Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas Read Free Page B

Because of Morgenbesser!” Jacob said. “Mr. Scrounger wanted Cindy and me to work in the engine room.”
    “The engine room?” Captain Sparkletooth said. “That’s a dangerous place. Children are not permitted there.
I’m
not permitted there. You must have a very good imagination, Jacob Two-Two.”
    “But Jacob didn’t imagine it,” Cindy said. “I was there too.”
    “Child, it is rude to be so insistent,” said Mrs. Snootcastle. “No doubt it is the influence of that boy.”
    “Why don’t we ask Mr. Scrounger?” suggested Captain Sparkletooth.
    Mr. Scrounger was making sure that the underpaid waiters did not slip any food into their pockets. He came over and saluted.
    “Yes, Captain?”
    “Could you tell us what Jacob Two-Two and Cindy did this afternoon?”
    “Most certainly. We all played a game. Jacob Two-Two called it Engine Room. We pretended that sugar cubes were pieces of coal. It was jolly good fun.”
    Jacob saw that Morgenbesser was right. Mr. Scrounger had chosen Jacob and Cindy because he knew that the grown-ups wouldn’t believe them. He gave up trying to tell the truth.

CHAPTER 7
    hat night, Jacob slept on a ship for the first time. He had a lower berth, which was a kind of bunk that folded out from the wall, with Noah above him and Daniel across from him. The only glow was moonlight coming in from the cabin’s oval window. His older brothers had been reading, but soon the gentle rocking of the ship had put them to sleep.
    But Jacob was still awake. He thought about his new friends, Cindy and Morgenbesser, and how glad he was to have met them. He worried about what Mr. Scrounger might be up to. Worrying about Mr. Scrounger wasn’t the same as worrying about tyinghis shoes so that the laces didn’t always come undone, nor was it like worrying about buttoning his shirt properly. It was a bigger worry than that. But what
was
Mr. Scrounger up to?
    Jacob tried to put himself to sleep by counting by twos. “Two … four … six,” he whispered. But it didn’t help. Then he heard something.
    A knock. There it was again, on the door of their cabin. He crept out of bed and over to the door and whispered, “Who is it? Who is it?”
    “It’s Cindy. I need to talk to you.”
    Jacob opened the door. There she was, in her pajamas too. “Come with me,” she said. Jacob closed the door gently behind him. He and Cindy crept down the hall and stopped in front of her cabin door. “I heard a strange fluttering noise. Then I heard a squawking noise,” said Cindy.
    “What was it? What was it?” asked Jacob, becoming even more worried.
    “I don’t know, but I think we should find out. It went somewhere down the hall. Let’s follow it.”
    “But I’m not supposed to wander around the ship at night. I’m not supposed to,” Jacob said.
    Cindy looked at him impatiently. “Fine. Wait forme in my room. I’ll come back and report what I find.”
    “But isn’t your mother in there?”
    “She’s sound asleep. Don’t worry, go in. I’ll be back in a minute.”
    Cindy opened her door and pushed Jacob inside. The room was dark. Mrs. Snootcastle must have pulled the curtain across the window. After a moment, he could see the little sink, table, the berths, and the mound that was Mrs. Snootcastle, under her blanket. Mrs. Snootcastle was snoring. It sounded like somebody sawing through a drainpipe. Suddenly, Mrs. Snootcastle coughed, snorted, and turned over.
    “Cindy? Ah … Cindy?” she muttered.
    What was he to do? Jacob tried to make his voice sound like Cindy’s. “I’m here, Mother,” he said.
    Mrs. Snootcastle snorted again, as if she were not really awake. “Did you … did you remember to kiss the garbage and take your father out to the curb?” she asked.
    “Yes, Mother.”
    “Good… .” Mrs. Snootcastle’s voice faded away, and she started to snore again.
    A moment later, the door opened and Cindy pulled Jacob back into the hallway. “Your motheralmost woke up. She almost