The Mystery of the Gold Coins
Page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Who is following Cam and Eric?
As they walked past a large wooded area, Cam heard the sounds of twigs breaking. Eric stopped walking so he could rest. Cam stopped, too. So did the sounds. Cam turned around, but no one was there.
“Did you hear anything?” Cam asked Eric.
“No.”
Eric said he was ready. He picked up the sundial, and he and Cam began to walk. Cam heard the sounds of twigs breaking again.
“Did you hear that?” Cam whispered.
“Yes. It sounds like something moving in the woods. Maybe it’s an animal.”
“Stop for a minute.”
Eric put down the sundial, and the sounds of footsteps stopped.
“It’s not an animal,” Cam whispered. “An animal wouldn’t stop whenever we do. Someone is following us.”
The Cam Jansen Adventure Series
DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE YOUNG CAM JANSEN
SERIES FOR YOUNGER READERS!
PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group,
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin, Inc., 1982
Published by Puffin Books, 1991
Reissued 1998
This edition published by Puffin Books,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2004
9 10
Text copyright © David A. Adler, 1982 Illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 1982
All rights reserved
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE 1991 PUFFIN BOOKS EDITION
UNDER CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 90-53036
eISBN : 978-1-101-07605-7
RL: 2.2
http://us.penguingroup.com
To My Niece, Shira, And To Her Parents, Felice and Mark
Chapter One
Cam Jansen and her friend Eric Shelton were carrying their science fair projects to school. Cam had made a box camera. Eric’s project was a big, heavy wooden sundial.
Cam looked at Eric. His face was turning red.
“I think we should stop here and rest,” Cam said.
“No. I can go a little farther.”
Eric took a few more steps. Then the sundial started to slip from his hands.
“O.K.,” Eric said. “We can rest now if you want to.”
They were standing close to a bus stop. Eric put the sundial down quickly, before it could fall. Then he sat on the bus stop bench. Cam sat next to him. She put the black cloth bag she was holding on her lap. The camera was inside the bag.
“You didn’t have to make your sundial so big,” Cam said.
“I made it big so we could put it in the garden after the science fair. My mother said she’ll plant ivy around it.”
Eric looked at the cloth bag Cam was holding and asked, “What are you going to do with your camera?”
“I’ll keep it, of course.”
“Why? Your mental camera takes better pictures than any real camera. And your mental camera never needs film.”
Cam’s mental camera is her memory. She can look at a scene and remember every detail. It’s as if she had a photograph of the scene stored in her mind.
Whenever Cam wants to remember something, she looks at it carefully and says, “Click.” Cam says “Click” is the sound her mental camera makes when it takes a picture.
When Cam was younger, people called her Jennifer—that’s her real name—and “Red,” because she has red hair. But when they found out about her photographic memory and heard her say, “Click,” they started calling her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” was shortened to “Cam.”
“I know that my mental camera doesn’t need film,” Cam told Eric, “but I can’t show people the photographs stored in my brain. And I can’t put my mental photographs in an album. So I need a real camera, too.”
Just then a bus stopped. A young couple got off. They looked at Eric’s project.
“What’s that?” the man asked.
“It’s a sundial.”
“Can it really tell time?” the woman asked.
“Sure. If the arrow is pointed north and the sun is shining.”
“And you carry that around all the time,” the man said. He laughed. “It must be heavy. Wouldn’t it be easier to wear a wristwatch?”
Eric started to explain that the sundial was for the fifth grade science fair. But the man wasn’t listening.
“I should have asked him how he winds it, or if it tells time underwater,” the man said to the woman as they walked away, laughing.
“Let’s go,” Cam said to Eric, “before someone asks you what time it is.”
Eric stood behind his sundial. He straightened his collar and smiled.
“First take my picture.”
Cam stepped back a few feet. She looked straight at Eric and said, “Click.”
“No. Use your real camera.”
It was a bright spring day. The sun was behind Cam. “With this camera, you have to stand perfectly still for five seconds,” she told Eric. “If you move, the picture will be a blur.”
Cam took the camera from the bag. She held it with both hands. She pulled a string that lifted a cardboard flap. Then she counted, “One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Mississippi, five Mississippi.” She let the string go and the flap fell down again.
“Do you think it will come out?” Eric asked.
“If I aimed the camera right, you’ll come out. You stood still. But behind you will be a blur. A car drove past. A man came out of one of the stores, and someone walked by with a dog.”
As Cam put the camera in its bag, a young man in a red plaid jacket ran past. He knocked into Cam. Her camera fell, and the man bent down to pick it up. But Eric had it.
“It’s lucky I caught this before it hit the ground,” Eric said. “It might have broken.”
