The Secret of the Puzzle Box

by Penny Warner

  Luke pulled the jacket-rope up and repeated the process with Mika, Cody, and then Quinn, carefully lowering them down to the pavement. After Quinn untied himself and gave the thumbs-up, Luke looked out the window at the others and frowned.

  “Uh-oh,” Cody whispered. “How’s he going to get down? There’s no one to hold the jackets for him on the other end.”

  “Duh!” Quinn said, slapping his forehead. “Why didn’t I think of this before?” He dug his cell phone out of his pocket. “I need your phone,” he said to Cody.

  “You’re going to call him?” Cody asked in confusion, handing over her phone. “With two phones?”

  “Nope,” he whispered. Clicking on the flashlight apps on his and Cody’s cell phones, he held them at arm’s length and then moved his arms into different positions.

  Cody realized Quinn was sending a semaphore to Luke on the second floor. Brilliant! That way, he wouldn’t wake Schnikey by yelling up at Luke. Still, Cody nervously wondered how the guard could have slept through everything that had happened already.

  Code Busters Key and Solution found here and here.

  Luke flashed a thumbs-up, tossed down the jackets, and stepped away from the window. Quinn took off running toward the front of the building. The others untied their jackets and pulled them on, zipping them up against the cold wind. Moments later, the two boys were back.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Quinn whispered.

  The kids turned to go—and froze.

  A wide-awake Delbert Schnikey stood in front of them, a crooked snarl creasing his mouth.

  “Sooooo. The little snoops are back!” Schnikey said, raising the flashlight he held in one hand and shining the beam at their faces. Cody was nearly blinded by the light and tried to shade her eyes.

  “Mr. Schnikey,” Cody tried to explain, “I know this must look bad, but we were just trying to find something that belongs to Mika and—”

  “Shut up!” Schnikey boomed. “This is my island, and everything on it belongs to me. I’m not about to have you brats ruining my business.”

  Cody frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Schnikey. Like I said, we were just trying to—”

  “Enough!” Schnikey yelled at them. He pointed to the golf cart parked nearby. “Get in the cart, all of you! I’m taking you back to your camp and telling your teachers you’re a bunch of vandals destroying state property. You’ll end up in juvie by the time I’m done with you.”

  Cody knew all about juvie from her mother, who was a police officer. That was the last place she’d ever want to go.

  “Come on!” Schnikey yelled even louder.

  Cody didn’t move. Instead, she held her finger up to her lips. “Did you hear that?” she said, staring back at the immigration station.

  Nobody moved.

  The sound came again.

  Code Busters Key and Solution found here and here.

  Tap-tap-tap. Then three more taps, this time slower. Then three quick taps again.

  The kids instantly recognized the Morse code distress signal and looked at one another.

  The faint signal came again.

  Then again. And again.

  “Someone’s in trouble!” Cody said.

  “I think it’s coming from inside the building,” Luke added.

  Before Schnikey could stop them, the five kids ran back inside the immigration station.

  “It sounded like it came from over there,” Quinn said, pointing at the staircase that had led them to the second floor.

  The Code Busters ran toward the tinny, metallic sound that kept repeating the same sequence of taps—three short, three long, and three short. As they listened, Cody noticed that the sound seemed louder beneath her feet but still muffled. She knelt down and put her ear to the floor.

  “The taps are coming from under here!” she said, getting back up.

  The kids searched the area for an entrance that would lead downstairs, but no doors or other staircases were nearby. Then M.E. pointed to something on the floor behind the stairs.

  “Guys! Check this out!” she cried.

  Cody looked at the wood flooring and noticed a section about three feet square that didn’t match the rest of the floorboards. She stamped on the square and then stamped on the wood flooring next to it. They sounded different.

  “This part sounds hollow,” she told the others.

  Quinn pointed to a notch cut into one side of the square panel. He slid his hand inside—it fit perfectly.

  “It’s got to be a trapdoor!” he exclaimed. “This must be how you open it.” He yanked on it, but it didn’t budge. He stood up.

