Kids to the Rescue!

Part 6

Beth was terrified, but not for herself – for her brother and friends. What if something awful happened to them? Moving as quietly as possible, she tiptoed around the outside of the old house. There was no sign of the kids.

She stood on her tiptoes to peek inside the garage. The Rulers car was gone! Seized with panic, Beth turned to run back to her uncle's shop for help. She glanced down at the glowing watch face: 9:00. The shop would be closed by now.

"What am I going to do?" Beth asked out loud.

"About what?" A voice said. Beth nearly jumped out of her skin before she realized it belonged to her Uncle Will.

"Oh Uncle Will, they're gone! The spies have captured Ben and Lily and Jamal! What are we going to do?" Beth felt like crying.

Will Stanley knelt in front of her. "Everything will be fine, Beth. Tell me what happened."

Beth explained and the two conducted one more search on the outside of the haunted house. It looked abandoned, but when Beth and Uncle Will went around the back, they saw the same open window that Lily had.

Uncle Will shined the light of his flashlight on the dusty window, which was the kind that pushed up and out. It was open so he bent down and played the light inside the room.

"It looks like some sort of storage area or basement," he said. Beth, who was also looking into the room, pointed to something on the floor.

"Look, Uncle Will! That Ben's ball cap! The one you gave him last year!" she said.

He peeked inside the room and sure enough, Ben's ball cap with "Swansboro Pirates" on it was on a small table.

"We need to get inside," Uncle Will said.

"How will we do that?" Beth asked.

"We'll knock on the front door," he said.

They knocked. No one appeared to be at home and the door was slightly open. Inside it was dark and quiet.

"Shhh," Uncle Will cautioned. "You stay behind me. We're going in."

They tiptoed carefully through the first floor and then descended a small staircase down into the room where they'd seen the ball cap.

"Look! There it is on the table!" Beth said. She picked up the hat.

"I'd know this hat anywhere. It's Ben's," she said. A tear slid down her cheek.

"Oh Uncle Will, what have they done to him?"

"Don't worry, Beth. We'll find him. Let's go."

"Wait! Please shine your flashlight on the table. I thought I saw something else," Beth said. "Look!"

There was a message written on the table in dust. It said:

M H C Docks So Low

"They left us a message!" Beth said.

"Yes, but what on earth does it mean?" Puzzled Uncle Will .

Can Beth and Uncle Will can find the other kids! Check here!

DID YOU KNOW?

The kids left a message written in some kind of code. Codes are used to send information that you don't want others to know. Spies often use codes and during World War II, the U.S. Marines needed to find some way to send messages by radio that the enemy could not understand. They recruited and used Native Americans from the Navaho Indian tribes. The Navaho language is very difficult to learn and only a small number speak it. Since there were no written records, few had knowledge of it. The Navahos went into the thick of battle during World War II and transmitted many messages in their native language. They were known as "Navaho code-talkers" and none of their messages were ever deciphered.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?

Terrified: Extremely frightened.

Panic: A sudden feeling of great terror or fright.

Cautioned: To warn about something or someone.

Descended: Went down.

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT:

What other kinds of codes have you heard about? Are you familiar with Morse code? Can you think of any places where Morse code might be used?

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