Tonight on the Titanic Read online

  There was more frantic barking.

  “Where’s Teddy?” cried Jack.

  “He’s calling us!” shouted Annie.

  “We can’t look for him!” shouted Jack. “We’ll fall off the ship!”

  Teddy barked and barked.

  “He’s close by!” said Annie.

  She held on to the railing and moved slowly down the steep deck.

  “Annie!” cried Jack.

  Suddenly, the lights on the Titanic went out. The world was pitch-dark.

  Jack couldn’t see Annie at all.

  “Annie!” he shouted.

  He tried to move down the deck, too.

  But the ship tilted again. Jack slipped and fell.

  He rolled until he crashed into a smokestack.

  “Jack!” cried Annie. “Here! Here!”

  Teddy kept barking.

  The back of the Titanic was rising out of the ocean. The front of the ship was going down.

  Jack tried to go around the smokestack without falling.

  In the dark, he could barely see the tree house. It was stuck between a smokestack and the railing. It was lying on its side.

  Annie and Teddy were looking out the window.

  “Teddy’s barking led me here!” cried Annie. “Hurry, Jack!”

  Jack crawled around the smokestack.

  He held out his hand. Annie grabbed it. She pulled him into the tree house.

  Teddy licked his face.

  “I wish we could go home!” shouted Annie, pointing at the Pennsylvania book.

  Jack heard a loud CRA-A-A-ACK!

  The wind started to blow.

  The tree house started to spin.

  It spun faster and faster.

  Then everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

  “Oh, man,” whispered Jack.

  He was lying on the floor of the tree house. He was wearing his pajamas and rain poncho again.

  “You okay?” Annie asked.

  “Yeah. You?” said Jack.

  “My heart’s beating really fast,” said Annie.

  “Mine, too,” said Jack.

  He thought of the Titanic sinking into the cold black sea. His eyes filled with tears.

  “It was terrible,” he said.

  Annie nodded. Jack could see tears on her cheeks.

  Teddy licked Jack’s face.

  “Hey,” said Jack. “How did you get out of my knapsack?”

  Teddy whined. Jack and Annie stroked his furry head and ears.

  “I think he has a touch of magic,” said Annie.

  Slowly, Jack sat up.

  “He saved our lives,” he said.

  “And now we have the first gift to break the spell he’s under,” said Annie.

  She turned on her flashlight. She shined it on the silver pocket watch that hung from her neck.

  “Lucy’s gift,” she said.

  The watch had stopped. The hands were at 2:20.

  Jack was silent. Then he sighed.

  “That’s exactly when the ship went down,” he said.

  Annie looked at him.

  “I guess that’s when time stopped for the Titanic,” she said.

  Jack nodded.

  Annie put the pocket watch on top of Morgan’s note.

  “A gift from a ship lost at sea,” she said softly.

  They were both quiet.

  Then Jack took off his glasses and wiped the tears from his eyes.

  Annie stood up. She took a deep breath.

  “I’m ready to go,” she said. “Let’s put Teddy in your pack and take him home with us.”

  She shined her flashlight around the tree house.

  “Teddy?” she said.

  There was no sign of the little dog.

  “He’s not here,” said Annie.

  “What are you talking about?” said Jack. “We were just petting him.”

  “He’s up to his magic tricks again,” said Annie. She sighed. “We’ll have to go home without him.”

  “But what happened to him?” said Jack.

  “I don’t know,” said Annie. “But I have a feeling we’ll see him again soon.”

  She started down the rope ladder. Jack looked around the tree house one last time.

  “Teddy?” he said.

  But the tree house was quiet.

  Jack pulled on his backpack and climbed down the rope ladder.

  Annie was waiting for him.

  Without a word, Jack took her hand.

  The rain had stopped. But water still dripped from the trees.

  Stars glittered overhead in a clear sky.

  Silently, Jack and Annie left the Frog Creek woods. They walked up the dark street to their house and climbed the steps to their porch.

