“Whoa,” muttered Derek. It looked like a great horned owl. He’d seen a picture of one in the animal book that Uncle Drew had given him on his birthday. He thought about waking up Dad and Sam but decided it would be too hard to stir them out of their slumber.
For a few seconds, they both sat there – the boy looking at the owl who was looking back at the boy. Derek was almost afraid to exhale, as if breathing would send the owl away, or perhaps make it swoop down and grab him with its sharp talons. All that would be left of him would be a pair of empty sneakers.
The owl’s feathery neck swiveled quickly to the side as if it read Derek’s mind, and it spread its giant wings out wide. With one great thrust, it lifted into the air and flew right over Derek’s head. He could hear the feathers pushing against the air, and he ducked down even though the owl was well above him. He tried to follow the bird with his light, but it was gone, eaten up by the trees, and he was alone again in the night.
Derek looked around at the woods in the glow of the moonlight. He reached his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt to stay warm and realized that something was in there. It was the secret notebook. He’d been too groggy with sleep when he put it on to remember that he had brought it on the trip.
He pulled it out and studied the map pages again under his light. He glanced over at the quiet tent. He looked up at the dark woods. An idea formed in his mind and he wondered. And then, before his thoughts could waver, he stuffed the notebook back in his pocket, gripped his flashlight tight, and stepped through the canopy of trees and into the night.
EIGHT
The Cave
Even in the moonlight, the beam from Derek’s flashlight seemed to be swallowed up by the dark only a few yards in front of him as he moved along the trail from the campsite. Everything looked so different at night, but he was pretty sure this route led along the southern edge of the fields and then down to the creek. He could follow the creek west to where they’d seen the boulder and run into those kids.
He was certain that the Virginia Mining Company plaque next to the boulder was connected to the VMC on the secret box. The map had shown an entrance to a passageway. He guessed that there must be a cave or something down at the base of the boulder. That was probably where those guys had been playing when he and Sam stumbled upon them. He thought about the coins – the treasure, as he liked to think of it. Sure, it wouldn’t be a huge chest with a mountain of gold and jewels like in pirate stories, but those rare coins would be a treasure nonetheless.
The spooky dark branches waved at him as Derek walked along the trail. He tried not to think about what else might be lurking in the woods with him in the middle of the night. Was Dad serious that Mr. Haskins had seen bears? It was fun joking around to scare Sam, but now it didn’t seem quite so funny.
He pushed those thoughts out of his mind when he heard the faint gurgles of the creek up ahead, and soon his light rested on the familiar path by the running water and fallen logs. He followed the creek along its dips and curves and soon recognized the small hill topped by the line of pine trees and the boulder.
Derek shined his light on the metal plaque along the boulder once more and compared it to the one in his book. The V, M, and C letter designs matched perfectly. He carefully climbed back up the small ledges of the boulder. They seemed much steeper in the dark.
At the top of the rock he could see the first glimpse of dawn as light slowly formed on the horizon. He thought of Sam and Dad back at the tent and wondered if they had noticed he was gone yet. He knew Dad wouldn’t be happy about him going off on his own. Sam would be mad that Derek had left him, even though he probably would have been too much of a scaredy-cat to have come anyway. He wondered if he’d made a bad decision. Dad was always talking to them about making wise decisions. But sometimes that was so boring, thought Derek.
He followed a winding path down the back side of the boulder. When he reached the base, he turned and looked up. The giant rock towered over him and seemed even higher than it had from the top. It was still dark down in the valley, so Derek shined his light along the base of the rock. A narrow shadow was nestled behind a pine tree to his left. He moved his light up and down and saw that the shadow was a large crevice in the rock.
Derek looked over his shoulder. Everything was still quiet except for a few birds beginning to chirp in the faint morning light. He took a deep breath and moved into the cave. He studied the notebook and then looked up at the rock walls that surrounded him in the narrow passageway. The map showed the main tunnel winding all the way underneath the boulder. He seemed to be in the part of the cave where the other boys had been playing. An orange water gun leaned against the wall, and a few empty drink bottles were strewn about. Pretty cool spot, thought Derek, but that wasn’t what he was interested in right then.
