The Mummy's Curse Read Online Free Page B

“This one doesn’t have a watermark. It doesn’t even have a security thread.”
    â€œWhat’s a security thread?” M.E. asked.
    Quinn pulled another bill out of his pocket, thistime a five. He held it up to the light. “There’s the watermark,” he said, pointing to a faint circle that had been pressed into the bill. “See that line down the side? That’s the security thread.”
    â€œCool!” M.E. said, holding up the bill and examining it. “I never knew that was in there!”
    Quinn nodded. “My dad showed me. I guess it’s only in bills that are worth more than a dollar, because dollar bills don’t have them.”
    â€œBut we did find some hidden stuff on the one-dollar bill,” Luke said. “Like this hidden spider.” He pointed to a tiny dot near the number
1
in the upper right corner of the illustration.
    â€œI think it looks like an owl,” Quinn said. “And the number
thirteen
is hidden all over the place. See? The eagle on the back is holding thirteen arrows. The branch in its right foot has thirteen leaves. The shield has thirteen stripes, and there are thirteen stars over the eagle’s head. Even the pyramid has thirteen steps.”
    â€œWhy are there so many thirteens?” M.E. asked. “Isn’t that supposed to be an unlucky number?”
    Quinn shook his head. “Our teacher said it represents the original thirteen colonies.”
    â€œWait a minute!” Cody said, raising her head. She’d been studying the back of the one-dollar bill intensely. “Check out the pyramid. There’s an eye at the top, inside a triangle! Just like the one in that picture, M.E.!”
    She tapped the photo icon on her phone to retrieve the snapshot she’d taken of the mysterious drawing. “M.E., get the picture you drew of that triangle/eye.” While M.E. pulled out her drawing, Cody showed the boys the photo of the puzzling artwork. It still had her stumped.
    â€œYou’re right,” Luke said. “It does look like the same symbol as the one on the dollar bill. What do you think it means?”
    â€œThat’s a good question,” Cody said. She clicked a search engine icon on her phone, then typed in the words
triangle eye.
After reading the information, she looked up at the other Code Busters. “It’s Egyptian!”
    â€œThat’s weird,” M.E. said. “We’re studyingEgyptian stuff right now. What else does it say?”
    â€œIt says here the symbol is called the All-Seeing Eye of Providence or the Eye of Horus. We learned about that in class. It’s like a lucky charm that’s supposed to watch over everyone.”
    â€œThat doesn’t tell us much,” Luke said.
    â€œLook up ‘Eye of Horus,’ ” Quinn said to Cody. “Maybe that will give us more information than what our teachers told us.”
    Cody typed in the words, then read from the entry. “It says, in ancient Egypt, the Eye of Horus was a symbol of protection, power, and good health. They used to make amulets—jewelry—in the shape of the Eye, and bury them with people to protect them in the afterlife and ward off evil spirits.”
    â€œWow,” M.E. said. “Kinda creepy.”
    Cody read on. “It says Horus was a sky god who looked like a falcon and that the eye is supposed to look like a falcon’s eye. When Horus got in a fight with another god, his eye got poked out, so he gave it to his dad to save his life.”
    â€œWeird,” Luke said.
    â€œThe Eye of Horus was even used to measure fractions,” Cody added.
    â€œYeah, I remember Ms. Stad told us that Horus was some kind of sky god,” M.E. said.
    â€œHis right eye represented the sun god, Ra,” Cody continued.
    â€œAnd the other eye represented the moon,” Luke added.
    â€œHmm,” M.E. said. “So the eyes have hidden meanings, sort of like