The Haunted Lighthouse Read Online Free

for extra credit.”
    “Cool,” Quinn said. “This is sort of like the ABC code or Caesar’s cipher, only with letters instead of numbers. Should be easy.”
    Cody looked at the sheet the teacher had just passed out to the students. Quinn was right; this was going to be easy. She looked at the name on top—the first name was two letters. Duh—that was obviously
AL
. She wrote the letter
A
under the
T
, then the letter
L
under the
Q
. From there, she translated all the
T
and
Q
letters to
A
and
L
. Letter by letter she solved the puzzle.
    TQ ETJGZO
    FTEALZO KVZ BOQQX
    EPOOJX ETPJLN
    HLPRFTZ
    RGE HTPBOP
    JPODDX HGX CQGXR
    Code Buster’s Key and Solution found on this page , this page
.
    Now, all she had to do was figure out which one of the convicts wasn’t at Alcatraz. She remembered Ms. Stad talking about all of them—except one: Pretty Boy Floyd. He had to be the one missing from the Rock.
    Cody glanced at her co–Code Busters. They, too, had solved the puzzle.
    She handed her paper to Ms. Stad as she stepped out of the bus, then stared out at the small island and wondered about the prisoners. Alcatraz might be an interesting place to visit, but the idea of staying there permanently made Cody break out into goose bumps.

T he fishy smell grew stronger as Cody stepped off the bus at Pier 33 in San Francisco. Berkeley had its unique odors, mostly ethnic foods that represented the city’s cultural diversity, but nothing like this. She zipped up her jacket, pulled her hood over her head, and stuck her hands into her pockets.
Brrr
. The wind comingoff the bay chilled her to the bone, and she wished she’d worn a heavier jacket.
    Joining her three friends on the dock, Cody got in the ferry line with the rest of her class. The sign read ALCATRAZ TOURS , and Cody felt a rush of excitement at the thought that they would soon be at the prison. Glancing around for her dad, she saw him talking with another parent—a blonde woman who looked familiar, but Cody couldn’t place her. At least she was keeping him busy.
    “Let’s get a spot at the front of the ferry so we have a good view on the way over,” Quinn said, pulling on his baseball cap. Luke already had his hood up, ready to face the cold and wind, while M.E. had wrapped a multicolored, hand-knitted muffler around her face, head, and neck, leaving only her brown eyes visible. As for Cody, she could almost feel her curly red hair curling even more, thanks to the dampness in the air. Good thing she had put her hair in a ponytail, or those curls wouldlook like a giant fiery ball of coils.
    One of the dockworkers released the chain to the ferry, and the students began the walk up the rickety gangplank. The Code Busters tried to ease ahead past the rest of the crowd and grab the best spots for viewing, but once they arrived at the bow of the ferry, Cody’s face fell.
    Matt the Brat was already there.
    “I beat ya!” he said. His breath smelled of peanut butter.
    “We weren’t racing,” Luke said, pulling up next to him. Cody stood next to Luke, with M.E. and Quinn on the other side. She tried to ignore the class bully, who no doubt would try to get the Code Busters into trouble. She promised herself not to take his bait, and instead she focused on the sight of the island looming ahead, surrounded by rapidly disappearing fog.
What a cold, desolate place
, Cody thought as the wind whipped at her face.
    Someone tapped Cody on the back. She turnedto see Matt grinning at her.
    Again, Cody wondered if Matt had been the one who’d written the cryptic message. Cody shook her head. Besides the fact that he’d never write a poem, his spelling was atrocious, his typing was full of errors, and he would never be able to create a code like that. There was no way he could have written the secret message that the Code Busters had received.
    But who else knew they were going to the Rock? Ms. Stad? Her classmates? The bus driver? They were all unlikely suspects. Anyone else?
    And