Chapter 14
The Disturbance
When Eisenberg flicked open his eyes he never even recognized where he was! He had little memory of what had happened before he went to bed, and felt really tired, and examined his room for anything, and he sat upright and turned on the light, and wondered if it was caused by his lack of sleep or lack of food.
In the distance he suddenly heard strange sounds that confused him, and he could not place what it was or where it was coming from, and he recalled a dream he had and was sure it had been in his dream.
He recalled more of the dream with surprise and realized how incomprehensible it had been and he wondered if he had imagined it, and if it was caused by the occurrences and strange mansion. It made little sense and had been made up of freakish things.
He liked how well preserved the room was, for such an era it was from.
Kurt was in the room next to his and he heard him shifting about doing something.
He mildly amused him, as he tried to recall a similar situation, as he looked different and as though he had done something dangerous or something, and he could not believe it was a reaction to him arriving late and surprising him as he had, and he realized he could have done something but started to think it could be something to do with his other relatives searching for the treasure.
He recalled him reacting to heat in the kitchen as though he had been in intense cold for a long time, and he was surprised the haunted look of the mansion had little affect on him.
He was peculiar now and liked it more than he should, and he especially liked it when he had given him information on his search for the treasure, and especially the outcomes and findings, which he had not fully done before, and it was as though he had something and was seeking the conclusion.
He jumped out of bed and switched on the light and went over to the window and put his face up against it to see into the darkness and ancient wood, and a shiver ran through him, from the cold, thoughts of the cold, and the deadly things that they could encounter there.
An array of knocks made him jump and he saw the door shift about, on its old hinges, reminding him of the age of the door and place, and he wondered again why it had more advanced stuff for a structure if its age, and he realized again that the people who had reconstructed it had done it.
He marched over and yanked open the thick wooden door, which he saw had been clearly crafted by hand, and he watched Kurt standing glaring at him from the darkness in the corridor, and he watched him point and suggest something was along the corridor, and Eisenberg just nodded and left the room and closed the door behind him and followed him along the corridor.
He wondered why he suddenly liked being up in the middle of the night, and what Kurt was taking him to see, and he heard the distant sounds he had heard earlier but he could not grasp what was up ahead, and what Kurt thought was there.
While they slowly approached the region of the corridor where they heard sounds and were at their loudest he became even more confused and started to recall if there was some sort of heating system, water pipes, or anything that could cause it and it seemed as if it had different states to it and regularly altered.
At the region it was at its loudest he gasped and suddenly realized that he could hear sounds emerging from somewhere else, and the sounds seemed to be magnified or something and even blared out at one point.
It mildly amused him for a moment when he saw Kurt trying to explain what was there, and Eisenberg tried to recall something like it or a similar situation and he realized that the sounds reminded him of nothing and were strange and had no real identity, and he wondered if it was because it was night and they were sleepy.
“What the hell do you think it is then?” Kurt finally moaned.
Eisenberg shrugged, and for a moment thought Kurt could believe the building was haunted, and even from something he had heard about it, and wondered what real ghostly sounds were like compared to it, and was surprised when they actually altered to authentic ones, and Kurt seemed to react like he had just proven he was right about their origins.
Chapter 15
The Map Discovery
In the end, when he was totally positive he needed help to locate the treasure, he showed Kurt the map, but avoided telling him everything, and only what he should know, and Kurt was staggered at the map, and that he had been searching for the treasure itself, as he was now positive that the map was to locate it, especially going by Howard Eisenberg’s video message.
Both of them sat at opposite ends of a table in the kitchen, while Kurt sat studying the map intensely, and started using a bright torch and magnifying glass to search places on it, and was amazed at it, and sometimes sat back in his seat trying to contemplate what he saw, and Eisenberg started to wonder if he had found something and if he should have kept the map a secret and found any alternative plan.
He could not quite grasp something about Kurt now and sensed he was keeping something he should know from him.
“You say it was found here, at the mansion!” Kurt moaned, realizing something.
“Yes! What do you make of it?”
“Firstly, I’m shocked he gave this place and clue to you, and do not currently know why! As he surely intended you to get it all along, and it is pretty surprising that we’ve all been searching all over New York for it in graveyards and libraries – trying solve the second clue – and searching virtually everywhere else there’s an ancient grave – and thought you’d packed it all in and were out the game, and you’ve been sitting out here with this …”
“What now?”
“What now! Well, at least I’ll not have to search another blasted graveyard or book or anything related to them …”
“So we are still using the same arrangement as before? With our search for it!”
