Page 31 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)

“When we first got here, we dug around some under where the shield hung,” Annie said.

“But after we came across the well, we focused all our attention there and started digging. We figured Graham MacKenzie must have discovered what he thought was treasure while looking for water closer to the cabin he built.”

Brody nodded approvingly. “I think you’d’ve all liked Grandpa MacKenzie.”

Cord glanced over his shoulder at the remains of the thirty-year-old cabin. It looked as though the woods were getting ready to swallow it up, just like the earth had done with the ship.

But the ship wasn’t thirty years old. What had Grandpa MacKenzie seen here that made him hang the shield in this spot?

“Three hundred years that ship’s been buried down there,” Tilda said almost reverently. “We’ve found the true treasure, while Hardy ran off with a few stacks of old iron. For all his education, the man can sure act the fool.”

“I saw he’d written ‘Hardy Expedition’ in his notes,” Lock said. “I told him it was the MacKenzie Expedition. That and our insisting the artifacts were ours and had to be taken to the ranch first might’ve pushed him over into grabbing what we’d dug up and running off with his man Rombauer.”

“Whatever pushing he got, it’s no excuse to turn violent, to turn thief,” Cord said. “They knocked all four of us out, then threw us into that root cellar to die a slow death. No jury in California will stand for men behaving in such a way. They’ll both go to prison at the very least.”

Annie said, “Those two will be pursued by the law for the rest of their natural lives. If they do make it to Spain, they’re going to have to stay there.”

“Spain may not be far enough away,” said Tilda. “Our country could demand that they be escorted back here, and Spain might well hand them over.”

“I see another skeleton.” Lock pointed to the edge of the fissure.

“There’s an arm and hand sticking out of the dirt.” Thayne pointed to one end of the ship while Lock motioned to the other. “And that’s ... that’s...”

Thayne’s tone drew Cord’s attention, and he saw the boy’s eyes flash.

“That is gold,” Thayne finished, but more quietly. “The man had it clutched in his hand when the ship was swallowed up.”

The barely uncovered hand, no doubt part of a body that was still buried, gleamed between the bony fingers with more gold doubloons.

“If I had gold,” Lock said, “and the whole world started shaking, I’d think I needed to run or maybe hide ... and I’d take my gold with me when I did.”

Lock turned to Josh. “I’m going down there and get that gold. I know we have to head for home, but not before I grab those doubloons.”

Josh met Lock’s eyes, and then he looked down at that tragic, lone hand. “I’ll get a lasso and lower you down. I’ll tie it around your waist. I don’t suppose there’s anything left of the deck to collapse, but let’s be safe just in case.”

Lock turned to Thayne. “You don’t mind me fetching that gold, do you? I know you saw it first, but...”

Thayne gave him a light punch in the arm. “You go. I’ll be up here holding the rope. If we have to drop down a second time, it’s my turn.”

Brody came up to his brothers and put his hands on their shoulders. “Be careful, would you? I’m still not over almost losing you in that old cellar.”

Annie clamped her mouth shut as Josh tied a rope around Lock’s waist. After all they’d been through, she could vividly imagine Lock landing on the deck of the ship and disappearing forever as it collapsed beneath him.

The ship was only identifiable because of the cannon, the iron fittings, and its general shape.

He’d be landing on wood that might just disintegrate under his boots.

Her fists clenched as tight as her jaw, she watched Josh, with Brody and Thayne behind him, lower Lock, holding the rope with knuckles white from their tight grip.

It was at least twenty feet, she estimated. The hand Thayne and Lock had spotted was right below Lock. Then, with featherlight care, he stepped onto the ship’s deck ... and one of his feet broke through the rotted wood.

Annie gasped and grabbed ahold of Cord.

“Hang on!” Lock shouted up. But the men were prepared and held the rope taut.

His other foot sank through the rotted deck.

“How could there still be space beneath the deck?” Cord took her hand after prying it loose from his wrist. He stepped quickly behind Thayne to help with the rope.

It wasn’t necessary, but she knew Cord wanted to do something. She wanted to grab hold, too.

“I’m bringing you up, Lock, before we lose you,” Josh called down.

“No, just a few more inches down, please. I can get those coins.”

Annie’s heart started racing. She saw Josh exchange a grim expression with Brody. Then Josh slowly lowered Lock closer to the doubloons.

