by S. S. Taylor
“Was this when you came here with Raleigh and Leo Nackley?” I asked.
“No, they didn’t have any luck on that trip. Alex came back a couple of years later and discovered it on his own. Then he brought me the next year, just before he married your mom. Raleigh was spending all of his time in the North Polar Sea by then or he would have been with us. We no longer trusted Nackley, so we didn’t ask him along. Your father believed that we’d been close to finding Dan Foley’s mine on that first trip. He studied the maps and had an idea about the waterfall. Turned out he was right.”
“So he found the canyon and the people and the two of you agreed not to tell anyone?” Zander asked.
“They didn’t just agree not to tell anyone,” I said. “They agreed to protect the people and the canyon.”
Tex hesitated. “That’s right. And I’m assuming you somehow found the secret map. But that’s a story for another day. We’ve got to get out of here before anyone sees us.”
But there was so much more I wanted to know. “Wait, how long have you been out here?” I asked. “Dad never talked about you. Did he know you live here?”
“He knew.” Tex paused, then said, “There’s a lot that you kids don’t know about your father. It would be too dangerous for you to know.”
“What?” Sukey asked him. “What would be too dangerous?”
“Are you a member of the Mapmakers’ Guild?” I asked him.
He paused for a moment. Then his face sagged and he said, “I told you, it’s just too dangerous.”
Suddenly I was mad: at Tex for being so cagey, at the Nackleys, at Dad for getting us into this. “I’m tired of everyone saying this thing is too dangerous!” I shouted at him. “You don’t think we’re already in danger? We’re carrying a couple hundred million Allied Dollars’ worth of gold, and I’m carrying two maps now, and there are a whole bunch of people right over there who would kill us to get them. We’re wanted by the police and BNDL for assaulting those agents. What is going on here? What did Dad know? Why did he leave a map for us in the secret canyon? What does he expect us to do with it?”
Tex whipped around, almost falling off his horse. “He left a map for you in the canyon? Of what?”
“You didn’t know?”
He shook his head.
It was M.K. who asked the question that was on all our minds. “Those government guys said he did something illegal, that he took money from some bad guys in Munopia. They said he broke laws. Is that true?”
Tex finally stopped, turning his horse around so he could look at us. “Your dad was a great man,” he said. “Everything your dad did, there was a good reason for it. Just remember that.”
It was what Sukey had said as we were hiking through the caverns, and when I turned to look at her, she raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, you don’t have to listen to me next time,” she said with a little smile. “Clearly I have no idea what I’m talking about.”
Tex hesitated again. “We have a lot to talk about, but I think you’ll agree that now is not the time. Let’s wait until we’re all safely out of here. As I said, I think the plan’s a good one. But you’re going to need my help. It’s a circus at the camp. Leo’s got a newspaper reporter out there, ready to report his find. I don’t know what Foley and Mountmorris will do when they see you.” He looked serious for a moment. “They’re very, very powerful men, you know. They’ll do anything to protect what they see as ANDLC or BNDL property. And they have the full support of the government. Don’t ever forget that.”
He took a flask out of his saddlebag, unscrewing the cap and taking a long swig. “Now, let’s get up there and fabricate an archaeological wonder of the world. They’ll be riding through with the reporter later this morning. I think I can get them to go up there and take a look.” He turned his horse in the direction of the cave, and rode off into the early morning light, the rest of us following along behind.
Fifty-four
The stolen horses had taken off, but Sukey’s backpack was still in the cave and it didn’t look like anyone had been there while we’d been gone. Pucci hopped around, pecking at the ground and tilting his head as though he was remembering that we’d been here before. Tex dismounted and checked it out. “It’ll do,” he said. “Let’s unload it into that corner and then cover it up as best we can. It has to look like it’s been here for over a hundred years, getting dusty, leaves and sticks and debris blown over it.”
We did as he said, piling up the bars and then scattering the rest of the items around on the ground and covering them with dirt and rocks. We left a few pieces of gold showing through.
