carter said. “He’s with a special division of the Italian police, the Carabinieri Art Squad. Their job is to recover stolen art.”

  “Why does he want to talk to us?” Jessie asked. She hadn’t imagined that would be the reason they were meeting Mr. Carter.

  “It’s best if I let him tell you. This way.”

  As they drove into Rome, Jessie tried to admire the beautiful buildings, but she was too worried about why they were going to see a policeman. She could tell Violet and Henry were worried too. Benny, at least, was not. He pointed out all the statues they passed. “This doesn’t look anything like Connecticut!” he kept saying at every statue.

  At the Art Squad’s headquarters, an assistant showed them into a tiny office. There was barely enough room for all of them. “Mr. Donati will be with you shortly,” the woman said as
she left.

  Not only was the office tiny but it was also full of stacks of paper and crammed with file cabinets. Perched on every surface were small clay sculptures, though it wasn’t clear what they were supposed to represent. Violet leaned in close to look at one on the very edge of the desk. “I think this one might be a person’s head. This could be the nose and this might be a mustache.” She pointed at some of the lumpier bits on the sculptures.

  “This one has a mustache too,” Henry said, examining another.

  The door opened and a man in a dark suit and shiny dress shoes walked in. He wasn’t much taller than Henry. “Agent Carter, hello,” the man said and then smiled at the Aldens and Mrs. McGregor. Agent Carter introduced them. “I see you are admiring my son’s work.” Mr. Donati picked up one of the clay pieces. “He wants to be a sculptor. I sit for him, and then he gives me all the practice busts he makes. I think he shows talent, though he always makes my mustache much too large.” Mr. Donati patted his own small, trimmed mustache. “But we are not here to talk about my son.” He grew serious. “We have had some disturbing news from Paris.”

  Taking a folder off his desk, he opened it, pulling out a photograph. “Tricia Silverton was seen on the street outside this auction house in Paris right before a valuable ruby ring was discovered to be missing.” The blurry picture showed a woman in a purple hat and a big coat walking down the street. The woman had on large sunglasses and a scarf around the lower part of her face.

  “How can you tell who that is?” Jessie asked. “You can’t see much of her face at all.”

  “We know it’s her. An employee recognized her when she came in to make an inquiry.”

  Henry remembered something. “Emilio and Mr. Ganert went to Paris while we were in Cairo.”

  “Yes, the Reddimus Society pilots were supposed to pick up the ring after the auction house determined it had been stolen from the owner in England. It appears Tricia Silverton got there first.”