Emma was in her bedroom, playing Crokinole with her younger brother, Max. Instead of the regular pieces, though, the round wooden board was covered with Smarties. Every time one of them got a Smartie into the ground hole in the centre of the board, they got to eat the candy-coated chocolate piece.
Emma was very, very bored. Her parents had taken a working holiday to Los Angeles, and she was stuck babysitting for the entire week.
She was just about to tell Max that it was time to get ready for bed when Emma heard something rattle against her window.
Elle allait dire à Max qu’il était temps de se préparer pour aller au lit quand Emma entendit quelque chose racler sa fenêtre.
“What was that?” Max asked. He sounded excited. Her brother was obsessed with adventure stories—he probably thought this was just like the beginning of one of his favourite movies.
“C’était quoi ça?” Demanda Max. Il avait l’air excité. Son frère était obsédé par les histoires d’aventures—il pensait probablement que c’était juste comme le commencement d’un de ses films préférés.
“I don’t know.” Emma got up and went over to the window. Then she laughed. “Jacob!” She opened the window, and Jacob climbed inside. He looked winded, and he was holding an old wooden box awkwardly under one arm.
“Hey.” He kissed her quickly, and nodded to Max. “Hey buddy. You’re up late.”
“Mom and Dad are out,” Max explained. “And if you tell me I have to leave I’ll tell Mom and Dad that Jacob crawled in your window,” Max told his sister importantly.
“Brat! Mom and Dad won’t care that Jacob came to visit,” Emma said.
“At eleven o’clock at night?” Max said, pointing at the clock.
“Why are you here?” Emma asked her boyfriend. “Not that I’m not glad to see you,” she added with a smile.
Jacob smiled back, but it was quick and faded fast. He held out the wooden box he was holding for Emma to see. “I think…someone’s after this. Or me. But I think it’s this.”
Jacob lui sourit aussi, mais son sourire s’effaça rapidement. Il tendit à Emma la boîte qu’il avait pour qu’elle puisse la voir. “Je pense que…quelqu’un est après ça. Ou après moi. Mais je pense que c’est ça.”
“What do you mean, after it?” Emma asked, her smile wobbling.
“My dad. Um…” Jacob clenched his jaw for a second, fighting back some strong emotion that Emma couldn’t name. “He…died.”
“Oh my God. What? Jacob, I’m so sorry.” Emma reached out for a hug, but Jacob caught her hand instead, squeezing it.
“He was looking for a hidden treasure,” Jacob said. “And I think….maybe whoever killed him is after it, too.”
“Someone killed him?” Max gasped.
“Yeah. And they broke into my house tonight.”
Emma gasped. “Are you okay?! Jacob, we should call the police!”
“Yeah, no, we should, but… I just want to understand what this is, first. If we call the police they’ll take it away as evidence.” Jacob sat down on the ground, putting the box in front of him. Emma came to look, and Max edged closer, too.
“It’s…a puzzle box,” Emma said, surprised. There were two small circles etched into the box. Sixteen small round spheres in different colours of wood were set into tracks carved into the lid, so the spheres could be moved around the box.
“The treasure belonged to a man named Levi Boone Helm. I don’t know if this box is his, but my dad was looking for that treasure, and this was in his stuff.”
Max reached out and pushed a few of the spheres around the tracks, but nothing happened. “How do we unlock it?”
Max tendit la main et poussa quelques disques, mais rien ne se produisit. “Comment le débloque-t-on?”
“I don’t know. My dad obviously couldn’t figure it out. But look. There’s a strike plate here,” Jacob said, pointing at the lock. A small piece of rough stone was embedded under it, with a piece of metal on top of it.
“Je sais pas. Mon père n’a certainement pas réussi. Mais regarde. Il y a une gâche ici,” dit Jacob, en montrant la serrure. Un petit morceau de pierre brute était serti dessous, avec un bout de métal au dessus.
“If you try to force the lock open, it’ll strike…and light whatever is inside on fire,” Emma said. She couldn’t believe it. What had Jacob gotten her into it?
“Si tu essaies de forcer la serrure, il y aura une percussion…et cela mettra le feu à ce qui se trouve à l’intérieur,” dit Emma. Elle n’en revenait pas. Dans quoi Jacob l’avait-il embarquée?
