Storiesonline.net
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                         Bell Whistles' Secrets
                                by JimWar

Copyright© 2009 by JimWar


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Description: This is the continuation of Joe's adventures. The deeper mystery of the treasure and previous occupants of this address will be revealed. Note: Chapter 3 of this story deals with Slavery.  The N-word is used by a slave speaking of other slaves.  If this offends you then don't read this chapter.

Codes: MF rom het hist myst caution
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Chapter 1: A New Start



Irma had been as excited as a teen looking at her first new car when she stepped off of the plane. We all felt a sense of pride in our part in bringing her back as we saw exactly how much this meant to her. As we waited for our baggage those thoughts running through my mind led me to contemplate my own life. As I reflected it dawned on me just how much my own life had changed for the better over the past couple of months. Less than two months ago my work was the sole focus of my life. That life had been an endless repletion of the same mundane routine.

They say that time moves by more swiftly as we get older. I'm not sure whether that is true or whether it's more that our mind, in overlaying an endless sequence of similar events, creates that illusion. I thought back over the past few years and could think of few things that stood out in my mind as being exceptional. I had made some money but to what end?

I unconsciously smiled at the irony that the house at 101 Bell Whistle had at first only seemed to be an unwelcomed disruption of that boring routine. I was so caught up in my routine that my first thought had been that the house took me all the way across town from the usual work sites; subdivisions where my subcontractors, Hector and Jorge, supervised crews cleaning out foreclosed homes that had been repossessed by the banks.

My business had become successful because I managed to take only those jobs that were straightforward and involved nothing out of the ordinary. This was because the unusual took more effort and time, which translated into much higher costs. My way of insuring that I stayed away from those jobs was making outrageously high bids on those jobs. I laughed as I thought that my original intent had been to pass up even bidding on the house at 101 Bell Whistle; a house I now called my own.

The remarkable thing about the bland routine that I had been drifting along in was that I had managed to acquire quite a few friends; people that I hadn't even realized were my friends. I now realized that those friends were more important than the money that I had managed to squirrel away at several area banks. Faces of those friends immediately flashed into my mind; Hector, one of my faithful subcontractors, was the first. He and Camilla, his wife, had spent more time helping us explore the house than anyone. I remember my surprise when he and Jorge had first volunteered their Saturday to help me move furniture and the interest that Hector had shown in the old house.

Then there was Kelli, the daughter of Mrs. Li, the Vietnamese expatriate owner of a small Chinese restaurant. They both 'knew me when' and I thought of them as two of the hardest working women I had ever met. Mrs. Li ran the tiny restaurant with only the help of her daughter Kelli and an occasional part-time waitress. What I hadn't realized during the hundreds of times I had eaten in that small restaurant was that both Mrs. Li and Kelli were encouraging me to move out of my comfort zone even way back then. Their teasing me about eating something other than the General Tso's chicken that I loved so much was a small part of that effort.

In the end it had been Kelli who had convinced Audra that I was someone she could be comfortable with. Young Kelli, whom I had mistakenly thought to be submissive, had ended up being quite outspoken as she had told Audra "Joe no big shot, he just good guy." Then she had supported that statement by telling Audra of the many times I had come into her mother's restaurant covered from head to toe with sheetrock dust or sawdust. I was embarrassed by that, but Kelli was smart enough to know that those remarks were just the right thing needed to convince Audra that I was not above her social station.

I looked at my watch as the moments ticked by, waiting for the baggage to be offloaded. Audra was sitting down next to Irma chatting quietly. Seeing her sitting there with her feet folded up underneath her reminded me of the first moment I had seen her. She was in a similar pose on my kitchen floor encouraging her cat, Mr. Whiskers. She had seemed so small, so unkempt and so thin that time that I had put her age at around 15. I thought back and remembered that I had been fearful when I first heard the noise coming from the kitchen and how quickly I had overcome those fears when I saw that the source of the noise couldn't have weighed 90 pounds, soaking wet. I had never told her that my first thought of her had compared her gaunt appearance to Twiggy, the sixties model who had paved the way for the anorexic look so common now among fashion models. Knowing her fiery temper, I doubted that I would ever mention that fact.

Still, looking back to that moment, something even then had tugged on my heartstrings. Had my feelings for her begun at that moment or had they come later after she told me her story? I remembered the chase and the bruises on my shins that she gave me as she fought my capture. Her spirited fight had left me winded and yet sympathetic. As I thought about those first moments that we had come together I realized for the first time that I had not wanted her to leave, even before knowing her. Had I been that lonely, that starved for company?

I looked at Elise sitting on the other side of Irma and realized that she had been the first friend to see the change in me that Audra had wrought. The woman I first thought of as the neighborhood busybody was now one of my closest friends. She had given me clues about the house, about Audra and about myself. Clues that without her help, I may have eventually uncovered ... but how much longer would the journey have taken without her friendship and help?

I remembered when half in jest I told her that if I talked to her any longer she would know more about my business than I did. Her discerning nature had certainly made it seem that way. The only mistake I had seen her make was in her assessment of Audra, and I think that mistaken understanding was a case of her not having access to all the facts. She certainly had recognized my love for Audra before I had a clue it was there.

Then there was the house itself. What a gift that was! I knew now that I needed something to take me away from the workaday world and the house certainly seemed to fill that bill. It seemed the more I explored the deeper the mystery. First I had discovered the tunnel running underneath the house to the garage; the tunnel that Audra had traveled into and out of the house. Then I discovered an inner passageway within the walls of the house itself; a passageway that was unknown, even to Audra who had lived in the house her entire life. As I explored that passageway I found that it connected to the tunnel and had possibly been used along with the tunnel to smuggle freed slaves out of the south before the Civil War. As if that was not enough Audra, Hector and Camilla helped me further explore that tunnel and when we did we found that it led through a large natural cavern into the waters of the bay itself.

Our trip to Arizona complete, we now had the means to secure ownership of that surrounding property, at least for the present. Looking over at Irma I could see that she certainly was happy to be back here with us. I was shaken out of my reverie by a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to find Edward, Elise's husband, smiling at me. He quickly walked past me before I could say anything and lifted his wife into a hug. I could see him launch into an animated conversation with Elise and Irma as he hugged his former neighbor. About the time I started over, the luggage suddenly appeared on the carousel. Now we could get home. Edward and I grabbed the four large bags and he led us all out to his waiting car. The large Lincoln was crowded as we all piled in for the trip across town. Edward remarked that we were smart to have most of Irma's possessions shipped separately to Elise's address.

Irma was looking at each landmark on the way home as if seeing it for the first time. As we drove up stately Bell Whistle Drive she started crying again as she exclaimed, "I never thought I would see this place again!"

Several of the neighbors, including many that I had not met, were at Elise's to welcome Irma back home. Edward introduced Irma to Hector and Camilla. Hector had taken my place supervising the various jobs while I had been gone. He also supervised a crew that had begun transforming the old servants' quarters on the first floor of the house into a mother-in-law's suite so that Irma would not have to negotiate the stairs as she grew older.

Since the bedroom suite being constructed in the wing previously occupied by the servants' quarters was weeks away from completion, we put Irma into a guest bedroom on the second floor. The way Audra fussed over Irma you would have thought Irma was still mistress of the house. This didn't surprise me, as I had noticed that Audra had certain submissive qualities that I surmised flowed naturally from her childhood as the servants' daughter. Irma's move into that second story guest room was almost as if she was returning home. Irma pitched right in and helped with the move. She certainly didn't give the appearance of being someone who was used to being waited on by servants.

Moving Irma into that bedroom did have one totally unforeseen consequence, at least for me. Audra moved the few items she had in the master bedroom back into her own separate bedroom. Although I could understand that she wanted to keep up appearances, I felt quite abandoned when it happened and for the first time wondered if bringing Irma into our home was for the best. In fact I spent most of the night brooding about this change in what I considered the natural order of things. Having gained two hours during the trip from Arizona, eleven o'clock seemed more like nine o'clock and sleep was slow to come.

The next morning I awoke to what seemed to be a distant rapping. At first I thought some of Hector's workers had started working early on the downstairs renovations. Then after I had more fully regained my faculties I realized that the rapping was coming from somewhere in the outside hallway. Puzzled, I dragged my butt out of bed and peeked out the doorway into the hall. I was shocked to see Audra holding a small serving tray containing a tea service outside of Irma's door. As I watched I saw the door to Irma's room open and Audra carry the tray inside. I could not hear what was said inside the room. Soon a smiling Audra emerged carrying the empty tray. Before she could see me I stepped back inside my room, pondering what I had just witnessed.