  Luke knelt down and inserted his hand into the notch. He pulled and grunted too, trying to lift the trapdoor open, but it wouldn’t give.

  Thinking maybe Schnikey could help them open it, Cody glanced down the hallway to see if he had followed them inside, but there was no sign of him.

  “Mr. Schnikey!” Cody called. “We need your help!”

  Delbert Schnikey appeared in the doorway at the end of the hall. “What now?” he bellowed. “I told you kids to get in the cart.”

  “We think someone’s trapped down in the basement!” Quinn said. “We heard the SOS distress code, but we can’t get this trapdoor open.”

  Schnikey frowned at the group. “You really think someone’s actually under there?” he said, his eyes narrowing. “Well, that’s impossible. No one’s been down in that basement for decades. As long as I’ve been here, that trapdoor has never been opened.”

  “But we heard something and I think we should check it out,” Luke said. He looked at the other Code Busters. “Remember that scream we heard just after Matt locked us in? Maybe he fell in there somehow—and he’s trapped.”

  “I’m telling you, there’s no one there,” Schnikey said. “Now come on!”

  Luke crossed his arms. “We’re not leaving until we make sure.” The others agreed.

  Schnikey scratched his head, stroked his stubbly chin, and sighed. “All right. Move back. I’ll see if I can open it and prove to you that no one’s down there. Then we’re going back to your camp.”

  The kids nodded.

  Schnikey knelt down next to the trapdoor, spat on his hands, and rubbed them together. Cody grimaced and reminded herself not to touch anything that Schnikey had touched, in case he had a habit of spitting on lots of things.

  Using both hands and bracing himself with one foot, he yanked at the door. It creaked open an inch or two, then slammed back down. Cody could tell the door was heavy, but at least it wasn’t permanently shut. Schnikey gave the door another yank, and this time, it swung up and over, landing with a loud thud.

  The Code Busters leaned over and peered into the pitch-black basement below.

  “Hello?” Cody called into the opening.

  They listened. No response.

  “I don’t see anything,” M.E. said, squinting into the darkness.

  Cody pulled out her phone and aimed the flashlight into the black hole.

  Something moved.

  “Rats!” M.E. squealed as she pulled back in horror. “The basement is full of rats!”

  “It’s probably just a few spiders,” Cody said, trying to reassure her.

  “I hate spiders!” M.E. replied.

  Suddenly the tap-tap-tapping rang out again, this time louder as metal hit metal. Cody turned her phone light in the direction of the sound and gasped.

  Eight feet below, a body lay on the ground. Barely moving.

  “It’s Matt!” she cried.

  “It looks like he’s hurt,” Mika said.

  “We’ve got to get him out of there,” Luke said. He turned to Schnikey. “Is there another entrance to the basement besides this trapdoor?”

  “Not that I know of,” Schnikey said, shrugging.

  “Do you have a ladder?”

  “Nope. But I know how you can help him. Look down there.” Schnikey pointed into the darkness, lit only by Cody’s phone
light.

  The kids leaned over to see what Schnikey meant.

  A split second later, Cody felt herself being pushed through the opened trapdoor. She tumbled down to the floor, her fall broken by something soft.

  She seemed to have landed on some sort of couch—and on top of Matt. Matt groaned loudly.

  Suddenly M.E. screamed. A moment later, she landed on the couch right beside Cody.

  Next came Mika.

  Then Quinn.

  Then Luke.

  One by one, they’d been pushed into the hole in the floor. It all happened in a matter of seconds.

  As the kids lay in a heap, moaning and groaning, Cody caught a glimpse of the only light coming from above. The last thing she saw was Delbert Schnikey’s face as he held his flashlight with a gloved hand. And he was smiling.

  The trapdoor slammed shut.

  The room went blacker than black.

  The Code Busters were trapped.

  With a room full of spiders.

  And an injured Matt the Brat.

  * * * * *

  Cody shook her head and blinked several times, hoping to clear her vision. But the darkness of the room was so dense that she couldn’t see anything, not even her hand in front of her face. She heard grunting and shuffling as the others began to recover from the fall and shift their positions on the couch.