“Of course, I’ve already agreed to that, when I came here, and when you told me of the map … Find anything in the map?”
“I’ve not found anything on it, or about it, since I found it and do not know what it is of, and cannot make out anything on it … There are no words or anything, and I have started to wonder if the map has been damaged, and aged too much, and stuff on it has vanished …”
Kurt put his head in hands and elbows on the table staring down at the map directly below him on the table considering something, and what to do.
“Have you any maps of this place?”
“There are a few of the region and roads but I have found nothing else … What do you think?”
“I think it’s pretty hard to make out … And the stuff on it is all faded and there could have been other stuff on it, and if there was it’s now too faded … Have you anything on this building itself? There must be plans of it …”
“Yes!” Eisenberg replied, digging into his bag, recalling the plans of the building the lawyer had sent him through the post in the parcel.
Kurt took the building plans from him and put them on the table, and studied them.
From the documents the lawyer gave him Eisenberg discovered that the mansion was rebuilt there in large sections from another far older building, and he had discovered there was nothing on the original building.
For a long time Eisenberg cleaned areas of the kitchen, and the ancient dirt that had accumulated over decades still covering large regions of it, and realized he would eventually have to bring in people to clean it up, with proper equipment, and suddenly realized there were food wrappers nearby and picked one and realized how new it was, and realized that his uncle had servants that must have been at the mansion.
When he looked about him at one point he saw Kurt had altered and looked as if he was doing something else, and he realized he had found something of interest and tried to grasp what.
“Find anything?” he finally asked.
“You missed something!” he replied, glancing over at him for a few seconds.
“What?” he replied, wondering if it was anything of interest.
“The treasu
re map is part of this building … There is an area of the top floor of the building that is identical to it!”
Chapter 16
The Top Floor
Eisenberg unfolded a map Kurt made of the treasure map region with a plan of the top floor around it and he stretched it out across his front on the table, and he shone his light over it and studied its details under the magnifying glass.
Eisenberg saw it made the treasure map area clearer and he examined it and was surprised when he recalled that section of the mansion and realized he had barely even entered it, and it seemed to be the only whole area he had not searched.
“So do you recognize anything?” Kurt asked, curiously.
“I’ve never searched that region.”
Eisenberg thoughts went wild and he recalled the region at the top where he had found the room he was sure Howard Eisenberg had stayed in, which had been in just about immaculate condition, and he had been surprised to find that it had been directly over his room on the second floor, at the front of the building.
It was incredible! He had known the room was there, but had not fully realized that there might be something of interest to him there, and it was as though it was haunted or something. Yet what could be at the room, and he recalled the grave in the small graveyard outside, where he found the clue, and he realized there could be something.
Kurt realized something and picked up the old treasure map and started examining it further and he was sure he thought there was more on it, and that there was something missing in what they got from it, and he went back to searching the blurred marks on it searching for something that might have been blurred.
Eisenberg tried to grasp what sort of person had made the map, and why he never thought Howard Eisenberg had made it himself, or someone with him, who had put together the treasure hunt, and he realized that it was far older, and proved it, and he was positive the material was, and that it was made to locate something, and he was sure that it could be used to locate something, and he sat back thinking of where anyone of that era would hide something.
“What the hell is this clue to do with?” Kurt moaned loudly, desperate to grasp something.
“That is what has been confusing me! Since I found the clue in the grave!”
“Have you looked out there for anything else?”
“Not really. I have not had enough time … This place needs cleaned up … I still have not found any cleaners that work away out here.”
“Or anyone to help you locate what this map is of!”
He examined it for clues to its identity, and why it was there and what it was used for.
“Lets go up and have a look about,” Eisenberg announced, looking out the window, and about outside and saw no signs of anything outside.
After a few seconds Kurt nodded, still not grasping something, and where it was, and Eisenberg took the map, and they started leaving the kitchen.
When they reached the top floor he vaguely wondered how safe the mansion was, as it looked as though it could collapse in places, where the walls had shifted out, and looked as if it had been built by ancient craftsmen with basic knowledge of large buildings. Who could have designed it to last a few years or decades at the most! Yet if it had stayed up the amount of time it had it must be strong enough not to collapse!
He was sure they could have built it to last. He had not seen anything like it crumbling away, and he had never heard of anything like it falling down. But he had heard of parts of modern structures collapsing.
Again he realized the value it could have and be more valuable than they assumed, but on the other hand it could be a future disaster. He studied it from different angles, until he started losing interest in it.
At the top floor they stood examining the main corridor, and Eisenberg removed the treasure map and compared them.
