Summer Island

by Dori Hillestad Butler

  “Hmm,” Marly said. Sai was right. Drawing imaginary lines between globes and bears and daisies and telephones was always the last thing they did. “But we’ve still got at least one more puzzle to solve.”

  “Maybe the treasure hunt ends on the island in the middle of the lake, and the puzzle tells us how to get there,” Isla suggested.

  “I bet that’s it,” Sai said.

  “Where’s the puzzle?” Isla looked around.

  Marly went to get her notebook where she’d stuffed the clue, and brought it back to the sofa. Then they all huddled close together, studying the new paper.

  Blf droo urmw z ylzg zg Nroovi Ozmwrmt

  “Is it a Caesar cipher?” Isla asked.

  “What’s that? Have we had that one before?” Sai asked.

  “It’s where you shift the position of each letter in the alphabet,” Isla explained. “It’s easier to show you than tell you.”

  She took the notebook from Marly, opened to a clean page, and wrote out the alphabet. Then she wrote it again right below the first alphabet, but this time she started with B. She put the B below the A, a C below the B, a D below the C . . . and when she got to Z, she put an A below it.

  “This is our key,” Isla said. “If we go back to the puzzle, B-L-F becomes C . . . M . . . G . . . which is not a word.”

  “No, it’s not,” Marly said, holding her chin in her hands.

  “It’s fine,” Isla said. “We might have to shift it more than one space. So instead of A equals B, maybe A equals C.” She turned to the next page and wrote out a whole new key, starting with C this time, and ending with an A below the Y and a B below the Z. Then she tried to decode the first word of the puzzle again. “D . . . N . . . H?” she said.

  “Still not a word,” Marly said.

  “Okay. We’ll shift it again,” Isla said.

  “Are we going to do this twenty-six times?” Sai slumped back against the sofa.

  “No,” Marly said. “We don’t have to do it twenty-six times. Look at the Z. How many one-letter words are there in the English language?”

  “Two,” Isla said with a slow smile. “A and I.”

  “So . . . we only need to do this two more times,” Sai said, catching on. “Once where Z is an A and once where Z is an I.”

  “Actually, we only need to do it one more time,” Isla said. “We already did Z equals A. See?” She turned back to their first key to show Sai.

  “Ohhh,” Sai said, sitting back up again.

  Isla wrote out one more alphabet. She put an I below the Z, a J below the A, and so on until she got all the way up to Y.

  Marly felt excitement swelling within her as she watched Isla write K . . . U . . . O . . .

  Isla groaned. “Still not right.”

  “Aww,” Marly said. “I was sure that was it.”

  Sai closed his eyes and started mouthing something while he counted on his fingers.

  “What are you doing, Sai?” Isla asked.

  “Shh!” Sai held up a finger.

  Marly and Isla shrugged at each other.

  All of a sudden, Sai leaped to his feet. “That’s it! It’s a backward alphabet! The first word is ‘you’!”

  Marly nudged Isla. “Try it,” she said.

  Isla wrote out the alphabet again. Then she wrote it again, backward, right below the first alphabet.

  Letter by letter, they decoded the whole puzzle. When they finished, it read:

  YOU WILL FIND A BOAT AT MILLER LANDING

  “I knew it!” Sai pumped his fist in the air. “That island in the middle of the lake is our hidden island. Now all we have to do is find the boat so we can go there, find the house, and hopefully find our treasure!”

  “Where’s Miller Landing?” Marly asked, reaching for the map. “I hope it’s on here.”

  Isla leaned over and scanned the map with Marly. “It is!” She pointed at a little beach on the opposite side of the lake from where from where they’d been this morning.

  Sai leapt to his feet. “Let’s go!” he exclaimed.

  “Not tonight,” Stella said from the kitchen. “We’re going to have dinner in a little bit. Then Isla is going to get some more rest. We’ll see it tomorrow.”

  Marly sighed, but she knew there’d be no changing Stella’s mind. Not while Isla was still recovering. She hoped Sai was right and the treasure hunt was almost over. Otherwise, they may not be able to finish before Captain Joe came back for them. Not finishing is not an option, she said to herself.

  In the morning, Marly, Isla, and Sai mapped out a route to Miller Landing.

  Stella held up the ATV key. “The only way I’m going to let you three continue this treasure hunt is if I come along,” she said firmly.

