Page 28 of Whispers of Fortune (Golden State Treasure Book #1)

T WENTY -E IGHT

Ellie stumbled when she saw what had caused Lock to shout.

She was tempted to shout herself. “That’s ... that’s a human skull,” she said shakily.

Brody went to his brothers and held them back. Then Ellie decided that, no, he hadn’t held them back. They weren’t exactly charging toward the skeleton they’d found in the cave.

Ellie glanced at Josh, who had a cool look in his eyes he sometimes got when there was trouble. He had the ability to stay calm, thinking the situation through clearly whenever things turned bad. She liked to think she had that skill herself.

He took her arm and guided her behind him, then walked up to Lock. It was a surprisingly large cave, considering its small opening. Brody and his brothers were a few feet ahead of Ellie, and the cave stretched at least ten feet in front of them.

Josh stood to Brody’s right. Thayne was on his left. Now Josh was in a line with the three MacKenzies, Ellie just a pace behind. She probably should have protested being left behind like some delicate little female critter who needed to be protected from unpleasantness. On the other hand, she didn’t want to get any closer to a skull. She could see plenty from where she was.

Moving behind Brody, she glimpsed the whole skeleton. There were clothes, but they’d worn away to mere rags. Around the waist, a leather belt with an old gun in its holster was still strapped on. The boots were mostly intact, leg bones sticking out of them. Scraps of a red kerchief were tied around the skeleton’s neck.

Considering the clothes, it had likely been a man. At a glance there was no obvious signs of violence. The skull and bones were laid out in a way that seemed as if the man had simply lain down to sleep and not awakened ... many years ago.

“What do you think happened here?” Brody looked over his shoulder at her, his eyes solemn. Then he looked back at the skeleton.

“I think we found our grandfather,” said Brody.

“How can you know that?” Ellie asked.

“See that blanket he’s lying on?”

Ellie didn’t notice it at first, but sure enough, here and there, she saw the remains of a plaid blanket. “Yes. I see it.”

Brody nodded grimly. “That’s the tartan plaid of the MacKenzie clan. And Grandpa had such a hat as that one, with a little circle of plaid to match his blanket. I remember my ma creating the hatband with his tartan colors. They laughed over it. I suppose it’s not the only hat like that in existence, but it’s unusual.”

“Brody, you really think that was Grandpa?” Lock had been the first of them to step into the cave, who then shouted for his big brother.

Brody, his arms across his brothers’ shoulders, patted both of them. “I think it might be. He wrote in that journal and then mailed it off to us. I suppose he came back here to gather whatever he’d found, or maybe he wasn’t done with his exploring.”

“This cave wasn’t where his trail led on the map. It was on the way, though. He drew the cave as one of his landmarks.”

Josh pointed. “Look. He’s got saddlebags. We should see what’s in them.”

Ellie hadn’t noticed them, but there they sat. And they seemed to bulge. Her heart rate picked up. And since it was already racing from her coming upon a skeleton, that made it pound like mad.

“I’ll check those saddlebags if you want,” Josh said. “I mean, if you don’t want to get too close to your grandpa’s remains. But one of us is going to have to get close because I think...” He glanced uncertainly at Brody.

“You think what?” Brody seemed calm. Maybe he was faking it, putting on a brave front for his brothers. But Ellie decided if he could fake it, so could she.

Ellie turned to Brody. “Josh is asking if you’d prefer to go through your grandpa’s things. We don’t want to intrude.”

Brody swallowed hard as he stared at the saddlebags, lying between the skeleton and the back wall of the cave. “Go ahead.”

Josh looked at Brody for a long moment. Then his attention shifted to Thayne and Lock, who both nodded at him.

Walking over to the skeleton, Josh reached across it and snatched up the saddlebags. He brought them back to the group. The leather tore at one seam as he lowered them to the ground ... where gold fell out.

Gold coins. Three of them. They bounced, and one rolled right back toward the skeleton until it stopped flat, gleaming at them. No tarnish after at least thirty years—ever since the day Graham MacKenzie had found them and tucked them into that saddlebag.

Only gold shone like that.

Lock reached as fast as a striking rattler and grabbed one of the gold coins from the ground. He held it up toward Brody. All three brothers leaned toward the coin as if it were a magnet and they a pile of iron filings.

Ellie watched as Josh plucked up the runaway coin that lay near the skeleton’s rib cage. Then he got the other one and handed one each to Thayne and Brody.

That broke their feverish spell as they each had one to look at now.

“Let’s see what else is in these saddlebags,” Josh said.

Brody shook himself out of his little dream world and crouched down to where Josh had laid the bags. Looking up and behind him, he said, “Boys, come and search this bag with me. Ellie, you and Josh come as well. This may be the treasure Grandpa spoke of. We all searched, so we’re all in on the discovery.”

“The bag’s heavy,” said Josh, hefting it. “I don’t think it’s as heavy as a bagful of gold, but there’s definitely something else in here.”

Brody carefully untied a leather thong on one of the saddlebags and flipped it open. In it was a skillet, a tin cup, a pouch of coffee beans, and a small parcel. Brody set the rest aside and picked up the parcel. Whatever was in it had rotted nearly to dust. “Hardtack maybe or jerky. Which is what a man out here in wild country would bring with him.”

