True Treasure: Real - Life History Mystery

by Lisa Grace

  Della said, “I’m a doctor. Where’s the boat’s first aid kit?”

  She worked on the man while Ray kept his gun leveled on him.

  “How many of you came on shore?”

  The man didn’t answer. Ray kicked him in the arm close to the bullet wound in his torso.

  “Stop!” The man called out, “Tres. Three! Just three of us.”

  “You said the gringo is dead. Where is he?”

  Ray motioned like he was going to kick him again.

  “I pushed him into the ravine. His body is down there.”

  “Where is the ravine?”

  “It’s up. It crosses the path.”

  “Did you see him die?”

  The gangster shook his head, “No. Too much plants.”

  Ray said to Irv and Della, “I’m heading up to look for Julian. If he’s not dead, he may need help.”

  Della looked up, “Be careful, Ray. I‘ll follow as soon as I’ve stitched him up—without anesthetics.”

  ***

  Keiko

  It took a second for her mind to register. It wasn’t a gunshot. It was a rope. Rope! She called down again, “I’m securing it!” She picked up the rope and head into the bushes looking for the trunk of a thick tree that would hold their weight. She found one and encircled it twice. She tied it off and headed back to the edge. Julian called up, “Come on down.”

  She hesitated then heard the pirates calling out again. One screamed. She looked over the edge into the wall of green and said to herself quietly, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She quickly put on half gloves to prevent rope burn, backed up, grabbed the rope, swung her leg over the edge then the other as she slowly rappelled her way down into the unknown. The crack was narrower at the top to the point where her back scrapped against it on the other side. The growth brushed against her and caught in her hair, giving her the willies. After twenty feet or so she felt Julian’s hands on her legs as he helped her down the last few feet.

  She turned to hug him. “You’re okay!”

  “The foliage gave me something to grab, branches slowed down my fall, and the walls were close enough together they worked as a natural break.”

  Julian held out his arms and showed Keiko the long bloody scrapes from his fall. She hugged him again. “I’m so glad you’re still in one piece.”

  He nodded. “Yeah. We’re safer down here for now. This is a dormant volcano. And this is a lava tube where the top broke open. It may connect to others and it will certainly lead to a way out. Let’s follow it further in first.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “The lava rock above, the way it was laid out, it was chipped then laid into place. It wasn’t natural. I think Graham placed lava sheets on top to hide it from lazy pirates.”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t notice that!”

  “When you have a gun trained on you, it can be hard to pick up on details.”

  “Do you think they’ll come back here and search the ravine?”

  “No. They’re lazy. The one was wearing a white leisure suit. He’s in no hurry to get dirty. They’ll wait for us to resurface then take care of us.” Julian aimed Keiko’s flashlight at the walls. “I sent a text to Dad last night. Him and his friends I’m sure are watching the island. They’ll be taking care of our gang friends, and then they’ll head up to find us.”

  He walked slowly along examining the walls. “I have a gut feeling—”

  “Which is why we’re heading deeper into the volcano,” Keiko said as she felt her way forward along the ancient rock walls.

  “Keep looking,” Julian said as he turned, feeling through the brambles, he pointed up with his light, “See, the foliage is up above for two or three feet where the dirt is, then it abruptly stops here,” he patted the wall for emphasis, “because it is a lava tube. Follow me.” Julian walked ahead slowly making his way about fifty feet deeper into the mountain. The ravine slit above was no longer there, they were in an unbroken part of the tube inside the volcanic mountain. They came upon an area where branches and foliage arched out and roots covered the right side of the tube. Julian spoke again, “This dirt for all these plants shouldn’t be here…”

  “It should be hard lava rock!” Keiko said excitedly.

  “Right. Unless the pirates dug and buried treasure which fell from where it was into this part of the tube…”

  Keiko started tearing at the earth just as Julian took his knife and started ripping at the thickest part. Keiko heard a clink followed by several others, as did Julian.

