The Ghost Ship Mystery (3 page)

By afternoon, their group was finished with their work. They reported back to the beach where Captain Bob was directing a group of teenagers raking the sand.

“What else can we do?” Henry asked the captain.

Captain Bob pushed back his cap. “Unless you can drive a pick-up truck, not much else. We’re shipshape here.”

Benny tugged on the captain’s sleeve. “You think you’ll take your whale watching boat out tomorrow?”

Jessie tried to shush Benny, but she was too late.

Again, the man looked upset when Benny mentioned the boat. “I told you, I have work up the coast to do. I won’t be going out on my boat for awhile.”

Benny pulled down his sailor cap and tried not to get upset. “Sorry,” he apologized.

Captain Bob turned away from the children. He didn’t seem to want the Aldens bothering him.

Henry handed over the work gloves, brooms, and extra bags without saying anything to Captain Bob. He turned to his brother: “Come on, Benny. Violet had a good idea in the middle of the night. Let’s see if we can find the grave of the lost sailor from the
Flying Cloud.
Wouldn’t that be interesting?”

Captain Bob spun around and faced the children again. “Why don’t you kids get going—I’ve got work to do.”

Henry’s eyebrows went up.

“All right, Captain Bob,” Jessie said softly.

The Aldens slowly walked toward the town. They didn’t say anything right away. All of them were puzzled.

Benny kicked sand every few steps. “Why did Captain Bob get angry after we did a good job?”

Jessie shook her head. “I don’t know, Benny. Maybe he was up working all night and got in a bad mood.”

Henry put his arm around his younger brother. “Maybe he’s upset about losing business because of the storm. Mr. Pease seems to like him, so let’s not say anything. Jessie might be right that he’s just in a bad mood from working too hard.”

“What about what that guest said about Captain Bob last night?” Violet asked.

Henry walked along. “You mean that the museum curator says Captain Bob is no better than a pirate? That’s probably just a lot of talk.”

Violet turned around to take another look at Captain Bob. He was off in the distance putting up benches that had blown over. “I think it’s a lot of talk, too. Maybe somebody he loves is buried in the cemetery and thinking of them upset him.”

Henry smiled at his sister. “Maybe you’re right. We’ll be careful and respectful while we’re there.”

The children strolled toward a bluff that overlooked the town and the beach. Beach plum bushes lined the small road that led up to the cemetery.

The Aldens were quiet in this special spot. The cemetery looked very old. Many of the words on the gravestones were worn away by time and weather.

“It’s pretty here,” Violet said quietly. “You can see the town and the ocean in every direction.”

The children walked to the very top of the bluff. The oldest stones were there. They stopped in front of a section marked off by a rusting fence. A sign on it said: C
OFFIN
F
amily
P
lot
.

Jessie read some of the granite markers. “Oh look! There’s Emily Coffin’s gravestone —1844–1879. She only lived ten years after her husband drowned.”

“It’s so sad that he drowned at sea. They couldn’t be buried next to each other,” Violet said softly. “There’s an empty space between her grave and their children’s graves.”

The Aldens were silent for a few minutes. The wind had died down. They listened to the faint breeze blowing through the beach grass that surrounded the gravestones.

Jessie walked away first. In a minute she found what she was looking for. She waved her brothers and sister over.

“Here it is.” She pointed to a small, half buried gravestone. “Caleb Plummer. 1855– 1869. A brave young sailor, too late to save his ship.”

“Isn’t that the name in the book you read last night?” Henry asked.

Jessie nodded sadly. “Yes. He was fourteen, just like you, Henry. Everyone thought he rowed to shore to get help for the
Flying Cloud.
But he was too late.”

The children took one another’s hands. The sun was going down. Out in the cove they could see the boaters returning to the docks. A little farther out, they saw a dark figure rowing to shore.

“It’s time to leave,” Henry said quietly.

The children turned away from the graves of Caleb Plummer and Emily Coffin. They made their way back to town without a word and without seeing that the little rowboat had disappeared.

Golden sunlight poured into the Crow’s Nest as the Aldens awakened.

Jessie tiptoed to the big windows to feel the sun. She opened the doors that led to the widow’s walk. “Mmm, fresh sea air.”

“Do you see any land yet?” Henry joked. “I dreamed we were on a long sea voyage.”

Jessie focused the telescope the Peases left by the window. “I see lots of land with lots of people,” she answered, laughing. Then she stopped. “Hey, come here, Henry. Isn’t that Captain Bob out on the
Jonah
?”

Henry jumped out of bed to take a look. “It sure is. I thought he said he was driving up the coast today. Do you suppose he’s running his whale watch trips after all?”

“If he is, let’s get down to the dock,” Jessie said. “A sign said the trips leave at eight. We’ve only got half an hour.”

Henry and Jessie tickled Benny and Violet to get them out of bed.

“Why are we rushing?” Violet said, rubbing her eyes.

“Captain Bob is out on his boat,” Henry told his sister. “We want to see if he’s going out to watch whales today.”

“Whales! Did somebody say ‘whales’?” Benny cried.

The children left a note under the door of their grandfather’s room and went downstairs to tell Mrs. Pease their plans.

She shook her head. “I’ll pack a few muffins for the trip. But I don’t think the
Jonah
is scheduled for any whale watches today. Mr. Pease said Captain Bob had other plans for the next few days. We’ve never figured out where he disappears to after every big storm.”

“Well, we’re going to try, just in case,” Benny said hopefully.

Mrs. Pease handed Benny a cloth napkin filled with warm muffins for the trip.