Since I was now wide awake, I quickly showered, dressed and headed down into the kitchen where I was disappointed to find a cold and empty coffee pot waiting for me. At that moment I wondered if I had been replaced in Audra's affection by her former mistress. Just as I had begun to brood, Audra greeted me with a smile saying, "I thought you'd still be sleeping. I looked in on you earlier and you were snoring up a storm."

Not feeling charitable, I muttered, "I don't snore."

I reached past her up in the cabinet and got the coffee filters for the coffeemaker. She tried to take them from me saying, "I'll do that. You just sit down."

Still confused by her actions I continued to the coffee pot and snipped, "I can do it. You don't work for me anymore, remember?"

Then thinking back to a happier morning I asked, "How about we walk down to Dennon's together and get some donuts for breakfast? We can talk along the way."

Audra looked at me guiltily and said, "Mrs. Anderson doesn't eat donuts. I was going to make her breakfast this morning like mom used to do. I thought it would be a nice welcome home gesture."

Frowning I said, "That's one of the things we need to talk about. Since when did Irma become Mrs. Anderson? Why are you acting so differently now that she is here?"

Audra seemed defensive as she answered both my questions. "I'm just not used to calling her Irma. It seems unnatural somehow, and how am I acting differently?"

"Well, to start with, you slept in a separate bedroom last night. In fact you have almost acted as if you don't know me when Irma is around. Then you got up early this morning and carried a pot of tea up to 'Mrs. Anderson' as if she is still the mistress of the house. I come down here and the coffee pot is cold and empty while a tea pot whistles merrily on the stove. That seems a little different to me."

Audra sputtered for a moment. When I almost cracked a smile thinking I had hit the nail on the head, she lit into me, almost shouting. "I didn't warm your bed last night? You went without for one night? I didn't make your coffee first thing this morning? Is that all I am to you? Well, is it?"

I just stood there looking stupid. Once again a woman I cared about had taken my words and twisted them around on me; making me feel like a jackass for expecting some normalcy in my life.

Then to top it off, Audra wasn't finished with me. She softened her tone and explained, "I just wanted 'Irma' to feel welcomed. I was going to break it to her today about us living together. You know we're not married yet, and some people are old fashioned and consider it a sin for people to sleep together before marriage. I wasn't sure whether Irma would understand."

After Audra's explanation I was beginning to think I had overreacted. I was thinking that the Audra that I loved was a much more complex person than I had imagined. As I thought about it my silence must have appeared to Audra as a tacit acceptance of her earlier accusations. One again she shifted moods and glared at me as she asked, "Well, is that all I am to you - a bed warmer and coffee maker?"

Contritely I replied, "Of course not."

A man has to realize when he has been bested. The smartest thing you can do when that occurs is to admit your defeat and hope your lover will show you some mercy. I held out my arms and Audra melted into them. Just as I was about to give her a conciliatory kiss, Irma walked through the door, carrying her cup of tea, seemingly oblivious to everything that had occurred. I could feel Audra tense in my arms as she spied Irma but I didn't let that deter me from our consolation kiss.

Irma just stood there holding her teacup in both hands as if she was lost in thought while we kissed. I'm not sure whether her presence bothered Audra, but I do know that I lost all thought of her being there as I kissed my bride-to-be.

I noticed Irma's smiling face as my eyes came back into focus. She cleared her throat as if to announce her presence and said, "I'm sorry for walking in on you but glad that I did. That kiss reminded me so much of one many years ago on almost that exact spot."

Audra was blushing but managed a smile before she wiggled out of my grasp and headed back for the stove. Seeming a bit flustered she turned to Irma and said, "I thought I'd make us a breakfast this morning like mom used to make."

Irma smiled and moved toward the stove as she said, "That sounds like a good idea. Why don't I help you?"

Audra immediately answered, "No need for that. Everything's under control. I've watched mom doing this so many times I could do it in my sleep. You sit down and keep Joe company while I cook."

Irma looked a bit flustered as she sat down at the kitchen table. I finished making the coffee as Audra began getting out the heavy iron frying pan from under the cupboard next to the sink. I went to get the toaster and Audra said, "You too. Sit down and let me do this."



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Chapter 2: Irma's Confession



Audra had decided to make Irma and I breakfast and had let both of us know quite clearly that our help was not needed. As I sat down across from Irma shaking my head, Irma asked, "What are we going to do with her?"

The question surprised me. Irma looked over at me and said, "I suppose you think I like being waited on."

I shrugged, not knowing what to say.

Irma responded, "I love Audra. I suppose I was much closer to her than her parents but I cared for them as well. I never wanted to have servants, you know; that was Chad's idea."

When I didn't say anything, she continued, "Women didn't work back then, at least those with successful husbands didn't. Chad was successful and I suppose we were both a bit caught up in that success. Soon after his first real promotion we started entertaining; small dinner parties, you know. Everyone made such a fuss about me doing all of the preparation myself, as if that was unheard of. Chad thought that meant I needed help. I didn't really, but once he got something in his mind ... I ended up with a cook. It was a disaster. I don't even remember what her name was anymore. I had to constantly remind her to start supper and if we had a party I still had to do all of the shopping or she would forget things. She was a competent enough cook I suppose, but cooking is more than standing over a stove. I think it took us three cooks before we came across Audra's parents. They were newly married and without any experience or references. I think Chad liked the idea of having another man to do the heavy lifting and yard work."

Irma suddenly stopped and said, "I just rattle on sometimes. I'm sure you're not interested in my past. It's just that I hated giving up control of my kitchen. Audra's mother became a very good cook over time, but there were times I just wanted to push her aside and cook myself. You can't do that of course."

Irma seemed to run out of steam then. I absently nodded my agreement and looked over towards Audra who was humming as she prepared our breakfast. Irma said, "She's happy here. I always wished she were my own daughter. I couldn't have children. We found that out for sure shortly after we hired Audra's parents. I was devastated with the news. I wanted children so badly. Chad had his job and never said anything but he wanted them too. He buried himself in his work and I didn't know what to do. With the servants doing everything I was at loose ends. It was the only time in my life that I thought about ending it all. Then Audra's mom became pregnant and that saved me. At first I was jealous and bitter but soon I had my kitchen back as she had a horrible pregnancy. It was just enough to get me past those darkest times."

Audra had left her frying pan by the stove and come to stand behind Irma. She said, "I never knew all of that."

Audra bent down and hugged Irma as she bent down and said, "I always felt like it was like I had two mothers."

Irma patted Audra's hand and added, "I know, you even called me mom once or twice. You used to use me to get your way. You would come and ask me for something after your mother had said 'no'. It took me a while to catch on. Saying 'no' to you and sticking to it was the hardest thing I ever did."

Audra moved back to the stove to check on the bacon. Irma spoke as she moved off. "You know you really do need to invite your parents to your wedding. No matter what they did, they are your parents."

I winced as Irma said this, knowing how vehemently Audra had reacted when I made the same suggestion.

Audra turned back to us as if she was pondering a response. Then she turned back to her bacon, saying nothing. I stared at her as I rose to get a cup of coffee. It was almost as if she was cooking the breakfast with her mind somewhere else. Finally, saying nothing, she brought the breakfast to the table and sat down across from us.

As we began to eat in silence, Audra noisily and forcefully sat her fork down on her plate. With the same set to her jaw that I had first witnessed moments before Irma's arrival she said, "They stole from Mr. Anderson. They stole from our own family and expected me to see no wrong in that. Father wasn't grateful that Mr. Anderson didn't prosecute; he felt what he took was his due. Mom took his part when we would fight about it. She told me I had to accept what father had done. When I couldn't, they kicked me out. I didn't run away from home you know, they kicked me out the door, like I was the one who was wrong."

Looking from Irma to me and then fixing her eyes on Irma she asked, "How could you ask me to forgive that?"

I thought that the silence in the room after that question would give her the answer that she wanted. I was surprised when Irma said, "Honey, things are sometimes not always black and white. Your father may have had some reasons for feeling the way he did."

Irma looked over to me as if for help and asked, "Oh dear, how can I explain all of this?"