“That is so cool!” Max yelled.
“Hey, look!” Jacob had been exploring the box, and he had found a drawer built into the bottom. Inside, there was an old, yellowed piece of paper. When Jacob carefully pulled it out, Emma could see that it was covered in creases.
“A clue!” Max yelled. “Read it, read it!”
Jacob opened the paper. “It’s from him—Levi Boone Helm!” Jacob gasped. He read the letter over silently, quickly, then explained what it said to Emma and Max. “It’s to his daughter, Lucy. He tells her that he’s found a fortune, but the police are after him. If anything happens to him, he’s asked a man named Francis Galt to deliver this box to Lucy. Galt has made three puzzles that only Lucy will be able to solve, and hidden them around Canada. If Boone Helm dies, he wants Lucy and Galt to solve the puzzles…and split the treasure.”
“Why not just give the money to Galt?” Emma asked, confused. “Puzzles hidden around the country seems like a lot of work!”
“Pourquoi ne pas donner directement l’argent à Galt?” Demanda Emma, confuse. “Des énigmes cachées dans tout le pays cela doit donner beaucoup de travail!”
“Maybe he didn’t trust Galt to give Lucy the money!” Max said.
“Peut-être ne faisait-il pas suffisamment confiance à Galt pour qu’il donne l’argent à Lucy?” Suggéra Max.
“He said Galt made the puzzles, though. That must mean he knew where the treasure was,” Emma pointed out.
“Il dit que Galt a crée les énigmes. Quoique. Cela doit dire qu’il savait où était le trésor, “ observa Emma.
“Maybe not,” Jacob said, thinking it over. “What if the final clue is the location of the buried treasure, and that was in a code Galt couldn’t decipher? So Lucy needs Galt to deliver the box, and Galt needs Lucy to decode the final clue. The puzzles keep the police—or any other treasure hunters—from intercepting Galt and getting the location of the puzzle that way.”
“Peut-être pas,” dit Jacob, en y repensant. “Et si l’indice final est la localisation du trésor enterré, et que c’était un code que Galt n’était pas capable de déchiffrer? Alors Lucy avait besoin de Galt pour récupérer la boîte, et Galt avait besoin de Lucy pour déchiffrer l’indice final. Les énigmes assurent que la police—ou n’importe quel autre chasseur de trésor—n’interceptent pas Galt et ainsi ne trouvent pas la localisation des énigmes.”
“Jeez,” Emma said. “No wonder no one has found the treasure yet.”
“And if my dad never figured out how to open it…how the heck are we going to?” Jacob asked. He and Emma took turns looking at the box, and moving a few of the spheres around, but neither of them could see an obvious answer.
“It looks just like our Crokinole board,” Max said.
“And that looks just like a curling pitch!” Emma said, excited.
“Curling?” Jacob asked, doubtful. “This thing is like a hundred and fifty years old. Was curling even invented then?”
Emma pulled out her phone and did a quick Google search. “Yeah, it was invented in the sixteenth century, and Scottish immigrants brought it to Canada really early, around 1840.”
“I don’t think Boone Helm was Scottish,” Jacob told her.
“Je ne pense pas que Boone Helm était Ecossais,” lui dit Jacob.
“But I bet Francis Galt was!” Emma said. “And I know a curling pitch when I see one. Try moving the stones into a winning game.” When Jacob gave her a helpless look, she grinned and took the box. “Here, let me. One stone on each side has to be in the house1 . . . then the winning team gets points if they have the most stones close to their house1.”
“Mais je pense que Francis Galt l’était!” Dit Emma. “Et je reconnais un terrain de curling quand j’en vois un. Essayer de déplacer des pierres pour gagner le jeu.” Quand Jacob lui lança un regard désemparé, elle sourit et prit la boîte. “Tiens, laisse-moi . Une pierre de chaque équipe doit finir dans la maison.
Emma moved the spheres on the box so that one was in the centre of the circle. She arranged all of the matching coloured spheres so they were close by, and then moved the other colours so each one was just a little further away from their own large circle.
Emma bougea les disques sur la boîte afin qu’un soit au centre du cercle. Elle assembla les disques de couleurs identiques afin qu’ils soient rapprochés, puis elle bougea les autres couleurs afin que chacune soit juste un peu plus loin de l’extérieur du cercle.