“What do you think?” Sukey asked.
I studied it. “I don’t know. Obviously, it’s not a mine. An expert would be able to tell that it hasn’t been here very long, but I’m guessing the Nackleys will be willing to overlook that. This is probably millions of dollars of gold. Think how many airships they can build with this.”
“You’re right,” Tex said. “In any case, they ought to be able to figure out that it’s Dan Foley’s treasure. Hopefully that will be enough to keep them from looking for it anymore.” He mounted his horse and took the Ha’aftep Canyon horses’ bridles in his hand. “I’m going to take them back to the tunnel so they can make their way back to the canyon. You all sit tight. I’ve got to figure out how to get you back to Azure Canyon. But we’ve got time. The Nackleys shouldn’t be coming through for an hour or so.”
He started to ride away, then turned back and called to us, “Remember, we have to protect the maps at all costs. It’s what your dad would have wanted.” And then he was gone.
“How are we going to get home,” M.K. asked, “if he can even get us back to Azure Canyon?”
“We’ll have to hike out,” Sukey said. “But then my glider’s waiting for us up there.”
“We may not have a home to go back to,” I pointed out. “If they don’t throw us in jail, they’ll probably send us off to some orphanage or military school somewhere. We’ll end up like poor Pucci.”
Sukey looked worried. “But maybe they’ll send you to the Academy.”
“Hah! Wouldn’t that be nice?” I rolled my eyes.
“Or maybe we could live with Raleigh,” M.K. said hopefully.
Zander stood up. “Did you just hear something?”
I listened for a moment. “No… at least, I don’t think so. Maybe it’s Tex.”
“Pucci?” Pucci flew up into the air and did a quick circle, calling down a warning.
“It’s not Tex,” Zander said. “It sounded like…” And then we could all hear it, a loud clanking and stomping that echoed around the canyon.
“IronSteeds!” Sukey jumped up. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.” She grabbed her backpack and we threw the last couple of sticks over the gold.
But as we ran out of the cave, someone in the party saw us and raised the alarm. They blew an air horn and we heard Leo Nackley’s voice come over a megaphone, “It’s the West children! Up in the rocks! Someone detain them!”
“What do we do?” I whispered.
Zander looked panicked. We were high up in the rocks and unless we could figure out how to fly in the next ten minutes, there was no way to get past them. “I don’t know. Maybe get them to look in the cave and then try to get away once they find the gold?”
“I’ve got my pistol,” Sukey whispered.
Zander reached out and put a hand on her arm. “Unfortunately, they’ve got more,” he said. “Don’t pull it on them, Sukey. Please.”
She nodded and we all watched as a group of six agents rushed up the path toward us, Leo and Lazlo Nackley behind them. There was nothing we could do. The agents fanned out to prevent us from escaping and the Nackleys approached us.
“Get back to camp and tell Mr. Foley we’ve found the children!” someone yelled as we stood there, just waiting for them. Pucci, who had been sitting on a rock jutting out over the canyon, rose into the air and took off in the direction of the waterfal
l, probably to alert Tex. I scanned the crowd below and recognized Dolly Frost, the reporter for the Times, and Jec Banton, along with Agents Wolff and DeRosa and more of the BNDL agents from the camp. Everyone was looking up at us, waiting to see what was going to happen.
“What are you doing up there?” Leo Nackley demanded. “Where have you been all this time? You’re in big trouble, you know.”
Lazlo stood behind him, his back very straight, his eyes steady on us. He had a suspicious look that put me on my guard.
“Come on! Where have you been?” Leo Nackley’s face was bright red and there was a thin line of sweat running down one cheek.
At that moment, Zander did something brilliant. I was watching his face as he said, “Nothing. Nothing at all,” and saw how his left eye twitched, just a little, and he gave a little glance back toward the cave.
“What?” Leo Nackley demanded. Then he lowered his voice. “Did you find something in that cave?”
“No, no. Don’t go… There’s nothing there. Nothing there at all,” Zander stammered. We all stood there, trying to look guilty.
