49 pages • 1 hour read
Trenton Lee Stewart, Illustr. Diana SudykaThe Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Boathouse Prisoner”
Milligan is frustrated that the children have followed him, but he does not send them back. They see a Ten Man guarding the entrance to the docks, standing under a sign that says Risker Water Transport. The Ten Man is keeping a man prisoner in the boathouse. Kate suggests tranquilizing the Ten Man, but Milligan does not want to risk him falling into the water and drowning. Kate does not think that killing a Ten Man is a problem. Milligan makes the children promise to stay hidden and keep an eye on the boathouse. The children outwardly agree, but they privately make a plan of their own.
Milligan approaches the Ten Man. When both men disappear from sight, the children sneak into the boathouse. The prisoner, Risker, is at first distrustful, though he has been expecting them. Mr. Benedict paid for their passage to the duskwort island (he and Number Two are already there), but the Ten Man has sunk Risker’s boats. Reynie, wanting to know the location of the island, bribes Risker with the gift from Captain Noland—a diamond. Risker gives them the location and tells them that when they arrive, they must “follow the wind” (270), per Mr. Benedict’s instructions.
Risker’s real last name is de Reizeger; he is Han de Reizeger’s grandson. Reynie tosses him the diamond, but it falls into the water and floats, meaning that it is a fake. Risker is angry with Reynie for tricking him, but before he can retaliate, Milligan arrives, having taken care of the Ten Man.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Follow the Wind”
Milligan tries to leave the children behind and go to the island himself, but the children are eager to help rescue Mr. Benedict and Number Two before the deadline tomorrow. Milligan finds a seaplane to take them all to the island. Constance falls asleep as soon as they are in the air. Reynie tries to ask Milligan questions, but Milligan says that he needs to concentrate on flying the plane because there is something wrong with it. Both Reynie and Sticky are terrified to hear this. Kate tries to distract them by asking what they think “follow the wind” means. Sticky reveals that on the island, the wind always blows east. There used to be inhabitants on the island, but it has since been abandoned. Milligan lands the plane in a bay on the southeast shore and hides it under a tarpaulin. He has made arrangements for the children to be rescued once Mr. Benedict and Number Two are safe. The children ponder their clue and hear wind chimes in the distance.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Dusk Before Sundown”
Milligan and the children find a wind chime in the forest. They take it down to examine it, but when they hear more chimes, Reynie realizes that Mr. Benedict has left them a sound trail. They follow the chimes, collecting more and more as they go. All the wind chimes come together to form a jigsaw puzzle, which Constance is able to solve using her intuition. While she works, Milligan tells Kate that based on the tracks that he has seen, Mr. Curtain must have a Salamander, a kind of “armored boat with tank treads” (293). Mr. Curtain and his cronies must be hiding in the mountains with their prisoners.
Constance solves the puzzle, which displays a map of the island. The other side of the map has a Morse code message from Mr. Benedict, telling them that there are supplies and a clue hidden in the island’s abandoned village. Upon arrival, they search the buildings that are safe to enter, finding a sturdy storm shelter. Eventually, they find a house that contains food, water, lamps, and sleeping bags. A clue tells them to “[p]eek beneath the town’s twin moon” (306). As they try to solve the riddle, Number Two bursts into the room.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Sentries on the Silo”
Number Two is delirious and exhausted. She barely needs to sleep, but she needs to eat constantly. She stayed awake and picked at the lock on her handcuffs to escape, but now she is starving. She and Mr. Benedict were kept captive in a cave. Everyone hopes that the Ten Men will not search for Number Two, as that could endanger them all. Milligan plans to look for the cave. He tells the children to stay behind, saying that one person must watch Number Two at all times, while two should keep a lookout for Ten Men from atop a silo. He gives them a flare gun in case of an emergency. If Ten Men arrive, they should hide in the storm shelter. If he fails to return by morning, they should go to the forest to await rescue.
