He said, “Let me get my fingers in there with you and see if I can help.”
Brad got down low at the bottom of the door and put his feet up against the outside cellar wall and then put his fingers inside the crack that Burl had managed to make.
“Ya ready?” Burl asked.
“One, two, three!”
The two guys put their country muscles into their work and pulled hard. The door began to give, but complained loudly, creaking and groaning all the way, but it was working! The door trembled with resistance but managed to open about a foot. Brad and Burl let go, both breathing a little harder.
“Let’s get our shoulders on it now,” Burl said.
They each put a foot inside the dark and dank cellar, hunkered down like a lineman on a football team. Brad was low on the door and Burl was high. They shouldered the door and pushed again. They had much more leverage this time and were able to heave the door nearly all the way open.
“Good job. We need it wide open to carry out 162 pounds of gold!” Josh smiled. The optimist.
Everyone laughed. Eddie grabbed the lantern and Josh pulled a flashlight from a bag of small supplies. Eddie held the lantern high and slowly stepped inside the old forgotten basement as Josh beamed the flashlight around. Eddie turned up the lantern flame and the room lit up.
There were gasps of amazement. It could have been a time capsule. The room was bigger than anyone thought it would be and the floors were completely dry. Only the walls of the sandstone foundation were slightly damp. Three stone steps led down to the cellar that encompassed the entire foundation of the tavern. It was sectioned off into three separate rooms. The first room they entered was for storage of larger things, it appeared. There was an old wooden table, maybe eight feet long with thick spindle legs and about ten chairs stacked against the wall. The furniture was heavily covered with dust but in amazing condition for the number of years it had been down there and, sure enough, in the middle of the room, was a set of old stairs that led up to the first level of the tavern.
To the left was an incredible antique roulette table. The wheel was missing but the wood defied its age and was a beautiful relic of the late 1800s.
“Look at this.” Josh walked over to what looked like a workbench and on it stood two very early slot machines. They would have sat on top of a wooden pedestal or a table. Josh wiped the dust off the badge on the front and it read Mills Pace 5 cent.
“Gold mine of relics down here!” Tiny commented.
“Yeah, I’d say you’re right,” Burl said, shaking his head in disbelief.
There were wooden boxes labeled with their contents and bedside tables, lamps and hall tree pieces for the rooms upstairs. There were dressers and old bed frames and headboards, all left behind and amazingly forgotten for all these years. It crossed Josh’s mind that he sure hoped that there was a big pile of gold somewhere in this place that had been forgotten about, too.
“Okay. Where do we start and what are we looking for? Besides the obvious,” Eddie asked.
“Why don’t we clean house from the top down?” Burl Suggested. “Start at the top and work our way down. Don’t leave a floor until it’s completely searched.”
”That works. Let’s go up and see what we’ve got,” Tiny said, nodding his head.
The stairs were sturdy and ascending them was no problem. The door at the top was not locked and opened normally as Josh led the way into what looked like a storage room inside the center of the building. The group stepped into the small room and looked through the doorway that led out of it. They continued out with Josh and the lantern leading the way, and it put them behind the old, original, long bar.
“Oh my, my, my,” Tiny said in disbelief. He put both hands on the bar and stood there looking up and down it for a moment, smiling with amazement. “Washington Brooks…worked behind this very bar. He supported a family and put down roots with the money he earned right here.” Everyone stood quiet for a moment, letting Tiny absorb the moment that was his. He continued speaking slowly and softly. “And guys, my great-grandfather stood right here wiping glasses and serving drinks as Clyde Franklin stood probably over there with your great-grandfather Burl, hammering out a plan to… umm….liberate the government of their gold problem.”
Everyone chuckled at that one.
“Well that’s true. I like to say he commandeered it! It just sounds a little better than stole!” Burl said.
The quiet laughs continued.
The bar area itself was amazing for its age. It was a bigger room than they expected and had many pillars for support of the upper floors, but, other than the storage room that they just came out of, it was a very open floor plan. There were still a couple tables and chairs in the place, along with glasses still under the bar and mirrors hung on the walls that still were adorned with wallpaper put up who knows when. As they stepped across the floor, the wood boards creaked, but the entire tongue and groove floor was intact and seemed strong. Along the back wall was the stairwell that lead up to the other floors. They made their way to the stairs.
Josh said, “I’m going to turn this lantern down a little so…”
“SHHHH!!!” Brad put up one finger. Everyone paused. “You hear that?”
They all turned up the senses in their ears, looking blankly at the walls and ceiling. In the near distance they all heard it, the unmistakable sound of a small boat engine making its way down the east side of the island. For the first time that evening they all felt the trepidation of being caught trespassing on the island. Without words they continued to listen for a few seconds more as the engine sound passed the island and faded out of earshot.
“Who in the world could that have been?” Eddie asked.
Tiny thought for a minute. “On the river, I hear boats occasionally going up and down at night. I think there are some guys who are running turtle hooks and trot lines…but…it’s usually later at night and even into the early morning when I hear them.” He thought for a second. “And that engine…that engine sounded bigger, deeper.” He was puzzled.