After a moment she continued, "It's hard to talk about this with his passing being such a short time ago but I must. Audra, Chad had many wonderful qualities but generosity was not one of them. When your mother and father answered our advertisement for a cook it was a bit of a surprise to us both. Chad let them know right from the start that he had only advertised for a cook, an experienced cook. Your mother seemed to be too young to have much experience and she as much as admitted that to us. Chad was about to terminate the interview when your father spoke up and offered both of their services for room and board and one small salary. Chad agreed to take them both on that condition.

"I suppose it would have been alright for a start but Chad could never bring himself to pay them what they deserved. Your mother became a wonderful cook and kept the place spotless. Your father took care of the landscaping, the cars, and all the repairs that we would normally have had to pay someone to do. About the time when it seemed that Chad would be forced to pay your parents what they were worth your mother became pregnant with you. They never had any health insurance or savings and I'm ashamed to say Chad took advantage of that."

Irma was nervously twisting her napkin in her hands. I thought she had said all that she was going to say when she looked up at Audra and continued, "When your mother became pregnant with you she required expensive medical care and then couldn't work. I was delighted to have a chance to do the cooking. Chad took advantage of the situation by taking back a note against their salary to pay medical expenses. He told your father that he was being generous by continuing their salary as if they were both working. In the end he used that note as leverage when your father came to him asking for an increased salary after you were born.

"Chad did end up giving your parents more money, but we never paid them what they were worth. I argued with Chad and many times he promised to raise their salaries, and he did, but I'm afraid they never were paid what they were worth. Guilt about that was the main reason your father was never prosecuted. I had set aside money in my own private accounts to give to your father and mother when they retired, but Chad was so mad about his precious books that he wouldn't allow me to give it to them."

Audra sat in her seat tightly gripping the edge of the table on each side of her plate; her mind obviously still processing Irma's remarks. Irma sat staring at the twisted napkin she held in her hands as her confession seemed to have taken all of her energy. I was trying to think of something appropriate to say but had no idea what that would be. Finally, looking down at the eggs on my plate, I began to quietly to eat again.

After a few bites I noticed that neither Irma nor Audra had followed my lead. I spoke up and announced, "Eat up; you both need to eat this wonderful breakfast before it gets cold."

That seemed to break whatever spell they were under. Both smiled weak smiles and actually began to eat. My cell phone loudly rang at that moment, almost as if to signal that all of us eating were an affront to the proper order of the universe. I tried to ignore it but the ring was loud and insistent.

Audra smiled at me and asked, "Why don't you just answer it, dear?"

I looked at the phone to discover the call was from Lenora Wells, the president of the town's historical society. I hoped that Lenora had something to report on the contents of the journal that I had loaned her several weeks back.

"Hi, Lenora, how are things going? Have you learned anything from the book?"

Lenora sounded excited as she hardly waited for me to finish my question before she began talking. "You wouldn't believe the time we've had with the information in this book. I've been working on completing a transcript almost full time with two of our society's oldest and dearest members. None of us had any idea that there had ever been a way post on the Underground Railroad anywhere near here. We've hardly been able to sleep since you loaned us the book. We've been busy researching names and locations and so far have been able to authenticate a little over ten percent of the names with various genealogical groups. I hope that we can borrow the book for a little longer; we've also made detailed copies that I hope you will allow us to keep. I wanted to stop over later today if you have time and share the story that one of those slaves wrote in the back of the book. I also hope that you might give me the tour of the passageways and tunnels in the house that you promised several weeks ago."

"Lenora we would be delighted to have you this afternoon. We've just been out to Arizona and brought back the former owner of the house, Mrs. Irma Anderson, to live with us. She had found parts of the tunnels many years ago and I'm sure she would be as interested as we are in finding out what you have learned. What time would you like to stop by?"

Lenora answered, "You have Irma there with you now? That is wonderful. One of our members, Mr. Matthew Donaldson, shared with us his remembrance of a dinner party that he and his departed wife attended many years ago that was hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. He told us that he remembered his surprise at finding such a delightful old house in the middle of what appeared to be a modern suburb. Maybe I could bring Mr. Donaldson over as well."

I asked Lenora to hold on a moment and turned to Irma, who had seemed interested in the conversation. I relayed Lenora's request to her. Irma seemed delighted that we would have visitors and agreed to Mr. Donaldson's visit. I let Lenora know and we agreed upon three o'clock as the time of the visit.

Almost as soon as I hung up Audra and Irma chased me out of the kitchen so they could begin preparations for the afternoon meeting. I decided to find something else to occupy my time so I went to check on the status of the remodeling job in the former servant's quarters. Along the way I passed Mr. Whiskers who was coming down the set of stairs that led to the attic. I was puzzled at the time as I was sure that the door to the attic was closed and locked.

I was surprised that the renovations to the large area were going so well. The false wall that had been added by the Anderson's when they split the servant's quarters into two bedrooms had been removed and the hardwood floors that were underneath the wall were in the process of being stripped and sanded, along with all of the floors in the small apartment. The baseboards and crown moldings had been sanded and were waiting for a fresh coat of paint. The different wall paper for the two bedrooms had been partially stripped from the plaster walls in preparation for painting or wall papering. I would have to have Irma decide what types of wall coverings we would put up.

I heard the door buzzer go off and arrived at the front door at the same time as Irma. She had obviously called Elise to help prepare for Lenora's visit later in the afternoon. Elise waved in passing as she was shown into the kitchen by an obviously excited Irma.

I then decided to study the map that we had discovered in what we now called the treasure room and see if I could make any more sense of it. Hector and I had attempted to follow the map but had been stifled by a lack of surviving landmarks. The only reference that I was sure of was the entrance to the cavern in the basement and that was underwater and still to be located. The rest of the landmarks were compass directions from that point and large trees and rocks along the old shoreline.

I was sitting at the roll top desk, now moved upstairs to my new office, comparing the brittle map carefully opened up in front of me to a more modern topographic map of the current shoreline when the door buzzer rang again. The raucous buzzing distracted me at the precise moment that I thought I was beginning to see some commonality between the two documents. I cursed my ill fortune and started to rise to answer the door when I heard the security chime that indicated that the door had been opened.

Curiosity pulled me away from the map long enough to go to the top of the stairs to try to glimpse sight of our visitors. I smiled when I saw Hector coming up the stairs. I shook his hand as he topped the stairs and asked, "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what are you doing here this morning? I thought you and Camilla were going house hunting."

Hector smiled and said, "Already found the perfect house. It was the last one we cleaned out last week. You know, it was the one on the cul-de-sac at the end of Sycamore. Think you can talk to that fellow at the bank that you know about giving us a good price on it?"

I grinned. "He's got so many houses now that I'm sure he'll want to deal. He was cursing the other day; saying that the selling prices on the new appraisals were averaging 40% less than what the bank was owed. He knows the bank'll never be able to get what's owed with the appraisals coming in so low. The bad thing about it is that a lot of those families might have been able to stay in those houses if they'd been priced at what they're now worth."

Hector asked, "You got any idea what that one will go for?"

I shrugged and answered, "The appraisals he was showing me were on a couple of similar places over on Hernandez Court that we cleared out about three weeks ago. Those were appraised at between seventy and ninety thousand. I would say a four bedroom like the one you want would be closer to ninety than seventy. Can you swing payments on that?"

Hector gave me a big smile nodding his answer. He said, "Hell, with what you're paying me per house now, I can easily afford that. That is if we continue to get work. That's a hell of a thing isn't it? I mean, to be making a living off of people losing their homes."

I grimaced. "Actually I don't expect that to continue too much longer. I plan to start doing more remodeling than cleanouts sometime next year. I know most of your crews would rather be building something than cleaning. I think when the economy begins to grow that there's going to be a lot of pent up demand for remodeling and building. I think, as flexible as we are, we'll have work, one way or another."

Hector looked over at the map laid out on my desk and asked, "You figured out where that buried treasure is yet?"

I laughed and ushered Hector to a seat beside me in front of the map. I answered, "Not yet, but I thought I saw some similarities between this old shoreline and some of the depth lines on this topographic map. Let me show you."

We spent the next hour penciling in what we imagined was the old shoreline on the topographic map. If what we imagined was true, then nearly twenty foot of the shoreline had eroded since the original map was drawn. Even without landmarks we agreed that the treasure was most likely buried out in the bay somewhere. That didn't mean that the treasure was unreachable, just that it was going to be hard as hell to find.

When we spoke of 'the treasure' we had no idea what it was. All we really knew was that we had a map that led to a spot with an 'X' on it. We spent part of the morning speculating about what might be buried there.