  They bent down to pick up what had fallen. The light reflected off metal. Coins. Gold and silver. She picked one up as did Julian. Keiko stood again and looked where Julian’s knife had ripped into the earth. A piece of canvas hung down. She pulled at it and more coins cascaded down onto the lava tube floor.

  “Julian, you found it, Graham’s treasure!”

  ***

  Mary and the Neighbors

  Mary awoke from her nap. The darkened skies had lightened as the storm clouds blew safely over dropping their rain further inland. She got up, straightened her brown work skirt, now covered in grass stains, and headed out to the barn to muck out the stalls and lay down new hay for when the horses returned from pulling the carts and carriage.

  She had them mucked out and was laying down the new hay when she heard a sole horse and rider come galloping toward the barn. She stuck her pitchfork in the hay mound and hurried out, worried that the rider must be bearing bad news.

  Moving from the darkened barn into the bright sunlight she could not make out if she knew the rider who called out, “Mary! Mary!”

  The voice—Mary reached out with her hand losing her balance. It sounded like Bennett.

  “Mary, my love.” The rider dismounted quickly, the look of concern in his eyes—

  “Bennett?” Mary collapsed into his arms, half-faint, her heart beating so hard, tears blinding her vision so she couldn’t see if he was real…

  “Yes, it is me,” he whispered into her ear then showered her with kisses. She clung to him, her legs numb, her body feeling his heartbeat while enfolded in his arms, upheld by his strength. He kissed her slowly. When they broke from their kiss she held tight to the back of his neck and whispered, “If I am dreaming do not wake me up.”

  He gently took her hands which were still woven tightly around his neck, and brought them down with his. “It is no dream. I am here. And we are together now, forever.”

  Bennett gently wiped the tears from Mary’s eyes.

  She looked at him and could not look away. “How?”

  “Randall. He bribed the hangman. The rope was knotted enough to cause me to pass out but another hidden rope was attached to a belt around my waist which bore the weight and prevented me from dying. I did not know of the scheme until I awoke and was not in heaven, but in a cart filled with dead pirates.” He smiled.

  “We then secured papers for travel and purchased a land grant. Randall married Elizabeth. She waited for him all these years. Randall is now Rollo Cullen Markus. I am sorry to have made you wait so long, but I owed it to Randall to secure his position with Elizabeth. I am Benidito now, not Bennett. Benidito Markus, Rollo’s brother.”

  Mary fell back against Bennett. “I cannot let you go. I cannot believe you are real.”

  She stayed that way until heart calmed then she spoke, “I have kept the men together. I did all I could to keep their spirits up for your sake. But Ben is still with my parents.”

  Bennett nodded, “I know. We will have your parents visit and bring Ben. We will all be together by next year.” Bennett pulled back and led Mary by the hand to his horse.

  “Do you feel up for ride?”

  Mary nodded, too emotional to speak. Bennett mounted his horse and extended a hand down to help Mary, who swung up easily behind him.

  “Do the men know yet?” Mary asked.

  “No. I wanted you to come to the dock so you would be the first to know. When y
ou did not come, I could not wait, so I secured this horse.”

  As they went outside the gate, Mary spoke over Bennett’s shoulder, “Can you please, stop?”

  Bennett pulled on the reins, “Yes, my love?”

  “Look at the name of your—our home.”

  He looked up to the gate, read the name and smiled when he saw, Graham’s Treasure.

  “Yes, you are here.”

  “You were never far from my heart, Bennett. You were always my true treasure.”

  Bennett swiveled around and kissed Mary, “And you are mine.” He snapped the reins on the horse’s neck urging it on as they went to meet Randall and Elizabeth at the docks.

  ***

  Ray and Della

  As Ray headed up the path, more shots rang out with the sound of branches breaking. He looked off to his left and saw two men entangled, fighting. It was Dent and the other gang member. Ray made his way toward them. The fight ended as Dent drew back and landed a hard punch knocking the gangster out.

  “Get him down to the boat and then join me. Julian could be hurt. There’s a ravine crossing the path here somewhere and Julian’s in it. Bring some rope.” Roger broke through the brush as Ray was speaking, “I’ll help you look for him.”

