by Tara Ellis
“Well, that’s creepy,” Ally says, looking around at the woods. They are basically in the middle of nowhere, and she reaches out of habit for the now dead cell phone in her back pocket.
“Could you imagine what it must have been like?” Sam asks, not noticing how uneasy Ally is. “The miners must have used horses and carriages back then, and had lanterns for light. Oh, look at this stuff!” She points out some antique pick axes and shovels arranged near the entrance. “They must have used some of these tools to find the gold. How cool is that?”
Ally tries to seem interested, but can’t help being drawn back to the danger sign. The thought of the dead miners still in there somewhere overrides any excitement. “Let’s just get this over with,” she says through gritted teeth.
Sam locates a space between the boards that is big enough to wiggle through easily. Once on the other side though, her bravery falters.
Ally finds her hovering near the entrance, standing in the thin rays of sunlight filtering through the boards.
They both hesitate as they step into the heavy gloom. The air feels damp and smells musty, like an old basement. The flashlights do little to push the shadows back, as if the darkness is denser than normal.
“I don’t like it in here at all, Sam. Can we please just go?”
Taking a deep breath, Sam turns to examine the rock walls on either side of them. “Let’s just look for a few minutes, Ally. Then we’ll leave, I promise.”
They soon discover all sorts of sketchings and games scrawled on the walls, likely made by miners trying to pass the time. Distracted with their search, the girls end up a good twenty feet from the entrance, nearing the first bend. The tunnel has gotten wider and is littered with boulders and dust.
“Sam,” Ally cautions, “we’re going too far. We should go back now. I don’t think there’s anything here.”
“I just want to see what’s around this curve, and then we’ll leave,” Sam replies. “Come on! There are some pretty interesting drawings on here. One of these guys was quite an artist. I want to make sure there isn’t one of Florence.”
Ally follows reluctantly, shining her light over the rough stone. They’ve only gone a few feet more when the unmistakable sound of a rattle erupts from behind them. Spinning back towards the entrance, Sam searches the floor and spots a large rattlesnake coiled up in the middle of the tunnel!
Screaming, Ally jumps behind Sam, both of them retreating farther into the mine. “Is that a rattlesnake?” she cries, holding on tight to Sam’s arms.
“Yeah,” Sam confirms. “I saw one once before that was ran over in the road. They’re pretty common out here. This one must have been under one of those rocks. Maybe if we just stay still long enough, it’ll go back.” In spite of them not moving, the snake slowly starts to uncoil and move towards them.
“What are we going to do?” Ally pleads. “We can’t go any farther into the mine. It’s too dangerous!”
Just then, another noise fills the tight space, coming from the entrance. It begins as a banging sound, then becomes footsteps pounding the dirt. As the snake is almost within striking distance, Ted appears behind it, one of the old pick axes in his hands.
“Get back!” he orders, raising the axe over his head. The girls do what they’re told and move back several more feet.
In one swift motion, Ted brings the axe down and chops off the rattler’s head. Even though the snake is obviously dead, he cautiously moves the head off to the side with the pick. “They can still bite you,” he explains.
“Eww!” Ally moans, gingerly stepping around the rest of the snake and hurrying for the exit, Sam right behind her. They are soon standing back out in the bright daylight, the quick exit made easier by another missing board that Ted ripped off on his way in.
Following close behind, Ted emerges from the mine and stands glowering at them. “What in the world were you doing in there? Are you crazy? You could have been killed!”
Ally starts to cry softly, but Sam sticks her chin out. “We were just exploring. We didn’t go that far. Who could have known that a snake might be in there?”
“Anyone with common sense!” he says, pointing a finger angrily at Sam. “Snakes love to hang out in caves, and no one has been in there for years. For some very good reasons. If the snake didn’t kill you, a cave-in might have! Do you know how mad your aunt would be if she found out what you did?”
“Oh, please don’t tell her!” Ally begs. “She’ll be sure to send us home. Then we’d never find the money!”
