Ship of Secrets by Franklin W. Dixon

1
Ship Ahoy!
    T here it is! I can see it!” Joe yelled. He climbed over his older brother, Frank, who was sitting next to him in the taxi cab. He pointed out the window. Now that they’d turned into the harbor area, they could see the twelve-story cruise ship in the dock ahead of them.
    “ Ship of Wonders , here we come!” Frank cried.
    Mr. Hardy, the boys’ father, turned back from the passenger seat. “Your first cruise! You boys are going to love it.”
    Mrs. Hardy held up a pamphlet that had a picture of the ship on the front. “There’s a huge game room, a petting zoo, a trampoline, and magic shows and concerts at night. There are even seven pools—one for each wonder of the world.”
    “What are the wonders again?” Joe asked. They had gone over this three times before the trip, but he kept forgetting.
    “Well, they’re different depending on who you talk to,” their mother said. The wind whipped through the windows of the tiny cab, blowing her thick brown hair into her face. “There are the ancient wonders of the world and the modern wonders. It looks like the ship has the modern wonders, which are different statues and monuments throughout the world.”
    “The Great Pyramid of Giza, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and the Roman Colosseum are a few of them,” Mr. Hardy explained.
    Mrs. Hardy leaned over, pointing out a few pictures from the cruise pamphlet. There was a circular building that had windows all around it. In the center was a huge pool. There were a few statues of men in armor standing near the entrance.
    “The gladiators!” Frank exclaimed. As the cab pulled up at the curb, he drew an invisible sword, pretending to fight his brother. He swung once, then twice. Joe pulled out his own “sword,” and the two jumped out of the cab, making clashing and clanking sounds as they fought.
    “Careful!” Mrs. Hardy called out as she and their dad pulled the suitcases out of the trunk. They paid the taxi driver and followed behind the boys toward the huge ship.
    Mr. Hardy rolled the suitcase behind him, letting out a big sigh. “One whole week of vacation. I’ve been waiting for this day forever.”
    Mrs. Hardy patted him on the back and smiled.Joe and Frank’s dad was a private detective in Bayport, their hometown. He worked long hours solving cases, sometimes robberies, other times more serious crimes. It seemed like he always had a file he was looking over or a lead he was “chasing down.” (That was his detective way of saying “following a clue.”) Frank and Joe didn’t mind how much their dad worked, because he’d taught them how to solve cases. Together theyhelped neighbors and friends find missing pets or property. Once they had to figure out who stole their science fair project, Mr. Roboto.

    As they ran toward the ship, Frank and Joe still swung their invisible swords. Anyone looking at them wouldn’t know they were brothers. Frank had dark brown hair and brown eyes, while Joe had moppy blond hair and blue eyes. Frank was an inch and a half taller than Joe. (But he was also a year older, Joe reminded people.) Joe raised his arm high in the air and was about to strike again, when he noticed a crowd at the end of the dock.
    “What’s going on?” he asked, pointing over Frank’s shoulder. There were three news vans on the side of the road. Several reporters huddled around an older couple and their teenage children. The man wore a red scarf even though it was nearly ninety degrees. His puff of bright white hair made it look like a rabbit was sitting on his head.
    “That man looks so familiar . . . ,” Mrs. Hardy said. “I think I’ve seen him on the news.”
    “This has been in my family for more than a hundred and fifty years,” the man said in a British accent. He held up a shiny gold pocket watch as hespoke, moving it right in front of the news cameras. “It belonged to Duke Albert Heartpence III, my great-grandfather, who lived in England. And Monday