“Well…it went past the island and on downriver, anyway,” Burl said. “Might as well resume. We are still the only ones on the island.” He looked around at everybody, searching for agreement.
They all recommenced breathing, looked at each other and refocused on the task at hand. They headed up the stairs, all the way to the third floor. There was a center hallway and two rooms on each side. They stepped down the wooden-floored hallway and opened the door to the first room on the right. There were the remains of a bed with a wrought iron headboard. No mattress, but a bedside table and a hall tree coat rack identical to the ones that they had seen in the basement. The room was rectangular, a pretty good size, and had no closet. They all looked around and then at each other
“There is no place to hide gold here unless it’s in the walls or in the floors,” Josh said.
“And Clyde Franklin was not going to do that. He would not be able to rip up boards or rip away a wall, hide the gold in there and put it back together to make it unnoticeable,” Eddie finished.
“Without being seen. I agree,” Tiny said. “Of course it’s not out of the realm of possibility, but it is not that probable either.”
They all nodded their heads in agreement.
With the lantern on low, they continued down the hall and into the other rooms. Identical. Leftover furniture and rectangular rooms. At the end of the hallway there was a wash room that would have been shared by all the guests on that floor. There was a little something different about the look and feel in there. There was an old four-footed bathtub still in place. In those days, someone would have had to haul hot water up three floors in order for their high paying guests to have a nice bath in the evening after traveling upriver on the steamboat. Maybe Washington Brooks handled some of those chores, too.
The area behind the tub had some shelves made out of wood and built into the wall. This wall stood out like a sore thumb even in the shadowy dark
ness, almost obvious as if its abnormality was meant to be noticed by someone eventually. The texture of this wall looked like it was an afterthought. Tiny and Burl walked over and looked more carefully at the shelves, which might have held towels and soap. Tiny reached and lifted one of the shelves and it popped out easily. The wall behind the shelves was what interested him the most. Burl got down on one knee and tapped around on the wall which was made of three-inch wide tongue and groove material just like the flooring. It was painted to match, but still it was a little curious. It was worth checking out. Josh, Eddie and Brad all came closer and watched as Burl and Tiny inspected the area. Tiny joined Burl in tapping the individual boards that made up the wall behind the shelves. Finally, about three feet off the floor, Tiny hit a board that rattled. It was loose. Everyone froze.
Tiny and Burl glanced at each other and Tiny shrugged one shoulder.
Everyone looked around and Tiny said, smiling, “Well, I guess it’s worth looking at, although it doesn’t really make sense to hide gold on the top floor of a wood structure. What if it was found by a carpenter doing repairs or what if the place burned down?” He studied the slats some more and jiggled the board again. There was a lot of movement to it.
Josh added, “And we have to remember, the document said sand is a vault. This is not sand and it’s hardly a vault. I was figuring the basement will be the place to look.”
Tiny said, “That’s true, but what I was also thinking was that the document could be referring to this whole entire island as sand and that it could really be anywhere on the island. I think we have to eliminate every place that we search, and do it thoroughly.”
“Well, let’s check this out then,” Burl suggested.
Tiny located the loose board again and gave it a couple of good taps. It rattled. He then tried to slide it left or right to see if there was any play in it that way. He pushed right and the board hit something solid. Tiny put both hands on it and pushed hard but it would slide no farther to the right. He then tried to slide the board to the left. The loose board moved to the left about an inch and stopped, but not abruptly. Tiny turned and looked over his shoulder at the other four guys. There was anxiousness in the eyes of the three young boys. Burl looked on with cautious optimism. Tiny moved the board back to the right again and put both hands on it to get more force this time. With all of his arm and shoulder pressure that he could muster in the tight place, he slid the board latterly to the left!
Wham! Whatever was holding it the first time let go and the board slid a good twelve inches to the left as if on a track of some sort. Dust rolled out of the hole that it left from the impact of the board hitting its predetermined stopping point.
“Holy cow,” Eddie said, “that’s intentional! That’s supposed to do that!”
“It sure looks like it,” Brad said from his position behind the others.
“You got that flashlight?” Tiny asked no one in particular as he looked into the hole.
Eddie had the flashlight at the moment and handed it up to Tiny. Tiny shined the light into the hole in the wall behind the shelves. He grinned.
“Well my, my, my,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The hole was no bigger than it looked from the outside--about three inches by twelve inches. And this mini-vault had been constructed for a purpose, but not to hide gold.
Tiny reached in and carefully grabbed something that was rolled up and tied with a piece of leather string. He cautiously pulled it through the hole for all to see. Brad took the lantern and hung it up high so they could all see a little better.
When the light hit it, Josh and Eddie gasped.
“That’s it! It looks just like the document that we found in the red can!” Eddie exclaimed.
“It sure does. Maybe another copy! But it’s smaller, smaller for sure,” Josh said
Tiny carefully laid the newest clue on the floor and untied the leather string. The lantern light danced across the newest piece of deer hide as Tiny slowly and carefully unrolled it and letters and numbers began to show themselves.
