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    important missions is to educate and enlighten. Give me a few minutes.”
    After she walked off, Dan said to Amy, “You get better at lying every day. Should I be worried?”
    She smiled. “I’m surprised youweren’t worried a long time ago. Andlook who’s talking. ‘That sounds like ateacher of the students we’re competingagainst’?”
    “Hey, I just go with the flow,”replied Dan, grinning.
    Atticus added, “But now we knowthat Isabel was here and she was
    interested in something about Lewis and
    Clark.”
    “You were right, Atticus,” said Dan.
    “Good call on your part.”
    Nancy Gwinn came back holding a

    black case. She had put on white gloves. She led them over to a table in a corner, set the case down on it, and opened it.
    Dr. Gwinn said in an excited tone, “This is the famous compass of Lewis and Clark. It was actually purchased by Meriwether   Lewis   around   1803   in
    preparation for the mission that President Thomas Jefferson was sending them on. When the expedition returned to St. Louis in the fall of 1806, very few of the instruments  and  equipment  they  had purchased for the trip had survived. Fortunately, this compass was one of them. It was kept by Clark as a souvenir from the journey. Later he presented the
    compass  to   a   friend   of  his.   His descendants donated it to the Smithsonian
    in the early 1930s.”

    She took it out of the black case. “Itcost about five dollars back then. Lewis
    purchased   it   from   a   well-known instrument maker, Thomas Whitney. It has a silver-plated brass rim and the box is mahogany. It also has a leather carrying case. It’s a very handsome piece.”
    Amy and the others crowded around for a better look, but none of them could see anything helpful in the object.
    On a cue from Amy, Jake and Dan used their cell-phone cameras to take shots of the compass.

    Amy said, “Can we see the bottom of
    the box?”
    “Funny,” said Dr. Gwinn. “That
    woman asked the very same thing.”

She turned it over, and Jake and Dansurreptitiously took photos of it with theirphones.
    Amy leaned closer to look at the box. She said, “Is that writing on there?”
    Dr. Gwinn looked more closely. “Yes. It seems to be a series of numbers
    scratched into the surface, although it’s been worn down over the years, of course. No one has ever been able to figure out what they mean. It was probably just a notation that either Lewis or Clark made during their journey. And the wooden case made a handy place to do so, I imagine.”
    Amy glanced at Dan. They both knew that Lewis and Clark had been members of
    the Tomas branch of the Cahills. The Tomas were known for their stubbornness
    and the fires in their bellies. They had

    landed men on the moon, and Lewis and Clark had fought their way to the Pacific coast. Amy doubted that they would have scratched some meaningless numbers into the back of a compass box that William Clark had made sure would survive over the centuries.
    Dan said, “Did the woman write the
    numbers down?”
    Dr. Gwinn glanced at him strangely. “Why, yes, she did.”
    “Thanks   so   much,”   said  Amy. “You’ve been a big help.”
    “In fact, we almost had a disaster,”added Dr. Gwinn.
    “A disaster?” asked Amy. “What doyou mean?”
    Dr. Gwinn looked chagrined. “It wasmy fault, really. I shouldn’t have let that

    woman hold the compass. She dropped it. It bounced under the display case over there. But she was able to get under the table and retrieve it. I checked it over.
    There was no damage, thank goodness.”
    Amy and Dan looked at each otherbut said nothing.
    As they turned to leave Dr. Gwinnsaid, “You all were a lot nicer than shewas. I hope you win your competition.”
    Amy and Dan turned back andtogether said, “Me, too.”

    Talking the whole time, the four excitedlyleft the museum.
    Jake and Dan showed the others the
    pictures