SWAMP SECRETS

“It’s your turn to take out the trash,” Audrey insisted. “I did it last week!”

Oliver sighed and grabbed the trash can. In the time it would take to win this argument, he could make it to the lava pit and back again.

“C’mon, Sniffs,” he called as he headed out the door.

The lava pit just outside of Birchtown glowed bright. Oliver waved at Lefty, who had just emptied his own bin.

“Sit, Sniffs,” said Oliver. “Don’t get too close to the flames.”

The dog obeyed. But as Oliver poured his trash into the bubbling lava, the breeze lifted a piece of half-burned paper out of the pit. And then another. And another.

Sniffs saw them, too. He barked and chased the paper scraps.

By the time Oliver pried them out of the dog’s mouth, they were not only half-burned, but half-chewed, too.

He knelt down and laid out the scraps on the grass.

“What did you find?” called Audrey, coming up behind Oliver.

“A map, I think,” he said. “Take a look.”

She studied the scraps. “Yeah, that does look like a map. This blue blob is water, and here are some trees. Look, someone marked an X by one of them! That’s mysterious.”

Oliver pushed up his glasses. “Buried treasure, you think?” he asked, half-kidding.

Audrey’s eyes danced. “Buried emeralds, maybe! But where is this place?”

Oliver squinted and studied the squiggles on the map.

“Are these lily pads?” He pointed.

“Yes!” said Audrey. “So this must be a map of the swamp. Maybe the emeralds are buried there!”

She looked so excited, Oliver feared she’d take off for the swamp without him. “Let me bring the trash can home and get my notebook,” he said. “Then we’ll go together, okay?”

Fifteen minutes later, they were trudging through the swamp. Oliver hoped they wouldn’t run into any witches—or squishy eyeballs—like they had the last time they were here.

After crossing a lily pad bridge and circling every tree, they hadn’t run into any mobs. But they hadn’t found buried treasure either.

“There’s a whole grove of oak trees here. How are we supposed to find the one with the X by it?” grumbled Audrey.

Oliver raised his hands at his sides—and a scrap of map slipped out of his notebook and fluttered to the ground. As he bent to pick it up, he noticed a word scribbled on the back: ROOMS.

When he flipped over the other two scraps, he saw two more words. “Brown? Mush? What do these words mean?”

He tried rearranging the scraps until they made two words instead of three. Audrey watched over his shoulder.

“Oh!” she said. “I get it.”

Can you rearrange these three words into just two? Give it a try, and then turn the page.

Max copied the new words into his notebook.

“Is that a clue?” asked Audrey. “Brown mushrooms. Maybe the treasure is buried under a patch of mushrooms!” She circled the trees again, as if dancing with each of them before moving on to the next.

“What do you think, Sniffs?” asked Oliver. “Can you help us find some mushrooms?”

Woof!

The dog loped after Audrey, his tail wagging so hard it moved his rear from side to side.

When he barked again, Oliver knew the dog had found something special.

He raced toward Sniffs, who was digging at the base of a large oak. Brown mushrooms popped out of the moist earth, but Sniffs was interested in something else. He dug deeper, black dirt spraying out behind him onto Audrey’s boots.

Then Oliver heard the dog’s claws scratch wood. “He found something! C’mon, Sniffs. Let us see, too.”

He pulled Sniffs back and reached into the hole, dusting the dirt off the top of a wooden box. A wooden chest.

Audrey helped him dig it out of the hole. Then they counted to three and opened it together.

“Emeralds!” shouted Audrey.

Oliver sucked in his breath. He could barely believe it!

“We found buried treasure!” said Audrey, running her fingers through the smooth green stones. “The map led us right to them.”

“Well, Sniffs led us right to them,” laughed Oliver, giving his dog a thank-you scratch behind the ear. “But now we have a new mystery to solve.”

“Who buried the emeralds?” said Audrey.

“Exactly,” said Oliver. “Every time we solve one mystery, another one comes along.” But he didn’t sound the least bit disappointed.