“That looks like a faded mark of something?” Kurt said, leaning over, studying it, and Eisenberg looked at it, vaguely recalling it and the first time he had seen it, and was surprised that the more he examined it the more it looked like someone had marked something with a cross, at the edge of the map.
Chapter 17
The Cross
While they walked along the corridor Eisenberg started notice differences all about him and expensive carpets, valuable paintings on the walls, and he took photos of them, wondering if they had great value, and some surely were from the original building, and he realized he might be able to trace the original building to where it came from, and he realized Howard Eisenberg surely would have known, and all he needed to do was find something he had about it, which surely had to be located there.
There were various things he noted that he could use to trace things he wanted to know.
He became so absorbed searching rooms and realizing where the best places to look where he stopped following Kurt and suddenly realized he had vanished and started searching the corridor and found him measuring the floor further up the corridor, outside some strange rooms, and he wondered what he was up to or had discovered and searched the place on the map, and found little and decided just to wait and see what he was looking for.
The map looked different in the powerful overhead light in the corridor and he saw things that had not been recognizable before and it slightly surprised him, and he recalled that Kurt had been examining that area on the map, and dulled lines and blemishes took more distinctions, and marks that were not entirely visible became clear, and he realized the light from the light was far less brighter than direct sunlight, and he considered finding somewhere to examine it further for anything hidden away on it.
Eisenberg glared up close, and he saw more detail and faint lines that had faded that had not been visible before, and he wondered if Kurt had seen the stuff, and he studied things on it astonished at missing them, and saw where the exact location in the corridor of a cross mark marked on the map was, even though it was so faint that it could be a badly drawn mark or correction rubbed away, and he saw it was located at the direct center of the building structure, and stood considering what it could be.
Chapter 18
The Sounds
While Eisenberg considered how long he had slept he examined his dark bedroom about him and wondered why he had awakened as it clearly was in the middle of the night, and he still needed more sleep and was tired.
He studied everything trying to grasp any reason for him to be awake and was about to go back to sleep when he heard something shift in the outer corridor and immediately realized he would have to investigate it, and he realized just how much he had been investigating there and that it was like he had been trying to solve things constantly for days.
Even though he was a private investigator he never normally reached more than a certain amount of hours making investigations themselves, and he wondered what the hell would be in the corridor at that time of night, and started to realize the situation again and what the place was like and jumped out of bed and rushed up to the door and stood listening at the door to find out what was there.
He gasped when he heard sounds emerging from somewhere further away, and then he heard something directly behind the thick wooden door, which silenced him, and stood considering what to do and what could be there.
Suddenly the door banged, and he heard someone banging it, and realized it was Kurt and unlocked it and yanked it open, and stood staring at Kurt and watched him listening to the distant sounds coming from the end of the corridor, and he mildly amused him, as he recalled a similar situation and his attempt to explain their existence.
Yet he realized that the sounds had somehow changed and he tried to identify the difference, and stopped as Kurt silently marched away without saying anything and he wondered why.
He eventually realized he had done the same the last time, and reacted like he was influenced by the occurrence.
Eisenberg rushed back into his room and quickly got fully dressed and raced along the corridor after him.
“What hell has
happened?” he moaned, rushing up the corridor to him, attempting to get any information, after surely being awakened by him, and hearing sounds had a slight difference.
When they approached the exact region of the corridor that they heard the sounds at their loudest the last time he thought it was the wind or air currents reacting to something, even though there was no real climate conditions to create anything.
“Hear it?” Kurt gasped, confusing him.
“Hear what?” he moaned, wondering just what he thought it was, which confused him as he could not actually recall him given any real strange explanation to anything.
“Hear where it’s coming from?”
He stood listening to it for up to minute, sleepily, and walked about the region, and put his head and ear against the wall where it was, and moved into the room behind it and heard it coming from every direction about him, and proved again, like the last time, it was from the wall, and he saw how many feet thick it was, and moved over to Kurt.
“I reckon it’s the heating … There’s some form of old heating system and part of it goes through the wall!”
“That’s not what I meant! I meant do you get where it’s coming from?”
It left him confused and he listened to it up close, and shrugged his shoulders, and replied, “It has to be coming from down below. Perhaps there’s some sort of basement with it hidden away …”
“No! It’s coming down from above!”
Eisenberg put his head close and listened to the strange sounds and gasped, and wondered why it now sounded like a haunting sound he had heard in an old horror movie, and why such sounds were found in old buildings.
The Lost Treasure Map Deluxe Book Collection (2017 Edition) Page 5