Annie leaned forward to watch her young friend retrieve the gold. He dropped the coins into his pocket, picked up something else she couldn’t identify, then shouted, “Pull me up, I—”

The ground shook again, and then Annie was falling forward ... and down, down into the gaping hole.

A scream ripped from her throat. She landed hard, facedown onto the deck next to where Lock dangled.

Their eyes met for an instant before the deck collapsed and she crashed through.

It felt like she fell forever, and yet she hit much too soon, flat on her belly.

The fall knocked the wind out of her. Debris from overhead fell on her, coating her with dirt and grit.

“Annie!” Cord shouted down.

She’d hit a soft mound of dirt and was all right. As she tried to regain her breath, everyone above was frantic and talking at the same time. She turned her head, fighting to drag in a breath to call up that she was okay, and looked right into the hollow eyes of a skull.

She screamed, shoved herself to her feet, and looked up at Lock, who was dangling there like a giant blond spider.

“S-skull,” she stammered. She saw Josh and Tilda, still holding Lock’s rope while a second rope descended. Brody was holding it with Thayne’s help, with Cord coming to rescue her.

The ground still trembled, and it took her a second to realize it was the earthquake rather than terror shaking her.

“I’m all right.” But she wasn’t breathing normally even now, and she sucked in a lungful of dust and coughed. “Cord, go back up and lower the rope with a loop for me to slip around my waist. I was spooked when I saw another skull. I’m sorry I fell. I’m sorry I panicked and screamed. But I’m fine.”

Not all that fine, yet there was no sense in having Cord fall through the floor after her.

She glanced at the grinning skull. “Just get me out of here!”

Shuddering, she decided she didn’t like archaeology much. If skeletons were as big a part of treasure hunting as they appeared to be—first Graham MacKenzie, then those soldiers with the armor, and now this—she was never going to like it.

Cord touched down beside her. She frowned. “I told you to go back.”

He removed the rope from his waist and put it around hers. “I’m not leaving you down here.”

Another rope dangled beside them. She looked up and saw Lock, standing at the top of the fissure. They’d pulled him back up and lowered the rope again.

“We go up together,” Cord said. He pulled the rope around his waist, then glanced up. “Wait! Hold up a minute,” he called. He looked at Annie. “Let’s quick look around. Right here where we’re standing.”

“Well, that looks like more armor over there.” She pointed to a pile of iron, a helmet, and several shields.

They saw three more skeletons and what looked like iron chests, for supplies probably.

“Maybe those chests are full of gold doubloons,” Cord said.

“No, they likely used the chests to hold food or gunpowder.”

“I think we should pull at least one of them up.”

“What if this ship is more than one story? We could fall through the floor again.”

Cord stomped. “This feels like solid earth to me. And the shaking didn’t collapse it further.” Cord went back to studying that chest.

“What’s going on down there?” Josh sounded impatient, his voice tinged with worry.

Annie could hardly blame him for that.

“Is there any more give in this rope?” Cord looked up at Josh. “I see something I want to bring up if we can manage it.”

“Are you both all right?” Brody the doctor probably thought this was reckless. And it was. “I think you should get out of there before the whole deck collapses on your heads.”

“I can give you about ten more feet, Cord. But I’m with Brody. Grab whatever you see quick and then come up out of there.”

“We see four iron chests. If we haul one up and find it contains something valuable, we’ll maybe come back down for the other three.”

Annie wanted to know what was in them, too.

“Go see if you can lift it, Cord. It might be too heavy for the rope.”

But their ropes were made to lasso thousand-pound steers, so they were pretty strong.

Cord went over to the chest and lifted it. “Not too heavy. For sure not loaded with gold.”

Annie felt regret and relief at the same time.

He carried it back to her side, then called up at Josh, “Pull Annie up first. You’ll all need to be on the rope to lift me up with this chest.”

“Looks like a chest a pirate would have on his ship!” Lock shouted down. He sounded thrilled by the find. It seemed the close calls of the past couple of days had done nothing to dim his eagerness for treasure.

“Ready, Annie?” Brody called.

She gave Cord a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for coming down to save me.”

“My pleasure, Mrs. Westbrook.”

She looked up at Brody. “I’m ready.”

She was pulled up fast since Lock had added his strength to Brody’s and Thayne’s. Josh and Tilda kept hold of Cord’s rope, and she was glad of that in case the ground beneath his feet crumbled.