“Thank you for helping us, Ted,” Sam adds, hanging her head. “We really didn’t think it would be that dangerous.”
“Exactly. You didn’t think. If you’re determined to go on this treasure hunt without me, do me a favor--try not to do anything else so stupid. Okay? I might not be there next time.” With that, he stomps away.
Sam’s face burns with embarrassment and for the first time, she begins to doubt that they’ll ever find the gold.
13
DISCOVERY
“I feel just awful,” Ally says quietly. They’ve been walking their bikes in silence for over a mile now. Neither of them are in a hurry to get back to the inn. After replacing the boards over the entrance as best they could, they’d gathered up their things and eaten their lunch before heading out.
“I know. I do too,” Sam agrees. “I’m sorry for dragging you in there. You didn’t even want to do it. I should have listened to you.”
“It’s okay,” Ally sighs. “You couldn’t have known about the snake. I meant about Ted.”
“Oh,” Sam says, surprised. “I’m obviously glad that he was there and helped us, but haven’t you wondered why he was there?”
Stopping, Ally turns to look at her friend. “What do you mean?”
“Why did he follow us? He must have been spying on us, hoping to catch us finding the money. I think it’s creepy, and I still don’t trust him.”
“But he helped us,” Ally insists.
“Only because our lives were in danger,” Sam points out. “It’s not that I think he’s evil, Ally, but I don’t trust his intentions when it comes to my aunt and uncle and this property. I still think he’s got to be working with the person hiding in that cabin.”
“I think that the gold is making you paranoid now,” Ally suggests.
Sam considers this and then shakes her head. “Maybe,” she answers, “but one thing is for sure: things have gone too far. You were right. I should have told my aunt and uncle all of it from the beginning. It was wrong of me to drag you into this. We’ll tell them everything tonight after dinner, okay? I’m really sorry, Ally.”
Letting her bike fall, Ally turns and hugs her friend. “It’s okay, Sam. Really, it is. Except for that snake, this has been really fun. I hope they aren’t too mad at us and let us come back next summer.”
Hugging her back, Sam is glad that Ally is so forgiving. “Oh, I don’t think they’ll be too upset. Except at the snake and whoever tipped the boat. I’m sure we can come back, so long as they still own it.”
With that sobering thought, they pick the bikes back up and ride until they reach the open grounds of the estate. They head for the shed where the bikes are stored. After securing them, they go find Aunt Beth and insist that she give them some chores to do. Reluctant at first, she finally admits she could use some help with the laundry, since she changes all the bedding in the inn once a week, even if it hasn’t been used.
Carefully avoiding any questions about the mine, the girls spend the next several hours washing and folding sheets and blankets. With the last bed made, Sam and Ally head back outside for a walk before dinner. They’re both feeling anxious about the conversation they plan on having later.
Walking up the long, sloping back lawn, they find an old iron bench at the edge of the woods. It faces the lake that sits in the valley spread out below them. Sitting next to Ally, Sam pulls the poem out of her pocket and sighs. “I guess we’ll never know what Shawn was tr
ying to tell us.”
Putting an arm around her friend’s shoulders, Ally tries to cheer her up. “Sam, look at the sunset. It’s beautiful! It’s reflecting off Florence Lake as if it were glass.”
Sam starts to lift her head and then freezes, her eyes widening. “Ally!” she exclaims, “You’re a genius!” Jumping up, she opens the sheet of paper and looks over the poem.
“What are you talking about?” Ally asks, confused.
“Listen to this,” Sam says. “‘My dear Florence, you have gone and taken with you my soul. So I will place my life’s endeavors where forever, your beauty I’ll hold. I lay within a body of flight and pray for my safe keeping.’”
Waving a hand out in front of them, Sam nearly jumps up and down. “Look down in the yard, Ally! What do you see?”
Ally follows Sam’s gaze and studies the sweeping yard in front of them. “A bird bath,” she answers.