Hector said, "I doubt it's gold doubloons. I read on the internet that most pirates divided up what they stole and ended up spending it to live off of."

I of course argued the opposite. "Why make a map then? I mean, what would they bury if not treasure? The common stuff they stole was all in the treasure room. It had to be something that was valuable enough to bury away from the other stuff."

Hector argued, "Then why did they put the map in the treasure room to start with? Maybe they already went back and dug it up? Maybe it's a false map; you know to draw people away from where the real treasure is buried. I know I read that real pirate treasure maps are mostly in fictional stories. Even where people have a general idea where pirates buried treasure sometimes they've dug for years and years and never found it."

I laughed and said, "Well, it's something to look for. It'll keep us busy, if nothing else."

Hector laughed and said, "Camilla keeps me busy enough as it is. If we buy that new place I have a feeling she's going to have a list of stuff a mile long for me to do."

Neither of us realized that our discussion had taken up the entire morning until we heard a knock at the office door. It ended up being Audra, letting us know that we had lunch ready in the kitchen.



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Chapter 3: A Slave's Story


Lunch was a thick potato soup and ham sandwiches from ham that was left over from Irma's welcome home party. We discussed our meeting during lunch and invited Hector and Camilla to stay and hear what Lenora had found out. Camilla declined our invitation due to a previous engagement. Hector's nephew was being christened at about the same time and Hector and Camilla were to be his godparents. They left for the church in the next town shortly after we finished lunch.

I continued working with the map after lunch. The scale of the map was not apparent and without clearly established reference points it was frustrating work. Some of the old shoreline seemed to match some of the lines on the topographic map marking where the water depth was ten feet. I looked at the shoreline using Google Earth to see if any additional hidden characteristics were visible but found nothing.

I used my digital camera to take pictures of both the pirate map and the topographic map and created two separate jpeg files on the computer. Then I used a lite version of a sophisticated photo editing software program that came with my printer to manipulate both prints until I thought they were the same relative size. I next edited the pirate map so that it was basically a line drawing over a transparent background. Then I began the detailed work of trying to overlay that drawing over the topographic map, using the similarities in the ten foot depth line as a reference point.

I had just started this delicate work when there was a soft knock on the door. Irritated I shouted, "Go away, I'm busy."

The door creaked open and Audra said, "You don't have to shout. I just wanted to let you know that Lenora is due here in 15 minutes. We've set it up to meet with her in the den because it's more comfortable. Elise went home to get Edward and will be back in a few minutes."

I said, "Sorry for snapping at you. I was trying to get a handle on the pirate map. It has been slow and frustrating work with the changes in the shoreline since that time. I didn't mean to take out my frustration on you."

Then thinking about our interrupted conversation earlier that morning I added, "I do love you, Audra. I know I sounded selfish this morning but I missed having you close to me. I didn't mean to take you for granted."

I was saying that as I moved towards her. I took her in my arms and hugged her to my body. Then I added, "I hope you can forgive me?"

Audra seemed to melt into my embrace as she looked up at me and answered, "There's nothing really to forgive. I've missed you as much as you've missed me. I hardly slept at all last night. I should have talked to you before just moving out of your bedroom."

Then Audra pushed away from my hug and said, "Don't be too much longer."

As soon as she left I closed out the program on the computer, saving the files in the process. I reached the bottom of the stairs just as the doorbell rang. It was Elise and Edward. Elise was carrying some more of the leftovers from the previous evening's party.

Irma helped Elise carry her bundle of goodies into the kitchen while I showed Edward into the den. After the preliminary greetings, Edward asked, "So have you had a chance to examine the map?"

I was just about to answer when I was interrupted by the annoying buzzing of the doorbell. I rose to answer it but before I could make it out of the den I heard Audra's voice say, "Won't you please come in? We've decided to meet in the den."

I met Lenora and Matthew at the door. After everyone moved into the den, Edward, who knew Matthew from his club, made the introductions. Matt, a jovial and pleasant fellow, must have been an excellent salesman sometime during his working life. He was quick to give Irma his condolences and began to reminisce about the long ago dinner parties that he remembered when she had been the hostess.

After everyone was relaxed and mutual introductions had been made we settled back into the comfortable overstuffed furniture ready for our meeting. Lenora was the center of attention as she had the ledger in her lap. As soon as everyone was comfortable she began, "Joe I just want to state publicly that the members of the Historical Society feel honored that you gave us the first opportunity to examine this treasure. It's certainly been a virtual storehouse of knowledge about a period of local history that we had very little detailed information on.

"To give you some background, let me just say that although all of us had read about the Underground Railroad in school no one had any idea that there was at one time a way station of that clandestine network operating in our area. From what we thought we knew about the history of that organization, most of the slaves followed existing roadways and waterways to Canada and to ultimate freedom. That meant that most of them moved up the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, followed large inland roads, or were smuggled aboard boats in major port cities of the south that took them to the northern states where they more openly made their way to Canada. Our town was never thought to have a part in this as it was never a port as such, or so we though. Anyway, let me tell you what we've discovered so far about this house.

"It appears that Sir Jeremiah Chadwicke was the first legal owner of the property itself. Sir Jeremiah was a British privateer of some note and the nephew of the sixth Duke of Northampton. During the colonial period privateers were a cheap way for great powers to control actual piracy and foreign commerce along the coastlines of their new colonies. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Frances Drake were two of the better known men who began their careers as privateers. Sir Jeremiah was less well known but very successful as a privateer. History tells us that he harassed French and Spanish traders and kept pirates at bay for a period of almost twenty years along this coast.

"Sir Jeremiah was awarded the property by the crown as a token of their appreciation for those illustrious years of service. It's not known why Sir Jeremiah wanted this property, but we think that his father fought a sea battle near this location where he defeated a small fleet of pirate vessels. This battle seems to have involved family honor. He may have suspected that this property was being used by those pirates as some sort of a rendezvous point or camp."

I interrupted at that point and asked, "So Sir Jeremiah built the first house here?"

Matt nodded to Lenora and said, "If I may?"

Lenora answered, "Certainly."

Matt continued, "Sir Jeremiah wasn't interested in settling in the new world. To him, the new world was a place he could make a name for himself and make a place for himself back in England. From what we do know, he retired and married well, the third cousin of the seventh Duke of Northampton, and lived out his life on his family's estate north of London. He died in 1732. The grant was a bit unusual, but his request stated that it was the center of a pirate settlement and he believed it to be a part of his due as a privateer. After the grant was awarded it lay untouched for almost twenty-five years. Sir Jeremiah's grandson, Joshua Black, was the first one to see the benefit of the grant.

"Joshua was an Anabaptist protestant who was an embarrassment and danger to his family. He was given the property in America to get him out of England and out of the way. Being anything other than a member of the Church of England was considered both heresy and, since the king was the leader of the church, treason at the time. Again, the records are sketchy but it is known that Joshua's family moved from England and settled and built the first home in this area about 1755."

Irma, who seemed to be hanging on Matt's every word, interrupted and said, "I never suspected that this house was anywhere near that old."

Lenora shook her head and quickly said, "Oh no, it's not. That was an earlier house and it is obviously long gone. We've never known exactly where that house was located."

Matt seemed a bit perturbed at the interruption but continued, "As I was about to say, Joshua Black settled here and later fought in the American Revolution. Unfortunately, he was on the losing side in that conflict. It's glossed over in history books but many settlers fought on the side of the crown during that conflict. The personal animosity between patriots and loyalists was extremely high. Many areas were fairly evenly divided with neighbors virtually at war with neighbors.

"When Joshua went off to join in the fighting as a loyalist some of the patriots in the next county, his nearest neighbors, took offense. To show their displeasure they rode over as a group in the middle of the night and burned his house to the ground. Fortunately they acted more civilized than some in similar circumstances, as they allowed his wife and children to leave the house before they burned it. Joshua was wounded and captured during the Battle of King's Mountain and was eventually paroled until the end of the war. After the war he and his family, along with many other loyalists, were resettled in Canada. In exchange he gave up his claim to the land, which reverted to the state and was considered repatriations."

Elise asked the next question, "So there is no connection between Joshua Black and this house then?"

Lenora smiled and answered, "Not as far as we know. Matt's area of study has been that earlier period and he insisted that we give you the full account of that history."