  Before they went inside, they looked out again at the night.

  “Time might have stopped for the Titanic,” Jack said. “But books and memories keep the Titanic alive, don’t they? It’s a true story, but it’s also like a myth now.”

  “Yeah,” said Annie. “And every time the story’s told, we wish it had a different ending.”

  Jack nodded. That was exactly how he felt.

  Staring at the starry sky, he shuddered at the memory of the sinking ship.

  He knew that he and Annie were lucky. They had come home.

  “Good night, Titanic,” he said softly. “Good-bye.”

  Then he and Annie slipped quietly into their house, where it was cozy and dry and very safe.

  MORE FACTS FOR YOU AND JACK

  1) The Titanic hit the iceberg in the North Atlantic, approximately 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

  2) The Titanic was considered unsinkable because she was built with huge watertight doors to contain any possible leaks. However, when the ship hit the iceberg, six watertight compartments quickly filled up with water, dooming the ship.

  3) The signal SOS was chosen as an international distress call because of the simplicity of the three letters in Morse code: three dots, three dashes, and three dots.

  4) No one knows for certain exactly how long the musicians played on the Titanic, but legend says they played until the ship went down, and their last song was the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee.”

  5) More than 1,500 people perished in the Titanic disaster, while 705 people escaped in lifeboats and were eventually rescued by a ship named the Carpathia.

  6) After the sinking of the Titanic, laws were changed so that every ship was required to have enough lifeboats to carryall its passengers. Also, the International Ice Patrol was formed, so that ships would have warning about ice conditions.

  7) In 1985, a scientist named Dr. Robert Ballard discovered the undersea wreck of the Titanic.

  Here’s a special preview of

  Magic Tree House #18

  Buffalo Before Breakfast

  Available now!

  Excerpt copyright © 1999 by Mary Pope Osborne.

  Published by Random House Children’s Books,

  a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Arf! Arf! Arf!

  Jack finished tying his sneakers. Then he looked out his bedroom window.

  A small dog stood in the early sunlight. He had floppy ears and scruffy brown fur.

  “Teddy!” said Jack.

  Just then, Annie ran into Jack’s room.

  “Teddy’s back!” she said. “It’s time.”

  It was time for their second mission to help free the little dog from a spell.

  Jack threw his notebook and pencil into his backpack. Then he followed Annie downstairs and past the kitchen.

  “Where are you two going?” their mom called.

  “Outside,” said Jack.

  “Breakfast will be ready soon,” she said. “And Grandmother will be here any minute.”

  “We’ll be right back,” said Jack. He loved his grandmother’s visits. She was kind and funny. And she always taught them new things.

  Jack and Annie slipped out the front door. Teddy was w
aiting for them.

  Arf! Arf! he barked.

  “Hey, where did you go last week?” Jack asked.

  The small dog wagged his tail joyfully.

  Then he ran up the sidewalk.

  “Wait for us!” Annie shouted.

  She and Jack followed Teddy up the street and into the Frog Creek woods.

  They ran between the trees. Wind rattled the leaves. Birds swooped from branch to branch.

  Teddy stopped at a rope ladder that hung from the tallest oak tree in the woods. At the top of the ladder was the magic tree house.

  Jack and Annie stared up at it.

  “No sign of Morgan,” said Annie.

  “Let’s go up,” said Jack.

  Annie picked up Teddy. She carried him carefully up the ladder. Jack climbed after her.

  Inside the tree house, Teddy sniffed a silver pocket watch on the floor. Beside it was the note that Morgan had written to Jack and Annie.

  Annie picked up the note and read it aloud:

  This little dog is under a spell and needs your help. To free him, you must be given four special things:

  A gift from a ship lost at sea,

  A gift from the prairie blue,

  A gift from a forest far away,

  A gift from a kangaroo.

  Be brave. Be wise. Be careful.

