by Caleb Wygal
Lucas agreed. “And you can imagine that maybe Blackbeard might have been a slightly afraid to see a much larger warship with many more guns approach. I bet he took off from the Atocha and hightailed it here, not really knowing where “here” was. Could be one reason as to why there are no place names on the map. He knew the general area, so he drew that half sun to remind him this was a spot to catch a beautiful sunset.”
“How about that?” Lynn said. “Maybe Blackbeard had a romantic side to him.”
“You’re probably right. He only had fourteen wives.”
“Eww,” Lynn said. “Maybe not.”
Lucas scanned the area and said, “Actually, right now with it being low tide, we could probably cruise on around to Otter Island over there and find a ton of sand dollars.”
“Sand dollars? Really?” Lynn asked.
“Yeah, there’s a watersports place that runs tourists out here during low tides to do nothing but look for sand dollars and sea shells. The water isn’t deep around here. When the water recedes, it leaves long sand bars exposed. You walk out on them and you just find sand dollars everywhere sticking out of the sand.”
“I love those things. I didn’t know you could get them out of the water that way.”
“It’s crazy. People go back with buckets of them. You could make some money off of selling them if you wanted to.”
“Remember, we’re in a hurry,” Darwin reminded them.
“Right.”
Lucas had Darwin hand him his phone so he could see the image of the map. He checked his position and moved the craft along the shore to the right around the headland and into a concealed cove before running it into the sand. “I think this should be our starting point,” Lucas said.
The sand along the shore came out ten feet from where a line of seagrass ran. Behind that was a dense line of palm and oak trees interspersed with large sandstone rocks.
Lucas cut the engine and hopped out of the boat, grabbing both shovels. He helped Lynn climb over the side and onto the soft sand. Darwin followed.
“Okay,” Darwin said, “no one really knows how tall Blackbeard was. I know he was described as being well over six-feet tall.”
“Right and the average height of people back then were several inches shorter than they are now,” Lucas said. “Darwin, we’re both over six feet. I’m six-three. What about you?”
The large man wiggled a hand. “Six-seven, six-eight. I’d say you’re probably a little closer. Someone as tall as me, they probably would have described as a giant.”
Lynn stood in between both men, looking up at the conversation. “Hey! Maybe I would have been average size way back then.”
Darwin gave her an awkward, condescending pat on the head. “There, there little lady. We all have dreams.”
She gave him a playful punch in the stomach. Her hand disappeared. “Be good, mister.”
“Alright, alright,” Lucas said, this time it was his turn to get everyone refocused. “So, we agree that he was probably around my height?” They nodded. “Okay, he said 23 paces in. We don’t know if that was during low or high tide, so I’m just going to start walking. Keep your eyes peeled for a larger than average oak tree.”
“If it’s still here,” Darwin said.
“Let’s hope it is.”
He turned and walked onto the beach and into the trees, counting his steps. Two, three, four, five. The maritime forest was thick and he couldn’t see the area in front of him past a few feet. He wondered if there were more trees here now than there were then. Ten, eleven, twelve. They climbed over a fallen palm tree. The salt air became intermingled with the smell of eucalyptus. Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three. Stop.
Lucas scanned the area, taking stock of their position. “Anyone see it?”
“No,” Darwin answered.
“No,” Lynn started to say, then, “Hold on. To the right.” She pointed. “See that clearing?”
Her head was below the branches of the surrounding trees. Those same fronds obscured Darwin and Lucas’s view. She had a different perspective. They ducked down to her level and looked to where she pointed.
They saw an area of sand perhaps ten feet in diameter surrounded by trees. In the middle of the clearing was a fallen tree, its trunk pointed away from them. Gossamers of Spanish moss hung from the long-exposed roots.
“I think that qualifies as a big oak,” Darwin said.
“Yeah, but is it the right one?” Lynn asked.
A large tan-colored stone sat near where the tree once stood upright. Lucas noticed something odd on the rock’s surface. He walked over to it, crouched, and studied it. Lucas laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Lynn asked.
He didn’t answer her, but directed a question to Darwin. “What was it Blackbeard said on the night before his death when he was asked where his treasure was?”
Darwin frowned. “You mean, “Only he and the devil know where the treasure is?””
Lucas stood aside and pointed at the face of the stone. “What do you think that is?”
Lynn and Darwin crowded in for a view of the area where Lucas pointed.
The markings were faint. An image was carved on the side of the tan rock.
They saw a skeleton with horns, holding a goblet in its right hand and a spear in its left.
“What is it?” Lynn asked.
Darwin answered. “That, my friend, is the same image Blackbeard used on his flag. That is his depiction of the Devil.”
The carving faced the fallen oak.
The proverbial X that marked the spot.
32
The three whooped and cheered when the realization hit that they’d found where the treasure was buried. Now all that remained was to locate the exact spot and start digging.
“I hope all that cheering is to mark my entrance,” a voice called through the palms.
Now on high alert, Darwin and Lucas scanned the area where the voice came from. Lynn hid behind them. They saw a dark shape coming towards them. It pushed through two large palm fronds and there he was.
Riddick.