He examined the map again. A second passageway opened halfway along the main one, and then turned further underground to a small chamber. Derek hoped the coins would be there. He walked further into the cave and scanned the walls for a sign of the other entrance. The rocks were rough and jagged. He wondered what had been used to dig them out many years ago. Probably picks and shovels, or maybe even dynamite, he guessed. Derek looked back and decided that he’d gone too far. He hadn’t seen anything to indicate another passageway.
He retraced his steps and inched forward more carefully until he noticed a smooth area along the inner part of the wall. It was only about two feet in diameter, and he’d missed it his first time by. He pushed against the rock with his hands but it was solid. When he tried to kick the wall with his foot, his head bumped something sticking down from the ceiling.
He turned around and felt what seemed like a tree root. It seemed out of place that far underground. Wondering if it might be something else, he gave it a tug, but nothing happened. He reached up again and hung on the wood with both hands, putting all his weight into it. The root, or whatever it was, gave way and Derek crashed to the ground and dropped his flashlight.
“Ouch!” groaned Derek, and he clutched his arm. In the darkness, he felt around the floor until he found his flashlight. He noticed a cool breeze against his face that hadn’t been there before. He turned on the light and stared.
Against the other wall was an open hole where the smooth area had been. The second passageway! He reached his arm into the space, and the beam from his flashlight faded around walls and out of sight. He jumped up and squeezed his shoulders through the hole as his heart beat like a jackhammer. Derek couldn’t believe that he was this close.
The air was chilled and stale smelling as he stepped into the new tunnel. He pulled the notebook back out and traced his route with his finger. The second passage curved to the right about ten feet and then appeared to go down. “Down to what?” thought Derek as he walked forward and around the bend. He descended a series of crude stairs in the rock that made a tight spiral. He pressed ahead, feeling for the wall with his free hand.
As he reached the bottom of the stairs, his light revealed a small but open room. The treasure chamber, thought Derek. He looked on the far wall and saw a wooden ledge built over a hole in the rock. It was almost like a shelf that had been cut out of the wall. And sitting on the ledge was a metal box.
“Oh my gosh,” whispered Derek, as he imagined what could be in the box.
He jumped when he heard the voices. Kid voices, suddenly echoing through the cave. They were far away but getting louder. Derek had been so excited about following the passageway that he hadn’t heard them at first. Now that he did, he moved quickly and climbed up onto the ledge behind the old box to get out of sight. He slid to the back of the ledge and held still for what seemed like a long time. The voices had faded, but he wanted to be sure they were gone.
He peered over at the box, which sat only inches from his nose. Did treasure have a smell? Derek wondered. He didn’t think so, but he definitely smelled something odd. He moved his flashlight up near his head and flicked on the light. A dead rat lay right in front of his face.
“Ahh!” screamed Derek, and he jumped back in surprise. As he did, the wooden ledge let out a loud creak and began to wobble. He tried to back up, but the boards began to break under his weight. The whole shelf shifted inward toward the wall, and the box slid backward.
“Oh no!” cried Derek, and he fell through the broken shelf onto a pile of rocks. The old metal box crashed onto its side, barely missing his foot. The lid of the box flew open and dozens of coins spilled out onto the floor right in front of him.
Derek’s eyes opened wide and he stared. “The coins!” he exclaimed. He shined his flashlight over the open box. “There must be hundreds of them!” he thought. Despite his situation, his mind raced with excitement. He picked up the one closest to him and held it under the light. The small coin was a brownish color with a picture of a woman wearing a feather headdress.
Derek’s heart skipped a beat. It was an Indian Head cent. He looked along the bottom edge of the coin. “1877,” it read. “No way,” whispered Derek. “It is a treasure!”
