Sydney and Elizabeth walked on the weathered brick pathway into the arched entranceway of Fort McHenry. The short, dark hallway was flanked by vaulted doors.
“This is awesome,” Elizabeth said. “These doors are ginormous!”
The hallway opened into the bright sunshine and the fort’s grassy parade grounds. Just beyond this grassy area were red brick buildings, the barracks that Ranger Hank had told them about. The barracks were two stories high with red roofs, white balconies, and green shutters on the windows. Red-white-and-blue banners hung from the balconies in honor of the Fourth of July, and actors dressed in costumes wandered the grounds making the fort seem more like 1814 than the twenty-first century.
“I just got an idea,” Sydney said. “Follow me.”
Elizabeth followed Sydney toward a short, stout lady who was one of the actors. She sat on a wooden bench outside the barracks wearing a floor-length, blood-red dress with a tan bonnet. It seemed like way too much clothing for the hot summer day.
“Good day,” the lady said as the girls approached her.
“Good day,” Sydney and Elizabeth said in unison.
The woman gave each girl a tour map of the fort. “Is this your first visit to Fort McHenry?” she asked.
“It is,” Elizabeth answered.
“Nice dress!” said Sydney enthusiastically. “Do you have to get dressed like that at home, or do you change into your costumes here?”
The woman smiled and said, “Oh my! We don’t dress like this at home. All our volunteers change here at the fort.”
“Neat!” Sydney said. “Elizabeth and I took drama classes at summer camp.”
Elizabeth smiled and nodded.
“We had a big room where we stored all the costumes,” Sydney continued. “I suppose you do, too?”
“We do,” the woman answered. “In that enlisted men’s barrack.” She pointed to a building across the courtyard. “All kinds of costumes are stored there. You can take a look, if you’d like.”
“Oh, that would be great,” Sydney said. “Do you think we could try some on, too? My aunt is Deandre Powers, the park ranger. I promise we’ll be careful.”
The woman thought for a minute. “I know Dee,” she replied. “You must be Sydney. She talks about you all the time. Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt, but make sure you put everything back the way you found it.”
“We will,” Sydney answered. “Thank you!”
Sydney grabbed Elizabeth’s arm and hurried toward the barracks.
“Sydney, what are you up to?” Elizabeth asked.
“We can dress like the volunteers,” Sydney answered. “Moose and Rusty will never recognize us, and we can get right up to them and find out what’s going on. Then we’ll put them back before we go.”
The girls opened the door to the enlisted men’s barracks and went inside. It was like walking through a time warp into the 1800s. The air smelled musty, and cobwebs hung from the rafters. The cobwebs glowed in rays of sunshine that streamed through the only window in the room. It was made up of twenty-five little glass squares, and in front of it sat a small wooden table and chair. An old military jacket hung over the back of the chair, and an inkwell was on the table with some yellowed writing paper and an old oil lamp.
The stuffy room held three rows of simple wooden bunk beds. Each uncomfortable-looking bed had a thin straw mattress and a single flat pillow. Soldiers’ shoes hung from several of the bedposts, and muskets stood in their holders, ready for troops to grab them as they hurried out the door. The wooden plank floor creaked as the girls walked on it.
At the back of the barracks was a door marked Wardrobe. Sydney opened it, and the girls found a room filled with racks of costumes: soldiers’ uniforms as well as costumes that citizens wore in the early 1800s. The girls went inside and bolted the door behind them.
“So do you want to be a soldier or a lady?” Sydney asked.
“A lady, definitely,” said Elizabeth. She picked out an apple green dress and a white bonnet. Sydney helped her pull the dress on over her sleeveless top and shorts. It fit perfectly. Its hem was even long enough to cover the tops of her sandals.
“I’ll roast in this!” Elizabeth complained as she pinned her long blond hair on top of her head and tied the bonnet over it. “What will you be?”
“A soldier,” Sydney replied. She wiggled into the soldier’s uniform—white pants and a dark blue coat with long sleeves and brass buttons. A white sash crisscrossed the front of the jacket, and the jacket’s blue-and-gold collar fit snugly against Sydney’s neck. She pulled on a pair of tall, black boots. Then she set a blue soldier’s hat on top of her cornrows, pulling the visor down just below her eyebrows. “There,” she said. “How do I look?”
“Like you’re ready for a winter storm,” Elizabeth said. “Sydney, you’ll be too hot.”