This time, however, he was dressed in his full pirate regalia. When Darwin and Lucas first met him, he was dressed in modern clothing. Today, he wore his entire Blackbeard costume: Tri-point hat, long brown frock coat, strands of the hair on his beard was twisted together with red ribbons. Billowy, tan pantaloons were tucked into long, brown boots that came almost to his knees. A cutlass hung from his left hip and he had four gun holsters wrapped around his torso. Two of which held guns.
The other two guns were in each hand and pointed at Darwin and Lucas.
He had a Devil’s grin on his face. “Miss me?”
• • •
Lucas didn’t answer his question. “How did you find us?”
The smile didn’t leave Riddick’s face. He gestured with one gun off to the side. “First, toss your shovels over there. It wouldn’t do to have you guys wielding weapons.” Darwin and Lucas complied, their shovels landing with thump in the sand. Riddick turned and addressed Darwin. “Darwin, I’m afraid you’ve been betrayed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your friend at the museum, Lisa, gave you up.”
Lucas could sense Darwin’s anger rising. “How do you know her?” he asked.
Riddick smirked. “It’s quite simple really. For the past ten years, my company has been one of the largest contributors as far as donations to the museum you work at. So, you could say, I have some connections and influence.” He approached Darwin, and held one pistol to Darwin’s chin, causing the thick skin to mold itself around the barrel. He aimed the other pistol at Lucas. “If it weren’t for me and my generous donations, that fancy new wing of the museum, for which you were hired for, may never have been built. I wanted to fund most of it should something such as this happen. I needed them in my pocket.”
He looked to Lucas. “You see, I know all about Travis Cole. I was the one who granted him permission to comb o
ver Blackbeard’s estate. My family owns that land. Let’s just say he balked on our arrangement. I knew he had found something there and that he may have hidden it somewhere at the museum. I wanted to have influence in case whatever it was ever surfaced.” He turned his gaze to Darwin. “Thank you for that, lad.”
While the pirate explained how he arrived on Pine Island, Lucas reached back and rubbed Lynn’s arm reassuringly. She was shaking. He didn’t want Riddick to get suspicious of his movements and took his hand off her skin, not before giving her an “OK” gesture with his fingers. At that, he felt her making furtive movements he hoped his and Riddick’s bulk covered.
“I remembered you telling me you worked there,” Riddick was saying. “I made some calls; applied some pressure, and threatened to pull my funding. Needless to say, they knew you had been in contact with this Lisa during the past few days from looking at the recent calls made to and from her phone on her desk.”
Riddick adjusted his grip on the pistol causing the folds on Darwin’s chin to shift. “You better not have harmed her,” he said through clinched teeth.
“Oh, rest assured son, she’s quite fine. I sent a few, uh, employees out to her house before she woke up this morning to . . . ask a few questions.”
Sweat began to drip from Darwin’s face onto the cold metal barrel of the pistol. Lucas watched. He didn’t dare make a move. Yet. He knew why pirates during that era fought more with knives and swords in close quarters than the more deadly flintlock pistols.
“Don’t worry. We didn’t have to rough her up too much. And actually, she didn’t say anything that led me here.”
“What do you mean?” Darwin gritted out.
“She wouldn’t talk, although her cell phone did. We looked at the text messages you two exchanged last night, pointing to Edisto Island.”
Lucas felt as though he had been punched in the gut. He’d told Darwin to stay off the grid. This is what Lucas was afraid would happen. He couldn’t really fault his young friend. He had been excited, almost killed, and, for all his loneliness, had a girl talking to him. If it hadn’t been for Lisa, they wouldn’t be here now.
Unfortunately, being “here” at this moment meant having a weapon pointed at him. He knew there could be an opportunity to make a move if the situation presented itself. Lucas felt horrible for getting Lynn into this situation. He knew now that the five-hundred dollars he had given her for bringing them to Edisto wasn’t going to be nearly enough.
“Once I knew the name of the location, all I had to do is compare it with the map I took out of Darwin’s backpack—thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome,” Darwin said, his tone dripping with icicles.
“When I found out you were headed here, it was as obvious to me as I’m sure was to you when I looked at the map. Then, it’s just my luck that you were here ahead of me to get the work started.”
Riddick removed the gun from Darwin’s chin and stepped back, pistols leveled at the three of them. “Ah, I see you have a new friend here,” he said. “Why don’t you step out from behind these two lugs and introduce yourself.”
Lucas felt her arm around his side clinch him tighter. “It’ll be OK,” he whispered to her.
Lynn gulped and took a tentative step and moved out to where Riddick could see her. The evil smile on his face somehow morphed into a Casanova smile.
“Well, well, well. Aren’t you a lovely little thing? How did you get mixed up in this?”
“I drove them here,” she said.
“You drove them here? Where did you come from?”
“Hilton Head.”
“Ah, of course” Riddick said as though everything now made perfect sense. He looked to Lucas. “I’ll have to give you credit. You move fast, and you have good taste.” He licked his lips, sending a wave of revulsion through Lynn. “So tell me gang, what were you cheering about before I stepped over? Oh, and thank you by the way for doing that and allowing me zero in on your location.”