There was a click, and the box popped open. None of them moved. Emma couldn’t quite believe she had done it.
Il y eut un clic, et la boîte s’ouvrit. Emma ne pouvait pas croire qu’elle l’avait fait.
“It worked? It actually worked?” Jacob gasped.
“What’s inside? Is it treasure?” Max asked.
Emma opened the box. Instead of treasure, there was another folded-up piece of paper. She handed it to Jacob, who read it out. “Go to the seat of Queen Victoria’s newly-considered glory. If you seek knowledge, you will find it in the wisdom of the forest.”
“Oh god, a riddle. I hate riddles,” Max complained.
“Queen Victoria was Queen of England when Canada became a country,” Jacob said. “She chose Ottawa as the capital, right? So maybe that’s her new glory?”
“When was the treasure buried?” Max asked.
“I don’t know, I couldn’t find any information about it when I—” Jacob said, but he was interrupted by Emma.
“1862,” she said.
“What? How did you find that?” Jacob went to look over her shoulder at the Google result she was looking at on her phone.
“I just looked up Levi Boone Helm Canada treasure,” she said. “There are all kinds of articles about it.”
Jacob rubbed his face with a groan. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
Jacob frotta son visage en grognant. “Je n’arrive pas à croire que je n’y ai pas pensé.”
“So, Ottawa. Where do you go if you’re seeking knowledge?”
“Alors, Ottawa. Où vas-tu si tu recherches de la connaissance?”
“The university?” Max guessed. “Or the library?”
“ A l’université?” Suggéra Max. “Ou la bibliothèque?”
Emma did another quick Google search. “The university didn’t get its charter until 1866.”
Emma refit une recherche rapide sur Google. L’université n’a pas eu sa charte avant 1866.”
“And the first library was built in 1906,” Jacob added, looking at his own phone.
“Et la première bibliothèque a été construite en 1906,” ajouta Jacob, en regardant son téléphone.
“Wow, no library?” Max asked. “That sucks. Where did people go to read?”
“Waouh, aucune bibliothèque?” Dit Max. “Ça craint. Où les gens allaient-ils lire?”
“Hold on!” Jacob said. “There was no public library—but there was the Parliamentary Library. And look—the library is the only part of the Parliament Building that survived a huge fire in 1916! If Galt did hide a clue there…it could still be there!”
“Attendez!” Dit Jacob. “Il n’y avait pas de bibliothèque publique—mais il y avait la Bibliothèque Parlementaire. Et regardez—la bibliothèque est la seule partie du Parlement qui a survécu à un immense incendie en 1916! Si Galt a caché un indice là-bas…il peut encore y être!”
“That’s incredible!” Emma hugged Jacob and they all climbed to their feet. “What now?”
Jacob closed up the box, leaving the clue hidden inside. “I guess…I call the police?”
“What if we go to Ottawa and look for the treasure?” Max suggested.
“Yeah, right,” Emma said. “This is serious, Max. Someone attacked Jacob tonight.”
“Yeah. And she…had a gun,” Jacob admitted.
“A gun!” Emma yelled. “Why didn’t you say that? I’m calling the police right now.”
“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” Jacob ran a hand through his hair. “I just had to know what the box had in it. And it’s only been a few minutes. There’s no way she followed me here.”
“Are you sure?” Max asked. “Cuz, um…”
He pointed out the window, and Emma and Jacob both rushed to his side. Someone was in the yard—standing next to the bike that Jacob had left, clearly visible, by the side of the house. Before they could duck out of sight, she looked over—and her eyes caught Jacob’s.
Jacob swore and slammed the window closed, locking it. “Is the front door locked?” he asked Emma.
She shook her head, terrified. “I always lock it right before we go to bed. What do we do?!”
Elle secoua la tête, terrifiée. “Je la ferme juste avant d’aller dormir. On fait quoi?!”
“I’ll go. Hopefully, she’ll follow me,” Jacob said.
“Je vais y aller. Espérons qu’elle me suivra,” dit Jacob.
“What if she doesn’t?” Emma pointed out. “If she thinks we have the box she might not follow you! I’m calling 911.” Emma opened the phone app on her cell phone and dialled. But nothing happened. When she looked closer, she saw that her bars were at zero—and even her wifi was down. “My phone!” she gasped.
