儿童英语读物 The Mystery of the Mummy's Curse CHAPTER 4 The Mummy’s Curse Strikes Again

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Sam sighed heavily. “When I left last night, everything was neat and organized.”

“You mean, someone came in and messed it up?” said Henry. “Who would do that?”

“And why?” added Benny.

Sam shook her head. “I just don’t know.”

“Maybe that’s what those footsteps were,” Violet said. “That might have been someone sneaking¹ in here.”

“But you said you didn’t see anyone, right?” said Sam.

“No, when I looked out no one was there,” Violet said.

Sam sighed again. “As if it isn’t bad enough what happened to Tina, now this.”

“It’s the mummy’s curse again!” said Benny in a hushed voice.

“Oh, Benny, Pete was just joking about that,” Henry said.

“It will take me all day to get everything in order again,” said Sam.

“I can help,” Jessie suggested.

Sam smiled at her. “That would be great. And from now on, we all have to make sure this door is locked tight when we leave.”

Henry, Violet, and Benny went back to the exhibit hall to continue packing up the outer space exhibit. Meanwhile, Sam and Jessie sorted through the papers on Sam’s desk and put them back in the correct order. When they’d finished that, they started reorganizing the artifacts.

“These artifacts are very valuable and very fragile,” said Sam. “So we must always be very careful when we touch them and always wear protective gloves.”

Jessie nodded. She was good at being careful. They slowly began to go through the scattered² artifacts. Sam picked up each piece and read off the number written on the bottom. Jessie searched through the printed cards to find the information that went with it.

When Pete arrived at lunchtime, Henry and Violet had just taken the last two boxes to the storage room. “Wow!” he said when he entered. “You’ve done a terrific job! Now well have to do something about those walls.”

The Aldens looked around at the scuffed³ and peeling paint. It did look awful.

“Normally I’d hire a painting crew, but we don’t have enough money,” said Pete.

“Don’t worry. We can handle it,” Henry assured him.

“Great. Where’s Jessie?” Pete asked.

“In here,” Jessie called from the prep room.

Pete and the children joined Sam and Jessie. Sam told Pete about the mess she’d found that morning.

Pete looked as upset as Sam had been. “Who would have been going through your things?” he asked. “Make sure you keep these doors locked. Give Henry a key too, so the kids can lock up when they go in and out.” He headed out the door.

“Ready for lunch, Jessie?” Henry asked. “Pete said we could pick something out in the café.”

“All right!” Benny said.

But Jessie wasn’t paying attention. She was looking at the tables. She and Sam had gotten all the pieces organized again, but there was still something wrong. She couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Jessie?” Henry said again.

“Oh, yes?” she said, startled out of her thoughts.

“Come on, let’s go down to the café,” Henry said.

As the Aldens left the prep room, Jessie took one last look at the objects on the table. Something just wasn’t right.

When the Aldens returned from lunch, Pete called them into the prep room. “We have a surprise for you,” he said.

The children walked inside and he motioned to the end of the room where Sam was standing⁴. Where the giant crates⁵ had been, there was now a large, wooden box. It was completely covered with elaborate paintings of people and animals.

“What’s that?” Benny asked.

“That’s the mummy’s case—its coffin⁶,” Sam explained, leading the children over to look. “We unpacked⁷ the crates.”

“So that’s what was in the other crate,” Benny said.

“It’s really beautiful,” said Jessie.

“The Egyptians painted pictures of their gods on the mummy cases. They’d also paint things that the person liked when they were alive,” Sam explained.

“Where’s the mummy?” Benny asked.

“You can see for yourself,” Sam said. She and Pete carefully lifted the heavy, wooden lid. They laid it on the table beside the coffin.

Everyone peered into the coffin. The mummy was lying inside with a large, painted mask over its face.

“Look at that!” Benny exclaimed.

“That’s the death mask. It’s molded from the person’s face and made to look just like the person,” said Sam.