“Go look in the cave, Lazlo,” Leo Nackley said in a low voice before turning around and saying to the agents, “Detain these children.”
“But…,” Lazlo Nackley started before doing as his father had told him.
The agents stepped forward. “Discreetly!” Leo Nackley hissed, glancing down nervously at the reporter. Agent DeRosa stood next to me, making it clear that I wasn’t to move a muscle.
Lazlo glanced at us again, then made his way into the cave and we all stood there anxiously, waiting. A few minutes later, he came out and waved his father over.
“What is it?” I heard Leo Nackley ask.
“Well, it’s… gold, all right,” Lazlo said in a low voice. “But I don’t know. It doesn’t look quite right.”
I felt my stomach sink, but then Leo Nackley went in to take a look himself and when he came out, he was grinning from ear to ear.
“My boy has found it!” he announced. “He’s found the treasure of Drowned Man’s Canyon!”
Things started to happen very fast then. “Get all these people out of here!” Leo Nackley shouted to someone and the agents hustled us along the path to a spot up above the cave. They made us sit down on a bit of rock jutting out from the wall of the canyon, probably to dissuade us from trying to escape, and we watched as the drama unfolded below. Leo Nackley said to the agents, “Mr. Foley and Mr. Mountmorris want to talk to them. Keep an eye on them until they arrive. I’ve got to go talk to that reporter. If she tries to take any pictures, make up something to get the camera away.”
Then he gave us a thoughtful little smile and headed back down toward the cave, where we could hear everything he said to the reporter, Dolly Frost, as she jotted notes down on a notepad. “This is it, the fabled golden treasure of Drowned Man’s Canyon. This is very close to an area that Lazlo has already identified as an excellent possibility for the old mine. We are working under the assumption that Dan Foley moved the gold from the mine to this ancient cliff dwelling. Lazlo, tell Miss Frost how you identified the cave as a likely site for the gold.”
Lazlo, embarrassed, mumbled something about seeing the gold glinting in the sun.
“But I thought your father said the gold had been hidden inside the cave for more than a hundred years,” Dolly Frost asked suspiciously. “How could you have seen it glinting in the sun?”
“It must have been the angle,” Lazlo said after a long moment. “It’s low on the horizon.”
“And how much do you believe the gold is worth?” Dolly Frost asked him.
Lazlo looked up at us then and I met his eyes for a minute. There was something on his face that I couldn’t read, and then he looked away and said, “I’m sure there are experts calculating its worth right now, Miss Frost. All I’m concerned about is the archaeological value of the find and knowing that my country and its allies will be made stronger and more secure with this gold.”
And then the BNDL agents were stringing orange rope around the cave and hanging up huge signs that proclaimed By Order of the Bureau of Newly Discovered Lands. U.S. Federal Government Property—Trespassers Prosecuted to the Full Extent of the Law.
“I’m thirsty,” M.K. whispered to me.
“Me, too,” I told her. The sun was very, very bright and there wasn’t a bit of shade where we sat on the rocks.
“Could you at least get us something to drink?” Sukey asked Agent Wolff. “It’s really hot out here.”
Down below, Leo Nackley was telling the reporter that Lazlo’s find was the greatest since the discovery of the Giant Ruby of Tipitopo. “We’ll be taking it out of the canyon over the next couple of days,” he said. “We’ll wait until we’re back home to do a thorough examination. It must be protected from the elements and… thieves.”
“Shut up!” Agent Wolff barked at Sukey. “You’re supposed to sit here and be quiet.”
“But—”
“No, no. Agent Wolff,” a deep voice said behind us, “by all means, give the children some water. Then we’re going to search them and have a little talk. They got away from me once. They’re not going to do it again.”
We looked up to see Francis Foley and Mr. Mountmorris standing behind her.
Fifty-five
All I could think of was Tex’s voice saying, “We have to protect the maps at all costs.”
I tried to escape.