“This one is in much better shape than the one we found. The other one had lots of stuff that you couldn’t read at all. This is easy,” Eddie said.
“Well it’s been here all this time. Dry and warm. Not rolling around in floods and rain like the red can deer hide did,” Tiny said. “Put the light on it. The flashlight.”
The deer hide was rolled out flat and everyone looked on. In clear legible text was a message. Not a treasure map with an “X” on it but a message that read:
Key from the door 6 O, 2 D, 8 O, 1 D
They all paused.
“That’s it.? That’s all that’s on this thing?” Josh asked. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Burl read it aloud, “6 O….I think that’s an O and not a zero because all the numbers after it are followed by a letter.”
“That’s right,” Tiny agreed.
“So it’s 6 O, 2 D, 8 O and 1 D,” Burl read.
“It’s a code that we have to figure out. It could be telling us right where to look but we have to figure this, too. This whole hunt is written in riddles and code. It wasn’t meant to be easy, that’s for sure,” Tiny said.
Burl added, “I can’t understand why Clyde Franklin did all this. Why not pass this fortune on to your kids or just live the fancy life after the heist. He went to great pains to hide it and make it hard to find.”
Tiny thought for a second and said, “Well, if you think about it, how are you going to hand down stolen money to your family? How can you all of a sudden start living like money is no object right in front of your own wife and kids? They are going to have questions. And then when you die, all of a sudden, Here is three million dollars, kids!” Tiny was smiling as he was talking.
He was right. If you truly wanted no one to know about what you had done then that money is valueless to you.
Tiny added, “And it’s about pride and respect. At the end of the day you don’t want your kids to think that you are a thief. A criminal”
“That’s all true,” Burl agreed.
Josh stopped them. “Well. What does this mean? Let’s put our heads together.”
Brad Radcliffe’s ears perked up again. “You guys hear that? A car door.”
Everyone straightened up to listen.
A second door shut. Everyone heard that one. A little shiver of fear ran up Josh’s back.
“It’s a quiet night. Sound carries well. It could be over in Red Creek at the store. They have the apartments above there. Maybe someone is getting home late,” Eddie jabbered nervously.
There was a long pause. Everyone listened.
“Well, anyway, we know there’s no car on the island!” Brad said with a half chuckle.
Burl and Tiny just listened, making sure they didn’t hear anything else. They all turned their focus back to the deer hide.
Tiny started as he was looking at it, “I think we have to look at this as the final piece of the puzzle. We have to look at this like it’s telling us where to go.”
Josh said, “Right. So, before we get to the numbers, before we try to figure that mess out, it says Key from the door.
“Right, that’s right. It doesn’t say key to the door it says key from the door,” Eddie said.
“So we are not looking for a key to open a door, we are looking for steps or measurements from an actual door. Key from the door would be telling us where to go from a certain doorway,” Burl said
“But what door? How are we supposed to know what door to start from?” Eddie asked.
They all looked at Tiny. He was grinning. Once again, he had figured something out. He was thinking back to the original document and the code that they had already deciphered and how it would fit with this one.
“What?” Josh said anxiously with his pleading hands out. He couldn’t wait to hear.
He said, “Sand is a vault, gentleman.” The gold is hidden in a vault. A vault that is near a doorway and was
built by a guy who had access to this island. A guy who had the tools and the knowledge and maybe even a couple helpers who could keep their mouths shut for a couple gold coins promised. That stone mason team camped on this very island while they built a series of trestles along this stretch of river! The foundation of this entire structure sits on sandstone and they were here every night.”
Burl Otis knew what Tiny was getting at. The gold was nowhere in the wood structure of this old inn. That would be way too risky and conspicuous. That would be too easy for someone to stumble across.
“We need to go down three floors,” Burl said.
Tiny smiled in agreement, nodding his head.
“Let’s go!” Eddie exclaimed.
They dimmed their lantern a little and exited the old washroom, headed down the hall and down all the stairs. They walked without haste past the old historic bar and back into the little storage room behind it. Single file, they descended the steps back down into the time capsule of a basement that they had forced their way into. At this point Josh turned the lantern back to full flame to get a good look around the room. They were all thinking the same thing again.
“There are three doors. Which door is it, and then what do we do?” Josh said.
Burl thought out loud, “We have three doorways, all framed out with sandstone. One goes outside, one goes into this room and one goes into that room. The two doors that go into the rooms are along a wall that divides this main room in half. So, personally, I don’t see a vault being in that wall anywhere near that door. Unless the vault is down. If it is in the floor.”
Tiny said, “And that wouldn’t be smart because water could get to it. The water table for this island has to be really shallow. Probably if you dig four or five feet down there is water. Even if you built a vault of stone, water is going to wash into the vault. Not that it will hurt the gold, but it just doesn’t seem likely.”
Brad concluded, “So it’s got to be the main door that comes in over there.”
Everyone shrugged in agreement as they looked across the room at the main doorway.
River Rocks: A West Virginia Adventure Novel Page 24