“I’ll be fine,” Sydney argued. “Don’t forget to take your cell phone with you. I’ll take my binoculars, too. And we should hide my street clothes and our backpacks in here somewhere.”
Sydney searched for a place to hide their things.
“Why don’t we just hang them up neatly with the costumes?” Elizabeth said. “There are so many clothes in here that no one will notice ours.”
“Good idea,” Sydney agreed.
The girls made sure that no one was coming. Then they left the barracks through a back door. As soon as they got outside, they checked their phones. The bright green blip was just offshore now, and they saw a string of messages from Bailey and an urgent message from McKenzie: I think he’s on a water taxi. Looks like it’s landing near the fort. Be careful!
“What’s a water taxi?” Elizabeth asked, looking prim and proper in her old-time dress.
“It’s a tour boat that shuttles visitors around the Baltimore Harbor,” Sydney said. “Listen. It says here on the Fort McHenry tour map that each point of the star-shaped fort is called a bastion. We can walk out on the bastions to look all around the fort. It says the big park we saw around the fort is often used for recreational purposes, like hiking, picnicking, and looking out at the harbor. Let’s go to the bastion that faces the water taxi dock. Maybe we can see Moose from there.”
Elizabeth and Sydney, wearing their costumes, walked onto the long, raised, grassy area that made up one point of the star-shaped fort. The sides of the bastion had strong brick walls, and several old cannons faced outward, reminders of days when soldiers defended the harbor. Sydney took out her binoculars and looked in the direction of the boat landing.
“Perfect timing!” she said. “There they are.” She handed the binoculars to Elizabeth.
Moose and Rusty walked toward the fort. Elizabeth noticed that Moose carried a long slender case strapped over his shoulder. “What do you think he’s carrying?” she said. “A gun?”
“I don’t think they’d be that obvious,” Sydney answered. “Watch where they go.”
“They’re not coming into the fort,” Elizabeth reported. “It looks like they’re going to hang out in the park instead. They’re walking by the water now…. They’re sitting down on a bench near some trees.”
Sydney’s cell phone vibrated like crazy. It was another message from Bailey: PERCY ALERT! HE’S WALKING AROUND OUTSIDE OF THE FORT! WATCH OUT!
Sydney sent a reply: WE SEE THEM. NO MORE TEXT MESSAGES UNTIL YOU HEAR FROM US. WE’RE GOING TO FOLLOW THEM.
“Let’s go,” said Sydney. “I want to get close so we can hear what’s going on.”
“I still don’t like the idea of this,” Elizabeth said, following
Sydney, careful not to trip on the hem of her dress.
The girls walked back to the fort entrance. They went through the brick hallway and then followed a brick path toward the waterfront. They saw Moose and Rusty sitting on the bench. Moose had opened the long slender case and was putting together some sort of contraption. It resembled a weed trimmer.
“What’s that?” Sydney asked.
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth replied. “Let’s see what he does with it.”
Moose had the thing put together now, and it looked like he was plugging headphones into its handle.
“What in the world is he doing?” Sydney wondered.
Moose got up and put the headphones over his ears. He started walking with the contraption in one hand. He waved it back and forth over the grass while he listened through the headphones.
“I’m calling Kate,” Elizabeth said. “She’ll know what it is.” Elizabeth took out her cell phone, took a picture of the contraption, and transmitted it to Kate. Then she dialed Kate’s number. Kate answered on the first ring.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Bailey said you’re following them!”
“We’re fine—don’t worry,” Elizabeth replied. “We need your help.”
Since the picture hadn’t come out well, Elizabeth described to Kate what Moose was doing with the tool.
“It’s a metal detector,” Kate told her. “He’s waving it over the ground looking for something that’s buried there. If the thing detects something metal underground, it gives a signal through the earphones.”
When Elizabeth hung up, she told Sydney what Kate said.
“Let’s split up,” Sydney suggested. “You walk over there, like you’re playacting. Say ‘good day’ to them, and see if you can discover anything.”
“I can’t do that!” Elizabeth said. “You want me to talk to them?”
“Yes!” said Sydney. “Do it for President Meade.”
“You’d better protect me,” Elizabeth warned as she walked toward Rusty and Moose.
As she approached the bench, Elizabeth heard Rusty giving Moose instructions. “Try ten paces east…. Now go ten paces north….”
Moose walked along, counting to himself.
Elizabeth walked right up to Rusty. She saw that he was holding some sort of map. “Good day!” she said brightly. She startled Rusty, and he gave a little jump.
“Yeah,” he said gruffly.
