The Mystery of the Mummy's Curse

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  “Yes, poor Tina,” Pete said. “And without her help, how will we get this exhibit ready in time?”

  “She had just looked at the mummy when she fell,” said Benny.

  Pete frowned. “Maybe it’s the mummy’s curse,” he said.

  CHAPTER 2

  The Mummy’s Curse

  “What’s the mummy’s curse?” Jessie asked.

  “Some people believe mummies should not be removed from where they were buried,” said Pete. “They believe mummies carry evil spells to punish anyone who disturbs them. That’s the mummy’s curse.”

  “Really?” Benny asked, his eyes wide.

  “A long time ago, when scientists were digging up a mummy, if someone died or got hurt or something else bad happened, people would say it was because of the curse,” Pete went on.

  “Is there really such a thing?” Violet asked.

  “What do you think?” Pete said.

  “No. If something bad happened it was just a coincidence,” Henry said firmly.

  “That’s right,” Pete said. “There’s no such thing as ghosts or magic spells. And there’s no such thing as a mummy’s curse.”

  Still, Benny’s eyes were wide. “But Tina fell right after she looked at the mummy,” he said.

  “I was just joking before,” Pete said kindly. “It was an unfortunate accident, but it wasn’t the mummy’s fault.”

  But Benny didn’t look as if he believed that. He backed away from the crate holding the mummy. He was afraid he might fall and get hurt, too.

  The phone rang again. “Hello?” Pete said, picking up the receiver. “Yes, Reginald, that’s right.” The Aldens watched as Pete listened to what Dr. Snood was saying. He did not look happy.

  “No, it’s not a room we normally use,” Pete said, “But—”

  Again he was silent as Dr. Snood spoke. The children wondered what he was saying.

  “All right,” Pete said. “I’ll see what I can figure out.” Then he hung up the phone and sighed heavily.

  “Is something wrong?” Violet asked gently.

  “Well, if there were a mummy’s curse, I’d say it’s struck again,” Pete said.

  “What do you mean?” Benny asked. He sounded nervous.

  Pete smiled at Benny’s worried look. “Don’t worry, Benny. It’s not that bad.” He patted Benny on the shoulder. “The exhibit was going to be in a hall we don’t usually use. That was Dr. Snood on the phone. He said the cleaning crew is too busy to clean the extra room. And there’s no money left in the budget to hire an extra crew. Without Tina and without the cleaning crew, we’ll never get the exhibit ready in time.” He sighed again.

  “I have an idea,” Jessie said.

  “You do?” Pete asked, peering wearily over his fingers.

  “We could help you,” she said.

  Pete sat up and smiled. “That’s nice, but this is a big job. I’m not really sure you’d be able to help us get our exhibit ready in time.”

  “But there are lots of things we could do,” Jessie said. “We’re great cleaners. We could do the work you needed the cleaning crew to do. And we’ll do it for free.”

  “Yeah,” said Henry, getting excited. “And we can carry boxes and help Dr. Dickerson. Whatever needs to be done.”

  Pete was looking thoughtful.

  “Why don’t you call our grandfather and ask him,” Henry suggested.

  Pete picked up the telephone, and a few minutes later it was decided. The Aldens had a job. “You start first thing tomorrow,” Pete said.

  “Great,” said Jessie. “We’ll be back tomorrow morning, bright and early!”

  As they headed out, the children stopped in the prep room to pick up their jackets, which they’d left there.

  While Henry, Jessie, and Violet put on their jackets, Benny turned to look at the two huge crates that were still at the end of the room. He couldn’t resist stealing one last peek at the mummy. Benny walked over, got up on the stepladder, and peered down into the crate. The mummy was lying there, just as it had been before. Its blank face pointed up at the ceiling as if it were waiting for something.

  Benny thought about the mummy’s curse. The room seemed too quiet. He looked up and realized the others had left without him. Suddenly, he felt lonely and a little bit scared. He quickly got down from the stepladder.

  “Hey, you guys, wait for me!” he called, running to catch up.

  As they were leaving the building, Henry noticed a familiar face in the lobby. It was the woman he’d seen at lunch.

