Cam Jansen & Mystery of the Dinosaur Bon (3 page)

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Authors: Suzanna David/Natti Adler

BOOK: Cam Jansen & Mystery of the Dinosaur Bon
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Chapter Five
It was one of the museum guards.
“Come with me,” he said.
The guard led them out of the dinosaur room, through the museum lobby, to the office of the museum director. The guard knocked on the door and walked in. Cam and Eric followed him.
The walls of the office were covered with paintings of prehistoric animals. There were statues of famous scientists and large stuffed animals all over the room. Cam and Eric couldn’t find the director among all those paintings and statues.
“Didn’t you hear the bell?” the director asked.
Then Cam and Eric saw him. He was sitting between a statue of a woman scientist and two stuffed owls.
“Yes, we heard the bell,” Cam said. “But three dinosaur bones are missing. Someone is stealing bones from the tail of the Coelophysis skeleton, and we want to see who it is.”
“That’s impossible,” the director said, stroking his beard. “Nothing is missing. But if you want to watch over the Coelophysis, you can come back tomorrow when the museum opens.” Then he said to the guard, “Now please take these children to the door and make sure that this time they leave the museum.”
Cam and Eric followed the guard to the front entrance. The guard opened the door with a key and let them out.
“Now what?” Eric asked.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Cam said. “We can’t get back inside, so let’s go home.”
While Cam and Eric started to unlock their bicycles, a truck rode past them. It backed into the museum driveway. A sign painted on the side of the truck said, “Beth’s Milk Tastes Best.”
“That’s strange,” Cam said. “Milk is usually delivered early in the morning, not late in the afternoon.”
A man in a white uniform got out of the truck. He was carrying an empty milk box.
“Maybe some of the milk went bad,” Eric said, “and he’s picking it up.”
The milkman knocked on the garage door. The door opened and he went inside. He came out a few minutes later, carrying a large brown bag in the box. He put it in the truck.
“There’s probably a whole bunch of containers of sour milk in that bag,” Eric said.
Cam and Eric heard the door on the other side of the truck open and someone get inside, but they couldn’t see who it was. Then the truck backed up. As the truck passed them, Cam read the sign again.
“There’s something else that’s strange about that truck,” Cam said. She closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”
“The museum doesn’t use Beth’s milk. It uses Edna’s. That’s what it said on the milk container you bought in the cafeteria.”
Cam got on her bicycle. She turned to Eric and said, “That man wasn’t picking up sour milk. He was picking up something else. Come on, let’s follow the truck.”
Chapter Six
The streets were crowded with cars. It was after four o‘clock, and many people were driving home from work. Cam stayed on the right-hand side of the street. Eric rode behind her. The milk truck was already a block ahead. Cam and Eric pedaled hard to catch up.
As Cam pedaled, her bicycle made a loud “clicking” sound. The kickstand was loose, and one of the pedals hit it as it went around.
The milk truck made a right turn onto a side street, but before Cam and Eric could reach the corner, Cam had to stop. The loose kickstand was in the way. It was impossible for Cam to pedal.
Eric got off his bicycle, too. He pushed the kickstand on Cam’s bicycle back into place.
Cam said, “Thank you.”
“You really need a new one,” Eric told her.
Cam and Eric got on their bicycles again. When they reached the corner, they signaled and turned.
Cam looked ahead. A big brown dog was running along the sidewalk. A few cars were parked along the side of the street. But Cam couldn’t see the milk truck. She stopped and waited for Eric.
“We’ve lost it,” Cam said.
“Maybe not. I think I see a truck parked in the driveway of one of the houses on the next block. Maybe it’s the milk truck.”
Eric led Cam to a small brick house with a white wooden fence around it. The milk truck was parked in the driveway. No one was sitting inside the truck.
“They must have gone into the house,” Cam said. She leaned her bicycle against the fence. “You stay here and watch for them,” she told Eric. “I’ll look around in the back.”
There was a high window on the side of the garage. As Cam walked past the window, she heard voices. She looked for something to stand on so she could see inside.
Someone tapped her on the back. It was Eric.
“I locked the bicycles to the fence,” he said. “I didn’t want to wait out there alone.”
Cam found an empty wooden milk box behind the house. She put the box right under the window, climbed up, and looked through.