  Marly, Isla, and Sai exchanged surprised looks.

  “But you’re not supposed to help us,” Sai said. “That’s what you said when we first got here.”

  “I’m not going to help you with the puzzles. I’m just going to drive you where you need to go. That way I can make sure everyone is safe,” Stella said with a pointed look at Isla. “Vacation is officially over.”

  “We’ll get there faster in an ATV than on bikes,” Marly pointed out.

  “Let’s go!” Isla grabbed the map and headed for the door.

  While Stella drove, Marly and Isla followed along on the map and told her where to turn.

  “What is Miller Landing, anyway?” Sai asked.

  “We’re about to find out,” Isla said as they approached a wooden sign that pointed the way to Miller Landing.

  Stella turned and followed the narrow trail through the trees. It came to a dead end at a small clearing on the lake. There were no buildings and no dock. But lying upside down on the sand was a small rowboat.

  Everyone got out of the ATV and ran toward the boat.

  Marly shaded her eye. “I hope there are oars,” she said. They all got on one side of the boat to flip it over.

  “Yay, oars!” Isla said as the boat plopped down right side up on the sand. There were two oars clipped to the inside of the boat, and four life jackets tucked beneath the seats.

  “Hey, the place where Isla got stung is right over there.” Sai pointed across the lake.

  Marly squinted. She could barely make out a dock with a flag.

  Isla winced. “How about we call it ‘the place where we made the T’ instead?”

  “Okay,” Sai agreed. They bumped fists.

  “Let’s get this boat in the lake,” Marly said. She couldn’t wait to see what was on that island.

  “First the life jackets,” Stella said sternly. After yesterday, she clearly wasn’t taking any chances.

  They each grabbed a life jacket and put it on. Then they slipped off their shoes and tossed them into the boat.

  Marly helped Stella drag the front end of the boat into the water, and Isla and Sai pushed from behind.

  “Ah!” Marly shrieked as her foot came down in the cold water.

  “I don’t think it’s as cold as the other beach,” Sai said.

  “Cold is cold,” Isla said. Then they all climbed into the boat.

  Sai claimed one of the oars, Marly grabbed the other, and they started paddling. The water was calm, but Marly and Sai had a hard time getting the boat to go where they wanted it to go.

  “You two need to work together,” Stella told them.

  Marly and Sai watched each other and tried to paddle together. Eventually, they found a rhythm. As they drew closer to the island, they saw a sign planted in the sand. It read Hidden Island.

  “Look!” Isla said with excitement.

  Marly and Sai turned their heads.

  “Aha!” Sai cried, rocking the boat. “We were never looking for a hidden island. We were looking for an island called Hidden Island.”

  “And
look! There’s a house.” Marly pointed. “I bet our next clue is in there.”

  “Hopefully it’s our last clue,” Sai said.

  “I wonder what the treasure is this time,” Isla said.

  Knowing that Mr. Summerling always had an extra surprise up his sleeve, Marly couldn’t even begin to guess.

  As soon as Sai’s oar touched sand, he scrambled out of the boat. It lurched from side to side.

  “Wait, Sai,” Marly said as he stomped and splashed through the water.

  “Yes, hold on, Sai,” Stella said. “We need to pull the boat far enough onto the sand so that it can’t float away. We don’t want to be stranded here.”

  Marly, Isla, and Stella got out of the boat. But Sai kept right on going.

  “Hey!” Marly yelled with her hands on her hips. “It’s not fair for you to see what’s on this island before the rest of us do.”

  “Sorry, sorry,” he said, turning back. “I’m just excited.”

  Together, they dragged the boat across the sand and up onto the grass. Then they all put on their shoes and marched up to the cabin. It was nothing like the cabin where they were staying. This one was much smaller. The porch sagged and some of the wood was rotting.

  “It’s like a pioneer cabin,” Isla said.

  “I wonder if anyone ever lived here,” Marly said.

  “Be careful,” Stella said when Sai tried the door. Surprisingly enough, it creaked open! They all stepped inside.

  “It really is a pioneer cabin,” Isla said, looking around in wonder. It was a one-room cabin. The only light inside was the natural light that came in through the two windows. There was a single unmade bed that maybe doubled as a sofa, a small cook stove, and a table with two chairs. On the table was another blue metal box just waiting for them.