Sam rolls her eyes. “What’s in the bird bath?” she presses.
“An angel,” Ally replies. Now her eyes widen, too. “A body of flight!” she whispers.
“Right!” Sam cheers. “Okay, listen, I’m not done. Here’s the rest: ‘For in our sons, the taste of greed, in their veins is seeping. The sun does set on your golden head and I watch, ever waiting…’”
“Florence Lake!” Ally interrupts. “The angel is facing Florence Lake!”
“Right again,” Sam answers.
“So the money must be in the angel?” Ally whispers, looking around them.
“Yeah, I think it has to be! It’s perfect,” Sam replies.
“Well, let’s go!” Ally says, and starts to run down the long lawn.
“Wait!” Sam cries, catching up to her and grabbing her arm.
Almost falling, Ally spins around and faces Sam, surprised.
“We can’t just march up there and pull the angel apart in front of everyone,” Sam insists, pointing towards the line of trees where Ted was again working on the sprinkler system. “Who knows who else is watching?” she presses.
“We could just go tell your uncle,” Ally recommends. “Let him decide.”
“You know he doesn’t believe in any of this!” Sam looks desperate now. “He would probably take the journal and poem, and send us home tomorrow. Then we’d never figure it out!”
“What do you want to do? We’ve already agreed to tell them tonight, anyways.”
“That was before we knew where the gold was!” Sam insists.
Ally frowns and starts to walk away, but Sam takes her by the arm again.
“Wait, Ally, we’re still going to tell them! Just not right after dinner, but later tonight. After it gets dark, we’ll have a chance to get the gold without anyone else seeing us. Once we have it, they’ll have no choice but to believe us! Then they’ll understand why we did everything. I think that it’s the only way to save the inn.”
Ally hesitates. Sam makes a pretty convincing argument. “I guess a few hours aren’t going to really make a difference,” she finally agrees.
Sam sighs with relief.
“But,” Ally continues, “no more delays. If the gold isn’t there, we tell them, no matter what. We have to confess everything.”
“Okay, Ally. No matter what, we tell them. But I’m sure that the gold is there. It has to be!”
14
NARROW ESCAPE
The hidden door next to the cellar slowly opens, and Sam and Ally emerge into the shadows at the back of the house. They switch off their lights just as a cloud drifts over the moon.
“Can’t we leave them on part way there?” Ally pleads.
“No way!” Sam says with determination. “Someone might see us.”
They creep closer to each other and turn in the direction of the bird bath.
“Here comes the moon again,” Sam points out. “We can see well enough to get there.” Their heartbeats accelerating with each step, it takes several painfully long minutes before they reach the sculpture.
The bird bath is made of cast bronze and stands a good three feet high. The angel, also made of bronze, sits in the middle. It rises another two feet, so that Sam is almost eye-level with it. She begins looking it over as carefully as she can in the moonlight, pulling on each wing and tugging at the halo. Nothing seems to be loose.
“The head,” Ally says from behind her.
Sam jumps, turning to look at her friend, a shadow among shadows. “What do you mean?” she whispers. “It seems solid.”
“Try twisting it,” Ally suggests.
“Twist the head,” Sam murmurs to herself as she places her hands on either side. At first, nothing happens, but then she feels a slight scraping of metal on metal. “Ally!” she cries, “you’ve done it again! Here…help me. I don’t think I can get it off by myself.”
Both girls position themselves precariously on either side of the bowl of water, stretching out as far as they can to grip the angel’s head between them. Working together, they are soon rewarded with an audible click and they are able to lift the loose head away from its body. It’s so heavy that they almost drop it, but they manage to move it to the side and set it in the grass.
Hurrying back to the headless statue, Sam turns on her flashlight to reveal what was underneath. Nothing. Other than the threaded sides where the head screwed on, there is nothing but solid bronze. “Oh no,” she moans, slumping to the base of the statue. “There isn’t anything there!”