In a millisecond, Lucas explored a dozen options on how to answer. He could think of no believable reason to give, knowing Riddick knew why they were on this small island.
“I offered you the opportunity of a lifetime,” Riddick said to Darwin. “Regardless of what has happened that offer is still on the table.”
“Shove it. I don’t want your job you piece of filth.”
Riddick took a cautious step back. He didn’t want to be within arm’s reach of Darwin, gun or not. Another reason Riddick wanted Darwin in his fold was because of the potential added muscle he could bring if honed properly. “Be that as it may, I wish you’d reconsider. I think we could make a formidable team in the world of treasure hunting. Your research and my resources could make you rich.”
“Yeah, but at what cost? Having to resort to violence, theft, and even murder to get there?”
Riddick shrugged. “Comes with the job.”
Lucas noted that Riddick didn’t dispute the part about murder. He asked, “So what now? Are you going to kill us?”
“No. Not yet at least,” Riddick said. “Now tell me, what were you three whooping about a moment ago?”
Taking the lead, Lucas answered, “We may have found it.”
“Fantastic.”
To show he was willing to cooperate, Lucas explained how they’d found the large fallen oak and the devil symbol scratched into the nearby rock.
“So the devil did know where the treasure was after all?” Riddick said, then laughed. “Who would have known Blackbeard was being literal when he said that only he and the devil knew where the treasure was?” He paused for a moment. “OK, start digging.”
“That would be pointless,” Darwin said.
“Why is that? You said this is where the treasure was?”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense and save time if you let me get my metal detector out and scan the area? Narrow it down.”
“Makes sense.”
“Okay then,” Darwin started to unsling the heavy backpack from his shoulder.
Riddick stepped forward shoving a gun in Darwin’s ear and aiming the other weapon at Lynn. “Don’t try anything funny or the girl dies first.”
Darwin had to restrain himself from lunging at the pirate. “I won’t. Just stand back and let me assemble this.”
Riddick did as Darwin suggested, although he kept both weapons trained on his three captives. “Do what you need to.”
Darwin dug around in his pack and brought out a metal disc with a folded pole attached. The pole extended to make a long handle. Darwin pressed a button on the disc and it immediately beeped once. Lucas and Lynn watched as Darwin took the few steps to the oak and started moving the metal detector back and forth over the sand. It beeped sporadically as he walked around the circumference of the fallen tree. He got to the trunk, climbed over, and resumed scanning on the other side. When he got to the area between the rock and the tree, the detector began beeping faster.
“We got a hit!” Riddick shouted.
“Maybe,” Darwin said, looking at the LCD display on the handle. “Doesn’t appear to be much. A foot or two below the surface.”
Riddick studied the area where the metal detector pinged. “Well, what are you waiting for? Start digging.”
He kept his guns trained on Darwin and Lucas as they retrieved the shovels they had thrown off to the side. He didn’t have anything to fear from the small woman, although he kept her within his direct eyesight on the other side of Darwin and Lucas.
The two men started digging. After a few minutes, they had a good-sized hole formed in the sand. Lucas stuck his spade in the sand, and pushed with his foot on the back edge to help thrust the triangular tip deeper.
Chink!
Everyone froze and stared in rapt attention at Lucas.
Lucas pulled the shovel from the sand and then dug a spot a few inches in front of where they’d heard the sound. There was no metallic clink as before. He strained and pushed the shovel a few inches deeper before pullin
g down on the handle. That caused a shoebox size of sand to be lifted out of the hole.
As the exposed sand fell away from either side the shovel, a single gold coin tumbled out, rolled around in a tightening spiral twice before settling face up on flat ground.
33
The four of them stared at the coin in disbelief for almost a minute before looking at each other with mouths wide open. In that moment, all of the animosity and threats and gun pointing were forgotten. The enormity of what just happened was lost on none of them, even the newcomer Lynn,
The first piece of a treasure thought lost for over three-hundred years lay in the sand before them. Of all the hordes of riches lost throughout time, finding Blackbeard’s lost treasure is at the top of the list for most would-be treasure seekers. Many thought the trail dried up shortly after Edward Teach’s headless body sunk to the bottom of the sea off Ocracoke Island.
Riddick stashed the gun in his left hand into one of the holsters on his stomach, walked over, and picked up the coin. He held it between his thumb and forefinger and gazed closely at it. He used his thumb to clear away most of the sand on the coin’s surface.
“Oh my,” he said reverently.
“What is it?” Lucas asked, looking over the pirate’s shoulder at the coin.
“To this day, coins from the Spanish Treasure Fleet of 1715 still wash up along parts of Florida they call the Treasure Coast. Boxes of treasure have been brought up from some of the wreckage. People sell them online, actually,” Riddick explained. “In almost all cases, those coins have eroded to some degree. Some of the faces may have rubbed off, or the edges have worn away.”
He pulled the coin away from his face and held it up for the others to see. He said, “As you can see, this coin looks as though it is in near mint condition. To me, it looks like a four escudo Philip V. I believe these were minted in Mexico. I’ve seen ones in okay condition sell for five or six thousand dollars.”