Kate and Reynie volunteer for the first watch. They watch as Milligan disappears into the distance. Later, Constance and Sticky come to relieve Kate and Reynie. Kate rigs a safety line for Constance so that she will not hurt herself if she falls. Reynie and Kate leave Constance and Sticky to their watch and try to get some rest. Reynie falls into a sleep so deep that even Constance’s screams do not wake him up.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Pleasant Dreams and Other False Comforts”
Sticky falls asleep on his watch despite his best efforts and wakes to find a Ten Man staring up at him. He flinches and bumps into Constance, sending her falling off the tower. Constance screams, but Kate’s safety line catches her, and she does not hit the ground. In his panic, Sticky drops the flare gun at the Ten Man’s feet. The Ten Man radios his location to his cronies and climbs up the tower.
Reynie wakes up and is horrified to find Martina Crowe, Mr. Curtain’s assistant, crouched at the foot of his bed. She attacks him. Kate arrives, fights Martina off, and escapes with Reynie. They try to find Number Two, but she has disappeared. Kate and Reynie make their way out of the house and see Ten Men driving the Salamander down the village path. They can see Sticky in the vehicle. Reynie distracts the Ten Men while Kate tries to rescue the others. After a scuffle, all the children run into the storm shelter. They believe that they are safe, but then they see a Ten Man perched in the rafters.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
Much of the character development in this book falls on Reynie, who is still learning the value in Seeing the Best in People. When he realizes that the diamond that Captain Noland gave him is a fake, he recognizes that his earlier estimation of the captain was incorrect. While Captain Noland’s motivation for giving him the diamond remains ambiguous, he did not deliberately involve Reynie in the theft of precious stones. Reynie assumed that he had all the information and jumped to conclusions about Captain Noland instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt. By contrast, Reynie and the others have a much easier time seeing the best in Milligan. They recognize that he just wants them to be safe, even though he is constantly trying to stop them from helping to save Mr. Benedict and Number Two.
Although Reynie gets the lion’s share of the character development in the story, Kate’s own character arc is also significant in this section. She does not currently see anything wrong with killing the Ten Men, but Milligan insists that it is wrong to kill the Ten Men even if they are doing evil things. As the adventure unfolds, Kate must also learn to see the best in people and to refrain from punishing them even when they do their worst. Therefore, the author implies that it is important for people to recognize their shared humanity even when that recognition is difficult or painful. Kate has not yet fully accepted this wisdom, but these chapters establish the change that she will need to undergo by the end of the story. Because her father has been absent for most of her life, there is still much that he has to teach her about the world.
Kate may not yet know the answer to her moral quandary, but she and her friends all have a good understanding of The Importance of Teamwork, as they push Milligan to let them take part in the rescue effort instead of letting him do everything on his own. They want to prove that they care about Mr. Benedict and Number Two and that they have the necessary skills to succeed. As always, their unique skills help them to move forward. Constance’s unusual intuition allows her to complete the wind chime puzzle faster than anyone else would have been able to, while Reynie realizes that the wind chimes form a sound trail. Reynie also has the most highly developed emotional intelligence in the group, which he uses to encourage the others and to keep them from getting too frustrated. Sticky’s encyclopedic knowledge of the island tells them about the direction of the wind and the existence of an abandoned village, and Kate’s survival skills allow her to tie a safety line that saves Constance’s life. Kate also fights Martina, which Reynie likely could not have done alone.
The Ambiguous Role of Deception continues to play a role in the children’s adventures. They regularly deceive Milligan about their plans, agreeing to obey his orders when they have no intention of doing so. Sometimes, deception is essential for them to successfully accomplish their goals. For example, Reynie also deceives Risker when he bribes him with the diamond, even though he does not know whether the diamond is real. At the end of this section, Reynie demonstrates great courage when he tries to misdirect the Salamander so that Kate can save Sticky and Constance. This is another form of deception that shows that Reynie is willing to risk almost anything to save the people he cares about.
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