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Mr. Garvey and the boys nodded their heads and said “oh, yes” and “absolutely,” a bunch of earnest bobblehead dolls.

“Okay. Come on!” Giselle shouted, gleeful. She waved at them to follow her, and they all ran a short distance to a small, black passageway. Winston could have walked by this a hundred times and not seen it—the hallway seemed to be for staff members only. There was another girl in there, looking anxious, like she was somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be.

“This is it?” said Miss Norris.

“This can’t be right,” Mr. Garvey declared.

Giselle said, “But look!”

Sure enough, the third girl—she was introduced as Elvie—was standing by a pair of signs, each attached to a metal post. They were ads for Simon’s Potato Squares. In each one, the smiling guy from the television commercial beamed out at them. Words by his mouth said, “Think square!”

They all moved into the hallway. There was barely enough room for both teams. “So where’s the puzzle?” said Winston.

“I don’t know,” said Elvie. “I’m guessing in here.” Elvie was the tiniest of the three girls—with long dark-blond hair framing her narrow face, she reminded Winston of a fairy from a fantasy movie. Elvie pointed to the wall, and Winston saw that it was really a door painted black. Like the hallway itself, it didn’t seem to be part of any exhibit. Elvie jiggled the handle. “But it’s locked,” she said.

“This is nuts,” said Mal.

“I agree,” said Mr. Garvey. “Can this be right? What are we supposed to do, pick the lock? That’s a fine thing to teach kids.”

Jake knocked on the door. There was no answer.

“I tried that already,” said Elvie.

“Maybe the answer is HALLWAY,” said Giselle. She was fidgeting in the crowded space, her hands moving up and down her arms. Her brown eyes lit up as a new idea hit her. “Or SPACE! Because this is a space museum, and we’re all standing in a small space, so—”

“So there’s no puzzle?” her teammate Bethany demanded. “You just have to find the sign? That doesn’t make sense.” Bethany, it seemed, didn’t tolerate suggestions she thought were foolish. Winston decided he liked her no-nonsense attitude.

“Well, the puzzle should be here somewhere . . . ,” said Miss Norris, looking around the black-walled alcove.

“Maybe you have to feel the walls!” Giselle said, doing just that.

“So, what, the puzzle’s in Braille?” Jake said. But he started feeling the walls, too.

Mal knocked on the door again. “It’s got to have something to do with this door. That’s the only thing here.” He put his ear to it like a spy.

They were getting nowhere, and it was impossible to think in this crowded space, packed in elbow to elbow. Winston slipped back out of the hallway while the others discussed what they should do next. Mr. Garvey came out after him, and they glanced at each other, frowning.

“I don’t like this,” Mr. Garvey said.

Winston nodded. Would Simon send dozens of people into a tiny little hallway where the only notable feature was a locked door? Winston had created a few puzzle hunts himself, for his friends and his sister, and he understood that you couldn’t leave the solvers hanging, with no idea what they were supposed to do next. Simon was either very bad at creating puzzles or something was wrong.

They saw a staff member walk by. He was wearing a lime-green T-shirt and a name badge that said VOLUNTEER. Winston rushed to catch him.

“Hey,” said Winston, “can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“You know about this potato chip contest that’s happening here today?”

The guy put on a sly look. “Ah, I can’t answer any questions about that. Sorry. You’ll have to solve the puzzle on your own.”

“But how do we unlock the door to where the puzzle is?”

The volunteer looked taken aback. “The doors are locked? To the theater?”

Mr. Garvey said, “What theater?” Winston didn’t even realize Mr. Garvey had come up behind him.

The volunteer looked confused. “The planetarium. The only theater we’ve got. Are the doors locked, or aren’t they?”

Mr. Garvey smiled. “I’m sure they’re fine. We must have gotten ourselves