Meg Mackintosh Solves Seven American History Mysteries (8 page)

“George Washington did sleep here,” the tavern keeper told them proudly. He read the old letter. “But I don't know anything about missing surveying equipment. Maybe the uncle never got the message. Hmmm, you can look down in the old wine cellar if you want. That's where the ‘spirits' were kept.”

“Sounds mysterious,” said Peter. “Let's check it out.”

“I'm hungry,” Gramps said. “I'll stay up here and sample some fare.”

Meg followed Peter down the stone steps into the cool, dark cellar and flicked her flashlight. “Peter,” said Meg, “I don't think we're going in the right direction.”

“You're right,” said Peter. “The needle isn't pointed southwest.”

They scurried back upstairs. “Has the sign outside always hung in that position?” Meg asked the tavern keeper.

“Absolutely,” he replied. “Every detail in this building is historically correct. That's actually the original sign. Only the paint has been restored.”

Meg and Peter went back outside and stood under the tavern sign. Gramps and the tavern keeper followed them, curious to see what they were up to.

Peter read the compass. “Okay, that's southwest,” he said, pointing.

Meg took six big paces and ended at the hitching post. “This has got to be it,” she declared.

“But where?” They all wondered.

“Robert was waiting out here with the horses. He had to leave urgently for some reason, and he had the eyepiece,” Meg reasoned aloud.

“Maybe it started raining,” suggested Peter. “So he pulled up a couple of cobblestones and hid the eyepiece underneath them.” He knelt down and loosened some of the cobblestones.

“Go ahead. I'll get a shovel,” said the tavern keeper. “This is incredible!”

Meg and Peter carefully dug beneath the cobblestones until they detected an object.

“It's rotted leather, but there's something inside,” said Peter.

Layers of dirt and leather broke away to reveal the remnants of a velvet case that was surprisingly well preserved. Peter opened it. To their amazement, inside they found an eyepiece and a parchment note.

“Is the note from Robert?” asked Meg.

“No …,” Peter stuttered. “It's from President Washington to Robert. It says: ‘Master Banneker. Please polish this eyepiece for me this afternoon. ' And it's signed ‘George Washington'.” They passed the note and eyepiece around in amazement.

“The Smithsonian will be happy to get this historic eyepiece back,” said Meg.

“And a signature of George Washington's too!” Peter said. “Now we know what Robert witnessed in Washington — the President meeting with the surveyors!”

Gramps, Meg, and Peter Mackintosh had just solved a history mystery in Washington, D.C. They were heading northwest towards Ohio, eager to reach their next history mystery destination.

“We need to find somewhere in Ohio called Ashtabula,” said Meg as she scanned the map.

“Ashtabula? What kind of place is that?” asked Peter. “Some of these places have strange sounding names.”

“I'm not sure,” said Meg. “We'll find that out when we get there.”

“It will be a while before we get to Ohio,” said Gramps as he got out the envelope labeled
“The Camouflage Clue in Ohio.”
He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to them. This clue ought to keep you occupied for a while.”

“But it's all mixed up!” said Peter. “Professor Brown is full of surprises!”

“Quick, let's unscramble it to get the message,” said Meg.

“Cross a magic line to what? Who are the friends? Follow the North Star to a train? What kind of railroad does that? Who's ‘Mother H'?” asked Peter.

“Peter, that's it — railroad! Maybe it means the Underground Railroad,”Meg speculated.

“It's possible,” Peter agreeed. “In school we learned that thousands of slaves escaped from the southern states on the Underground Railroad in the mid 1800s.”

“But which artifact and which child?” wondered Meg.

“I bet it's the lantern,” said Peter. “They probably needed it to find their way in the darkness.”

“Maybe,” said Meg. “We still don't have much information. And what is
the camouflage clue
?”

“I don't know,” answered Peter. “Maybe a clue hidden on something?”

After a while Meg and Peter both dozed off thinking about the clue.

Gramps woke them up when they crossed the Ohio River from West Virginia into Ohio. Then he pulled into a nearby diner to feed his hungry travelers.

“Do you know if Ohio was part of the Underground Railroad?” Meg asked the waitress after she'd taken their order.

“As a matter of fact, this part of Ohio was heavily traveled by escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad because it was so close to the slave state of West Virginia,” the waitress told them. “Once the runaways crossed the Ohio River, they were on their way to freedom.”

“I forget, why did they call it the Underground Railroad?” Peter asked.

“Well,” the waitress said, leaning on the counter. “My history teacher told us that the name came from a story about a slave who ran away from Kentucky by swimming across the Ohio River. When his owner searched all over but couldn't find him, he was so bewildered he said that the slave must have escaped on an ‘underground road'!”

“The name fits because it was so secretive,” Peter added.

“And they called the safe places the slaves traveled to ‘stations' and the leaders were called ‘conductors',” the waitress continued, “Once the slaves crossed the river and headed upstream, it was harder for the owners to follow the tracks.”

There was map of Ohio on the placemats. Peter traced a route due north from West Virginia to Ashtabula with his finger. “Look, Meg,” he said, “If they followed the North Star directly they would arrive in Ashtabula. I wonder what's there.”

“A lot of Quakers helped to hide the escaped slaves,” said Gramps.

“There's a Quaker Meeting house not far from here in Mount Pleasant,” the waitress told them. “You might want to visit it.”

“Maybe the Quakers were the ‘friends' — and I think we know what the ‘magic line to cross' is,” Meg said, and Peter agreed.

“Actually the Quakers do call themselves the Society of Friends. They believe in equality of all people and non violence,” Gramps told them. “They were very much opposed to slavery. I'll take you to that meeting house first thing in the morning.”

“And ‘crossing the magic line' has to mean ‘crossing over into freedom'!” Meg exclaimed. “The Ohio River must be part of the magic line!”

That night they camped out, whispering in the tent about the upcoming mystery and the mysterious artifacts. Peter stuck a flashlight in the old lantern.“Imagine carrying this light through the woods in the middle of the night trying to escape. It's pretty scary,” he remarked.