Free Once Upon a Midnight Eerie: Book #2 (Misadventures of Edgar/Allan) by Gordon McAlpine

“spear,” while
tremblement
means “tremor” or “shaking.” Thus “Lance de Tremblement,” in English, was “a spear of shaking” or a “Shake-spear”!
    Crack!
    The boys broke the lock on the metal doors.

    Allan tossed the pickax aside.
    They looked at one another. Neither had ever entered a tomb at midnight before.
    What awaited them in the darkness?
    With Roderick serving as lookout, the twins entered the ominous crypt. They flicked on their flashlights, running the beams over the small cobwebbed chamber.
    No skeletons, no coffins, no cremation urns.
    There was nothing there at all.
    The boys looked at each other in dismay. Had they guessed wrong?
    “Any self-respecting pirate would make this a little more difficult,” Allan murmured.
    They did a second flashlit examination of the crypt . . . and still, nothing.
    Then, from a darkened corner, Roderick meowed.
    “What is it?” Edgar asked.
    Roderick meowed again, this time more urgently, his eyes reflecting the flashlights’ beams.
    The boys rushed over.
    Roderick sat atop a stone slab, which looked like a blank grave marker. After a moment, he inclined his head graciously, rose to his feet, stretched, and padded off.
    The boys examined the slab. Then they reached for their pickax and shovel.
    Any pirate worth his reputation
always
buried his treasure.
    Edgar levered up the slab with the pickax. Allan began to dig.
    And after several frantic minutes, they broke through to a subterranean storage space.
    Within it was pirate treasure—far more than two boys could carry.
    They opened the first of a half dozen chests, all of which had been waterproofed with tar.

    Inside, glittering gold doubloons, booty of the Spanish Main!
    In the second chest were more doubloons; in the third and fourth were jewels, sparkling in colors that hadn’t faded in two centuries; in the fifth were heavy serving dishes and chalices, all layered in gold and studded with rubies; in the sixth were personal items, such as clothing, boots of Spanish leather, hats, swords, and, most important:
    A leather-bound diary stored inside of a sealskin pouch.
    Edgar opened it, with Allan’s flashlight trained upon the first page.

    A few minutes later, when the Poe twins emerged from the tomb, they still bore the wide grins that had spread across their faces when they first spied the treasure. But grins aside, they looked quite different from before. Now, they wore feathered pirate hats, vests that smelled of gunpowder even two centuries after their last use, and, slung across their hips, scabbards with slightly rusted swords—all authentic pirate loot. Roderick sported a two-hundred-year-old silk scarf around his neck.
    Aside from the pirate garb and accessories, the twins had taken from the crypt only the murderous pirate’s incriminating diary. They closed the brass doors behind them, picked up their tools, and covered their tracks so no one would stumble across their discovery before the proper authorities were notified.
    The boys might be dressed like pirates. But they weren’t really interested in loot.
    This was about justice.
    They ran out of the cemetery and back into the crowded part of the French Quarter. Here, every night was like a masquerade party, so their unusual attire (including swords) drew hardly any attention.
    At the museum, they found the Dickinson sisters crouched in shadows near the entrance.
    “Did you get the diary?” Em whispered.
    Edgar and Allan’s faces answered the question.
    “And in it he confesses his crime?” Milly asked.
    “In gory detail,” said Allan.
    “Good. But we’re not going to be able to break in tonight. So Milly and I have come up with a plan B.”
    “Why can’t we go tonight?” the Poe twins asked impatiently.
    Milly pointed to the museum. Inside, the lights were on. “There’s a whole crew in there, getting ready for a show that opens tomorrow.”
    “Look at the banner they just hung to advertise it,” Em added.
    “I have