Once she was on the surface again, she stepped well away from the fissure and grabbed the tail end of Josh’s rope along with everyone else, and together they hoisted Cord up.

Lock gasped when Cord set the chest on the ground. “It’s hardly rusted at all,” he marveled. “The way the chest was buried must have preserved it, maybe because there’s so little air or water down there.”

There was a hasp that needed to be unhooked, a simple latch that fitted over an iron peg in the chest. It resisted when Cord lifted the latch, but then it moved.

Suddenly, Cord withdrew his hands from the chest. “Nope, this is MacKenzie’s Treasure. Brody, Thayne, Lock, you open it.”

“It’s Westbrook treasure too, Cord. Your family has a claim on half of whatever we find.”

“Speaking of finding treasure, we need to get moving so we can get the law after Hardy and Rombauer,” Josh said, always the sensible one.

Lock crouched down, Thayne right beside him. Cord scooted out of the way.

Brody said, “Well? Go on and open it already.”

Lock and Thayne exchanged looks, and Cord could sense how excited they were. He had to admit, he felt the same way.

With a loud squeal of protesting hinges, they inched the domed lid of the iron chest open.

Everyone leaned forward.

Cord said, “That looks like a journal inside. Just like the one your grandpa sent you.”

Lock pulled the journal out of his pants pocket. He kept it tucked in there most of the time. Holding it next to the journal in the chest, he said, “Yep, it’s exactly the same.”

He looked up at Brody, who gave him an encouraging nod. “See what’s in it.”

Lock lifted the journal out and very gently opened the leather cover. Across the top of the first page were the words Anales el Capitan . He closed it and set it down on an identical book, one of a stack. “This is the captain’s log. It’s going to tell us everything, isn’t it?”

Annie rested a hand on Lock’s shoulder. “Yes, it should answer all our questions. And look, the chest is full of journals—or logbooks. They probably contain lots of historical information about Cabrillo’s expeditions.

These books might even give details that have long since been lost to history, things people would never have learned if we hadn’t found this chest today, depending on how long the. ..”

Annie stopped and looked at Tilda. “Is this the captain’s chest?

He must’ve been in charge of this one ship, but if Cabrillo led an armada of ships, wouldn’t each ship have its own captain?

Or could it be that these logbooks were written by Cabrillo himself?

He made it out of here, so he wasn’t on this ship, right?

But maybe he kept his logs on this ship. ”

“Or maybe the older ones are from him, but whoever captained this ship started his own diary after they became separated.” Tilda’s dark eyes were wide with fascination. With a bright smile she shook her head. “I don’t know, but hopefully by the time I read all the logbooks, I will.”

“Hardy was a fool to take a few artifacts and run,” said Annie. “He could have been part of a huge discovery. He could’ve been famous.”

Lock gave her a smile over his shoulder. “Instead, we’ll be famous.” He then frowned. “No gold here, though.”

Brody clapped him on the back. “We’ve got more than enough. And we’ve got strong backs as well as faith in God, our true provider. We’ll be fine even without a treasure trove.”

“Before we go,” said Cord, “I think we should bring up the other three chests. We need to explore further. I suspect these chests could be the real treasure to be found.”

Nodding, Josh said, “Lock, you and Thayne take turns going down there while Brody and I and the others hold the ropes.”

The boys were down and up fast, with Lock going twice. They didn’t open the remaining chests. Each of the four men tied a chest to his horse’s saddle horn.

Josh said, “Let’s push hard. Every minute we tarry, Hardy gets farther away. And Annie and Cord need to get back to their daughter.”

That got a smile out of Cord. He looked at his wife and thought about how long they’d been underground in that dark cellar, how close they’d come to dying. Once more he silently thanked God for rescuing them.

Minutes later, they were all trotting along when Tilda said, “Josh, stop!” She pointed at the ground, quickly dismounted, and rushed over to the object that had snagged her attention. “Look, it’s a dagger,” she said and picked it up from among some rocks. She held it up for everyone to see.

Thayne said, “I’ll bet that’s the dagger that got stolen from Michelle’s lab. Looks as though we can lay that theft at Hardy’s feet, too.”

“Yep, he didn’t turn outlaw just because we pushed back when he tried to take our artifacts,” Cord said. “He’d already gone down that path on his own.”

“You’re dead right,” Annie agreed. “I wonder ... what else has Hardy stolen from us?”