  This time, the woman walked right up to them and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Lori Paulson. I saw you guys in the café.”

  “Yes, we were there,” Jessie said, surprised to be recognized by a stranger.

  “So what have you been doing here all afternoon?” Ms. Paulson asked.

  “We got to see the—” Benny began, but Jessie interrupted him.

  “What my little brother was starting to say was, we just love this museum. We’ve been exploring.”

  “And we got to see the—” Benny began again.

  This time, Henry grabbed Benny’s arm and pulled him off to the side. “Remember, Pete said the new exhibit is supposed to be a secret,” he whispered.

  Meanwhile, Jessie was talking to Ms. Paulson. “We’re the Aldens. I’m Jessie and this is my sister Violet. Those are my brothers, Henry and Benny.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Ms. Paulson said.

  “What have you been doing here all afternoon, Ms. Paulson?” Jessie asked.

  “Call me Lori,” she said. “I’ve been ... Oh, I just love the museum, too.” She smiled, and for a moment Jessie thought she looked uncomfortable. “I come here all the time.”

  Now Benny remembered not to talk about the mummy. He asked Lori, “Don’t you love the dinosaurs?”

  “I didn’t know they had dinosaurs here,” Lori said.

  “Not real dinosaurs, of course,” Benny said. “But they’ve got a bunch of skulls and bones in that big room at the back.”

  “Thanks for telling me,” Lori said. “I’ll have to check that out.”

  Jessie looked at her watch. Their housekeeper, Mrs. McGregor, would be putting dinner on the table soon. “I’m sorry, but we’ve got to be going.”

  “Oh, um ...” Lori seemed to want to ask the children something. Finally, she said, “Did I see you talking to the curator at lunch?”

  “Yes, Pete Miller is a friend of our grandfather’s,” Henry said.

  Lori’s face lit up. “Did he mention anything about the new Egyptian exhibit?”

  The Aldens all looked at each other, not sure what to say. They didn’t want to lie, but they also knew they weren’t supposed to talk about the exhibit.

  “He just told us that it was opening in a couple of weeks,” Henry said at last.

  “What’s going to be in the exhibit?” Lori asked. “Will there be a mummy?”

  “We’ve got to go,” Jessie said, pointing to her watch. “Sorry.”

  “But—” Lori began, but the Aldens quickly headed off before she could ask any more questions.

  As the Aldens walked down the front steps of the museum, Henry turned to the others. “She was in the cafeteria when we were having lunch. She kept staring at us the whole time.”

  “I wonder why she’s so curious about the new exhibit,” Jessie added.

  “Maybe she just likes mummies,” Benny said. “Like me.”

  “I get the feeling there’s something more to it,” Henry said. “You should have seen how she was watching us during lunch. And there’s something else strange about her.”

  “What?” asked Violet.

  “She says she comes here all the time. So how come she’s never seen the dinosaur bones?” Henry said.

  “That is pretty strange,” Jessie agreed.

  “I think maybe Lori Paulson isn’t telling us the truth,” Henry said.

  “But why would she lie?” Violet asked.

  “I bet it has som
ething to do with the Egyptian exhibit she’s so curious about,” said Jessie.

  “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m too hungry to worry about Lori Paulson,” Benny said. “Let’s go home for dinner!”

  The next day, the Aldens arrived before the museum opened, ready to work. The building was quiet and almost empty. As they walked down the long, dark hallway to the prep room for the Egyptian exhibit, their footsteps echoed on the hard floor.

  A light was shining under the door of the prep room. When the Aldens pushed the door open, they were surprised to see not Sam or Pete, but Dr. Snood. He was standing up on the stepladder, peering down into the mummy’s crate. He seemed to be deep in thought.

  “Hello, Dr. Snood,” Jessie said.

  Dr. Snood looked up suddenly. He seemed startled, as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. He quickly stepped down from the stepladder. “I was just ...”he began, but his voice trailed off.

  “The mummy is really cool, isn’t it?” Benny asked.

