Free Mystery of the Pirate's Map by Charles Tang

out.
    â€œIt sure is,” Tom told her.
    He had not only kept his word about Jack Ford, but also about giving something to the Aldens, too. The morning after finding John Finney’s box, a personal note from Winston came for the Aldens at Tom’s house. It said simply that there were four brand-new bicycles waiting for the children at their favorite shop when they got back to Greenfield.
    Grandfather laughed. “Jack wanted to know what made Winston change so quickly. I told him it was because of John Finney’s treasure.”
    Benny looked confused. “But . . . there was no treasure.”
    â€œOh, yes, there was,” Grandfather said wisely. “Only it wasn’t the kind of treasure Winston Walker was expecting.”
    Benny didn’t quite understand what Grandfather meant, but Jessie did. “He found out what he had become, and he was given the chance to change it,” she told everyone.
    Her grandfather jabbed a finger at her. “Exactly,” he said proudly. “So it looks as though everything did turn out for the best.”
    â€œIt sure did,” Tom agreed.
    Benny finished the last bite of his hamburger and looked back at the ocean. He really wanted to get into the water again, but he knew he shouldn’t so soon after eating.
    Then something caught his eye that made him jump up off his towel and run down there anyway—it was a bottle, bobbing back and forth in the foam.
    He rushed in and grabbed it before the next wave could pull it back out. It was very, very old, much older than John Finney’s . . . and was that a small piece of paper with something drawn on it inside?
    No, Benny saw after his imagination calmed down. The bottle was no older than he was; it simply had been designed to look old. And the paper he saw wasn’t on the inside. It was the bottle’s label, pasted on the other side.
    He brought it back to where everyone was sitting so he could throw it in the trash when they left.
    â€œAnother treasure map, Benny?” Grandfather asked.
    Benny shook his head. “No, but maybe that’s okay.”
    He laughed then, and the others laughed with him.
    Two days later the Aldens were back in Grandfather’s station wagon, cruising north toward Greenfield, headed for home.

About the Author
    G ERTRUDE C HANDLER W ARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.
    Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.
    When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
    While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.
    Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.

The Boxcar Children Mysteries
    T HE B OXCAR C HILDREN
    S URPRISE I SLAND
    T HE Y ELLOW H OUSE M YSTERY
    M YSTERY R ANCH
    M IKE’S M YSTERY
    B LUE B AY M YSTERY
    T HE W OODSHED M YSTERY
    T HE L IGHTHOUSE M YSTERY
    M OUNTAIN T OP M YSTERY
    S