Turning away from Zander and the others, I darted away from the agent who was guarding me, trying to run around the other agents and head higher up the path. I had the idea that I might be able to climb up the rocks, find a route up there to another one of the caves where I could destroy the maps, to keep them from ever being found. They would catch me eventually. I knew that. But maybe I could stop them from getting the maps.
It wasn’t a bad plan. I made it about two hundred yards up the wall of the canyon by sheer will, scrambling and looking for footholds and handholds while they shouted at me from below. I could see a small cave up ahead and I thought I could make it, but then my foot slipped on the rock and I went down hard, rolling twenty feet on hard ground.
Everything spun for a moment. My head throbbed.
I heard Sukey call my name and then I looked up and saw the agents rushing toward me. Drops of sweat stung my eyes. My glasses had fallen off and everything was a little blurry, but I could see Francis Foley’s sharp, predatory eyes. He was angry now. I could see it. It transformed his face, made it duller and more dangerous, the face of someone who would do anything to get what he wanted.
“Don’t bother trying to get away,” he said in a low voice. “We will always catch you.”
Behind him, Mr. Mountmorris was a green blur.
I scrambled in the dirt for my glasses. I put them on and, in a panicked, heart-thumping moment, saw the end of the pistol that Foley was pointing at me. And then I heard the sharp crack that echoed off the walls of the canyon.
I was sure that I’d been shot. I even closed my eyes, but then I looked up to see Tex standing there, pointing his own pistol up into the air.
“What’s going on here?” he asked.
Francis Foley kept his weapon out in front of him. “Mr. Tex,” he said in a low, even voice, “we’re doing just fine, but thank you for your concern. These children have been trespassing on an archaeological site now controlled by BNDL. We’re detaining them until we can place them in responsible care. But thank you for checking.”
Tex was still holding his pistol and when I looked up at Francis Foley, he seemed wary of the grizzled cowboy.
I met Tex’s eyes and he gave a tiny nod, as if to say, “It’ll be okay.” I don’t know if Foley saw it or not, but he kept his own weapon up and he said, “Please wait down below, Mr. Tex. This is none of your business.”
Tex stepped forward and pointed his pistol at Foley.
“Leave them alone, Foley,” Tex said in a low voice. “You don’t need them. You found the gol
d. Besides, you said yourself there was nothing on the map. Let them go and we won’t tell anyone that the Nackleys didn’t find it themselves.”
“I don’t know why you care, Mr. Tex,” Foley said. “But I suggest you do as I say.” Foley barked at the agent who was holding me. “The map! Find it now!”
“No,” Tex said.
To this day, I’m still not entirely sure what happened next, whether Tex moved first or Foley did. I heard a shot and then another, and then, as we watched in horror, Tex’s arms windmilled as though he was trying to get his balance, and his pistol fell to the ground. He was standing at the very edge of the path and he stumbled once, then twice, struggling to keep his footing. Far below him was the floor of the canyon, jagged rocks lining the bottom of the wall.
“Good god, Francis!” Mr. Mountmorris said.
“He tried to shoot me,” Foley yelled down to the group below. “He wanted the gold for himself!”
“That’s not—” Sukey started to call out, but the agents jumped on her, covering her mouth, and we all watched as Tex, a red stain spreading across the front of his shirt, lost his balance and fell over the edge of the path, landing on the ground below us. I think I must have closed my eyes as he fell, because the next thing I remember is looking down to see him lying there, a dark spot against the pale ground.
He wasn’t moving at all. His eyes were blank, staring up at the sky, at the bright sun and the clouds drifting toward the east, toward Ha’aftep Canyon and the people there who didn’t know their protector was gone.
Fifty-six
And then all hell broke loose.
Suddenly it seemed like the canyon was full of people and IronSteeds. I heard Foley snarl at Agent Wolff, “Get them out of here. Do not let them get away.”
“Mr. Foley? Mr. Mountmorris?” We all turned around to see Dolly Frost below us, making her way up the path toward Zander, Sukey, and M.K. “What’s going on here?” she called up. “Who are these children? Who is the man who was killed back there?”