The children ran through the sleepy streets of Ragged Cove and down to the town dock. Sure enough, the Aldens could hear the
Jonah’s
motor warming up. They raced down the dock to the bright blue boat.

“Captain Bob! Captain Bob!” Henry yelled, nearly out of breath.

Jessie whispered to Henry. “Do you think one of us should go on board and see if he’s down below? Maybe he didn’t hear us.”

Jessie didn’t wait for Henry’s answer. She walked cautiously up the gangplank then walked on deck. Before she got very far, a voice boomed out.

“What are you doing on this boat?” Captain Bob yelled when he came up from the engine room.

Jessie jumped back and caught herself on the railing. “We came to see if you were taking people out whale watching after all.”

Captain Bob’s face grew red. He seemed about to shout until he saw that he was scaring the children. He looked down at his boots and shook his head. “I’m not going out today. Told you kids that. Now off you go.”

Jessie didn’t argue. She walked down the gangplank and away from the
Jonah
with her brothers and sister.

“Maybe another day,” Captain Bob called out. “Just not today.”

“Let’s go sit up on a bench and have breakfast,” Henry suggested. “We’ll try to come up with some better plans.”

But coming up with better plans wasn’t easy. It was such a sunny, warm day. Nothing seemed nearly as much fun as whale watching. Jessie unwrapped the napkin full of muffins. The children each took one but only nibbled at the edges. They watched Captain Bob untie the
Jonah
then slowly steer it out of the protected cove.

“Look, he’s heading north, up the coast,” Henry pointed out. “Not straight out to sea. Maybe he decided to take the boat up the coast instead of taking his truck like he told us yesterday.”

“He’d better be careful,” Violet said. “Howling Cliffs is in that direction. Mr. Pease said there are lots of boat wrecks up that way.”

Benny tossed crumbs of muffins to the seagulls that had discovered the Aldens. “What are we going to do today, Henry?” he asked his older brother.

“Maybe we can visit the Sailors’ Museum,” Henry said. “Even if we can’t go on a whale watching boat, we can go look at pictures and souvenirs of boats at the museum.”

Violet was worried. “What if that woman, Miss Coffin, won’t let us in? Mr. Pease said she doesn’t even like grown-ups visiting.”

“We’ll try, just in case,” Jessie said. “I’d like to see some scrimshaw and sea paintings.”

“If I can’t be on the sea, at least I’ll get to look at a painting of it,” Benny said.

The other children laughed, but they agreed with Benny.

The Aldens made their way slowly past the quaint shops that lined the cobblestone streets of Ragged Cove. They headed to a big white captain’s house with a huge black ship’s anchor planted in front.

“Looks like this is it,” Henry said when he saw the sign for the Sailors’ Museum. “Not exactly busy.”

“Not exactly open, either,” Jessie said.

She stepped up to the door and rapped on the brass door knocker. While the children waited for someone to open up, Benny peeked in the window by the door.

“There’s somebody inside. A lady with gray hair, I think. She’s just standing there,” Benny told Jessie. “Knock again.”

Jessie did. She rapped nearly a dozen times before the door opened just a crack.

“No children allowed without an adult,” an old voice said from the inside.

This didn’t stop Jessie Alden. “But . . . the sign here says the adult can be fourteen or over. Our brother Henry is fourteen.”

Benny scooted by Jessie and looked up at the woman. “We know about your great-grandfather and his boat, the
Flying Cloud.
And we saw your great-grandmother’s gravestone. And Jessie read us a story about your family.”

A tiny smile passed over the woman’s face.

Benny took a deep breath. “We like whales and boats, and Violet knows how to paint pictures of the ocean. And Henry can carve anything, even a whale tooth. If we ever find one.”

The door opened a few more inches. “Well, I don’t know. Most children come in here and go out disappointed. I have nothing here but old things, not even a gift shop.”

“We make our own gifts,” Violet said proudly. “But maybe we can get some ideas from your museum.”

The woman liked Violet’s idea very much. She waved the children inside.

Henry spoke first. “We’re the Aldens, Miss Coffin. We’re staying at the Black Dog Inn with our grandfather. The Peases told us about you. This is Jessie and Violet and Benny, and I’m Henry.”

The woman seemed curious and turned to Jessie. “I see. Tell me how you happened to be reading my book, young lady.”

“Well, first I read a story called ‘Watery Grave: The Wreck of the
Flying Cloud.
’ ”

The woman stiffened and looked angry. “That! I thought you meant the true history I wrote. That other story is just a lot of lies and gossip!”

Jessie wasn’t quite sure what to say next. She didn’t want to upset Miss Coffin. “Oh, but then Mrs. Pease gave me your book, and I read some of it last night. It’s so sad.”

Miss Coffin got a faraway look. “Yes, it is a sad story. So many died, so close to home. But there’s something worse than that.”

“What could be worse?” Violet asked.

“Humph,” the woman began. “What’s worse is what caused the tragedy of the
Flying Cloud.
There was an attempted . . . well, never mind.”

“Mutiny?” Benny asked, proud to show off his new word.

“Yes, but it was just that crazy Eli Hull,” Miss Coffin said. “Why, my great-grandfather was one of the most beloved sea captains in these parts. He treated his crew like his own family. Anybody who knows anything knows that! His crew would never have turned against him.”

“Of course not,” Violet said softly. She was reading the sign on a glass cabinet filled with carvings. “Anybody can see that Captain Coffin’s crew loved him. Look at all this scrimshaw his sailors carved for him. Were all these pieces in your family, Miss Coffin?”