Derek leaned forward to pick up more of the coins when all of a sudden more rocks along the shelf above crumbled down on top of him. His flashlight was knocked to the ground and the small space was enveloped in darkness. Derek gasped. His foot was caught under a heavy rock.
He struggled to move but couldn’t. His leg hurt. In the darkness, Derek thought about where he was and started to panic. In a cave. Alone. And no one knew where he was. He listened for the other voices, but he couldn’t hear them any longer.
“Help!” Derek cried. “Somebody help me! Help!” His voice echoed through the rock passageways again and again, but no one called back. Derek closed his eyes and felt very alone. This was not how he wanted his treasure hunt to end. He wished he hadn’t left the campsite alone, that he’d listened to Sam about things being too dangerous. He wished he’d followed Dad’s advice to make good choices. He wished he had never found the secret compartment or even heard about the lost coins at all.
NINE
The Treasure
Sam’s nose smelled the morning before his eyes opened to see it. The unmistakable aroma of breakfast on the campfire cut through the cool air and wafted into the tent. His stomach growled loudly, and he crawled out of his sleeping bag and unzipped the tent flap. Dad was cooking eggs and sausage over the fire.
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty,” welcomed Dad.
“Morning,” answered Sam. “I’m starving!” The smell of sausages was making his mouth water. He looked around, then added, “Where’s Derek?”
“I’m not sure, actually. He was out of the tent when I woke up. I don’t like him going on a hike by himself without telling me. Not this far into the woods. I was just getting ready to go look for him. Did he tell you where he was going?”
Sam looked at his dad and then back at the tent, but didn’t say anything.
“Sam, is there something you need to tell me?”
“Well, um…” muttered Sam.
“Sam, where is your brother?” repeated Dad.
“Well, it’s…it’s kind of a long story, Dad,” started Sam, and then he explained all that had happened with the coins, the secret compartment, the map and the boulder.
Dad’s eyes opened wider and wider as Sam told his story.
“I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me about all this, Sam. You showed me the wheat penny, why did the rest of it have to be a big secret?”
“Derek said it would be cooler if we found the treasure all by ourselves,” Sam tried to explain. Now that he said it aloud it didn’t sound like such a great idea. He knew he should have told Dad no matter what Derek said.
“If your brother is hunting around an abandoned mine, that is very dangerous, Sam. Mine passageways are notorious for collapsing. I’m trying to let you guys have some freedom to explore the woods on your own, but I need to be able to trust you to do the right thing and tell me things like this. And I need your brother to be responsible enough to know better than to go into a mine. Let’s get this food put away quickly so we can go look for him before it’s too late.”
Sam felt bad. He was glad that Dad had let them have some freedom, some liberty. He thought back to what Mom had said about Patrick Henry and his ‘Give me liberty or give me death’ speech and gulped. He prayed that Derek was okay.
***
Derek lay trapped under the rubble, deep inside the cave, surrounded by the treasure of coins, trying not to think about his throbbing foot. It was ironic, he thought. That was a word that he’d heard his parents and teachers use. He thought it meant that things were the opposite of what you think they should be. It was ironic that he was here next to the lost coins, but yet he really didn’t care. He was lost and only wanted to get home.
He wondered how long he’d been stuck in the cave. It seemed like hours, maybe even days. It was so hard to tell in the dark. He wished he’d brought his watch with him from the tent. He started to imagine that he saw the coins dancing around him through the chilly air, but he knew it was just his mind playing tricks on him. He was getting really thirsty.
He thought of his old home and how he never would have had to worry about getting trapped in a cave there. Maybe hit by a truck standing on the busy street corner waiting for the bus, but no caves. He tried to decide which was a better way to go – getting hit by a Mack truck or dying of thirst in a dark cave. Why did they have to move to stupid Virginia anyhow?
Right about the time that he was imagining his death, Derek heard a noise. He tried to focus his mind and held his breath and listened. Yes, there it was again – it sounded like voices.