  “Is everyone okay?” Mika’s voice came from near Cody’s right leg. Cody joined the chorus of groaned yeahs that answered Mika’s question.

  “What happened?” Cody asked.

  “Schnikey! He pushed us!” Quinn said, to left of Cody.

  “I tried to fight him, but he was too strong,” said Luke.

  “And I tried to run,” said M.E. “But he caught me and threw me in.”

  Cody heard a long groan coming from directly beneath her. She realized she was still sitting on top of Matt. She scrambled onto the floor, hoping she hadn’t hurt him when she landed on him. “Matt? Are you all right?”

  “Cody?” Matt wheezed. “Is that you?”

  “Matt, what were you doing down here?” Cody asked him, wishing she could see his face.

  “Somebody . . . pushed me,” Matt moaned, “and I landed on my ankle. I think it’s broken. It hurts real bad. I tried to signal for help . . .”

  “We heard you,” Cody said. “I didn’t know you knew Morse code.”

  Matt grunted. “Just SOS.”

  Suddenly Luke’s face lit up. He was holding his phone light on himself. “Listen, guys, we’ve got to think,” he said, shining the light around at the others. “We have to get out of here before Schnikey comes back. Who knows what he’s got planned for us?”

  “Let’s call for help,” said Mika.

  “My phone isn’t getting any service,” said Luke. “I was going to call for help, but this must be a dead zone.”

  Cody shivered at Luke’s choice of words.

  “I don’t have any service either,” M.E. added, tapping her cell phone.

  Cody checked her pocket to see if she still had her phone, but it wasn’t there. Then she remembered she’d been holding it and pointing the light into the basement when Schnikey told them to look down. She glanced around and spotted it lying a few feet away. Quickly, she snatched it, stood, and turned on the flashlight app. She shined the light around the room. Combined with the light from the others’ phones, it revealed a sight she wasn’t expecting. “Whoa. This basement sure doesn’t look as if it’s been abandoned for years, like Schnikey said.”

  A long worktable sat at one end of the room, filled with a bunch of rusty, worn tools. Cody recognized a hammer, drill, saw, and crowbar.

  “Look at this!” Quinn said, picking up a weathered metal coin the size of a quarter. He moved his phone light to another cluttered area on the table. It was covered with old silver coins.

  Luke picked up one of the coins and studied it under his phone light. “It’s dated 1549, and there’s some kind of writing on it. I think it’s Spanish. M.E., can you read this?”

  M.E. took the coin, and Luke shined the light on it for her. “Real de a ocho,” she said. “That means ‘eight-piece coin.’”

  “I knew it!” came a voice from the couch. Matt was now propped up on his elbow, his eyes wide with excitement. “Pieces of eight, from Drake’s ship! We found the treasure!”

  “Chill, Matt,” Luke said. He held up a metal tray filled with small indentations the size of the coins. A similar one lay next to it on the worktable. “These coins are obviously counterfeit. Someone’s been making them here in the basement, using those trays as molds. They’re probably selling them to tourists and pretending they’re real.”

  “Hey, there’s other stuff here too,” Mika said, holding up a couple of metal signs that read Golden Hind. “That’s the name of Drake’s ship,” Quinn said. “Man, someone has quite a bogus business going down here. And I’m guessing it’s Schnikey. He knew this basement was here all along. He’s probably working with the guy from the ferry. I’ll bet Schnikey makes the fake stuff, and the other guy smuggles it off the island to sell to tourists.”

  “So that’s what those two were doing when we saw them trading something in the woods,” Mika said.

  “Brrr,” M.E. said, interrupting the excitement over the counterfeit discovery. “Did you guys feel that?”

  “What?” Cody asked, shining her phone light at her friend.

  “I just felt cold air on my face,” M.E. said, glancing around. She frowned. “You don’t think this place is . . . haunted, do you?”

  “There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Cody reminded M.E. “But if you felt cold air, then there must be an opening somewhere. Where do you think it came from?”

  M.E. paused, then turned and pointed to a darker part of the basement. “I just felt it again. It came from back there.”