  “We’ve got the first special thing,” said Annie, “the gift from a ship lost at sea.”

  “Yeah,” said Jack. He picked up the silver pocket watch.

  The time on the watch was 2:20—the time the Titanic had sunk.

  Jack and Annie stared at the watch.

  Arf! Arf!

  Teddy’s barking brought Jack back from his memories.

  “Okay,” Jack said. He sighed and pushed his glasses into place. “Now it’s time for the gift from the prairie blue.”

  “What’s that mean?” said Annie.

  “I’m not sure,” said Jack. He looked around the tree house. “But I bet that book will take us there.”

  He picked up a book in the corner. The cover was a picture of a wide prairie. The title was The Great Plains.

  “Ready?” Jack said.

  Teddy yipped and wagged his tail.

  “Let’s go,” said Annie. “The sooner we free Teddy, the better.”

  Jack pointed at the cover.

  “I wish we could go there,” he said.

  The wind started to blow.

  The tree house started to spin.

  It spun faster and faster.

  Then everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

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  Magic Tree House® Books

  #1: DINOSAURS BEFORE DARK

  #2: THE KNIGHT AT DAWN

  #3: MUMMIES IN THE MORNING

  #4: PIRATES PAST NOON

  #5: NIGHT OF THE NINJAS

  #6: AFTERNOON ON THE AMAZON

  #7: SUNSET OF THE SABERTOOTH

  #8: MIDNIGHT ON THE MOON

  #9: DOLPHINS AT DAYBREAK

  #10: GHOST TOWN AT SUNDOWN

  #11: LIONS AT LUNCHTIME

  #12: POLAR BEARS PAST BEDTIME

  #13: VACATION UNDER THE VOLCANO

  #14: DAY OF THE DRAGON KING

  #15: VIKING SHIPS AT SUNRISE

  #16: HOUR OF THE OLYMPICS

  #17: TONIGHT ON THE TITANIC

  #18: BUFFALO BEFORE BREAKFAST

  #19: TIGERS AT TWILIGHT

  #20: DINGOES AT DINNERTIME

  #21: CIVIL WAR ON SUNDAY

  #22: REVOLUTIONARY WAR ON WEDNESDAY

  #23: TWISTER ON TUESDAY

  #24: EARTHQUAKE IN THE EARLY MORNING

  #25: STAGE FRIGHT ON A SUMMER NIGHT

  #26: GOOD MORNING, GORILLAS

  #27: THANKSGIVING ON THURSDAY

  #28: HIGH TIDE IN HAWAII

  Merlin Missions

  #29: CHRISTMAS IN CAMELOT

  #30: HAUNTED CASTLE ON HALLOWS EVE

  #31: SUMMER OF THE SEA SERPENT

  #32: WINTER OF THE ICE WIZARD

  #33: CARNIVAL AT CANDLELIGHT

  #34: SEASON OF THE SANDSTORMS

  #35: NIGHT OF THE NEW MAGICIANS

  #36: BLIZZARD OF THE BLUE MOON

  #37: DRAGON OF THE RED DAWN

  #38: MONDAY WITH A MAD GENIUS

  #39: DARK DAY IN THE DEEP SEA

  #40: EVE OF THE EMPEROR PENGUIN

  #41: MOONLIGHT ON THE MAGIC FLUTE

  #42: A GOOD NIGHT FOR GHOSTS

  #43: LEPRECHAUN IN LATE WINTER

  #44: A GHOST TALE FOR CHRISTMAS TIME

  Magic Tree House® Research Guides

  DINOSAURS

  KNIGHTS AND CASTLES

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  ANCIENT GREECE AND THE OLYMPICS

  AMERICAN REVOLUTION

  SABERTOOTHS AND THE ICE AGE

  PILGRIMS

  ANCIENT ROME AND POMPEII

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  SEA MONSTERS

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  RAGS AND RICHES: KIDS IN THE TIME OF CHARLES DICKENS

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