Page 26 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)

Nineteen

“You remember when you said light and fresh air were a feast?” Cord asked Annie. He sounded pretty sour about it. Or maybe he just sounded hungry and thirsty.

She was hungry and thirsty herself. Turned out that light and air weren’t nearly enough.

“I remember. I miss that foolish cheerfulness. Why can’t we get past that stone?” She’d moved to the back of the cellar in case more stones came tumbling toward her. Probably six whole feet from the base of the steps.

“We’ve taken out the whole row of steps. Whoever built this cellar here found the one soft patch of dirt on otherwise stony land. The walls are dirt, the roof or door overhead is wood, but everything else looks to be pure stone.”

“I’ve got a chunk chiseled out of that plank.

” Lock stepped away from his work. After giving up on getting past the stone, they’d begun taking turns carving a hole through the wooden door.

“But it’s thicker than I thought it’d be.

” Lock moved to the floor to rest while Thayne rose to work on the stubborn door with his knife.

“I think it’s well past bedtime,” Cord said. “We best get some sleep now.”

Thayne kept at it despite Cord’s suggestion. “But if we fall asleep even for a few hours, we’ll just be hungrier and thirstier when we wake up.”

Lock said, “I suspect being hungry will keep us from sleeping. A growling belly makes it hard to nod off.”

“Maybe it’s time we come up with a better plan for getting out of here,” Annie said.

“I wonder if...” Cord began.

The way Cord hesitated made Annie sit up straighter. Her husband had an idea, she could tell. She prayed silently that it would be better than what they’d been doing. It could hardly be any worse. “What is it?” she asked him.

“We’ve chiseled out a small pile of wood chips from the door. What if we used the chips as kindling, took a couple of loose stones to strike a spark ... and set the door on fire?”

“Burn the roof over our heads?” Annie didn’t see this as a better plan. “Wouldn’t the door go crashing down on our heads in flames?”

“And wouldn’t we choke to death from the smoke?” said Thayne.

“Cord’s idea might just work,” Lock said, already moving. “There are a few smaller stones that broke off from the stairs we rolled away, so we could probably make a spark without too much trouble.”

Annie eyed the narrow hole where they’d tried to get past the stone steps to the outside world.

They weren’t able to widen it because of what seemed to be a solid wall of rock.

Thayne and Lock had dug like mad in the cellar wall but without success.

Annie did her best not to let terror overcome her with the fact they could be stuck down here permanently, buried alive.

“Lock, let’s wait to set the fire,” Cord said. “With the sun set, we can’t see much of anything right now.”

“But a fire will give us light.”

“True, but I’m worn out, probably due to hunger and from chiseling away on that door. Let’s rest for a couple of hours, then work on burning up the door.”

Annie realized her hands were trembling.

Her throat ached from thirst, and her stomach had gone beyond hunger into a painful throb.

She thought of Caroline, who’d already lost one parent.

Tears burned her eyes to think she might not see her little girl ever again on this earth.

Giving herself a mental shake, she shoved aside all thoughts of a terrible ending and instead focused on how they would use fire to escape the cellar. Lock was right: Cord’s idea might work.

Cord curled up beside her on the dirt floor to rest. Lock and Thayne followed suit. Annie could feel herself drifting off to sleep. She drew a deep breath, trying to relax, then closed her eyes and prayed that Josh and Zane were searching for them, once more begging God for His help and protection.

They were all on the verge of collapse; they’d need to get out of this root cellar soon or all would be lost.

Cord shifted so that Annie could lay her aching head against his shoulder. It felt so good to have him there with her. She began to weep silently.

“What happened here?” Ellie said it out loud, but they were all thinking it.

Josh had brought them to Graham MacKenzie’s cabin.

It was clear that the group had been doing some serious digging at the site, and yet none of them were there.

No sign of any artifacts either. Certainly they must have excavated something of value.

“This makes no sense. Lock could hardly be convinced to stop digging when we were here before.” Josh dismounted and strode over to the campfire. The ashes were cold.

Brody swung down from his horse to study the turned-up dirt around an old well.

A few things were scattered about—the coffeepot and cast-iron skillet—while other things were tidy, like the neatly stacked plates and cups.

The blankets were left stretched out, as if the group had left in a hurry.

Overall, the camp looked eerily abandoned.

“Cord and Annie would have rolled up their blankets, not left them lying there like that.” Ellie’s stomach twisted. “Something isn’t right. Where is everyone? Why would they leave the site like this?”

Ellie crouched beside a jumbled blanket. “Josh, get over here.”

Josh moved fast. Tilda was right behind him. Brody came next.

“I think that’s blood.” Josh touched the darkened spot on the blanket.

Then he reached for a scrap of cloth. It looked like another blanket had been torn into strips.

He recognized it. “This is Lock’s bedroll.

” Josh looked at Tilda, then at Ellie. “I’m afraid they’re in danger.

I’m going to see if I can pick up their trail. We need to track them down, and fast.”

“I see only four bedrolls here,” Ellie said. “Two are missing.”

Brody frowned. “Professor Hardy and Mr. Rombauer.” He crouched to get a better look at the ground where Lock had slept.

“Whatever happened, they seem to have left together. Going by the hoofprints, their horses headed that way.” Josh pointed to a narrow trail and into the depths of the mountainous forest. “Let’s ride.

We still got a couple hours of daylight. ”

As they mounted up, Tilda said, “Isn’t that a travois trail?” She gestured toward the wider trail they’d ridden in on.

“I didn’t even notice it when we came in, but yes. Four horses, each pulling a travois. Traveling toward Cornerstone.”

“But two of the horses didn’t have riders.”

Josh looked at Ellie again. Annie was her big sister. What had they done to her? And to her brand-new husband, Cord, who’d put the light back in her eyes? And the two MacKenzie boys ... Ellie fought down a scream of terror.

“Not enough blood for murder.” Brody sounded sure about that. Still, he had to be plenty worried, wondering what had happened to his brothers. Lock had been bleeding, though not a deadly amount apparently.

Josh rode straight into the rugged wilderness, and the rest of them followed, being careful to give him enough space to search for tracks. Brody brought up the rear.

Winding his way through the forest, Josh made as good a time as was possible.

He seemed to follow the group’s trail without much trouble.

Ellie knew he’d’ve slowed down if he was unsure.

But in a dense woodland like this, with years of fallen leaves and branches, Ellie couldn’t see much. She could only trust.