“Help! Down here! Help me!” screamed Derek as loud as he could. His cries echoed through the cave. The voices seemed to be getting closer, but it was hard to tell. “Heeeelp!”
“Hey, I think it’s coming from over here,” Derek heard a voice say in the distance.
“Wow – where did that hole come from? I’ve never seen that before,” came another voice. “Look, there’s a tunnel!”
“Down here! I’m down here!” yelled Derek.
The sounds of climbing and scuffling through dirt and rocks came from above Derek’s head, until he finally saw a light at the top of the hole he’d fallen into.
“Down here!” called Derek.
“Alex, look at that!” said one of the voices as a bright light blinded Derek’s eyes.
“Dude, what are you doing down there?” the voice said. “Wow! Henry, look at all those coins!” A boy’s head appeared in the light at the top of the hole and stared down at Derek. He had dark curly hair that fell down over his ears and wore glasses.
“My leg’s stuck under the rocks and I can’t move it,” moaned Derek. “I think it’s broken. I fell down here when the ledge broke through.”
The first boy, that the other had called Alex, climbed carefully down into the hole and moved his light onto Derek’s leg. “Man, that’s gotta hurt. Let me see if I can move that rock.” He reached down and tried to roll one of the larger rocks to the side.
“Ahhhh!” screamed Derek in pain. “Stop! Stop!”
“I don’t think I can lift it,” said Alex. “It’s too heavy.”
“You have to go get my dad,” pleaded Derek. “He’ll know what to do.” He explained to the boys how he had been camping over in the field on the north side of the creek. Alex agreed to run off and get help. The other boy said he would stay with Derek.
When Alex left the cave, the younger boy climbed back to the edge of the shelf and looked down at Derek. “I know who you are,” he said.
“You do?” answered Derek, confused. He’d been so worried about his leg that he hadn’t given much thought to who these kids might be.
“Yeah, you were climbing up there on the Mine Rock a few weeks ago with another kid. Alex and I tried to come over and talk to you with Bear but the two of you raced off like the devil was chasing you. We followed you all the way to the edge of your yard but didn’t come in. You live in the h
ouse next to Old Man Haskins. I’m Henry, by the way.”
“Yeah, that’s where we live,” said Derek, trying to piece together this new information in his head. Everything was cloudy after lying in the cave for so long. “Wait a minute, did you say that you have a bear?”
“Yeah, Bear, that’s our dog. He’s a Newfoundland and is so big and black that everyone calls him Bear.”
“Oh,” thought Derek, feeling dumb. He wondered why he and Sam had run away in the first place.
“You thought we had a real bear?” asked Henry. “That’s ridiculous.”
Henry shined his flashlight over to the pile of coins spilling out of the box. “So, did you rob a bank or something?” he asked. “Why are you down there with all those coins? Can I see one?”
Derek handed one of the coins up, and Henry examined it carefully under his light. “Holy mackerel!” he exclaimed. “That’s an 1877 Indian Head cent! I have a big coin collection but I’ve never seen one of these in person before. Do you have any idea how much money that is worth? It’s extremely rare!”
“Yeah, it’s kind of a long story,” answered Derek, and he proceeded to explain to Henry all that had happened.
“That’s unbelievable!” yelled Henry. “You’re like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark! Except for the part when all the bad guys’ faces melted away. You’re not like that, but the part where he found the gold statue. That was awesome. You’re going to be famous!”
Derek laughed, which felt really good. He realized now how scared he had been when no one knew where he was. It was nice to have Henry there to talk with, even though he hardly knew him. He was funny, and it was strange that he and Alex were the kids they’d been running from only a few weeks before.
“Derek!” a voice echoed down into the passageway. It was Dad! Derek breathed a sigh of relief.
Henry hopped up and ran over to the entrance of the chamber. “We’re in here!”
The Virginia Mysteries Collection: Books 1-3 Page 5