Cam wasn’t listening. She was watching the man run off. “He must be in some rush,” she said. “He didn’t even say he was sorry.”
Chapter Two
Cam put her camera back in the bag. Eric picked up his sundial, and they walked together toward school.
As they walked past a large wooded area, Cam heard the sounds of twigs breaking. Eric stopped walking so he could rest. Cam stopped, too. So did the sounds. Cam turned around, but no one was there.
“Did you hear anything?” Cam asked Eric.
“No.”
Eric said he was ready. He picked up the sundial, and he and Cam began to walk. Cam heard the sounds of twigs breaking again.
“Did you hear that?” Cam whispered.
“Yes. It sounds like something moving in the woods. Maybe it’s an animal.”
“Stop for a minute.”
Eric put down the sundial, and the sounds of footsteps stopped.
“It’s not an animal,” Cam whispered. “An animal wouldn’t stop whenever we do. Someone is following us.”
“Why would anyone follow us?” Eric asked.
“I don’t know. But let’s not stay here and find out! Can you run with that thing?”
“I’ll try.”
Eric picked up the sundial. He tried to run, but his knees kept hitting the sundial. He and Cam stopped at the corner. Cam turned, but she didn’t see anyone behind them. Then Cam and Eric crossed the street and ran the one block to school. They went in through the side entrance. When they got inside, Eric dropped the sundial and collapsed on the floor.
“Were we followed here?” he asked. He was out of breath.
“I don’t know. I don’t see anyone out there,” Cam said.
Cam waited while Eric rested. Then they went together to the auditorium. Near the door a teacher was sitting behind a desk.
“I’m Jennifer Jansen and this is Eric Shelton. Where should we put our science projects?”
The teacher looked at Cam for a moment. Then she said, “Are you the girl Ms. Benson told me about, the one with the amazing memory?”
“Yes, she is,” Eric said. “We call her Cam, and she remembers everything. Just watch.”
Eric told Cam to look at the teacher and say, “Click.”
Cam looked at the teacher. She said, “Click,” and closed her eyes.
“Now ask Cam anything,” Eric said. “Ask her what color your hair is or what it says on that button you’re wearing.”
“All right. What does the button say?” the teacher asked.
Cam’s eyes were still closed. She said, “You’re wearing a lot of buttons. The campaign button you have on your collar says, ‘Vote Smart. Ed Smart for Senator.’ The buttons on your dress say GGC for Gully, Gully Clothes. And the second button from the top is chipped.”
The teacher looked at her second button. “It is chipped,” she said. “Amazing. Well, it’s a real pleasure to meet you, Jennifer.”
The teacher looked at a list she had on her desk and said, “Jennifer, you can set up your project on table 54. Eric, you can set your project up next to table 48.”
Cam and Eric walked into the school auditorium.
“Look over there,” Eric said. “Linda Baker is talking to Ms. Benson. I’ll bet she’s telling Ms. Benson how great her project is. She’d do anything to win.”
Cam said, “Let’s set up our projects. Then we can look at what Linda and everyone else made.”
Cam went to table 54. She took her camera, two folders, and some tape from the bag she was holding. Cam opened the folders and taped them to the table. The first folder explained how Cam had made the camera. The second folder had some photographs Cam had taken with the camera. Cam put her camera between the two folders and went to find Eric.
Eric was looking at Linda Baker’s project. It was called “Light Helps Plants Grow.” There were a few pots with different-size plants growing in them and with signs saying how many hours of light each plant got each day. One pot was empty. The sign in the empty pot said, “Zero.”
“How do you like my project?” Linda asked. “Ms. Benson said it was very well done.”
“It’s very nice,” Cam said.
Linda smiled. “I think it’s going to win. I’ll get a science trophy just like my brother did.”
As they walked away, Eric whispered to Cam, “I’ll bet Linda never watered the plants that she didn’t want to grow. She’d do anything to win.”
Cam and Eric looked at some of the other projects. There was one called “The Invisible Zoo.” It had empty cages and a report on animals that are extinct. There was a scale made from a hot water bottle and a tube. And there was one girl who experimented with her baby teeth. She let the teeth soak in soda. After two weeks the teeth had dark stains.
While Cam read the report “Soda, Sugar, and Teeth,” Eric wandered off, looking at other projects. Then he came running back.
“Cam, Cam, where’s your camera?”
“It’s where I left it, on table 54.”
“No, it’s not. The folders are there, but the camera is gone.”
Chapter Three
Cam ran to table 54. The camera wasn’t there.
“Help me look for it,” Cam said to Eric.
They looked on the other tables and on the floor. Then, as Cam was looking near a window, she saw a man outside run past. He was carrying something under his jacket and running toward the woods. Cam looked straight at him and said, “Click.”
