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The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues) Chapter 4 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Now that Amy and Dan have teamed up to find the 39 clues, they open their first clue: "RESOLUTION: The fine print to guess, Seek out Richard S_____" (4.7). It's got to be Richard Simmons! Or… not.
  • A few teams rush out the door as if they know where the clue leads (or they're eager to start Sweatin' to the Oldies), but Amy and Dan are stumped.
  • Amy wonders if it has anything to do with the four branches of the Cahill family: the Ekaterina, the Janus, the Tomas, and the Lucian. She's not sure which she and Dan belong to.
  • Mr. McIntyre tells them that he cannot help them, but Grace did leave them a warning: "Beware the Madrigals" (4.57).
  • To Dan, "the name Madrigals just sounded evil" (4.58). He's right. There's nothing scarier than a high-school choir in period clothing.
  • Suddenly, Amy has a revelation. She drags Dan off to the library. 
  • In the library, they run into their uncle Alistair Oh, who wants to form an alliance with them. 
  • They agree to it, because they'll need an adult chaperone if they plan to travel around the world. Dan says he hadn't been allowed to go on a field trip because he'd "put Mentos in his Spanish teacher's Diet Coke" (4.85). That sounds better than most field trips, if you ask us. 
  • Amy can't find what she's looking for, and she wonders if there might be a secret library.
  • Faster than you can say "secret library," Dan pushes some buttons hidden on the Cahill family crest, and a bookcase swings away, revealing a secret staircase leading downward.