Page 25 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)

Eighteen

Annie and the others had no food, no water, no light. They had no wood to build a fire with and no matches or any kind of rock to use to strike a spark if they did have wood.

They had explored every corner of the small cellar, probably a dozen feet long from the bottom of the steps and six feet wide. Overhead, the sloped roof was too high to touch, but they had to bend over at the top of the steps or they’d hit their heads.

Overall it was a nasty trap, and Hardy and Rombauer were going to pay dearly for tossing them into it. Not even fleeing to another country would save them. Annie vowed to make sure the two outlaws were brought to justice.

Cord felt his way to the steps and then started climbing. Annie knew this because she was only a few feet behind him, crawling as well.

“Are you boys all right this morning?” she asked.

“My head still hurts bad,” Thayne said. “But I’m fully awake now and feel more myself. And I’m not a boy .”

There was a rustling noise, and Annie had a mental picture of the MacKenzies getting to their feet.

“If it helps any, I still think of Zane and Josh as boys. I often yell out the door, ‘You boys come on in to eat.’”

Lock spoke, his voice nearer than before. “I’ve heard you call that out the back door. I figured you were calling to me and Thayne.”

Annie smiled into the dark. “Nope. I do think of you as men, honestly. You both do a full day’s work when you’re out of school. To me, that makes you men.”

Cord said, “We’ve explored this tiny cellar every which way, and I can see no easy way out. But I’ve got my knife here, so I say we start digging out through a wall.”

“I’ve got a knife, too,” Thayne said. “I’ll help you.”

“I got mine as well,” said Lock.

“Me too,” Annie chimed in.

“Let’s get to it then.” Cord had moved to the dirt floor and was feeling his way along one of the walls.

“Annie, you go up three steps, Lock up two, Thayne up one, and I’ll stay here on the floor.

It figures we’ll do better when the slope is lower, right?

Easier to reach and probably not so hard to dig.

We have to dig a tunnel big enough to climb through. ”

Annie added, “And let’s try not to stab each other in the dark!”

“What are we doing wrong?” Lock sounded demoralized.

“I don’t know,” Cord said. “It seems like we should’ve gotten through by now to the surface, but there’s not been even a hint of sunlight.” He blew out a big breath. “Everyone stop digging.”

They’d done a lot of talking while carving away the dirt with their knives. It helped to keep their spirits up, and it helped so they all knew where each person was standing. So far no one had stabbed their neighbor or sliced off a finger.

“Maybe we should rest for a while,” Cord said.

They all sank to the ground, all in agreement with his suggestion.

“You know,” said Annie, “we have a root cellar at the ranch; it’s out back of the house. Could this one be under the house? Because we should have gotten through to the outside by now.”

“Could be. The sides do seem to be more stone than dirt.” Cord didn’t know how best to proceed.

“If we want to eat, we’ve got to keep digging.” Lock was young still and therefore always hungry.

“Let’s just rest a minute,” Annie said in the sweet voice that was an order.

“If this were my grandparents’ root cellar,” Cord said, “we wouldn’t have had to dig more than a foot up at the highest part of the cellar to reach the outside.”

“We’ve gone at least two feet up,” said Thayne. “I shoved my arm in the spot where we dug just to check. And I pushed against the top, and it felt solid. But solid dirt, not rock.”

“One thing I know,” Annie said firmly. “Josh and Zane will find us. They’re probably already looking.

If Cord’s memory is right, we were slung over the backs of our horses and brought here to be dumped into this cellar.

That’s going to leave a trail. And I should have been home by now.

Ellie will know I would never leave Caroline alone for so long.

So they’ll come. They’ll track us down. They’ll read the signs that tell them what happened, and they’ll get us out of here. Mark my words.”

“Before we starve to death, Annie?”

Cord wanted to swat Lock for saying such a thing, but in the dark he was afraid he might hit the kid on his poor wounded head, so he refrained.

“What if this cellar is dug into the side of a hill?” he said, wanting to shift the conversation.

“The root cellar at home is on flatland. If this is too, we’d be able to dig up and out fast. But that’s not working.

Maybe instead we should dig forward, not up.

The steps are stone, which means we can move the stones and dig forward.