Ally’s light comes to life and then bobs quickly up and down. “Sam! Come here! I think there’s a lid!”
Sam crawls over to her friend and inspects the underside of the head. Sure enough, there’s a cap, which she quickly unscrews. Letting out whoops of victory, the two girls look at each other, eyes wide.
“We’ve done it, Ally!” Sam cries.
Inside is a medium sized cloth bag, tied at the top. It takes up the whole space, almost as if it were molded to fit there. Pulling it out, Sam is surprised at its weight. Growing more excited by the second, she eagerly unties the cord, working the knots with trembling fingers. “It’s coming loose,” she breathes, and then the cloth falls away to reveal a huge clump of gold with a rolled up piece of paper on top.
“Oh!” Sam gasps, falling back on her heels. “This has to be at least twenty pounds of pure gold! How much do you think it’s worth?”
“I’d say over half a million dollars,” a deep voice says out of the darkness behind them.
Sam swings her light around, revealing a large, middle-aged man she’s never seen before. He wears an old stained undershirt and his face is covered with stubble the same shade as his stringy brown hair.
“Very nice job, girls,” he snarls. “I would have never guessed to look in there. But then, I didn’t have the riddle did I?”
Sam lets out a cry of alarm as she realizes the man is holding a gun in his right hand. He motions to them with his left.
“Just give me that bag there, young lady, and we’ll forget that this ever happened.”
“No!” Sam says, her voice more courageous than she feels. “This belongs to my aunt and uncle now, and you have no right to it!”
“Don’t you get smart with me!” The man waves the gun menacingly. “I’ve been looking for that for nearly three years and nobody, especially a little snot-nosed Girl Scout, is going to keep it from me. Now hand it over!”
Just as Sam is trying to decide whether to persist or not, a board suddenly whizzes though the air, coming down hard on the man’s back.
“Oomph!” he curses, stumbling forward. Sam and Ally duck out of the way, falling to the ground by the base of the bird bath.
Ted jumps beside the thief before the man can regain his balance, grabbing the wrist of his right hand. A shot rings out through the darkness as Ted knocks the gun away. Spinning back towards him, Ted faces his opponent. Although older, he is an even match for him and they circle each other slowly, looking for an advantage. Ted quickly lunges, lashing out, but the stranger blocks the solid blows and manage
s to throw him to the ground.
Sam jumps to her feet and leaps towards the gun lying in the grass. She’s never handled one before, but she simply aims it at the sky and pulls the trigger. The shot echoes off the mountains and reverberates across Florence Lake. Both men, now rolling on the ground, freeze. Several lights come on up at the inn.
“Stop it!” Sam yells, still holding the gun, now pointed at the ground. “It’s all over, whoever you are! You’re not getting the gold, and nobody’s going to get hurt.” She looks worriedly at Ted, who is slowly rising from the ground. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he says, breathing hard. “Thanks.”
Just then, the back door to the inn flies open and the porch light snaps on. Uncle Bill stomps out into the grass, a shotgun in his hands.
“What in tarnation is going on out here?” he demands, straining to see who is there.
“It’s okay, Uncle Bill,” Sam assures him, “but I think you better call the sheriff.”
15
THE INHERITANCE
They all sit around the big kitchen table, sipping coffee or tea. All, that is, except for the stranger. He sits with his hands tied together, behind his back. Ted keeps eyeing him angrily, and Bill still has his shotgun leaning against the chair he sits in. The pistol rests on the table in front of Ted.
“The sheriff has been called,” Beth states as she sits down with her tea. “It should take him less than half an hour to get here.”
“In the meantime,” Bill says, “I think you all have some explaining to do. Especially you, mister,” he adds, pointing at the man next to him. “Let’s start with who you are.”
“I think I remember him,” Beth says suddenly. “Don’t you, Bill? He’s the man we chased off the grounds when we first came here. He was a little cleaner and heavier back then, but I’m pretty sure it’s him.”