The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

Milligan has driven the Salamander into the storm shelter. The children slip off their handcuffs and board the Salamander, but the Ten Men capture Milligan in the process. McCracken is delighted to meet Milligan, his nemesis, face-to-face. Milligan points a laser at McCracken and orders Kate to drive her friends to safety in the Salamander. She is reluctant but eventually agrees. The children do not follow Milligan’s instruction to hide in the bay forest. Instead, they choose to try and rescue Mr. Benedict.

On their way out of the village, the children stop by a well, where the “twin moon” clue was directing them to look. There, Kate finds a map showing them the location of the cave where Mr. Curtain is keeping Mr. Benedict captive. They use the Salamander to get most of the way to the cave and then they continue on foot to the entrance. Back at the storm shelter, Milligan and the Ten Men face off, and a fierce battle ensues. By the end, Milligan is not “the one man left standing” (364).

The children arrive at the mountain cave. Inside, they find Mr. Benedict tied up amid the stalagmites. In an inner chamber, they briefly see Mr. Curtain roll by in his wheelchair. Kate hurries to untie Mr. Benedict. Constance, realizing the truth, tries to warn her at the last second, but it is too late: The man they have untied is in fact Mr. Curtain. He is wearing gloves that allow him to electrocute all the children. When Reynie wakes up, he and the others are all handcuffed. Mr. Curtain’s assistant, S.Q. Pedalian, is helping Mr. Curtain, though he seems reluctant to do so.

Mr. Benedict is the one in Mr. Curtain’s wheelchair, and he is unconscious until S.Q. revives him with smelling salts. All the prisoners try to make Mr. Curtain angry, knowing that anger triggers his narcolepsy, but he remains calm. Mr. Curtain explains his evil scheme. He intends to assume Mr. Benedict’s identity and regain control of The Whisperer (the brainwashing device featured in the first novel of the series). Mr. Curtain wants to take over the world with the help of duskwort. When Mr. Curtain threatens to harm the children, Mr. Benedict agrees to answer his questions. He reveals that the duskwort is all over the walls of the cave; it is a bioluminescent moss.

Mr. Benedict and the children watch powerlessly as Mr. Curtain and S.Q. harvest the duskwort. Mr. Benedict laments his brother’s unwillingness to work together for the greater good. To frighten them, Mr. Curtain threatens to keep them all asleep for the rest of their lives, only waking them up when he needs information. As time passes, Reynie loses hope that Milligan will be able to save them. McCracken enters the cave just before dawn and announces that after a long fight, Milligan jumped from a cliff to his death. The children are devastated, but Kate privately questions the veracity of McCracken’s account because it does not sound like something her father would do. McCracken asks Mr. Curtain for help lifting another injured Ten Man onto a stretcher; the other Ten Men are unconscious. Reluctantly, Mr. Curtain agrees, leaving S.Q. in charge of the prisoners.

Mr. Benedict manipulates S.Q. into taking his handcuffs off. He then cuffs S.Q. to a stalagmite. He frees the children and apologizes to S.Q. Just as they are leaving the cave, Mr. Benedict falls asleep. Kate builds him a makeshift sledge out of a table. As the children debate their next move, Madge arrives, bearing a letter from Cannonball. The Shortcut is just offshore, and the crew has already rescued Number Two. Cannonball asks how he can best assist the children. Reynie comes up with a plan, but it involves a big risk and careful timing. He writes a letter back to Cannonball.

It takes enormous effort for Reynie, Sticky, and Kate to drag the sledge down the mountain. Although he is exhausted, Sticky makes a continuous effort to drag the sledge across the open plain because it offers him an opportunity to prove that he can be useful to his friends. Just before they reach the trees, the children find Milligan lying in the mud. He has many broken bones and other severe injuries, but he is alive. He jumped off a cliff during the fight, but he expected to survive. Milligan loses consciousness just before the Salamander appears in the distance and makes its way toward them. Mr. Benedict wakes up, and they all run into the trees, with Mr. Benedict carrying Milligan carefully in his arms. They run through the forest and reach the shore just before the Salamander does; it is circling around the wood to get to them.

Just as they arrive, Captain Noland crashes the Shortcut into the island to give Mr. Benedict and the children a way to escape, as per Reynie’s letter. They climb on board, and everyone hurries to the security hold. The Royal Navy is on its way, so they just have to hold Mr. Curtain off for a few minutes. Mr. Curtain’s men are about to blow the door open with an explosive when the Navy arrives. Kate grabs the explosive and runs to the deck to dispose of it. She sees that Mr. Curtain has left Martina Crowe behind. Kate considers throwing the bomb at the retreating Salamander, but she realizes that she wants to be better than her enemies. She throws the explosive into the ocean, where it detonates harmlessly.

The final chapter takes place a week after the end of the children’s adventure. They are now back at Mr. Benedict’s house with their families. Milligan is gradually recovering from his grievous injuries, and the children are taking turns writing journal entries describing their perilous journey. Reynie’s entry explains that the duskwort that Mr. Curtain harvested was actually thwart-wort. This means that Mr. Curtain cannot use the plant to take over the world, but it also means that Mr. Benedict has lost his only hope of a cure for narcolepsy. Moocho Brazos makes pies for everyone, and Captain Noland and Cannonball arrive to join them.

Captain Noland apologizes to the children for the discomforts of their initial voyage. He explains to Reynie that he gave him a decoy diamond (which he purchased from Mr. Pressius) as a token of thanks, which Reynie misunderstood as theft. Even though he destroyed the Shortcut, Noland has received a posting on a new ship. Mr. Pressius’s diamonds were stolen after all, but he had them stolen on purpose so that he could obtain insurance money. The thief was Mr. Curtain. Mr. Benedict used this information to blackmail Mr. Pressius into giving Noland a new posting. He also learned about the fake theft with the help of Martina Crowe, who has become his informant. Mr. Benedict reminds Reynie that while “there’s no shortage of wickedness in the world” (443), there are also people prepared to do good.