Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19 "Robert Cahill Henderson was a brilliant chemist," Amy said, reading rapidly. "He was also engaged to a cousin of Queen Victoria. He was a champion of Darwin's theories. That's why the search engine came up with so many hits. This is fascinating…." "Yeah. Wake me up when it's over," Dan said. He lay stretched out on one of the twin beds in Ken's spare room. He glanced over at the closet. "Are we sure they caught the snake?" "We're sure. Anyway, one day he suddenly broke his engagement— which was a huge deal in those days— and took off for the South Seas. He said he was going to do further study on Darwin's theories. But he wasn't a naturalist, he was a chemist," Amy added thoughtfully. "So that's strange." "Whatevs," Dan said with a yawn. "When does the fascinating part come?"

"He made his way around the islands of Indonesia until settling on one to conduct experiments. He was believed to have perished in the eruption of Krakatau in 1883." "Krak-a-wa?" "Krakatau," Amy said. "It was a huge volcanic explosion. Actually, a series of explosions. The mountain basically imploded, and then came these huge tsunamis that killed about thirty-six thousand people. They heard the noise of the final explosion all the way in Australia. The dust cloud that came afterward gave spectacular sunsets even in the United States." "Now you're getting to the cool part." "That's it! The upside-down ice cream cone!" Amy said excitedly. "It was a volcano! He was drawing Krakatau. But why did he suddenly leave his fiancée and go to Indonesia? There has to be a reason." "Sure," Dan said. "He was one smart dude. Get married or go lie on a beach. No contest. Even with the volcano, the dude was ahead." "So he must have been in the vicinity of

Krakatau when it blew. He barely escaped with his life," Amy said. "He got to Sydney somehow. And Cahills and Madrigals have been looking for him ever since. Why?" If you found something, it belongs to all of us. If you keep it, you are thieves. Simple as that. It was the strangest thing. Dan's face was in front of her, but she had been gone, for just a moment. Standing in her nightgown, listening to the grown-ups. "Earth to Amy," Dan said. She didn't fall asleep until the people left. She heard the front door shut. She looked out to make sure they were really gone. But they stood in a little knot right under her window. She raised it slightly so she could look at them again. All she could see was the top of their heads. "Get some nerve," the beautiful lady said. "We have our answer. They traced him to Australia. This has to be taken care of tonight." Her fault. Her fault. "Amy? You're wigging." Dan peered at her.

"Seriously, are you okay?" She looked at her brother. At his pale face, the way he was worried about her but trying not to be. The asthma attack had taken so much out of him, but he was pretending it hadn't. She could see the exhaustion in the dark circles under his eyes. "I'm fine," she said. "So, what's next, space shot?" Dan asked. "Back to Sydney?" She cleared her throat. Her voice sounded rusty to her ears. "Darwin. We have to keep following their footsteps." On the plane the next morning, Amy settled back into the seat and opened the biography of Amelia Earhart she'd borrowed from Shep. She didn't know what she was looking for, so she leafed through the book, reading various passages, while Nellie zoned out with her earbuds and Dan made his way through a package of chicken-flavored potato crisps. A good night's sleep had restored him to his usual ravenous self.

"Dan, listen to this," she called. "In 1935, when Amelia was in Hawaii, she consulted with a noted volcanologist!" "Fascinating!" Dan said, ripping open a Violet Crumble. "Don't you see? She could have been gathering information about Krakatau, even then," Amy said. Dan closed his eyes and gave a huge pretend snore. Amy sighed and took out the pages she'd downloaded from the Internet and printed out on Ken's printer. She read through accounts of the original explosion. Occasionally, she'd read out an interesting fact to Dan, even though he had taken all his wrappers, balled them up, and was pretending to shoot baskets with them. Then she read a story that made her sit up. She read it slowly again. "Dan!" "Swish! Another three-pointer!" Amy threw a pillow at him. "DAN! Listen to this. During the day of the eruption, a ship heading for Batavia— that was the name for Jakarta then— got into trouble. They ran into this

huge cloud of ash, and then all this pumice— volcanic rock— started to rain on the deck. So the captain pulled into a harbor miles away. They never made it to port, they had to turn around. But get this— the cargo was wolfram." Dan sat up straight. "Wolfram? That's tungsten, one of the clues." "Not only that, the captain mentions that they had all these myrrh plants on deck. And the pumice and ash was raining down, so he had to order the crew to take it all below. What are the odds of a ship carrying both tungsten and myrrh?" "They were bringing clues. Probably to Henderson, right?" "It must have been! He was assembling clues!" Amy cried. "That's it! He was a scientist, so he was working on some kind of formula. Maybe that's why trying to find him is so crucial— why all the branches are looking. He set up some sort of lab…." Amy smacked her chair. "On Krakatau! That's it! He had to order stuff to be delivered. And then when Krakatau blew… the lab was destroyed. He must have gotten caught in the