Cam called to Eric. “Come with me. I think whoever took my camera ran outside with it.”
Eric followed Cam to the side entrance. No one was out there.
“Let’s go back in,” Eric said. “Let’s tell Ms. Benson. I’ll bet it was Linda or her brother who took your camera.”
“No. Not now. I just saw a man run from here. Maybe he has the camera. If we hurry, maybe we can catch him.”
Cam ran ahead. She stopped running when she reached the edge of the woods. She had seen the man run in there, but now it was dark and quiet. Cam saw a few birds and some squirrels moving in the woods, but nothing else.
When Eric caught up with Cam, she told him to be quiet and listen.
Cam and Eric stood at the edge of the woods for a minute. Then they heard a noise. Cam saw a man move in the middle of the woods. She looked straight at him and said, “Click.”
The man turned and saw Cam and Eric. He dropped what he was holding and ran.
“Let’s get Ms. Benson,” Eric said.
Cam wasn’t listening. She was already going into the woods. She tried to run, but she couldn‘t—too many low branches got in her way. When Cam reached the other side of the woods, the man was gone.
“Did you see which way he went?” Eric asked when he caught up with Cam.
Cam shook her head.
“Let’s go back then.”
“No. He dropped something. Let’s look for it.”
Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click.” “He dropped it into a big leafy bush next to a tree with white bark, a birch tree,” Cam said with her eyes still closed.
Cam and Eric found the birch tree. They searched in the bushes nearby.
“Look! Over here!” Eric said. “I found it! I found your camera! Now we can go back to school.”
“But why would someone take it and then throw it away?” Cam asked.
“Maybe he was scared,” Eric said.
Cam took the camera from Eric and looked at it. “Whoever took my camera opened it up. I can tell because he didn’t put the top on right. Now the film is ruined.”
Cam opened the camera. “The film isn’t ruined. It’s gone!”
Cam sat on the ground. She held the camera in her lap. Eric sat next to her.
“You have your camera back. Why are you so upset?” Eric asked.
“I’m not upset. I’m puzzled. Why would someone want the film in my camera?”
“I still think it was Linda’s brother. That Baker family must really love science prizes.”
Cam shook her head and said, “No. I don’t think Linda or her brother would want to win that way.”
Cam sat there and thought for a while. Then she said, “Whoever took the camera must have wanted what was on that film. That’s why he took the film and left the camera. But the only picture I took was of you standing next to your sundial. Why would anyone want that?”
Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click.” She shook her head. Then she said, “Click,” again.
“That’s it,” Cam said and opened her eyes. “I have a picture in my head of you standing next to the sundial. One of the people in the background was leaving a store. He bumped into me and knocked the camera from my hands. He was wearing a red plaid jacket. I think he’s the same man I saw in the woods.”
“He probably followed us to school,” Eric said. “But why?”
“Come on,” Cam said. “Let’s go back to that store and find out.”
Chapter Four
When Cam and Eric reached the bus stop, Cam looked at the row of stores. Then she closed her eyes and said, “Click.”
“H
e was leaving a coin store,” Cam said. She opened her eyes and pointed to a small shop right behind the bus stop. “That’s the one.”
They walked to the store. Cam tried to open the door. She couldn’t. It was locked.
“There’s a sign,” Eric said. “It says, ‘Collins’ Coin Shop. Coins for Collectors. Grand Opening, Monday April 21.’”
“That’s next week,” Cam said. “Then the store was closed when I took that picture.”
Cam thought for a moment. Then she said, “That’s it! That explains why that man wanted the film!”
“What’s it?” Eric asked, but Cam wasn’t listening.
She looked through the store window.
“There’s someone inside,” Cam said, and she knocked hard on the glass.
An old man came to the window. He pointed to the sign and said something. Cam and Eric couldn’t hear him.
The old man moved his lips slowly, forming the words, “We’re closed.”
Cam moved her lips, too. But the man didn’t understand what she was telling him.
Cam turned to Eric. “Do you have a pencil and paper?”
Eric took a folded sheet of paper and a pencil from his pocket and gave them to Cam. “Don’t lose the paper,” Eric said. “My homework is on it.”
Cam turned the paper over and wrote, “I think you were robbed,” in large letters. She held the paper up to the store window.
The old man read the note. Then he opened the door and asked, “Why do you think I’ve been robbed?”
Cam told him about the stolen camera and the man she saw leaving his store. “Since you were closed, I thought that maybe he robbed your store and stole my camera and the film so that no one would know he was inside.”
The man smiled and said, “It couldn’t have been this store. The door was locked when I left and it was still locked when I came in. And the alarm was still set. You must have seen him leaving someplace else.”