Matt immediate added, "If my guess is correct that original house was built close to the location of the later house. It was not unusual during that time to erect newer houses on the foundation of homes that were destroyed. It saved money and labor."

Irma spoke next and asked, "So who actually built this house?"

Lenora spoke this time. "That's where it gets interesting. Before we had this ledger, we had assumed the second house was also destroyed and the location lost to history as well. We do know that that second house burned to the ground in 1828. This ledger confirms that. It also confirms that almost immediately after that house was destroyed a third house was built over the same spot, being completed in 1831 or thereabout. Both the second and third houses were built by Eli Corban, a cotton merchant from New England. Eli had contacts with the owners of several of the large inland cotton plantations and bid on at least part of their harvest each year. There was a huge competition between the textile mills of New England and those in England itself. English merchants were formidable competitors. Eli felt that if he were located closer to the source of the valuable cotton he could get a jump on the traders from England. He was frustrated in that they always seemed to take delight in outbidding him by a penny or so a hundredweight on the bales of cotton at the wharfs in the large ports. He thought that the plantation owners would be willing to forego this small price difference if they didn't have to transport their cotton hundreds of miles to the large market ports.

"Eli purchased the land from the state and settled into this area in 1823 where he built the first house on this site. About five years later that house burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances. Almost immediately construction began on a new, much grander house. Construction of that house took almost five years. We wondered why construction took so long and now we know, thanks again to this ledger and seeing the old house itself.

"We also learned from paragraphs in this ledger that Eli's moving to this area was primarily motivated by his abolitionist leanings. It seems strange to me that a man such as Eli, who made his livelihood buying and selling cotton, a product of slave labor, was also actively involved in trying to end that slavery. It's obvious that part of the reason the house took five years to build was because of the technology built into the house to aid in hiding runaway slaves. He couldn't use local labor as he needed the expertise of the best craftsmen. He also needed craftsmen who were discreet and sympathized with his cause. Some of the construction costs were most likely provided by one or more of the abolitionist societies in the Boston area. This house was built to enable Eli to transport runaway slaves from nearby plantations, along with his cotton, over a thousand miles from here to the small towns in New England that were the destination for that cotton. Those towns were within a hundred miles of Canada, which as you know was the terminus of the Underground Railroad."

I couldn't believe that I was sitting surrounded by history. I commented, "You found out most of that from the ledger?"

Lenora was practically beaming, "Oh, much more than that. This book is a national treasure. I'm sure one day it will be cited in history books. It was only left behind because it was the work of a slave. I'm sure Eli used Willie's accounts in reports to the abolitionist societies in New England that supported his works here. We haven't even touched on some of the most important things in the ledger. This was mainly background, to show you the importance of this book. To have the book is one thing but to have located it in the actual house itself makes it so much more valuable. I don't think that there's another such a combination in the entire south."

Excited and anxious to get things moving I asked, "You mean there's more in the ledger? What else did you find?"

Lenora turned to Matt and said, "Matt, you tell him Willie's story. You tell it so much better than I do."

Irma looked confused as she asked, "Who was Willie? I thought we were talking about Eli."

Matt smiled and answered, "Willie wrote the story in the back of the ledger. We had a hard time reading what he wrote. He printed his words and wasn't used to writing small and within the lines of the ledger. Writing for Willie must have been laborious. After we translated what he wrote, and because of the pidgin dialect he used it was a translation, it was a wonderful story. You see Willie was Eli's house slave."

Something didn't sound right when he said that. I said the first thing that came to my mind. "Eli was an abolitionist, right? How could he own a slave?"

Matt smiled and continued, "Eli did own a slave. When you think of it, it was perfect. It must have been hard for him to accept at first but it allowed him to fit in. It also solved a practical matter. You see even though Eli was an abolitionist, that didn't mean that he liked associating with blacks ... I know, it seems strange, but most of the abolitionists in the north had never met a black man face to face. It was easy to oppose slavery because slavery had no relevance or value to most of the abolitionists. Eli was no different, except that his livelihood did depend on slavery. He was opposed to it on moral principal but had to support it as a practical matter. We see the same thing today. People say they are appalled at child labor in factories in China and yet still own the inexpensive electronics and consumer goods produced by that labor, but I'm getting off the point.

"One of the first problems that Eli faced, when he moved into the new house, was that in order to help the slaves escape he would have to come into close contact with them. That wasn't something that Eli cared to do. He solved that by buying Willie Thompson. Willie was a house slave owned by a small plantation owner in the next county. Willie had earned the wrath of his owner in some manner and was put up for sale. It may have been that his owner found that he had learned to write, because that wasn't just forbidden, it was illegal. For whatever reason, we know Eli purchased Willie in a private transaction for $84.

"Willie had been a house slave, not a field slave, and was used to the routine operations that went on in a big house. Willie must have had some above ordinary intelligence as he learned to both read and write in a society where that was not only frowned upon, but as I said earlier, against the law. The penalty for teaching a slave to read and write was normally twice the value of the slave for the owner and a severe flogging for the slave. I think that is why Willie used the back of this ledger to tell his story. I mean, it is highly unlikely that Master Eli would let the account book kept of those passing through fall into the hands of the law.

"Willie only mentioned briefly his life on the plantation before he was bought by Eli in the book. The story he told in the book centered on his life in this house. Age was another thing we have to consider when we look at Willie's story. Willie was 40 years old by his own reckoning when he wrote his story. That was old age for a field slave but not old at all for a house slave. One of the reasons that slave states passed laws forbidding freeing slaves was that some plantation owners freed slaves when they became old and incapable of work. Those slaves became a burden on the towns and counties that they lived in as they owned no property and were incapable of working to feed themselves. Anyway, enough background, this is our best translation of Willie's story. We've made some corrections to his grammar to make it easier to read."

As he was finished talking Lenora was opening a folder. I could see that there were loose typewritten pages in the folder. Almost as if they had rehearsed it she began to read softly after Matt's last words.

"My name is Willie Thompson. I's a house slave. I was born forty years back. My mammy is Mattie Thompson. She's a house slave and I 'spect she's still owned by Mister George Thompson. I never knowed my father. My mammy wouldn't talk about him. I was born in the Thompson plantation house. Master Thompson was my master until he sold me to Mister Eli Corban. Master Corban owns me now.

"I never knowed my last name 'til I was sold to Master Corban. I was always just called Willie or hey boy. I never see'd any place outside the plantation until I was sold away. On the plantation first thing every day I toted wood and built fires in all the fireplaces in the house. That might not sound like much work but it was 'cause there were twelve fireplaces in the house. After I finished doing that I waited until the white folks woke up. Then I helped the young masters get dressed proper. My work until evening was mainly toting and fetching things for the women. The most important work in the house was done by mammy and the other slave women. They did all of the laundry, cooking, cleaning and dressed all of the ladies of the house.

"Things sure are different here. Here I'm Master Corban's only slave and I do everything, including some things that are women's work. Thank goodness Mistress Lilly, Master's wife, don't make me do the cooking for the family. I heard her tell Master that she ain't going to eat no nigger food. I don't know what she means 'cause I done seen what she fixes and it ain't no different than the food mammy used to cook for the plantation.

"Master said he bought me to help him look out for the runaway slaves that come here. Ain't nobody s'posed to knows about them. This book tells 'bout them and that's why I'm writing my story in here. Master makes me take care of this room and keep this book hid. I writes their names in the book 'cause none of them field niggers can read or write anyway. Both Master Thompson and Master Corban told me I's got to keep that secret. No slaves ain't supposed to be able to write.

"I knowed my life wasn't easy but it was a sight easier than any field slave I ever knowed. I talked to field slaves on Sunday after church on the plantation. Master Thompson was a Christian man and didn't work the fields on Sunday. Master Thompson's field slaves said he's a fair man. He works the slaves hisself and don't whip no man that don't deserve it. Most of Master Thompson's field slaves are men. Master Thompson lets the women what jumped over the broom lives together with their man. The rest of the womens lives in separate shacks and cooks and cleans clothes for the single men.

"Most all of the field slaves that come through here are big strong men. Sometimes they brings their women with them. I talks to every one and I write down their words. Most will talk but some just wants to be left alone. I gets stories out of most of them, mostly the same. Nearly all come from plantations what use overseers to work the slaves. Overseers don't own the slaves they just gets paid to work them. Most use the whip all the time to keep the men working. Some of those field nigger's backs are so broke up by lashings that they always sleeps on their bellies. I even seed some of the women what was whipped as bad as men.