There was a large table inside the garage. A few small bones and some larger ones were on the table. The milk box with the brown bag that they had seen the man put in the truck was there, too. A bag of plaster of Paris was on the floor near some boxes, and metal tubs and a wheelbarrow with a pickax and shovel in it.
“Get down,” Eric whispered. “Someone will see you.”
“There’s no one there,” Cam said. “But there is an open door. Maybe it leads into the house. I’ll bet that’s where they went.”
Eric climbed up on the box.
“Look!” Eric said. “The three missing bones are on that table!”
Eric got off the box. He pulled on Cam’s sleeve. “Get down,” he said. “Let’s go back now.”
Cam didn’t move. She kept looking through the window.
“We can call the museum,” Eric said. “We can tell them we found their missing dinosaur bones.”
“Someone is coming through the door,” Cam said. “It’s the Milkman.”
Eric quickly climbed onto the box. Cam and Eric watched the Milkman take the brown bag out of the box. The bag was tied with string. The Milkman tried to untie the knot. He couldn’t.
“Why did you tie it so tight?” he called into the house.
“Use the scissors,” a woman’s voice answered.
The Milkman reached into one of the boxes. He took out a pair of scissors and cut the string.
“I wonder what could be in there,” Eric whispered.
“It can’t be a bone from the Coelophysis,” Cam said quietly. “It’s too big.”
The Milkman tore open the side of the bag. There was something large and white inside. He took it out and carefully placed it on the table.
“Wow!” Eric said. “Look at the size of that bone.”
“It must be from the Brachiosaurus,” Cam said, “the one they were fixing in the museum.”
The Milkman took out a ruler and measured the bone. He took a pad and pencil from his pocket and wrote on the pad. Then he looked at the bag of plaster of Paris.
“We need more plaster,” he called into the house.
“Then let’s go get it,” the woman said.
The Milkman walked through the open door and into the house.
“They’ll probably use the plaster of Paris to make a copy of the bone,” Cam said. “They’ll take the copy to the museum to morrow and leave it there in place of the real one.”
“But how do they get in and out of the museum?” Eric asked.
“And why do they want the bones?” Cam added.
Cam and Eric stopped talking. They heard the front door of the house open and then slam shut.
After a few minutes Cam whispered, “I didn’t hear the truck drive away, but they should be gone by now. Let’s take a look.”
Cam walked quietly. Eric followed her. Cam peeked out past the edge of the garage wall. She saw that the truck was still in the driveway. And she saw something else.
“Our bicycles,” Cam said. “What if they see them!”
Chapter Seven
“We sure did see your bicycles,” a man said.
Cam turned. It was the Milkman. He was standing behind Eric.
“Janet!” the Milkman called.
A woman came out. She was wearing a purple dress. It was Janet Tyler, the museum guide.
“Well, well,” she said. “Look who we have here. It’s the Click, Click Girl and her friend.”
The Milkman put a key into a lock at the side of the garage door. The lock was electric. He turned the key and the door opened.
The Milkman led Cam and Eric into the garage. He pressed a button on the wall. The garage door closed.
Janet Tyler and the Milkman started to argue. She pointed to the dinosaur bones on the table.
“It’s all over. We’ll have to give these back. And it’s your fault. You should have made copies of the three small bones last night. Then these kids wouldn’t have followed us.”
“I’m not giving anything back. Not yet,” the Milkman said. “We’ll do just as we planned. We’ll take the bones along on our dinosaur hunt. We’ll bury them and then dig them up. Then we’ll give the bones back to the museum.”
Janet closed her eyes and said, “I can just see the newspaper headline: ‘Janet Tyler discovers buried dinosaur bones and gives them to the museum.’ I’ll be famous. I’ll speak to science groups all over the coun try. I’ll make a fortune.”
Cam pulled on Eric’s sleeve and whispered, “This is our chance. Janet’s eyes are closed. Take out the whistles you bought.”
Eric reached into his pocket. He took out the two dog whistles shaped like dinosaurs. Cam took one of them.
“When I tell you to, blow the whistle,” Cam whispered. “Blow it as hard as you can.”
“Stop whispering,” the Milkman said.
Janet opened her eyes. She seemed surprised to be in the garage with Cam, Eric, and the Milkman.
Then the Milkman told Cam and Eric, “Either you agree not to tell anyone about our plan, or we’ll call the museum director. We’ll put the bones in your bicycle baskets and tell the director you took them and we caught you.”
Cam turned to whisper to Eric.
Janet Tyler smiled. “That’s right,” she said. “You talk it over with your friend.”
“Quietly count to three,” Cam whispered. “Then blow the whistle.”

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