The children stared down at the face in the coffin. Its wide eyes, outlined in black, stared up at them. There was black, straight hair painted on both sides. A gold and red headband painted with fancy designs crossed the brow.

“That’s amazing,” Jessie said. She couldn’t take her eyes off the beautiful mask.

“Do you know how mummies were made?” Sam asked.

“They wrapped up the dead bodies in bandages?” asked Benny.

“That’s part of it,” Sam said. “Normally when a person dies, the body decays. But the ancient Egyptians came up with a way to preserve the body.”

“And then did they wrap it?” Benny asked.

“Yes,” said Sam. “They stuffed it with sand or sawdust to keep the body’s shape. Then they wrapped it carefully in strips of linen⁸ cloth. They put jewels and magical charms in between the layers, to help the dead person reach the afterworld. It took fifteen days to bandage a mummy!”

“That’s a long time,” said Jessie.

Sam continued to explain. “Finally, they put the death mask over the mummy’s head and placed the mummy in its coffin.”

The children stood for a few more minutes looking into the coffin.

Then Sam said, “I wanted you to see the mummy with its mask on. Now I’m going to put the lid on and keep it closed until the exhibit opens.”

Pete helped her lift the heavy, wooden lid off the table and replace it on top of the coffin.

As Jessie followed the others into the exhibit hall, she took one more look around the prep room. She still had the nagging⁹ feeling something was wrong. But what?

A few minutes later, the Aldens had begun work on the walls of the exhibit hall. Henry scraped and sanded the areas where the paint was chipped and peeling. Meanwhile, the other three laid drop cloths over the floor of the exhibit hall and the glass cases. When that was done, they began priming and painting. They worked all afternoon.

It was nearly dinnertime when Pete came up to see how they were doing. “It looks much better,” he said.

The Aldens finished up the corner they’d been working on and stepped back to look.

“Yes, it does,” said Jessie, “if I do say so myself.”

She and the others closed up the paint cans and cleaned the brushes and pans before they left. As they were walking out, the Aldens talked about all the interesting things they’d seen and learned about ancient Egypt so far.

“That was cool to learn how they made a mummy,” Henry said.

“And I like all those statues,” said Violet. “Especially those two gold cats.”

“And the baboon¹⁰,” Benny added.

“That’s it!” Jessie cried.

“That’s what?” asked Benny.

“I noticed something was wrong in the prep room this morning,” said Jessie.

“We all did—someone messed everything up,” said Henry.

“Besides that,” Jessie said. “Even after Sam and I had gotten everything straightened out, I kept thinking something was wrong. But I couldn’t figure out what it was. Now I remember—the baboon wasn’t with the other statues.”

“What do you mean?” Violet said. “Sam said that was everything for the exhibit.”

“Well, I didn’t see it,” said Jessie.

“Maybe Sam just moved it somewhere else,” suggested Henry.

“Or maybe whoever messed up the room stole the baboon,” Jessie said. “Maybe that’s why the room was all out of order—because the person was going through all the statues.”

“Was there anything else missing?” Violet asked.

“I don’t know,” said Jessie. “That was the only thing I noticed.”

“Why would someone steal that baboon?” Benny asked.

“Remember, Pete said the objects were all really valuable,” Jessie said.

“That doesn’t explain why they went through Sam’s papers,” Henry pointed¹¹ out. “Those aren’t valuable.”

“But those papers have information about the artifacts,” Jessie said. “Maybe they wanted to read about the artifacts, too.” She thought for a moment. “And there’s an information card to go with each piece. But I don’t remember seeing one for the baboon. If we had, Sam and I would have noticed the statue was missing.”

“So the person stole the statue and the card, too?” Violet asked.

“I guess so,” said Jessie.

“We’d better tell Sam about this first thing tomorrow morning,” said Henry.

“See?” Benny said. “That mummy’s curse wasn’t just a joke!”