"I think I sees why most runs away but I has to asks anyway. Most say it's from the beatings but I knows. Mainly it's the way the boss and masters use slave womens for their pleasure. They uses them hard and don't even recognize jumpin' over the broom or even believe slaves should have families. I thinks love is the same for field slaves as it is for white folks."

Lenora paused and said, "There's a lot more here but a lot of it is repetition. I'm going to skip the repetitive parts and just read some of the things that I think are important. I'll leave you a copy of the translation and you can read the whole thing later."

Irma spoke quickly and asked, "I think I've heard about 'jumping the broom' before. Wasn't it something like carrying the bride across the threshold?"

"Good question," Matt answered. "A lot is not known about exactly where that ceremony came from or all of the meaning but it is known that for most slaves it took the place of marriage. Slaves weren't allowed church or even civil marriages and marriages between slaves simply weren't performed because they weren't recognized as legal. Slave families could be sold apart because of that. Most believe that the custom came from Africa as a symbol that the woman was committing to cleaning the man's yard. Sometimes there it was used to decide who would make the decisions in the marriage. The one who jumped the highest was given that right."

Audra said, "So it was the only way slaves could be married then?"

Lenora smiled and said, "That's what we think. I've just got a few more short paragraphs I want to read to you. In this one Willie is speaking about himself after he's been living here for quite a while. He's probably in his sixties as he writes this. The civil war is only a few years off and the divide between the north and the south has grown greater. Eli is older and finding it hard to purchase enough cotton to justify his being here. For political reasons most of the local cotton is going to mills in England now."

"Master Eli done told me that these boys we have here now will be the last. He told me I can make the same trip and be free if I wants. No one seems to wants an old nigger man...

"Master Eli done 'splained that him and Mistress Lilly are leavin'. No one will sell him no more cotton. He told me I can't be his slave where he's going but I can work for him in his new house. I told him I don't 'spect there's no difference. He said he would manumit me as soon as we were on the ship. He said after that meant I wouldn't be a slave anymore. He would give me wages for my work. I done told him it don't make no difference to me but it will to these poor niggers we done been helping."

"That last part was near the end. I don't know if you looked through Willie's record of those who waited here before boarding the cotton schooner for the trip north and to freedom but there were 278 names in that list. As I told you before we have identified only about ten percent of them from genealogical records as many probably moved on into Canada. We are working with several local historical societies in Massachusetts trying to find records of Eli Corban and his family as well as any mention of Willie Thompson; no luck so far.

"We know that this house was sold to an English cotton merchant by Eli and then was bought by a carpetbagger when the end of the Civil War and the lack of cheap labor put a temporary end to cotton production in this area. The carpetbagger, a Randolph Wallace, was a major with the 3rd Ohio Artillery. He owned the house for over thirty years but moved back to Ohio after living here only fifteen years after the war. He was appointed county sheriff and made quite a fortune buying up old property for back taxes. An old newspaper story said say he was run out of town on a rail wearing a tar and feathers coat after reconstruction ended.

"The house went through several owners and was a small rooming house for many years. It eventually ended up in such poor repair that it was almost torn down. Then a local builder, Sam Elliott, bought the property after World War II. In the early fifties he followed the example of William Levitt and subdivided the property into building lots and created one of the first true subdivisions in the state. I believe Irma and her husband bought the property from Mr. Elliot's company after the house was restored. The architects of Mr. Elliott's company used the exterior features of this house in most of the other large houses that his company built."

Lenora reluctantly handed me back the ledger book and a copy of the translation of Willie's story. I told her that the book would be here if she needed it in the future. As it was late we made an appointment for Lenora and several members of the historical society to return and explore the house's secrets the following week. I didn't mention the logbooks nor did I discuss the treasure room or the map. It was getting late and I'm sure all of us were still thinking about what we had heard as Lenora and Matt left.



-------

Chapter 4: An Interlude


We had a long talk that evening with Irma over a hastily prepared supper. Audra's face was a lovely red during most of the conversation. I'm sure that she would have been happier if I had not been quite as forthcoming in my description of our relationship but I didn't want to take a chance that I was misunderstood. Irma sagely nodded her agreement as I proceeded. In the end most of her questions were for Audra.

"Whatever gave you the idea that I wouldn't approve of you sleeping with Joe? Is it because I am old? You think that because I'm old I have old fashioned ideas. The important thing to remember is that I whole-heartedly approved of your relationship. I'm not your mother but I doubt she'd be too upset with you anyway. You know she left her home and lived with your father for a good bit before they were properly married. I know for a fact that they didn't sleep in separate beds before they were married. In any case it's more a matter of being right for each other and it's easy to see that you two are..."

Then Irma laughed and said, " ... and besides, sometimes you fight like you're already married."

Audra blushed even more deeply.

Irma continued, " ... and another thing. Stop treating me like company. Let me cook and clean and act like this is my house again. I want to really live here. I don't want to feel like I'm one of these relics that I collected."

I think that last statement shocked us both. Audra was contrite as she replied, "I just wanted to make you feel at home. We both want you to feel like family. Don't we, Joe?"

I was quick to add, "Of course we do. I've lived alone for so many years that I've almost forgotten what family means. Please let me know if I mess up. This is new for all of us so it may take a while before we're all comfortable."

Irma smiled and said, "I hope it doesn't take too long; I'm an old lady you know."

Audra put her hands on her hips and said, "You're not old. Why, you're not any older than my mother."

Irma turned serious and said, "You may be right but I'm old enough to have outlived my husband. I sat around in this house for quite a few years wondering if I was really of any use to anyone. It may sound funny but Chad's ill health made me feel needed for the first time in many, many years. I know for a fact that I don't want to be taken care of any more. I've had enough of that."

Audra got up and hugged Irma. She said, "You cared for me and were very important to me while I grew up. Sometimes I feel like you had more to do with raising me than my own parents. When mom was busy, and she was always busy, I knew I could come to you with my hurts and problems and that you always had time for me."

I tried to lighten the moment by saying, "So, I'm living with my mother-in-law and I'm not even married yet."

The glare I got from Audra let me know really quick that she wasn't big on in-law jokes. I quickly added, "It was a joke."

Audra murmured, just under her breath, "Not much of one."

Irma laughed and patted Audra's hand. She looked at me and said, "I think that's the root of the problem. I don't want to be the mother-in-law. You kids need to live your own lives. I know you can't act like I'm not here. Heavens, I don't know if my heart could take that anyway, but you need to have your own space. It will be better when I'm settled in down here."

Then she looked at Audra, patted her hand again, and said, "Now go over there and hug that big guy. He's pretty special you know. Not many men would invite an old lady to stay with them right before they got married."

Audra again said, "You're not old."

Then she came over with a smile and gave me a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. I took her hands and asked her, "Does this mean that we're back on the same page?"

Audra saucily answered, "What page is that? The one where I make your coffee and warm your bed at night?

She laughed at the look on my face and then jumped up as I pinched her butt.

A few minutes later we were all busily reminiscing about the events of the long day. I explained to both interested women about what I was attempting to do with the map overlay. We all debated as to what the treasure could be and all agreed that finding it had nothing to do with the actual value but more about solving another puzzle presented by the old house.

With all of our discussion we went up to bed late that Saturday evening. As we all made our way up the stairs I was anticipating an immediate return to the way things had been. I was disappointed when Audra entered the same bedroom she had slept in the night before. Irma continued on down the hall to her own door where she turned to me and said, "Give her some time, Joe."

I was disappointed as I began to strip off my clothes and looked at the large four poster bed in front of me. I sat down on the edge of the bed to take off my shoes and wondered how much longer I would have to wait. One thing I knew in my heart; Audra was worth waiting for. I cut out the bedside light and climbed under the covers. Just as I was drifting off to sleep the door to my room opened. I glanced over as Audra entered the room and silently walked around the bed. I gasped at her beauty as she passed the foot of the bed and was momentarily silhouetted in the light of the full moon.

She heard my gasp and stopped where she was and turned to face me. Facing me she let her sheer housecoat fall off her shoulders as she asked, "What?"

I sat up in bed with my eyes straining to take in all of her beauty and replied, "Your beauty took my breath away."

Audra let her housecoat fall to the floor and crawled over the footboard onto the foot of the bed and made her way up the bed into my arms. Almost immediately we both drifted off to sleep. The last thing I remembered was feeling comforted by the rhythmic sound of Audra's breathing.