The bottom of the door should become visible before too long. ”

Annie said, “That might work.”

Cord nodded. “You all stay where you are. There’s not much space up there, so let me start without all of us together. I’ll see if I can pry the top stone step loose.”

“Good idea, Cord,” Annie said. “What about the door overhead? We pushed on it, but it didn’t give at all. But it’s wooden. Maybe we can carve straight through it with our knives.”

“Another good idea, although I think that wood is made of heavy plank. It’s not going to carve easily. Let me try the steps first.”

Annie said quietly to the MacKenzies, “Let’s pray for Cord to find a way out. I’ve been praying silently, but maybe we need to lift our voices together.”

“I’d like that,” Thayne said.

Cord thought just having a plan helped him discover an inner strength. And prayer helped to steady him.

Lock was suspiciously quiet, but Cord decided not to ask why. The kid had an active mind. Maybe he’d come up with a bright idea.

Cord reached the top of the steps. “I’ve found a seam between two stones. The steps are several stones fitted together, so they should be movable. Keep praying.”

Annie had recited Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer. She offered prayers for God’s help and protection, and for Cord to move the stones away, a very biblical prayer. Cord found strength in it and sensed God’s presence there with them in the cool, dark cellar.

He scraped dirt out from between the stones, working where they touched the wall. Finally, one of the stones wiggled, then another.

“Thayne, Lock, come up here. This one’s a large stone, but we can move it away if we all pull together. Annie, keep up your praying.”

Cord shuffled to one side, making room for Thayne and Lock to squeeze in beside him. They all got a firm grasp on the stone. “Pull it down the steps,” Cord said. “I think it’ll roll that way.”

The three of them pulled. A wave of dizziness made Cord lose his grip. He fell backward and landed with his head on Annie’s lap.

“M-my fingers slipped.” But it was more than that. They were running out of air in the small cellar.

Cord didn’t think resting would do much good, so he climbed back to where the boys were. They’d quit tugging when Cord fell backward, but they still knelt on the steps, holding the stone.

“Let’s try again.” About the time Cord was ready to quit and see if another of the steps had a smaller stone, it moved. Under great protest, it seemed to him.

Lock grunted from the effort. Thayne heaved until Cord felt the kid’s muscles straining beside him. Cord threw all his weight into moving the stone.

Annie’s praying out loud washed over them as they yanked the stone away. It toppled and rolled down one step, then picked up a bit of momentum and went down the rest of the way.

“Are you all right, Annie? We didn’t knock you over, did we?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him.

“Cord, I see light!” Thayne shouted.

Cord, desperate to see what was outside, leaned away as Thayne began digging frantically with his knife. He couldn’t even see whatever hole Thayne had opened in their little prison.

Then Thayne’s knife scraped against something. He stopped. “I’m afraid I’ll snap the blade. I can see outside, but only a small opening.”

“Let me work on it,” Lock said, moving toward Thayne.

Cord leaned back against the wall, perched on the lower steps. “I can see now. I’ve gotten so used to the blackness, I didn’t even notice at first.” He laughed. He still couldn’t see the opening, but it was letting in enough light that his eyes had finally adjusted to it, even if a little.

From behind, he felt Annie rest her hand on his arm. He turned, and she glowed with pleasure at the bit of light and, Cord realized, the fresh air.

His dizziness eased, and he felt stronger. His head was clearer. God had answered their prayers. They’d gotten a hole opened just in time.

They hugged each other.

Beaming, Annie said, “I know we’re still in here, still hun gry and thirsty, but there’s light and fresh air.” She inhaled audibly. “It’s a feast.”

“I’d still like some of Gretel’s strudel.” Lock was leaning into whatever hole Thayne had opened.

She playfully whacked Lock on the shoulder. “Back up. I want to look outside just for a second. I promise I’ll let you back in to work right away.”

Cord waited his turn, craning his neck to look out at daylight. It was a feast. For the eyes, for the spirit.

Then he pulled away and backed down the steps to sit by Annie as the boys wrangled with whatever stubborn rock they’d run into in front of their little hole.

They should be out of this root-cellar prison in a matter of minutes.

Cord was still thinking that when the sun went down.