  “It isn’t cool,” Dr. Snood snapped. “It is a valuable artifact from four thousand years ago. You must never touch it, or any of the things in this exhibit. Do you understand?”

  The Aldens were stunned. Benny was only being friendly. Why was Dr. Snood getting so angry?

  “Yes,” Henry said. “We understand.”

  Dr. Snood’s eyesmoved quickly around the room, as if he were looking for something. Then, picking up his briefcase, he walked out without another word.

  CHAPTER 3

  Mysterious Footsteps

  “I was just trying to be nice,” Benny said, looking after Dr. Snood.

  “I know,” said Violet. “Don’t feel bad.”

  “He’s just a grumpy man,” said Henry.

  “But I wonder why,” Jessie said. “Is it just that he doesn’t like kids, or is something else bothering him?”

  “Did you see how he was looking at the mummy when we came in?” Violet asked.

  “And then he seemed so startled when he saw us,” Henry added. “As if he’d been doing something wrong.”

  Before they could say any more, Pete came hurrying into the room. “Hi, kids!” he called out. “Sorry, I got stuck on a phone call. Have you been here long?”

  “No,” said Henry. “We just got here.”

  “And ran into Dr. Snood,” Benny said.

  “He didn’t seem to be very happy to see us,” Jessie explained. She couldn’t help but wonder why Dr. Snood was being so mean to them when they were only trying to help the museum.

  “Pete, what’s an ‘artifact’?” Benny asked, remembering one of the words Dr. Snood had used.

  “An artifact is an object made by people a long time ago,” Pete answered. “Like all these pieces here—the cups, pots, toys, instruments, and sculptures. We can learn a lot about people who lived a long time ago by studying the things they left behind.”

  “That makes all these objects very valuable,” said Pete. “They’re important—and they’re also worth lots of money.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll be careful,” Benny assured him.

  “I know you will,” Pete said. “Now how about we get to work? We’ll start by cleaning out the exhibit hall next door, where the exhibit will be set up for the public.”

  The Aldens followed Pete through a side door into a much larger room. It was filled with glass display cases and cardboard boxes. Everything was covered in dust, and the paint on the walls was chipped and peeling.

  “Hey, isn’t that a model of the solar system?” Henry asked, pointing to a group of balls in different sizes hanging from the ceiling.

  “And there are some photographs of the moon over there,” Violet added.

  “The last exhibit in here was about outer space,” Pete explained.

  “And now it’s just a mess!” Benny said.

  “Well,” said Jessie, rolling up her sleeves, “where do we start?”

  In no time, the Aldens were busy. Pete went through everything in the room, dividing it into things to save and things to throw away.

  While they were working, Dr. Dickerson arrived, a big, straw bag over her shoulder and a briefcase in her other hand. “Cleaning up the exhibit hall?” she asked.

  “Yes, and the Aldens are helping,” Pete said. “Since Tina is out and our cleaning crew can’t do the extra work, the kids offered to help get the exhibit ready.”

  The Aldens waited to hear what Dr. Dickerson would say. They were afraid she might not want their help.

  “That’s great!” Dr. Dickerson said, a smile slowly spreading across her face.

  “We’re so glad you like the idea, Dr. Dickerson,” said Jessie. “We’ll do a great job, I promise.”

  “You can start by calling me Sam, like my friends do,” she said. Then she turned to Pete. “How does Dr. Snood feel about the children helping out? I imagine he wouldn’t like the idea.” The corners of her mouth were curled up in a small, mysterious smile.

  “He doesn’t seem to like kids at all,” said Henry.

  “You’re right about that,” said Sam.

  “But how would you know that?” Pete asked. “You haven’t met Dr. Snood yet, have you?”

  “Oh—no, I haven’t. But I’m sure I’ll meet him soon,” Dr. Dickerson said. She looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Anyway, I know how museum directors can be.”

  “Well, he agreed to it when I told him last night,” Pete said. “I think it’s because he knows we have no other choice.”

  As the children were leaving the museum that evening, they heard a voice behind them. “Hey, Aldens!”