“Are you enjoying your visit?” Elizabeth asked. She leaned in to get a better look at the map.
“Humph.” Rusty grunted, almost ignoring her.
Elizabeth saw a big red X on the map.
“Is there anything you’d like to know about the fort? Anything that I can help you with?” Elizabeth bravely sat on the bench near Rusty to get a closer look at the map. Under the red X was the word BUM in all capital letters.
“You can help by leaving me alone, lady,” said Rusty.
His steely gray eyes gave Elizabeth the creeps. She got up quickly. “Well, good day then,” she said. But instead of walking back toward Sydney, she circled around the park and met her friend near a grove of trees.
“He’s creepier than you could imagine,” Elizabeth said.
“So what did you find out?” asked Sydney.
Elizabeth told her all about the map, the red X, and the word BUM. Then she texted the other Camp Club Girls to let them know what was going on.
All afternoon, Sydney and Elizabeth watched as Rusty and Moose wandered around the park with the metal detector. Whatever they looked for didn’t seem to be there, or maybe they were even more directionally disabled than Elizabeth. Then, just as the park was about to close, something happened.
Sydney watched through the binoculars. The men were searching back where they’d started, near the bench. Moose stopped by a tree about twenty feet from the shoreline. Rusty hurried to Moose. Then he went back to the bench and picked up his backpack. He took it to where Moose was standing and pulled out a small folding shovel. He knelt down and dug in the dirt beneath the gnarly old tree. After a few minutes, Rusty pulled out a metal box about the size of a box of animal crackers.
“I’m heading over there to see what’s going on,” Sydney said. “Watch me.” She gave the binoculars to Elizabeth.
Sydney walked like a soldier, steadfast and straight, toward Rusty and Moose. She slowed her pace as she neared them. Then she stopped, turned her back to them, and pretended to look across the harbor. Rusty and Moose were so excited about the box that they didn’t seem to notice her.
“Handle it real careful, Rusty,” Moose was saying. “We don’t need accidents.”
Rusty opened the lid of the box and peeked inside. Just then, an enormous explosion rocked the ground and rumbled across the water. Sydney nearly jumped out of her boots.
“What time is it?” Rusty asked Moose.
What time is it? Sydney thought. Something just exploded inside the fort, and you’re wondering what time it is?
She turned around just long enough to see Rusty close the box and carefully place it in the backpack.
“It’s 4:30,” Moose said. “When that cannon goes off, it means the fort’s closing, doesn’t it, Rusty?”
Sydney sighed with relief.
“Yeah,” Rusty said, sounding annoyed. “And because you took so long to find this, now we’ll have to take it with us.”
“But the boss said we should get it done today,” Moose protested. “I don’t think he wants us hauling that thing all over Baltimore.”
“We don’t have time,” Rusty snarled. “The last boat leaves at five o’clock, and we have to be on it. We’ll come back tomorrow. What the boss doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Sydney followed behind the men as they walked toward the Visitor Center. They passed Elizabeth on the pathway near the fort’s entrance. Sydney saw Elizabeth curtsy. When Sydney caught up to Beth, she told her what was going on.
“The fort closes in fifteen minutes, and we have to return these costumes,” Sydney said. “The girls will track Moose. They can tell us where he goes.”
The girls scurried back to the wardrobe room and bolted the door. Elizabeth was grateful to get out of the long, heavy dress. Even the stuffy, humid air in the back room felt good against her skin. She hung the dress on a rack and offered to hang up Sydney’s uniform while Sydney slipped on her street clothes. Elizabeth was about to return Sydney’s cap to a cabinet near the door when she heard a familiar voice.
“Well, here we are, the last stop. A bed for two and nobody sleeps waiting for the alarm,” the voice said. “We’ve been to every room inside the fort.”
“Yeah,” said an unfamiliar voice. “And the minutes are ticking down.”
There was shuffling outside the door. The visitors seemed to be searching for something.
“I can’t imagine where they went,” said the first voice. “Maybe they’ve given up spying on our friends.”
“Hey, what do you think is in here?” the second voice asked. The doorknob rattled.
“Hide!” Elizabeth whispered. She pulled Sydney toward the racks of clothes.
“No! Out the window!” Sydney exclaimed.
The girls rushed to the only window in the room. Just as they were about to climb out, Elizabeth felt the silver pendant fall from the chain on her neck.
“My pendant!” she gasped.
“Leave it!” said Sydney. “Let’s get out of here.”