Page 13 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)

Nine

“Last time, that treasure was found right under the shield, wasn’t it?” Annie stared at the ground near where the shield hung.

Thayne was already on his hands and knees, studying every grain of dirt in the patch of earth surrounding the shield. Josh, meanwhile, had grabbed one of the shovels they’d brought along and was busy digging random holes, something that cranky Professor Hardy would surely not approve of.

Cord paced back and forth. He’d been looking a bit farther afield.

“I don’t get it. It should be right here.

” He sounded puzzled. “Why would Graham mark the treasure to be in a spot that’s different from before?

” Cord pulled the map from his pocket; he’d taken his map out five times in as many minutes.

“Maybe we are missing something because we’re making too many assumptions. ”

“Well, I’m going to start a fire and get a meal on,” Annie said. She was clearly spent, ready to call it a day. For her, the treasure hunt would have to wait till morning.

The horses were tied close by, grazing, their saddles re moved. Annie went to one of the saddlebags and fished out a tin of matches. Using a shovel, she began clearing a spot in which to build a campfire.

Cord nodded, tucked the map away, and began gathering firewood. Josh helped him. The boys weren’t quite so practical, as they continued with the searching.

Before long, all but Thayne and Lock were seated around a crackling fire, drinking coffee while Annie’s beef-jerky stew started to bubble.

Dragging his map out yet again, Cord said, “I wonder, did we copy the map in Grandpa Westbrook’s journal correctly?”

After taking a sip of coffee, Annie answered, “We can compare our maps to see if there are any notable differences, but I helped with the copying, and we were painfully careful.”

The three of them sat and drank coffee as Thayne and Lock searched on. Then Annie asked, “Do you think he found the gold coins buried with each man, or didn’t the conquistadors do such a thing? You know, like the Egyptian pharaohs did who wanted certain items buried with them.”

Not knowing much about Egyptians or pharaohs or conquistadors, Cord didn’t respond.

“Graham drew the map in a way that led us to this very spot.” Josh looked around impatiently, as if to demand the forest give up its secrets.

“He had a reason for doing so. I’m guessing he didn’t remove the gold from those graves, but he obviously got it from somewhere.

Anyway, why would they bury gold with regular sailors, as I’m sure these men were.

No, he likely found the shields and such and brought one of them here.

” Josh shook his head. “I wish we knew what the X on that map stands for right beside the shield.”

“We’re close—I can feel it.” Cord glanced down at the map. An odd little triangle caught his eye once more, indicating something he hadn’t yet figured out. He looked up at the cabin. “I wonder...” He stood and headed for the ramshackle building, Josh right behind him. Annie came along, too.

“What are you all up to?” Lock called from behind them.

“I’m just wondering,” Cord began. “Your grandpa, he didn’t come out west just to search for treasure, did he?

He came out here for the land. He bought farmland along with a mining claim.

What if he built this cabin—” Cord paused as his eyes landed on a heap of stones with trees growing around it—“and then he dug himself a well?”

“Everything he did was to get this place ready for his family to come here and join him,” Annie said. “One day he was digging and found the treasure.”

Cord charged straight for the jumble of stones. Annie was only a few paces behind him, along with the MacKenzies and Josh. Only Josh had a shovel with him. “We’re gonna need every one of the shovels we brought,” he said.

Annie shook her head. “No, Josh. You can’t just tear up the ground and haul whatever you find home like last time.”

“But we’re hunting treasure,” said Lock, jumping in. “And we can’t do that without digging!” He looked visibly upset.

“Let’s not forget how red-faced Professor Hardy got when he learned you’d dug up the armor.”

Cord flinched. “Hard to forget a lecture that about peeled the skin off my ears.”

“Let’s just see what we can uncover,” Lock said, acting eager as a child on Christmas morning.

“We’ll be extra careful with the shovels.

Besides, we can’t stop to bring those archaeology folks out into the wilderness.

What if there’s nothing to find here? We’d be making fools of ourselves and wasting their time. ”

It was extremely likely that Lock wasn’t one speck worried about wasting a professor’s time. And considering the way he carried on, he probably didn’t care much about looking foolish either. But it seemed those were the first two excuses that popped into his head, so he used them.