  “Maybe it’s a way out,” Quinn said. “Schnikey has to have another access to this place besides the trapdoor. Let’s see if we can find it!”

  “Hey,” Matt the Brat called out. “Don’t leave me here alone!”

  Four of the Code Busters headed in the direction M.E. indicated, while Cody stayed back with Matt. They both kept quiet. Matt’s foot must really hurt if he doesn’t have the energy to say anything annoying, Cody thought.

  Moments later, Mika and Quinn returned. “Luke found a door!” Mika said. “They’re trying to get it open, but they need something to smash the locked doorknob.” She scanned the worktable and picked up the long, heavy crowbar. “This might work.”

  She ran back. Quinn remained with Cody and Matt. “We’re going to have to help Matt get out of here,” he said.

  “Matt,” Cody said to the boy who still lay propped up on the couch. “Can you get up?”

  Matt pushed himself upright, wincing and moaning at every movement.

  “Good,” Cody said. “I’ll take his right arm. Quinn, you take his left arm, and we’ll lift him to standing. Once we get him up, he can lean on us to walk so he doesn’t have to use his sore foot.”

  Matt shook his head. “You guys can’t help me. I’m way bigger than both of you together.”

  Cody made a face. “No, you’re not. And yes, we can.” She looked at Quinn. “Ready?”

  He nodded.

  “One, two, three—LIFT!” Cody commanded.

  Using all their strength, Cody and Quinn hoisted Matt up, who grunted as he reached a standing position.

  “Now wrap your arms around us and see if you can take a step,” Cody ordered.

  Matt did as he was told, keeping his right knee bent and his foot off the ground. Using the two Code Busters for support, he hopped forward on his other foot.

  “Ow!” he said, his face creased in pain.

  “You can do it!” Cody said encouragingly.

  Slowly, they continued in the direction Mika had gone, Matt taking one hop at a time and groaning the whole way. When they reached the others, several yards ahead, they found Luke leaning on the crowbar he’d inserted i
nto the side of a door. A metal doorknob lay on the floor in front of him. With one last push with the crowbar, the wooden door broke open.

  “You did it!” M.E. squealed.

  On the other side of the door was a set of stairs.

  “Come on,” Luke said. “We have to get out of here before Schnikey finds out we escaped. Cody, I’ll take over for you.”

  Cody shook her head. “I’m fine. He’s not that heavy.”

  Luke smiled at her. “All right, then follow me!”

  Luke led everyone up the stairs. It wasn’t easy getting Matt up to the top—or keeping him quiet so that they wouldn’t attract Schnikey’s attention—but Cody did her best to support his weight. Matt bit his lip and huffed and puffed, but to Cody’s relief, he kept the groaning to a minimum.

  Once they reached the top of the stairs, they spotted another door. Luckily, this one was unlocked. Quinn opened it, peered out, and then signed:

  Code Busters Key and Solution found here and here.

  He headed for the ride, tiptoeing as he went, and then waved the others to follow him. Silently, Mika and M.E. hopped into the back, and then Quinn helped Matt squeeze in next to them. Luke and Cody shared the shotgun seat, while Quinn got into the driver’s seat. He used the key that was still in the ignition to turn on the engine.

  “HEY!” came a loud voice from behind them. Cody turned to see Delbert Schnikey running toward them. He was holding the crowbar they had used to free themselves from the basement.

  “GO!” Luke ordered Quinn.

  Quinn stepped on the pedal.

  M.E. screamed as the cart took off with a jolt.

  Cody held onto Luke, who held onto the side of the cart. She glanced back as Quinn steered the cart down the steep hill toward camp.

  Schnikey stood scowling and shaking the crowbar at them.

  “I’ll get you kids!” Cody heard him yell as he disappeared from sight.

  “Uh-oh,” Cody said as the golf cart neared the campsite. Ms. Stad, Mr. Pike, and several chaperones were all holding lit flashlights and listening to Ranger Yee talk on her walkie-talkie. The ranger stopped when she spotted the kids heading straight for them.