  “Treasure!” Sai cried. They all rushed over and Marly lifted the lid.

  Ilsa gasped.

  Inside the box was an old spyglass and a book on the history of secret codes.

  “Cool!” Sai said, reaching for the spyglass. He put it to his eye, then frowned. “I can’t see anything.”

  “You have to focus it,” Stella said.

  While Sai, Isla, and Stella tried to figure out how to work the spyglass, Marly picked up the book and riffled through it. “This would’ve been helpful when we were trying to figure out what some of those codes were,” she said.

  Then she noticed the folded sheet of paper at the bottom of the box. “There’s another letter,” she said as she opened it up. “And this one’s ‘From the Desk of Harry P. Summerling’!”

  But everyone else seemed more interested in the spyglass than the letter.

  “Fine, I’ll just read it myself,” Marly muttered. The type was too small to read in the dim light, so she took it over to the window. She skimmed the page, and her breath caught in her throat.

  “What?” Isla’s head popped up. “What does it say?”

  Marly’s hesitation caused Sai and Stella to take notice, too.

  “Marly?” Stella peered at her with concern.

  “Uh . . .” Marly’s hands began to shake. “It says, ‘Guess what, Treasure Troop. I’m alive!’ ”

  “It says what?” Stella’s eyes were wide with shock.

  “He’s alive?” Sai gaped. “For real?”

  Marly remembered when Sai had brought up the possibility that Mr. Summerling could still be alive a couple weeks ago. None of them had really believed it.

  “Is there more?” Stella asked intently.

  Isla walked over and took Marly’s hand. “Yes, sorry,” Marly said. She kept reading. “ ‘Give the spyglass to Captain Joe when he returns for you—’ ”

  “Aww!” Sai groaned.

  “ ‘He’ll give you something in return. The book is yours to keep. I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit to Summer Island.’ ” Marly turned the paper over to see if there was anything else. “And that seems to be it.”

  “Did you know Mr. Summerling was alive?” Isla asked Stella.

  “No,” Stella breathed, still looking dazed. “I had no idea.”

  “Now what?” Sai said, setting the spyglass down. “Do we get to see him? Is he going to tell us why he let everyone think he was dead? And why do we have to give the spyglass to Captain Joe? We found it!”

  “The letter says he’ll give us something in return,” Marly said. “I wonder what it is.”

  “Guess we’ll find out tomorrow,” Isla said.

  Marly wasn’t sure she could wait that long, but what choice did they have? “Hey, at least we finished the treasure hunt,” she said. And Mr. Summerling is alive!

  “Of course we finished the treasure hunt,” Sai said. “The Treasure Troop rocks!”

  Marly couldn’t disagree with that.

  * * *

  The next morning, they packed their things, closed up the cabin, and Stella drove the ATV back to the garage where they’d found it. Then they headed back down to the dock to wait for Captain Joe.

  Marly squinted at the water, then gasped. “Was that—did you see that?” She wasn’t positive, but she thought she saw a splash of water shoot up into the air like a fountain.

  A few minutes later, she knew for sure. It was a whale! It leaped out of the water, then splashed back down headfirst.

  “Oh wow!” Isla stared wide-eyed.

  “So cool!” Sai said.

  “Here comes Captain Joe,” Stella said as a large boat motored toward them.

  Would Captain Joe tell them where Mr. Summerling was? Would he take them to him? Marly couldn’t wait to find out.

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

  Dori Hillestad Butler's books have appeared on children's choice award lists in 18 different states. Trading Places with Tank Talbott won the Maryland Children's Choice Award in 2007, and The Buddy Files: Case of the Lost Boy won the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery. In 2018, she won a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor for King & Kayla and the Case of the Missing Dog Treats. She is the author of the successful Haunted Library series, and has also been a ghostwriter for the Sweet Valley Twins, Unicorn Club, and Boxcar Children series. She's published numerous short stories, plays, and educational materials, and has served as the Iowa Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators' Regional Advisor. She grew up in southern Minnesota and now lives in Seattle with her husband, son, dog, and cat. She visits schools and leads writing workshops all over the country.

  Tim Budgen is an illustrator and art teacher. For much of his life he has been scribbling down ideas and can usually be found with a pencil in one hand and a sketchbook in the other! He lives by the sea on Hayling Island, England, with his wife, Julia.

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