Darned if You Do by Monica Ferris Page B

as he sat down with his own sandwich.
    â€œDid you notice the crooked walls as you passed by the house?” asked Phil.
    â€œI noticed some bricks moved out of place, but not that the walls were crooked,” Connor replied, glancing over at the house. “Are they actually leaning?”
    â€œMore like bulging at the bottom,” said Valentina.
    â€œSo what does that mean?” asked Georgine.
    â€œI’m pretty sure it means it would cost a whole lot of money to fix.”
    â€œAre you prepared to do that?” asked Connor.
    â€œI can’t afford to do that.”
    â€œMaybe we’ll find more treasure inside another cookie jar,” said Godwin, “and then you will be able to afford it.”
    â€œYou mean treasure like the jewelry Phil found?” asked Connor.
    â€œThat, and the Morgan dollars,” said Godwin, nodding. “I called Rafael and he says there’s a wide range of values on Morgan dollars. Some are worth a lot—a
lot
—of money, depending on condition, date, and where they were minted. The price for an ordinary one is around forty dollars.”
    Jill said, “So if there are a hundred ordinary ones, the least they’re worth is four thousand dollars. That’s pretty nice.”
    Godwin said, “Rafael says we should take them to a coin dealer for evaluation, because in a collection that large, there are likely to be one or two worth a lot more.”
    â€œHow can you tell where a coin was minted?” asked Emily. “I thought they were all made in Washington.”
    â€œOh no,” said Godwin, “there are mints all over the country: Denver has one, San Francisco has another. There are little initials on coins that indicate where they were made.”
    â€œWhich Morgan dollar is the most valuable?” Doris asked Godwin.
    â€œI don’t know. Rafael knows. But please don’t ask him, or he’ll talk your ear off about things like condition and a rainbow patina.”
    Emily said, “Connor, maybe you can help us remember the name of this kind of chatelaine or sewing kit. It’s shaped like an egg. It opens when you press down on a stem sticking out of it. It’s even got a tiny pair of scissors, and needles, and spools for holding thread.”
    Godwin said, “What makes you think Connor would know? You’d think I’d be the one who knows, since I work in a needlework shop.” But he looked at Connor and said, “It’s a word that sounds something like
etty
.”
    â€œAn
etui
?” suggested Connor.
    â€œThat’s it!”
    â€œHow in the world do you know that?” demanded Phil.
    â€œIt’s a word that shows up in crossword puzzles,” explained Connor. He shrugged. “I guess all those crossword books I filled while at sea weren’t entirely a waste of time.”
    â€œAn etui,” said Emily. “I never heard that word before. But then, I never saw anything like that thing before, either. Maybe . . .” She looked at Valentina. “Are you going to hold a garage sale? Maybe I could buy it then.”
    â€œA garage sale sounds like a really good idea,” said Valentina.
    Connor pointed to Georgine. “I think you should let your expert here take the measure of what we’ve got worthy of sale, and what prices we—that is, you—should set.”
    Georgine said, “You should get a professional to do the estimate of what I might think is valuable. Maybe, after all, there
is
enough treasure in the house to pay for its repair.”
    Emily said, “I found something else, a little red box carved with fish and flowers. You should look at it, Georgie. It was pretty, but inside was this little ball and when I looked again I could see it was like a ball of mice, ish!”
    â€œA
ball
of mice? What do you mean? A nest of them? Were they alive?”
    â€œNo, it was like a carving or something, but they looked