After school Ben couldn't find Winnie.
So he went with Gaby and Mog to the Monsterville Historical Society.
The historical society was located in an old haunted house on the edge of town.
"Whoa, look at all this stuff," Mog burst out.
"Yikes," Ben added.
The ground floor of the building was packed with objects.
There were old toys and dusty books and racks crammed with robes, capes, and vests.
Huge mummies and wax monster figures stood along the walls of one room.
File cabinets overflowing with papers and old photographs filled another room.
Gaby scratched her head, looking overwhelmed.
"I hope we can find that painting of Pedro in here.
The building closes at six, and this could take longer than I thought."
"Maybe we can find a guide to help us," Ben said.
They looked around until they finally spotted a mummy wearing a guide badge.
Ben floated over to him.
"Excuse me, sir. We're looking for a specific painting of Monsterville," he said.
"It's an old painting showing Pedro the Pirate burying his treasure.
Do you know where it is?"
"Second floor. Outlaws section," the guide said.
"You can't miss it."
"Thanks," Gaby said. The three of them hurried toward the staircase.
"Hey, Waldo and Winnie just walked in!" Mog said.
"Why are they here?" Ben wondered aloud.
"Who cares?" Gaby said. "Come on. Let's find that painting!"
"You two can probably find it on your own," Ben said.
"I'll go say hello to Winnie and Waldo. Maybe they need some help now."
"Okay," Gaby said.
"But don't tell them about the painting. That's our clue."
"I will. I mean, I won't. Don't worry, Gaby.
I won't say a word about the painting."
Gaby and Mog tore upstairs.
Waldo and Winnie were still standing near the front entrance.
Ben floated up to them as they finished talking to a guide.
"Hi, Ben," Winnie said.
"How'd you know we were coming to the historical society?"
"I came with Gaby and Mog," Ben said.
"Oh. They're here too?" Waldo asked.
He sounded funny because he was pinching his nose to stop himself from sneezing.
"Did they find a clue that led here?"
"I can't talk about that, remember?" Ben replied.
"I'm helping both teams. What are you guys doing here?"
"We created a Magic Mirror spell," Waldo said.
"Huh?" Ben asked.
"It's a mirror for finding stuff. But the mirror works only one time," Winnie explained.
"We asked it to show us Pirate Pedro's gold."
"But it showed us an image of a golden compass from Pedro's pirate ship," Waldo said.
"The guide said the compass is definitely here—somewhere."
"When we find it," Winnie added, "we're going to cast another spell.
It'll take us to the burial site."
"Want me to help you look for the compass?" Ben asked.
"Okay," Winnie said. "The guide said it's in one of the back rooms."
"We're going to need to get permission to take the compass with us," Waldo said.
"Maybe you can talk with somebody about that?
We got Mr. Freaky to write a note."
Waldo handed Ben a sheet of paper.
"We told him we're working on a project about pirate ships."
"We didn't want to tell him about the treasure until we found it," Winnie said.
"No problem," Ben said.
"I'll go to the visitors' office. I think it's on the second floor."
Inside the visitors' office, Ben explained the situation to a bored-looking skeleton.
The skeleton barely looked at Mr. Freaky's note before stamping it, "Approved."
"Thanks," Ben said.
On his way back downstairs, Ben saw Gaby and Mog staring at a painting in a gold frame.
It showed Pedro as a young pirate skeleton.
He was standing on top of a chest inside a deep hole, looking proud as the sun sank behind him.
Nearby a few other pirates stood with shovels under a small oak tree.
Mog was quickly sketching the painting as Gaby wrote in a small notepad.
"Hey, Ben!" Gaby waved excitedly.
"We found the painting!" Mog said.
"We're not allowed to take a picture of it so I'm trying to draw it."
"We see a bunch of clues," Gaby said.
"Hmm." Ben looked carefully at the painting.
"All I see is the treasure chest, some pirates and Pedro, and a tree."
"Those are all clues," Gaby replied.
"The leaves on the tree show that it was early fall.
The position of the sun and the shadows tell us it was late in the day."
Mog's eyes gleamed.
"And the size of that treasure chest tells us something else—that treasure is huge!"