“Prince George,” the man said, bowing in joking way. “A pity those boots wouldn’t fit me, ” he added, standing up. “But you do have something I’d like. Your key. Always wanted to see one of those first class cabins ”
There was no way George could let this man up to the suite! He’d jump overboard before he let him near Aunt Daisy and Phoebe.
“There’s a mummy down here!” he blurted out “It’s worth millions! It’s in that create!”
The man raised and eyebrow.
George kept talking.
“I thought I could sneak it off the ship and sell it in New York, ” George lied. “My father’s business is bad. I thought if I could sell it… ”
The man looked at the crate.
“I like the way you think,” he said.
He waved the knife at George and told him not to move. And then he quickly worked the knife around the lid. Obviously he’d done this many times before.
He lifted the lid off the crate. But before either of them could look inside, there was a tremendous rumbling noise, and the entire hold began to shake so hard that George almost fell. The shaking got stronger and stronger, the noise louder and louder like thunder exploding all around them. A trunk tumbled off a shelf and hit the scar-faced man on the head. The knife clattered to the floor, but George didn’t try to get it. Here was his chance to escape. He spun around, run up the stairs, datred out the door.