  Ray asked, “Have either of you seen any sign of Keiko?”

  Roger answered as they started up the trail toward the ravine, “No, they were chasing her, from what I heard them say. She should be okay. I’m sure she’s hiding.”

  “Then finding Julian is our first priority.”

  They arrived at the ravine a narrow split cutting across the path, no more than three feet across at its widest part. Ray yelled, “Julian, all’s secure up here. Are you hurt?”

  He waited for a response.

  A flock of noisy parrots took off. Roger looked at Ray, “I think I heard something.”

  They both walked to the nearest trees first towards the right then towards the left. They hopped across the crevice and did the same on the other side. Roger knelt down next to a roble tree and said, “Well, lookie here. I think he might be okay.” Roger showed Ray the rope hanging into the crevasse camouflaged by the low lying foliage.

  Ray looked at the knotted rope wrapped around the base of the roble, “That’s not how I taught Julian to secure a rope. It must be Keiko’s handiwork,” Ray took off his bandana and knotted it around a low lying branch. “So the others can find us in case something goes wrong down there.” He then grabbed the rope and headed into the dark followed by Roger.

  ***

  Ray called out again when they were in the tube and heard an echo back. “They’re here. That was Julian’s voice.”

  Julian met his dad further in the tube.

  Ray instinctively reached out to give him a hug. “Those grease balls up top said they had killed you. I knew you were too tough to let them take you out.”

  Julian smirked, “Yeah, I can see by your relief that you weren’t concerned at all.”

  Keiko held out her hands now filled with coins, “Can you believe it? It’s here. Right where the map indicated it would be.”

  Roger whistled, “That’s some serious change.”

  Ray said, “Great. Della’s gonna kill me. She only has a week off, but now I think we’re going to get stuck in briefings and paperwork. Not to mention we’re going to have to make arrangements to secure this area with the Costa Rican government.”

  “Julian and I have to stay to document it.”

  Ray let out a sigh, “No fun in the sun for us. Della and I will approach the Costa Rican government. We’ll leave you guys here with Phil, Roger, Irv, and Dent to keep the location secure.” Ray picked up one of the pieces of coin and flipped it over examining it. “Della and I can put in a call to the White House and get things moving on that end with the government here.” Ray turned to leave.

  “Hey Dad.”

  “Yeah Son?”

  “How’s that paint job on Della’s living room coming along?”

  Ray chucked the coin at Julian and grumbled under his breath as he walked away, “Wise guy.”

  ***

  A Month Later

  Keiko woke up late. The sound of the rain thrumming on the tent and lack of sun from the cloud cover had kept her sleeping longer than usual. She saw Julian was gone from their tent, most likely on the job site documenting the treasure, or helping to pack it for its trip to the new Costa Rican museum. Most of the religious statues, a solid gold Mary included, were being returned to the country of Spain. Some treasure was being shipped to the United States for a display at the Smithsonian.

  The tent flap moved aside as Julian entered. “Here, the mail came.” He waited as she looked at what he held in his hands.

  “It’s from the Smithsonian.”

  Keiko opened the letter and smiled, then gave Julian a hug.

  “They’ve offered me a fulltime professorship at the museum!”

  Julian kissed Keiko. “I would be surprised if they hadn’t.”

  “Com on out. They removed the top layer of lava rock first thing this morning, and found something I know you’ll want to see. It’s in the artifacts tent. I think they’ll let us keep it for the display at the Smithsonian.”

  Julian took Keiko by the hand and walked her through the slight drizzle to the staging area where the treasure was being photographed, cataloged, and assigned a destination. She said “Hola,” to the three grad students busy at their work stations.

  She went to her table and saw a brown leather packet. She put her gloves on, took pictures of the front, sides, and back of the package, then carefully unwrapped it. She did the same with the canvass bag inside. She removed an envelope from the canvass, and took pictures of it, then documented the wax seal. With age, the wax had shrunk and hardened just enough that it lifted off the paper without breaking. The wax was a dull red in color, imprinted with Graham’s crest. She took a moment and imagined the wax seal as it had been, a bright shiny red. She carefully removed the letter, opened it, and read.

