Your illustration could be published in the next Skylar Robbins mystery! While hunting for the hidden jewels in her new adventure, Skylar found a treasure map, torn in several pieces. Some of them were hidden in a bird’s nest, and were fragile and a little bit shredded. I would like to include a picture of it in The Mystery of the Hidden Jewels. Can you draw the map, based on the description below?
A free pair of kid’s binoculars goes to the artist with the best drawing of the treasure map, and their illustration will be included in the next book. Please upload your drawings to the website and sign your Secret Agent code name. If you don’t have a code name, please fill out the Secret Agent Application Form (S.A.A.F.) on this website under “About Skylar.”
“Reaching up, I pulled the bird’s nest down and set it gently on the table. Then I carefully lifted out three soft pieces of dirty paper. They were stained and a little bit shredded, but I could still make out numbered footsteps on all three of them. After replacing the bird’s nest on the rafter, I picked up the fragile pile and cradled it between my hands while I raced upstairs to my office.
Sitting down at my desk, I unlocked my clue box and took out the partial map from the hidden floor, smoothing it out in front of me. I set the first torn piece of bird’s nest paper next to it. “Wait a minute,” I said aloud, picking up another piece. The footprints on the bird’s nest paper had the missing numbers on them. There were also some curving shapes on the strips that looked like C’s, other marks that looked like L’s, and a hexagon on the far side. I rearranged the papers until C-shapes met each other and formed whole circles, the L’s combined to form squares, and all of the footprints flowed in numerical order. Then I carefully taped the map together. There was still a big chunk of it missing. Smack or Ignado must have found it, I thought. That explains why they were looking in the greenhouse! It must be part of this clue.
And if they figured out there was a clue in there with just one small piece of the map, they aren’t as dumb as I thought.
After the final footprint there was an X. The same curved X that was written on the back of Xandra’s picture.
X marks the spot.”
* * *
“That tree there is this circle,” I mumbled, “and the hexagon on the map must be the gazebo, so I have to go over there to start.” Even though the footsteps on the map seemed to lead toward the greenhouse, I figured I better follow them in order in case there were extra clues hidden along the way. I walked toward the side of the house opposite the canyon and backed up against the wall where the footsteps looked like they began.
Taking four steps, I curved to my left and took another three, then veered right for six. I hit the first tree marked on the map. I hunted around the base of the trunk and looked up carefully at every branch. No clues. I crossed behind the tree and went left five paces, then turned left for nine and walked to the right four steps. The gazebo was right in front of me. The hexagon. I’d already searched the gazebo and found the partial map. Besides that it was clean. From the gazebo, I headed sideways three steps, then forward six. I stopped at the doorway to the greenhouse, opened it, and walked inside.