Winslow Brant liked to go through people’s trash to look for treasures. One day, he found a treasure map that supposedly belonged to famous 18th century pirate Henri La Farge. I don’t know if French pirates were hanging around Florida in the 18th century, nor would I understand why they would. Spanish or English pirates? Sure. French pirates near Louisiana or near French Caribbean islands, yeah, I’d buy it. However, historically, I don’t know why La Farge would be near Florida at that time.
Whatever. Winslow found a map that said that there was treasure to be found in one of the islands south of Idaville. He made a deal with Pete Alders, a 16-year-old with a sailboat, to take him there. Together, they would recover the treasure and split it. They apparently didn’t plan the trip very well, because by the time they reached their destination, the sun had already set.
They spent the night aboard the boat. I’m assuming their parents were okay with their children spending a night on the sea. When Winslow woke up the next morning, he found the map drying and completely ruined. Pete claimed that there was a hole in the boat and accidentally used the map to plug the hole. They returned home, empty-handed, though Winslow suspected that Pete copied the map and would return to the same spot to keep the treasure for himself.
He went to the Brown Detective Agency and told Encyclopedia the whole story. Encyclopedia, after looking at what was left of the map for about five seconds, pointed out something indicating that the map was a souvenir from the New York World’s Fair. It’s not explained why Winslow didn’t notice this, but it’s a pretty decent indication of the intelligence level of the agency’s clientele.
Still, Winslow wanted to know if Pete had copied the map for himself, so he wanted Encyclopedia to go to the island to see if Pete was there. They borrowed a boat from Sally’s uncle and made their way to the island.
I want to reiterate that point. Two children asked an adult if they could borrow his boat, and the adult said yes.
They found Pete digging on the island. Yes, he did copy the map. He lied about the map being destroyed so that he could keep the treasure for himself. Apparently, while copying the map, he didn’t notice the fact that the map was fake either. Winslow asked about the hole in the boat, and Pete explained that the problem was a stuck porthole. The tide was rising, and he feared the water would get in from the opened porthole, so he stuffed it with the map.
Except that when the tide rises, the boat rises with it. Encyclopedia pointed that out and proved that Pete lied about how the map got ruined.
I’m beginning to believe that this entire town is dumb.