I awoke with Audra still cuddled in my arms and found the moonlight of the previous evening replaced by bright sunlight streaming through the eastern facing windows at the head of the bed. Somehow in the excitement of Audra's return the previous evening I had neglected closing the blinds. Thinking back on the sight of Audra walking into the room in the moonlight, I doubted whether I would ever close those blinds in the evening again.

I spooned even closer to Audra's naked form as she slept. I lightly kissed her neck as it seemed to beckon me close by on my own pillow. That moment should be listed as an example in Mr. Webster's dictionary under the word contentment. My heart was fairly racing as I lay there. The sweet fragrance of her hair seemed renewed by every breath I took. I pulled Audra closer to me and closed my eyes trying to imprint this moment in my mind. I tried to return to sleep but the feel of Audra's naked breast under my hand was too stimulating to my libido.

I honestly tried to think of other things to avoid disturbing Audra's sleep. Finally I realized that I was too stimulated to sleep any longer and if I lingered in bed any longer I wouldn't be able to resist waking my princess. Reluctantly I pulled away from her and got up as quietly as possible. I quietly made my way to my dresser and removed clean clothes that I intended to change into in the adjoining bathroom after a quick shower.

I accomplished my task fairly quickly and afterwards tried to tiptoe through the bedroom to the hallway. I almost made it to the door when Audra awoke. She sat up holding the sheet to her chest, looked around and mumbled, "Where are you going?"

"I didn't want to disturb you. You looked so peaceful lying there I was trying not to wake you. You did such a fine job warming my bed last night I decided to make my own coffee this morning."

Audra looked puzzled for a moment and I thought my weak attempt at humor had zinged right over her head but after a moment of hesitation she yawned and stretched, allowing the sheet to fall from her bare chest. Then while I was hypnotized by her charms she swung her feet onto the floor and backhanded me with my own pillow.

Then, as I was recovering, she stood on her tiptoes and gave me a buss on the lips. After smiling she said, "Maybe tomorrow I'll make your coffee and let you warm your own bed."

With that said she picked up her discarded housecoat and headed naked across the hall into her own bedroom to change; leaving me with my mouth opened trying to think of a suitable response.

As soon as I reached the kitchen Mr. Whiskers began rubbing up against my leg and continued to do so until I fed him his morning ration of premium cat food. I put the teapot on and had just started making the coffee when Audra appeared and with a smug look took the coffee canister out of my hand. She stuck her tongue out at me and said, "That's my job."

I kissed the top of her head and replied, "Yes, dear."

Mr. Whiskers looked over as if to say, "Oh, please! Spare me the sniveling."

It was still early and so we agreed to walk to Dennon's for some morning pastry. We decided if Irma wanted something else, she could make it. On the way we talked about the upcoming week. Audra asked me about my plans for the week.

"You know I have to get involved in the business again. I know Hector seems to be on top of things but it's my business, not his. Besides he's going to need the week off to get together with the bank on that home he wants to buy."

Audra and I were holding hands as I spoke. She asked, "So why don't you take Hector by the bank and introduce him around?"

I lifted her hand and kissed the back of it and answered, "Good idea. I'm thinking about introducing him around to all the bankers I deal with. If we expand into renovations and construction, the business is going to need another contact person."

Audra said, "You need to make him more than a contact person. You need to bring him in as a partner. That way you won't be so tied down to the business. I don't ever want to feel trapped at home like Irma felt."

"You shouldn't; there's no reason for it. You just need to decide what you want to do. You can continue your education or do whatever interests you. You can even work with me in the business if you want."

She grinned at me and said, "I wouldn't think you had much need for a coffee maker or bed warmer in the corporate world."

I laughed when she said that but then winced when I realized that that I would probably be hearing that refrain for years to come. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if there were quite a few coffee makers and bed warmers in the corporate world.

The walk continued with us side by side on the narrow sidewalk occasionally bumping hips and turning to grin at each other like a couple of love sick teenagers. It was a beautiful morning for a walk. The sun was shining and the birds chirped in the trees along the way. Most people were probably still snug in their beds asleep.

Just before exiting the subdivision to make the turn to Dennon's one stretch of the sidewalk wound along the crest of the hill giving a panoramic view of the bay below. There was a knee-high stone wall built along the bay side of the sidewalk that might have been built at the time of the original subdivision. This was the only place on our walk where we had a fairly unobstructed view of the bay. I remembered that Elise had told me that the city had wanted to construct a scenic overlook at this point about ten years ago but the residents of the neighborhood had put up such a fuss that the city had abandoned the idea.

Audra and I stopped to gaze across the bay. Without the morning fog that was so common in this area I could see the far shoreline. I noticed that the steeply sloped hillside below the small wall was itself covered in granite riprap, most likely to slow the effects of erosion.

I also realized that none of the nearby houses actually sat on the bay itself. All of them sat up the hill with back yards that were fenced off well away from the eroded shoreline. I also noticed that in most places there were stunted trees and vine covered brambles growing behind the fences all the way to the edge of the water.

Audra interrupted my reverie by asking, "Do you really think there's a treasure out there somewhere?"

I stared at the water, something important eluding me in that moment. Then I replied, "I think there is. Oh, it might not be gold, silver or jewels but there's something out there. Whether we find it is another question. It's not hard to look out across those waters and imagine pirate ships anchored there. The land behind our house must have been one of few places on the bay where the land sloped gently down to the sea. They may have stopped by chance the first time to shoot game or get fresh water. Finding the cavern there and the fact that no one lived nearby was probably enough reason to bring them back."

Audra said, "That or they discovered the entrance to the cavern right off and came back because of that. Imagine the work that it must have taken to construct those tunnels."

I nodded, "You may be right about the cavern drawing them back. Then once they had dug that tunnel to the other side of the hill they would have felt this was a place of safety and come more regularly."

Audra said, "You've got this all figured out, haven't you?"

I laughed and hugged her to me. "Not by a long shot. Every time I think I know what happened we find something else. I just hope we get a chance to discover the rest of the mysteries before the state steps in and runs us off."

Audra pulled away from me and sounded indignant as she said, "They can't do that. You own the place."

I laughed again and drew her into my arms. Holding her, I mumbled, "When has that ever stopped government from taking what they want? All they have to do is decide they want it, shout 'eminent domain' and it's only a matter of time until we're out of there."

I could feel Audra tense in my arms as she said, "Maybe it would have been better if we'd never found any of those tunnels."

I hugged her and as we continued with our walk said, "If that were the case we never would have met. Think what a tragedy that would have been ... for me anyway."

Dennon's was just as full of sweet odors as before. The only difference was that with Audra on my arm my focus was on her rather than on the atmosphere of the old bakery. Audra again looked to be a child as she pointed from one sweet pastry to another. She seemed to know exactly what she wanted and kept the counter lady busy filling the large cardboard box. I left her alone long enough to pick up a Styrofoam cup of coffee and dig out my wallet.

We left the shop still savoring the smells of the pastries in the box. Audra slapped at my fingers as I tried to open the tape on the box to get to the goodies inside. Then she made me feel like an errant schoolboy when she scolded me with a stern voice saying, "Stop it, you can just wait like everyone else until we get home."

In an exaggerated manner I looked around trying to find 'everyone else.'

Audra caught me looking and said, "What are you doing now?"

I exclaimed, "Just looking for 'everybody else'."

She laughed and said, "You know what I meant. Honestly, sometimes I don't think you have any patience at all."

I thought about what she said. I thought I was a very patient person. I didn't say anything though as you never knew where comments like that might lead. Then I noticed Audra flick the other tape open on the other flap of the cardboard box and peek in at the contents.

I said, "Unh, uh. Have patience little girl. That's a no no."

Audra grinned and said, "Oh, it's okay when you're carrying the box. It's Sunday morning and even the Bible says it's okay."

I was puzzled and said so. "It's been a long time since I opened a Bible but I don't think there's anything in the Bible about donuts."

Audra said, "Well it's not really about donuts. I don't think they had donuts back then."

I laughed and said, "Well dear lady, why don't you give me my Sunday school lesson this morning. You can teach me what the Bible says that lets the person carrying a box of donuts have one while the poor person walking with her doesn't."

I think she would have put her hands on her hips and glared at me except that she had the box of pastries in both of her hands. She did glare at me but then smiled and asked, "How much do you want to bet?"

I grinned and said, "How about one of those cream filled donuts that you made sure she put near the top of the box?"

