Walls Within Walls

CJ has a friend from school—Brent—over to hang out. Brent notices that some poems have marks above them, indicating a code called dot writing; when postage got too expensive, people would put dots above letters in newspapers and send them to friends for free (due to rules about government-owned items going free through the mail). Brent finds a message guiding them to the silver room, and CJ hurries him out of the apartment before he can learn more. CJ continues using the newfound code to find a seemingly random jumble of letters in Patrick’s room. When Patrick comes home, he reads what CJ wrote, recognizes it as backward writing, and wants to know what map CJ plans to push in. Patrick’s question leads CJ to realize that the sideways empty stocking Patrick referred to is a map of Manhattan.

CJ finds the secret passage in Patrick’s room and goes to Eloise’s apartment via the fire stairs to ask for help. When she does not answer, he leaves a note on her door. As he leaves, he hears someone enter the stairwell from below. Both people freeze, waiting for the other to make the first move, when the stairway lights turn off. CJ runs up the stairs, trying to escape into his apartment, but miscounts the steps, trips and falls down the stairs, and trips Torrio. Torrio tells CJ that he should get Eloise to talk to Torrio because the situation is more complicated than the boy knows. Before CJ can say anything, he passes out.

Eloise, Patrick, and Brid find CJ in the stairwell; Eloise wakes him up with smelling salts, and they all evaluate his injuries before helping him back into the apartment. He explains the dot writing, asks Brid to check the other rooms for any dot writing and explains what happened between himself and Torrio on the stairs. Brid returns with more writing and says it is time to enact “Operation Mortar.”

Brid puts together a master plan for Operation Mortar, which Mrs. Smithfork foils by staying home from yoga. She tries to make the kids breakfast, but she has an illness that makes her tired; she goes back to bed when the kids say they’ll be alright for a little while. While their mom sleeps, Patrick takes a prototype DigiSpy—codename Rafael—into the dumbwaiter. He puts it in a narrow gap between the Williamsons’ and Torrio’s apartments, where the map of Manhattan is. CJ controls Rafael from his dad’s computer and prints photos of what Rafael sees so everyone can see the map hidden behind the walls. His mom wakes up, catches him on the computer, and asks if the others are okay. He says they are, and his mom calls Miss Munn to babysit them. Once his mom leaves, CJ returns to the screen, where the tunnel darkens. Over a walkie-talkie, Brid confirms that Patrick returned from the dumbwaiter, but Rafael is missing.

The treasure hunters gather in Mr. Smithfork’s office to examine the map. They connect symbols they found to the poems in Mr. Post’s poetry book and theorize how Torrio hasn’t seen the map behind his apartment after all this time. CJ proposes that Torrio knows about it but does not know how to press the buttons since he does not have the poetry book. With Eloise’s help, they know the first two buttons to press—a music note for Harlem and the general’s star for Grant’s Tomb—and they read the Thomas Hardy poem about traveling by train. They determine that the next clue must be about Grand Central Station, and they leave a note for Mrs. Smithfork as they leave so they can evaluate the next symbol.

While riding the bus to Grand Central Station, CJ reads about the train station, including how Franklin D. Roosevelt’s railcar is entombed and abandoned in the basement. They stop for lunch in a station restaurant, discussing the architectural structure Guastavino used during construction to ensure buildings were more stable than they would be with support beams. After lunch, they explore the tunnels and find the Whispering Gallery, where the acoustics create an eerie voice effect. Brid redirects CJ back to finding symbols, and he lists possible ones from the map, including a caduceus. Patrick mentions seeing a caduceus on the way in above the entrance; they exit the building, and he points to a statue of Mercury, the god of commerce and crossroads. They connect crossroads back to the Thomas Hardy poem Mr. Post included in his book—the third symbol is the caduceus.

Mrs. Smithfork is still sick the next day, so Eloise brings the family a crockpot filled with soup. While Mrs. Smithfork sleeps, the treasure hunters discuss the following poem—“Recuerdo” by Edna St. Vincent Millay—and hypothesize that the next symbol relates to the Staten Island ferry, so once they agree, they depart for the ferry to find the fourth symbol.

The children are running out of time to solve the mystery and recover the DigiSpy prototype before their father returns from his business trip to China. They no longer have available weekends, but they need a free day to travel and learn more about the locations on the map to determine which symbols to press. Though Eloise initially does not like the idea, CJ and Brid plan to skip school to visit the Staten Island ferry and Ellis Island. Patrick wants to come with them, but CJ says he cannot because it would look too suspicious if two from the same school were absent.

The next day, CJ and Brid email in sick and travel to the ferry with Eloise. Along the way, Brent and his nanny drive by and offer CJ a ride to school. He declines the offer and tries to lie; Brent sees through his lie and calls him out, saying friends don’t lie to each other. They continue until they get off the train at their destination, and Patrick joins their party—he sent an email of his own and skipped school, though he did not word the email well enough to fool anyone. Once they arrive, they see a poem on the Staten Island ferry dock wall that indicates the symbol of the dancing girl. Likewise, they spend a little time at Ellis Island before concluding that the symbol of this location is the lips symbol—representing the Kissing Post where families reunited.

CJ logs onto his dad’s computer to delete the emails and sees the email Patrick sent and the response from their father, who saw all their emails on his PDA. Mr. Smithfork says the children will receive punishments when he gets home from his trip and will not tell their mother about the situation until then. While the kids decide how to approach the rest of the week, a blizzard hits New York and cancels school for at least two days. Mrs. Smithfork, feeling better, tries to reunite the family with old habits of togetherness; the kids let her until she tires out. She returns to bed, and Eloise comes to babysit them while they all work to decipher the sixth poem’s clue. The poem seems to lead them nowhere until CJ researches New York’s history and finds that the Queensboro Bridge used to have a trolley system. Despite the snow, the treasure hunters venture out to visit the bridge.