  They turned around and were surprised to see Lori Paulson walking quickly toward them, her orange bag swinging as she walked. She seemed just as surprised to see them.

  “What are you doing back here again?” she asked.

  There was an awkward silence as the children wondered what to say. They didn’t want to be rude, but they knew the details of the exhibit were a secret.

  “We’re helping with the new exhibit, but Pete told us not to talk about it,” said Henry at last, trying to sound firm.

  His answer did not stop Lori from asking, “What’s going to be in the exhibit? Did you see a mummy?”

  “Actually, we haven’t seen anything,” Violet said, surprising everyone. She was very shy and didn’t usually say much to people she didn’t know well. “We’ve just been cleaning out the exhibit hall upstairs.”

  “So the exhibit will be upstairs?” Lori said. “And they must be preparing the pieces nearby ...” Now she seemed to be talking to herself, almost thinking aloud.

  “We’ve got to get going,” Henry said.

  “All right!” Lori said. “Thanks!” She seemed to have learned what she wanted to know. She headed off in the opposite direction.

  “I hope we didn’t just give away something we shouldn’t have,” said Violet.

  The next day, the children returned to the museum. Pete had other work to do, so he had told them to go right upstairs and get to work without him.

  The Aldens came down the long, dark hallway. When they reached the exhibit hall, Jessie flipped on a light switch, filling the windowless room with light.

  The Aldens carefully packed the last of the old outer space displays into boxes. They were so hard at work that the room remained eerily quiet.

  Suddenly, Violet heard some footsteps in the hall. “That must be Sam or Pete,” she said, expecting someone to appear in the doorway at any moment. But a few minutes passed, and there was nothing but silence.

  “That’s funny,” said Violet.

  “What?” asked Jessie.

  “I just heard footsteps in the hallway,” Violet said. She went to the door and looked down the long, dark hallway in both directions. There was nobody there.

  “Maybe I was imagining it,” Violet said.

  The children went back to work, and a few minutes later, the sound of footsteps returned. “Hey—do you guys hear that?” Violet ask
ed in a hushed voice.

  Everyone listened, but the sounds in the hallway had stopped.

  “What was it?” asked Jessie.

  “I heard footsteps again,” Violet said, going to the door once more. But when she looked out in the hall, there was no one there.

  “I heard something, too,” said Henry. He looked puzzled.

  “What’s the big deal?” asked Jessie. “Maybe there was someone in the hall, and whoever it was went into another room.”

  “But there aren’t any other rooms in this part of the museum,” Henry said. “Just this exhibit hall and the prep room. Why would someone be up here unless he or she was doing something with the Egypt exhibit?”

  “Maybe it was Dr. Snood checking up on us,” said Benny.

  “Or Lori Paulson,” suggested Henry. “She knows the exhibit’s up here, and she seems awfully interested in it for some reason.”

  Suddenly, Benny’s eyes grew wide. “Or maybe it was the mummy!”

  “Oh, Benny,” said Jessie.

  “Well, it would sound quiet if it walked,” Benny pointed out. “I mean, it’s not wearing any shoes.” He stood up, closed his eyes, stuck his arms out stiffly, and pretended to walk like the mummy.

  The children’s laughter was interrupted by Sam’s arrival. She walked briskly into the room, carrying a large, straw bag.

  “Oh, hello Dr. Dicker—I mean, Sam,” Jessie said.

  “Did you just get here?” Violet asked. “You weren’t in the hallway a few minutes ago, were you?”

  “No,” said Sam. “Just got here.”

  “You didn’t see anybody out in the hall, did you?” Henry asked.

  “Nope,” Sam said. “Why?”

  “Oh, nothing,” Henry said. “We just thought we heard someone a little while ago.”

  “Really?” Sam looked concerned. “There shouldn’t be anybody up here besides us.” Then she smiled. “Well, there’s nobody there now,” Sam said. “I’m glad to see you’re getting the room ready. I’ve got a lot of work to do myself.” Sam went into the prep room but came back out a moment later. “Have any of you been in the prep room this morning?” she asked. Her face was grim.

  “No, why?” Jessie asked.