The school day seemed to stretch on forever. Each time Horace looked at the clock to see what time it was, he felt like he was watching his chances to help the Order tick away with it. Herman had given Horace one task: protect the Benben Stone. But what about the treasury and the lost prophecy? Why hadn’t Herman told him about these things as well? Horace was growing more and more antsy, finally finding the smallest bit of relief when the bell rang at the end of the day.
After finishing up his homework and eating some leftover pizza with his sisters, Horace met Milton and Anna outside the Four Flags Inn, an abandoned hotel on Main Street. The hotel was located just opposite the museum’s parking lot, and the kids thought it would be best to meet there first before heading to the museum.
“Horace, are you sure you really feel up to this? I know it has been a hard day,” said Anna sympathetically. Horace had told them earlier about what had happened to his grandmother.
“Yeah, Anna is right. We don’t have to do this tonight. We could come back another time,” added Milton.
“No,” said Horace firmly. “I’ve waited too long as it is. We’ve got to warn Herman about Mr. Franken.”
“Okay,” answered Milton, turning back toward the museum across the street. “Mr. Franken usually leaves by six p.m.,” he said. “I’ve been scouting the place out for the past week.”
Sure enough, just on cue the last light went off in the upstairs office, and they could see Mr. Franken as he made his way out the museum’s door and got into his car. The parking lot was empty.
“Okay, let’s go,” Horace said.
The kids snuck around the building, keeping close to the shrubbery.
“Let’s try the carriage house’s entrance,” Anna suggested. “That way we can go straight to the portal.”
Soon the kids found themselves at the door to the carriage house.
“How do you guys think we should try to open the door?” Horace asked.
Milton pulled a clothes hanger from his coat. “I brought this in case we needed to jimmy the lock.”
Horace walked up to the door and jiggled the handle. It popped open immediately. “Hey, it’s unlocked!”
Milton looked confused. “Weird.”
“Is someone still here?” Anna asked. “Are you sure that was Mr. Franken we saw leave? Maybe it was another worker?”
“No,” Horace said with certainty in his voice. “It was Mr. Franken. I’d recognize that car anywhere.” The broken taillight had become an unmistakable marker.
“I don’t know,” answered Milton. “But all the lights are off. Maybe they just forgot to lock it up.”
The kids cautiously walked into the dark building.
The red glow of the exit signs illuminated the interior just enough so they could make their way around without crashing into any of the exhibits.
“And there’s no alarm,” noted Horace. “This is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.”
Milton pulled out his phone and turned on a small light to illuminate the path ahead.
“Hey, look at this. This door is marked ‘Basement.’ I wonder if there are more things in the basement,” said Anna.
“Great. We’ll check it out later. But first we need to find the portal,” insisted Horace.
The kids made their way to the back of the large room, where the cars were stored under their tarps. They walked past the line of vehicles until they came to the Stout. Its plastic cover lay on the ground just where they’d left it from their last trip through the portal. “Come on,” Horace said.
He was just about to open the car door, when off to the side something caught his eye. It was an open box piled high with books. “Wait! What are these doing here?” He ran over, quickly flipping through the covers. They were some of his grandfather’s old books! Mr. Franken must have taken them from the library before Horace had gone there.
Horace started to turn back to Milton and Anna, but before he could say anything, something hit the back of his head. Everything went black.