Thayne, ignoring his brother, said, “Grandpa dug up the armor and then reburied it, remember? Then later he left clues for it to be found again someday.”

“I think he marked the spot for himself to come back later,” Josh said. “Pretty sure he didn’t figure on dying the way he did.”

“Point is,” Thayne went on, “that archeologist wanted to study the landscape more than anything else. He wants to measure and sift dirt and ... well, do all sorts of strange things. He said his aim was to dig up the story of the past around these parts.”

Annie said, “I remember that. Archeological sites tell the story of the past. He seemed to care most about learning the history of this place. It’s an interesting way to look at our treasure hunt.”

Cord remained skeptical. To him, Thayne, like his brother Lock, was just looking for an excuse to start digging.

Sure enough, Cord walked over to where the shovels were, grabbed three, and came back with them.

“I’m almost certain your grandpa hit upon the treasure while digging this well.

I can understand the professor’s way of thinking if this area was undisturbed for the last three hundred years, but this is your grandpa’s well from thirty years ago.

If there’s any history to learn here, well, your grandpa already disturbed it. ”

“How about we dig a while,” suggested Annie, “at least until we learn if we’re right or not?

If we find anything, we can decide then if it’s something your grandpa dug up and reburied.

And if that be the case, then we’ll gather what he found.

But if it looks like what we’re finding has been here for three hundred years, we’ll stop what we’re doing and ride back to the ranch.

Then wait for Professor Hardy and his crew to make the trip back here.

We’ll lead them to this spot to dig up the history the way they see fit. ”

That suggestion made a lot of sense to Cord, but then he was itching to see if they were right about what Graham had found.

He looked at Annie. She was the only one who hadn’t gone on the last treasure hunt. She was the teacher, the sensible one, and the telling gleam in her eyes told him she badly wanted to see what was down there in the well. “What do you say, Annie?” Cord asked.

“I don’t think it would do any harm for us to very carefully dig down a ways.

We should stop if we find an artifact and measure how deep we dug.

Then we’ll try to judge if what we’ve found has been moved in the last thirty years.

” She hesitated for a moment, then added, “I don’t think it’s going to be easy, though, judging what’s really old and what’s more recent. ”

“So let’s get started already,” Lock said, a little whiny.

“All right then. We’ll begin by digging down to see if we’re right or not.” Her spine bent before the pressure of everyone else’s hopes and her own fascination for treasure hunting.

“Here you go, Thayne, Lock,” Cord said as he handed them each a shovel.” The two brothers could hardly contain their excitement.

Cord was excited himself. This was his half of the map, after all.

He considered goading them about whatever they found belonging to him—which it most certainly didn’t—just to torment the gold-crazed boys.

Instead, he kept quiet and went to where they’d stripped the horses of their leather, reaching for the saddlebag that held his cowskin gloves.

He gave the horses a quick check and was startled.

“Josh,” he called, “any reason you picked this spot to picket the horses?”

Josh and Annie walked toward him, Josh handing his shovel to Thayne.

“What’s the matter?” Josh said.

“Look at this patch of land,” Cord said. “It’s studded with young trees, but it’s more level here, and the grass is thicker for some reason.”

“Maybe because the trees aren’t so big.” Josh pointed to the area around them. “I didn’t notice anything different at the time. I saw the cabin, dismounted, and staked out my horse near the good grass.”

Cord gestured to his right. “The stream that ran through here, I think it started at the spring there, still bubbling up from between the rocks.”

“What’re you saying?” Josh asked.

“I’m saying Graham MacKenzie picked this spot for a very good reason.

” Cord’s jaw flexed as he imagined it. “He was drawn here by the mountains, which made him think of Scotland and the Old World. His home. Then, exploring the area, for the pleasure of it and because gold hunting was proving to be more of a nuisance than he’d expected, he saw good land all around him—both for farming and for grazing. ”

“Why did he bother digging a well if there was water already available, a spring not far away?” Annie looked back at the pile of stones that were once part of the well, then back at the cabin.