“Et si elle ne le fait pas?” Observa Emma. “Si elle pense pense qu’on a la boîte elle pourrait ne pas te suivre! J’appelle le 911.” Emma sélectionna le numéro sur son portable pour appeler. Mais rien ne se passa. En regardant de plus près, elle vit zéro barre—et même sa wifi était hors-service. “Mon téléphone!” Soupira-t-elle.
“Those are real?” Max asked.
“Yeah, but they’re also illegal!” Emma said.
“I’m pretty sure this woman killed my dad!” Jacob reminded her. “I don’t think she’s worried about breaking the law. We have to get out of here. Come on!”
He grabbed Max’s hand, and the three of them dashed out of the bedroom and down the stairs. They could hear the attacker at the back door, trying to force the lock.
Emma grabbed her purse, and she and Max both stuffed their feet into sandals before bursting out the front door. They took off running down the block .
“Where to?” Emma asked, looking over her shoulder.
“Where’s the nearest police station?” Jacob asked.
“I have no idea! Psychopaths don’t chase me through my middle-class suburban neighbourhood very often!” Emma moved Max so that he was between her and Jacob, just in case, and looked over her shoulder again. The woman had just appeared from around the house. “She’s there!” Emma screamed.
Jacob considered the box in his hands. Then he turned and threw it behind them.
“You can’t!” Max yelled. He started to turn around but Emma grabbed his arm and dragged him forward.
“It’ll take her ages to get it open,” Jacob promised. “And hopefully, it’ll stop her from shooting us!!”
Sure enough, their attacker stopped to pick up the box. Emma, Jacob, and Max turned at the nearest corner. They kept running until poor Max couldn’t go one more step; then they stopped to catch their breaths.
“What now?” Emma asked.
“Et maintenant?” Demanda Emma.
“I have to get to Ottawa and find the clue before she does,” Jacob said. “This treasure…my dad died trying to find it. I can’t just let the woman have it. You take Max and go tell the police what happened. Hopefully, they can catch her before she leaves the city.”
“Je dois aller à Ottawa et y trouver l’indice avant qu’elle ne le fasse,” Dit Jacob. “Ce trésor…mon père est mort en tentant de le trouver. Je ne peux pas laisser cette femme l’avoir. Tu prends Max et allez dire à la police ce qu’il s’est passé. J’espère qu’ils pourront l’arrêter avant qu’elle ne quitte la ville.”
“No way—I’m going with you,” Emma said.
“Pas question—j’y vais avec toi,” dit Emma.
“Me too!” Max agreed.
“Moi aussi!” Ajouta Max.
“You’re not coming,” Emma told him. “It’s way too dangerous!”
“Tu ne viens pas,” lui dit Emma. “C’est beaucoup trop dangereux!”
Max put his hands on his hips. “Staying here is just as dangerous. She saw all three of us. If she gets the box open, she’ll know we’re after the treasure. She might grab me to use as leverage, or make me tell her where the treasure is, or anything awful!”
Max posa ses mains sur ses hanches. “Rester ici est tout aussi dangereux. Elle pourrait m’attraper et m’utiliser comme moyen de pression, ou me faire dire où est le trésor, ou bien pire!”
“You’re right,” Emma told him. She looked over at Jacob. “We have to drop him off with the police before we go.”
“No!” Max yelled.
“I don’t know if there’s time…” Jacob looked back over his shoulder, even though there was nothing to see.
“Good point,” Max said. He grinned and took off down the street, running as fast as his tired legs could go.
“Max! Stop it, are you crazy?” Emma screamed. She ran after him. With a groan and a deep breath, Jacob followed.
“We have to get to the bus station before it’s too late!” Max yelled over his shoulder. “If you waste time trying to stop me from coming with you, you’ll never get there in time!”
“Let’s just bring him,” Jacob said. “He’s right—he’s probably safer with us than on his own.”
Emma gulped. It seemed crazy to bring him, but… “Are you sure?”
“Don’t worry,” Jacob promised. “We’ll take care of him.”
Emma nodded and turned her attention back to her brother. But inside, she wasn’t at all sure that she was doing the right thing.