They all nodded in agreement.

Again Brody reached into the saddlebag, this time pulling out a small piece of paper, badly stained. As he unfolded it slowly, Ellie could see writing of some kind.

“Looks like another map. See there, it says ‘To Frasier’ in the upper corner. That’s Pa’s name. Whatever decayed in that parcel leaked onto this map. I can’t tell much about it without taking more time and getting better light on it.” Brody set it all aside and reached for the second saddlebag, the one that had torn open.

Ellie wasn’t sure how he could have resisted opening that bag first. She thought Brody showed remarkable maturity. Either that or he was scared. Or maybe saving the best for last.

Brody’s hands trembled. He was dreading revealing whatever was in this saddlebag because there was a good chance it’d tear his family apart. It had ruined his father’s life and his mother’s along with it. It had killed his little sister and, it seemed, his grandpa.

No amount of gold was worth that. He knew it, but his brothers didn’t.

He gripped the flap on the bag, his heart pounding. Before he opened it, he looked at Thayne, then Lock. “You both need to understand that coming upon a bag of gold is bound to make a mockery of Ma’s life. She worked her heart out for years to feed us, to keep coal in the stove and a roof over our heads. Right now, with one flip of this saddlebag leather, we just might find more money than Ma had her whole life.”

Lock, his attention riveted on the saddlebag, suddenly tore his gaze away, his brow furrowed. “What about that mocks her life?”

“Money means work, Lock, hard work. And there’s pride in that—in caring for yourself and for those you love. Look at the Hart family. They work hard every day, and they’ve done that to make the land they own provide them all a living. My years of study to become a doctor, that was work. That was me achieving something. You boys had to work too, didn’t you? While I was gone? You ran errands and swept out stores and toted supplies for folks. Now, if this is a whole bagful of gold coins, what will you do? Will you sit on your backsides and eat fine food and wear silk suits for the rest of your lives? Because there’s no meaning in that.”

“And having lots of money can corrupt you,” Ellie added. She crouched beside Brody and spoke as much to him as to the boys. “I was mighty close to marrying a rich man once. He worked in a bank owned by his father. He was rich from the day he was born. Whatever work he did or didn’t do, it was never in doubt he’d be handed a fortune someday. Then he proved to be so worthless, his pa tossed him out of the bank. My former fiancé didn’t know how to fend for himself. He was helpless and foolish. And while I’ve never paid much mind to what became of him, I know he’s not welcome in the high-society world he once lived in. You boys need to know how to take care of yourselves regardless of what’s in that saddlebag. It’s hard to find your way when you’ve got things so well fixed, but you have to be able to.”

Lock listened and nodded, then looked at Brody. “You’re right.” His eyes shifted to Ellie. “Both of you are right.” He sighed, looking back at the saddlebags. “With all of my chasing around, all of my wild dreaming, it never seemed quite real that we might find a treasure.”

Lock laughed quietly. “It was more the hunt that excited me.” He looked at Thayne. “What do you say, brother? No matter what’s in that saddlebag, shall we keep on studying? Shall I keep on with my plan to be a cartographer, and you to make something of yourself?”

Thayne nodded. “Living with Brody has given me an interest in being a doctor. I think I’ll chase after that no matter how many gold coins are in this bag.”

Both of them turned to Brody. Thayne said, “Sound all right to you, brother?”

“Both of you sound more sensible than I’ve ever heard you.” Then a smile broke out across his face. “All right. Let’s see what’s in here.”

Brody hesitated, more to gather excitement than anything else. Holding his breath, he flipped open the saddlebag and tipped it over ... to see another journal fall onto the ground, along with five more gold coins and an old knife. An ornately carved knife with a strange etching on one side. He stared down at the knife, then pulled the first journal out of his shirt pocket where he carried it. He studied the barely visible engraving on the front cover—a square with an X in the middle. The symbol matched the one on the hilt of the knife. “What is that?” He looked at Ellie and pointed.

“I’ve seen it before.” Josh looked at the knife, then the journal and back to the knife. “On a ... a flag, I think. A Spanish ship maybe. Or a pirate ship? I can’t remember exactly.”

“It’s hard to make out the engraving on the journal cover, but it sure does look like a match.” Ellie reached into the saddlebag and pulled out a piece of paper as old as the one Brody had found inside the cover of the journal.

“Is that all the gold there is?” Lock sounded forlorn. A second later, he perked up and said, “But the cave wasn’t where the map had an X marked on it. This place was just a landmark along the way.” Lock and Thayne exchanged a look. “An X on the map,” continued Lock, “another one on that knife handle, and a third one on the journal—does the X mean something more than the location of a treasure? Josh, if you saw it on a flag, something to do with Spain, and the writing is in Spanish, could this gold be from ... from Coronado’s City of Gold? Could that be what we might still find?”

Brody eyed his brother, who was getting all worked up again. His words of encouragement to Lock and Thayne just a few minutes ago—with Ellie’s added to it—had seemed to temper the brothers’ fervor a bit. And maybe it would have stayed that way were there no more gold to find. Now, though, he wasn’t so sure about this.