On Track for Treasure Read online

  The door wasn’t locked, and despite the rusty hinges, it opened quite easily.

  “There’s a note!” Alexander cried, picking it up.

  Dear Orphans, it read, in surprisingly elegant script.

  Ned Handsome here. Was just passing through and thought I’d make sure that my treasure is still in good working order. These here train tracks are a side road that you can take west halfway to Oklahoma from here. Hope you got strong arms.

  Sincerely, A 1 (5¢) Ned Handsome

  PS Tin Whistle and Enzo send their regards.

  “Wow,” Frances said.

  Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “Quentin and Lorenzo—they’re all right, wherever they are.”

  “They’re in good company,” Alexander agreed. “But now . . . what’s in the shed?”

  Jack was dying to know, too. He opened the door wider, and the sunlight hit a set of iron handles. Two handles, actually—one at either end of a long arm that was perched on top of a wheeled contraption.

  “What is it?” Jack wondered.

  “A handcar!” Harold shouted. “I once saw one in a book!”

  Frances nodded. “I read you that book!”

  “I’ve heard of these handcar contraptions,” Alexander said, stepping inside the shed to get closer. A wooden platform stood atop the wheels, and Alexander climbed up. “It’s a little car that moves on train tracks.”

  Jack jumped up next to Alexander, amazed, followed by Frances and Harold. “How does it work?”

  Harold reached up. “You pump the handles up and down! You take turns, like a seesaw!” He pulled down one handle. Then Jack reached out and pulled down the opposite handle. Up, down, the long arm went, and the handcar started to move.

  “Whoa!” Frances exclaimed. “Eli, jump on!”

  The five of them stood on the platform, and Jack and Alexander manned the two handles and began to work the pumping mechanism.

  “We’ve got to make sure we’re both strong enough,” Alexander said. “But also that we don’t overpower each other. Got it?”

  “No problem,” Jack said, and he meant it.

  “We can help, too, you know,” Frances said, putting her hands on the handle on Jack’s side. Eli did the same on Alexander’s, and Harold just held on in the middle.

  The car lurched at first and moved slowly, with a few sharp squeaks from the wheels. But then it began to go more smoothly and pick up speed.

  Frances and Harold were laughing and whooping in the new breeze of the handcar’s motion. Alexander and Eli were on the side facing backward, so they couldn’t see the road in front of them. But they grinned together, side by side, and Jack realized how lucky he was to have all of them as friends.

  “You’re the one facing forward, Jack,” Alexander asked. “Are we going in the right direction?”

  Jack could see the afternoon sun ahead of him, right behind his friends.

  “We sure are,” he said. “We’re going west.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Many, many thanks to my amazing editor, Gillian Levinson, as well as the rest of the team at Razorbill: Ben Schrank, Christine Ma, and Theresa Evangelista. I’m grateful as well for the wonderful folks at Penguin, including Kathryn Bhirud, Scottie Bowditch, Sheila Hennessey, and Geoffrey Kloske, and for my agent, Sarah Burnes, for all they’ve done to support the Wanderville books. And thank you, Erwin Madrid, for bringing Jack, Frances, Harold, and Alexander to life!

  To my family and friends—my husband, Chris, Michael Taeckens, Jami Attenberg, and the Gorgeous Ladies of Writing, thank you, too. And a great big trainload of thank-yous to all the terrific kids, teachers, librarians, parents, and booksellers that I’ve met since book 1 was published, whose comments, questions, and enthusiasm continue to inspire me.