Free Cam Jansen and the Barking Treasure Mystery by David A. Adler Page A

the port side,” Nancy announced. “It was once used as a film studio. The movie Happy Rider was made there.”
    “Oh!” Mabel Trent screamed. “I loved Happy Rider.” She hurried to the other side of the boat and shouted, “There it is!”
    “Look,” Cam whispered to Eric.
    “I am looking,” he said.
    “No, over there,” Cam told him. She pointed to the woman in the long red dress. “Where’s her Little Treasure?”

Chapter Two
     
     
     
    “ M aybe she let a friend take care of Little Treasure,” Eric whispered.
    Cam said, “I don’t think so.”
    “And now,” Nancy announced, “take a deep breath. Do you smell something sweet and chewy? That large gray building on the port side is a bubble gum factory.”
    Eric took a deep breath. Cam didn’t. She just watched the woman in the long red dress.
    Cam nudged Eric.

    “Look at her,” Cam whispered. “She’s talking to her leather bag.”
    They watched the woman put her hand in the bag. Then she leaned forward and seemed to be talking to her hand.
    Cam whispered to Eric, “I think Little Treasure is in there.”
    “Look on the starboard side now,” Nancy said. “That’s the side facing the open sea. You’ll see a fireboat.”
    “That’s over there,” Mrs. Shelton said, and pointed to the other side of the boat.

    “That’s right, a fireboat,” Nancy said. “There are fires even here in the water. Well, not really in the water, but on boats. The fireboat has hoses and a large pump on board and searchlights for use at night.”
    “I want to see this,” Eric said.
    Eric hurried to the starboard side of the boat. Cam went there, too.
    The fireboat was not moving. A fireman was standing in the stern of the boat, holding the end of a hose spraying water. A large crowd had gathered by the rail of the tour boat to watch.
    Cam and Eric found two places by the rail, just to the right of the woman in the long red dress.
    Cam wanted to look into the woman’s red leather bag, but she couldn’t. The woman held it on her left shoulder.
    People crowded all around Cam, Eric, and the woman in the red dress.
    “Hey, I want to see. I want to see,” a small boy said. He pushed through the crowd. Cam and Eric squeezed together and made room for him by the rail.
    “I’m a visitor,” Mabel Trent shouted, “and I have a camera. I want to see, too, and I want to take a picture.”
    Mrs. Shelton stood in the back of the crowd and watched as her friend pushed her way to the rail.
    The fireman pointed the end of the hose up. Water sprayed high into the air.
    “It’s like a fountain,” Mabel Trent said. She looked through the viewfinder of her camera and pressed the shutter button.
    Click.
    The fireman slowly turned the hose toward the tour boat.
    “Don’t spray us!” Nancy called to him. “Don’t spray us!”
    He didn’t. He laughed and turned the hose the other way.
    As the tour boat moved past the fireboat, people moved away from the rail. Cam followed the woman in the red dress to the back of the boat. The woman looked at Cam and smiled. Cam smiled, too.
    Very few people were sitting there.
    The woman sat down. She carefully put her red leather bag on the seat to her left. Cam sat next to the bag. Eric sat next to Cam.

    Cam tried again to look into the bag.
    The woman moved the bag to the seat on her right, away from Cam.
    “And now,” Nancy announced, “if you look way out on the starboard side, you might be able to see an oil tanker.”
    Cam, Eric, and the woman turned and looked behind them.
    “I can’t see it,” Eric complained.
    “There it is,” Cam said, and pointed. She hurried to the other side of the woman. “You can see it better from here.”
    While Eric and the woman looked to the right, Cam looked in the woman’s bag.
    “Oh, my,” Cam said. She was surprised. “Your Little Treasure is not in there!”
    The woman winked at Cam and said softly, “Of course not. I wouldn’t have my Little Treasure in there. Animals are