The Ghost Ship Mystery Read Online Free Page A

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.

CHAPTER 5
A Parrot with a Secret
    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,”