  March 28, 1818

  To whom it may concern,

  I, Captain Bennett Graham, in command of the Royal Navy ship HMS Devonshire, came upon the remains of a pirated vessel belonging to the King of Spain. We have secured the treasure here on the island whilst we finish our commission of surveying the King’s coastal territories of Costa Rica, its tributaries, and islands.

  If you fear God and stumble upon the treasure, please return it to the King of England to decide its ownership.

  Respectfully,

  Captain Graham

  “So he wasn’t a pirate after all.”

  “It appears not,” Julian said as he read the letter over Keiko’s shoulder.

  “I did do some more research on the legend,” Keiko added.

  “What did you find out?” Julian asked as he looked at the letter then back to Keiko.

  “In 1857 Mary Welch agreed to lead a party to find the treasure. When they arrived on the island, the landmarks were so changed, it was never found. I believe she knew where it was, and misled them. After all, they never restored her husband’s honor. There are two predominant stories. In one, she resurfaced in England, and in another she appeared in San Francisco. The family that donated the scrapbook confirmed that Elaine was Mary Welch’s granddaughter, and that Mary was known to reside in San Francisco, with her husband, Benidito for a while, before they moved to the east coast.”

  Julian paused, “Wait— you said, ‘Benidito’...isn’t that a name we ran into while researching pirates?”

  “Yes, some folklore accounts list Mary as saying she was Benidito’s lover, and one account I ran across said Benidito and Bloody Graham were the same person.”

  “Benidito could be the Spanish form of the name Bennett.”

  “Yes! Just think Julian, what if the record is wrong? What if Bennett didn’t die? What if he somehow managed to live, and they had a wonderful life together?”

  Julian slid his hands along Keiko’s waist an
d pulled her in for a kiss. He whispered just before their lips met, “I hope you’re right. I hope they found the kind of happiness I have with you.”

  THE END

  ***

  *****

  ***

  A word from Lisa Grace

  Thank you to my cover artist Samantha Fury. Front cover design by Samantha Fury at http://www.samanthafury.com/covers-ive-made.html

  Photo licensed from: RomanceNovelCovers.com Jimmy Thomas, owner and cover model, is on more than 6,000 novel covers. He is on more covers than Fabio.

  I used many reference books and archives to research the time period, and get all the little details of the story correct. I can’t include them all in the back of the ebook as the various publishing sites are not happy having all the extra links.

  Some interesting facts:

  My husband (on his mother’s side) and daughter are related to the pirate Bloody Graham which is one reason I wanted to explore the story. The contemporary story of Bennett Graham is pulled from my imagination to match the various rumors.

  Captain Bennett Graham was given command of the HMS Devonshire to do a survey of the Costa Rican coastline.

  He reportedly turned pirate, and as a skilled cartographer is credited with having made the very first pirate map.

  There have been eight Royal Navy ships named the HMS Devonshire.

  The Devonshire Treasure, estimated to be three hundred and fifty tons, is rumored to be buried on the Cocos Island and has not yet been found.

  Van Diemen’s Land is modern day Tasmania.

  A Mary Welch (a very common name) was on the prisoner manifest for the ship Eliza, which transported them from the gaol (jail) at Middlesex to Van Diemen’s Land.

  Where I could, I tried to remain true to the facts. With so little to work with, I tied the rumors in with the facts as best I could. I hope you enjoy my vision of what could have occurred.

  Here is a link to The 15th Star By Lisa Grace A Real - Life History Mystery.

  If you enjoyed True Treasure, please leave a review on Amazon. If you would like to contact me, I can be reached at: lisagracebooks@yahoo.com

  If you would like to be notified of new releases please email me so I have copy of your email address You can put “Notify of New Releases” in the title line. Thank you for choosing to read True Treasure. I’m forever grateful that you spent some of your precious time with me.