TBC 039: The Ghost Ship Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Author:Gertrude Chandler Warner [Warner, Gertrude Chandler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781453212899
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Published: 2012-03-19T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

A Stranger Disappears

It was lunchtime when the Jonah docked. But the Aldens forgot all about being hungry. They couldn’t wait to show Miss Coffin their discoveries.

“I just know she’ll be happy to see us when we show her these things,” Violet said. “Not like yesterday.”

Henry ran ahead to call Mrs. Pease so they could eat lunch later and go to the museum instead. “She’s going to leave some sandwiches for us in the refrigerator,” Henry told everyone when he came back from making his phone call. “Now we can go straight to the Sailors’ Museum to show Miss Coffin what we found. So let’s unload everything.”

Captain Bob hadn’t said a word to the Aldens the whole ride back to Ragged Cove. Still silent, he packed up the wooden postbox along with the other discoveries into a small cart. As he covered everything to protect it, he finally spoke to the children again. “I have work to do on the Jonah this afternoon. I can’t come to the museum.”

“But you have to!” Benny cried. “You helped us find everything.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the captain said. “Miss Coffin will know what to do with all of it. Mind you, go slowly with the cart over the cobbled streets. The postbox is about ready to come apart. Everything else should be fine. You can bring the cart back later and leave it at the dock. I’ll find it okay.”

“Are you sure you won’t come?” Violet asked. “You’re the one who made it possible for us to save these things. Wouldn’t you like to see what Miss Coffin says? She’ll be so happy.”

“Not if she sees me,” Captain Bob said in a low voice the children could hardly hear.

The Aldens set out for the museum, pulling the cart slowly down the dock and toward Ragged Cove.

“I can’t figure out why Captain Bob won’t come with us,” Jessie said. “It seems silly to be upset about things that happened so long ago.”

“Well, he is upset, and so is Miss Coffin,” Henry told Jessie. “When I told Mrs. Pease we were going to the Sailors’ Museum with Captain Bob, she seemed surprised. She said Miss Coffin has had nothing good to say about the captain since he came back to Ragged Cove after the Coast Guard.” Henry pulled the cart around the corner carefully. “Mrs. Pease said there’s been a feud between the Coffins and Captain Bob’s family, the Hulls, ever since the Flying Cloud. I guess that’s why he didn’t want us to take these things to Miss Coffin.”

“How sad,” said Violet. “Why can’t people get along with each other?”

As the Aldens walked past the shops on Cod Street, Violet stopped in front of a store called Spooner Cooke’s Scrimshaw Shop. “I just wanted to see if there were any scrimshaw clothespins like the ones we found in the postbox,” Violet said. “But I don’t see any. There are some other pretty things, though, even some carved whalebone toys.”

The other children crowded up to the window to take a look.

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