Free Torn-missing 4 by Margaret Peterson Haddix Page A

“The background. So maybe we can see where time went off track. What’s that saying social studies teachers are always yammering on about—something like ‘Those who don’t remember history are forced to repeat it’?”
    “That is
not
the reason we’re stuck in 1611,” Jonah said defensively.
    But what if it was? What if JB should have paid more attention to what happened to Henry Hudson and his mutiny? Could that have made JB notice that Second was going to rebel against him?
    “Here,” Jonah said. “If you think these papers are so important,
you
read them.” He thrust the papers into Katherine’s hands and gazed around. “I’ll watch out for icebergs.”
    What he really wanted to do was pull out the drawing of Andrea he’d tucked in his pocket and stare at it. But he couldn’t do that in front of Katherine. He was sure he could feel the picture in his pocket, though, rustling a little, reminding him,
This isn’t just about you and Katherine and JB and Second and time. Andrea’s life depends on you fixing 1611 too.
    But how was he supposed to know how to fix anything?There weren’t even any tracers anymore, to show how time was supposed to go.
    “It’s weird—this guy never gives his name, but he says he’s going to hide notes all around the ship, so the true story of the
Discovery
will get out even if all the good people are killed,” Katherine told him as she pored over the papers. “Why wouldn’t he give his name, so people would know to believe him?”
    “That’s not so weird,” Jonah argued. “Don’t you think the mutineers would have killed him if they found the stuff he hid?”
    “They tried to kill him
anyway,
” Katherine said. “Don’t you think? Don’t you think he was probably one of the sick guys in the shallop with us?”
    Jonah tried to think if any of them had looked particularly sneaky, as if they’d left behind secret notes.
    They’d all just looked as though they were about to die.
    “What’s ‘perfidy’?” Katherine asked, still studying the papers.
    “How would I know?” Jonah asked irritably.
    “It must be something bad,” Katherine said. “This guy says the
Discovery
is full of it. Oh, here it is again, sort of—he calls his shipmates ‘perfidious cretins’—no way that’s a good thing.”
    How could Katherine think about vocabulary wordsat a time like this? Jonah shifted uncomfortably on the creaky wood platform.
    Just think about being a lookout. Watch out for danger.
But how was he supposed to see danger coming when everything around them was a sea of gray?
    “Boy!” someone shouted from down below. “See you land to the west?”
    They had to be yelling at him.
    “Um, uh …,” he called back. “I’m looking!”
    First Jonah had to figure out which direction was west. He got a little help with that because Abacuk Prickett, who’d apparently been the one to yell, was standing down on the deck, pointing. Jonah squinted off into the distance. Were those dark, indistinct shapes land?
    “Uh, yes!” he called back. “I mean, aye! I think so!” He squinted harder. “But it’s, like, broken in the middle. Straight west—there’s a gap!”
    “A gap?” Prickett called back. “Think you that it’s a passage? It must be!”
    “Jonah, look,” Katherine whispered, holding out the papers toward him.
    “Shh. I’m trying to hear—,” Jonah whispered back.
    But down below, Prickett had already turned away. He was clapping Henry Hudson on the back, shaking Hudson’s hand.
    “Huh,” Jonah muttered. “Looks like they’re best budsnow.
I’m
the one who saw the gap. Er—passage.”
    “Jonah,
read
this,” Katherine insisted, holding the paper right in front of his eyes, so he couldn’t avoid it. She pointed to three sentences at the very bottom:
    Of all the untrustworthy scoundrels on this ship, Abacuk Prickett ys the worst of all. Believe nothing he tells you; turn your back on him only if you wish to have a knyfe plunged into it.