Audra brightened considerably and said, "Deal."

Then she started opening the box. I pushed down on the top and said, "Not yet, you haven't won anything."

Audra grinned and stuck her tongue out at me. Then she said, "I was just looking. It'll be mine in a minute.

She deliberately closed the box and said, "It's in the Old Testament. I'm not sure where. It's one of the rules that the Israelites were supposed to live by."

I laughed and said, "I still don't remember one of the Ten Commandments being about donuts."

She freed her hand near me and slapped my arm saying, "Silly, it's not one of the Ten Commandments. It's one of the other rules to live by. I'm not sure this is exactly right but I remember that it was something like 'Don't muzzle the oxen that tramples the grain.'"

I groaned and then grinned, "So are you saying that you are an ox? I guess the donuts are made of grain but if you think I'm going to let you walk on them you're crazy."

Audra punched my arm good and hard then and said, "You're being silly. It means when someone is working, like I am carrying this heavy box," and she held the box up to emphasize how heavy it was, "you shouldn't begrudge them the nourishment they need to complete the job."

I burst out laughing and pointed to our front door. I said, "Well we're home now so I guess we both can have one, right?"

Audra took off for the door and said, "As long as you admit that I won the cream filled one on top fair and square."

We were still laughing when we came into the kitchen. Irma was sitting at the table drinking a cup of tea. She looked up at us and said, "Land sakes, it sounds like you two are having fun this morning."

Audra sat the box on the counter and slid it away from me as I tried to grab a pastry from the top. She said, "Not until you admit I was right."

I calmly walked over to the coffee pot and refilled my cup. Irma asked, "Right about what?"

I said, "She wants me to say she's an ox."

Audra huffed up and exclaimed, "That's not true. He's just being obtuse. He hates it when he's wrong."

I said, "Do not."

She said, "Do too."

Suddenly we both burst out laughing and I hugged her. Then I sat down at the table and told Irma the whole story. At the end she said, "She knows her Bible verses. I was never much of a church goer, but Audra and her mom used to go every Sunday."

Irma looked as if she were thinking of those days and then turned to Audra and asked, "Is that why you stopped going to church with your mother?"

Audra brought the box of donuts to the table with two paper towels, sat down across from me and said, "Yeah, I remember thinking that they were being such hypocrites going to church while stealing from you at the same time. I just couldn't go with her any more after that."

We all got busy eating donuts after that for a while. Audra was surprised when Irma seemed to enjoy the warm pastries as much as she did. Irma let her know that it was Chad who hadn't liked the tasty treats.



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Chapter 5: The Map Puzzle Solved?

Later that morning I managed to slip away and get back to work on the map. Before finding the map I had never even considered that the shoreline that I had looked at my entire life was not the same one seen by our forefathers. I knew that the earth's continents had changed over millions of year. After all, I did watch The Discovery Channel, but I had no idea that such a change could occur over such a relatively short period of time.

It was fortuitous that whoever had drawn the map located numerous natural landmarks that were still in evidence today. Of course, that person had only estimated the distances for some of those landmarks and there were neither actual scale to the map nor any marked distances. I guess I had expected a pirate's map to be more straightforward; you know, 'twenty paces south of the hanging tree' or some such.

The map was more of a general reference than an actual map. Oh, it marked a spot, but the distances to that spot from any of the visible landmarks depended on the scale of the map, which was not uniform and not given. I think the map was drawn more as an aid to help the one who buried the treasure in the first place find it again and was never intended for someone else's use.

I had two points on the old map lined up with two points on the current map of the area but could see other landmarks that were still off. I really needed one more point of reference to give me an accurate overlay. As it was the location of the treasure was either in very shallow water near the shore or in the marshy area on the property now owned by Irma. I was still working with the overlay when Hector knocked on the door of my office. I had been concentrating so hard that I had not even heard the damn door buzzer. I invited him in, noting that he was carrying a large paper bag. As soon as we were seated, I asked, "Hector, my friend, good to see you. I thought you and Camilla would be packing up and getting ready to move."

Hector smiled and shrugged, "She's already got all of that done. Says there's no use doing any more until we get the house. Then we'll be looking at drapes and new carpet and a whole lot of painting before we move in."

"Yeah, a house is a lot of work, but I never had a feeling of belonging when I lived in an apartment. This place is like I've found home. I feel comfortable and something feels right when I'm here. I never really understood what all those people who lost those houses ... you know the ones we clean out ... felt until I bought this house."

Hector said, "Yeah, I think I know what you mean. I've had a feeling ever since I moved out from under my papa's roof. It's like I've been looking for a place to set my roots. Camilla feels it too. My new house may not be as grand as all this, but it will be mine and that's what's important."

I shrugged, "Well I just hope that this house doesn't get so grand that the state or someone decides to take it and make it into a museum or tourist attraction."

Hector laughed and said, "They wouldn't do that boss. That would cost money and the state is even more busted than all those guys that are losing their houses."

I smiled and said, "Well I hope they stay busted then. So, have you decided what we need to do next?"

Hector looked surprised and quickly answered, "Me? I'm not in charge. You got the map figured out yet?"

The question was easy to answer. "No, I need one more reference point to line up to get a fairly accurate spot. Right now I've narrowed it down to somewhere either out in the bay or down in that marshy area south of here."

I laughed at what I thought was an amusing response. Hector obviously had other ideas about my humor. With a straight face he said, "I hope it's in the marshy area because otherwise we're going to have to learn how to breathe underwater."

I shrugged. "I hope it's in the marshy area as well. I think it would take quite a while for us to learn enough SCUBA to safely work underwater. Then we would have to have permits to dig up the bottom of the bay. If it's in the marshy area all we have to have is bug repellant and a permit to dig up some wetlands. I don't know which permit would take longer."

Hector replied, "I've always thought we would do it the American way."

I thought I knew the answer but asked anyway, "What is the American way?"

Hector said, "Act like we don't know nothing. You know, dig up the treasure and if we get caught tell them we didn't know nothing about no damn permit."

I laughed and said, "Oh, I thought you meant build a big fence around it that cost ten times what the treasure is worth."

We both smiled and I'm sure both thought our answers were funnier.

I continued, "Not to be nosey but what do you have in the bag?"

Hector opened the bag and looked in, almost as if he wasn't sure himself. He then said, "This is just an old set of work clothes and my bathing suit. It is such a beautiful day outside I thought I might take a dip in the bay."

When I looked at him like he was crazy he continued, "Seriously, I could always hold my breath pretty good. I figured maybe I could swim out through the tunnel into the bay and see where it comes out. If I can't get out I could at least see how far out the tunnel goes."

I thought about it and said, "I think we need more people to do that. I would want one good swimmer in the bay to help you if you have problems after you get through. Then we need someone in a boat to watch that person. Finally, we would want someone to watch your life line in the cave tunnel to pull you back or use the rope to get to you in case you get stuck."

Hector said, "Damn boss, I didn't know you used to work for OSHA. I think all we need is someone to keep Camilla from going crazy while I'm in the water."

I grimaced, "Hector, I'm gonna' let that OSHA comment slide. Still, I do think we need to take some safety precautions. You don't know what else's down there."

Hector thought a moment and said, "My cousin's got a small fishing boat. I could call him and ask him to bring it over here. Manuel's a strong swimmer and can keep his mouth shut. We got rope you can tie around me. What else we need?"

I was surprised how quickly it all came together. Hector called Manuel, who just happened to have nothing better to do. We found that Edward was also a good swimmer and agreed to assist Manuel aboard the boat. Elise, Camilla, Irma and Audra would be with us in the tunnel.

Edward had two good suggestions that we took to heart. First he said, "We need some type of communications between the tunnel and the boat? I'm not sure if I trust a cell phone to work that deep underground."

I had no idea how deep a cell phone would work so we tried it out. Sure enough the cell phones lost contact about 30 feet into the first tunnel. We ended up going to Radio shack and getting a 500 foot spool of telephone wire and a cheap telephone. Edward managed to hook it up to one of the jacks in his house. With that we could communicate with Edward in the boat.

Edward's second suggestion made really good sense. He said, "We can take the rope on Hector, if he manages to get through, and attach some type of marker buoy to it. That way we'd always know where the tunnel entrance is."

I didn't like the idea at first and told him, "That might attract too much attention. Some people may start wondering what the buoy is marking."

Edward countered, "Well we could always pull the rope partway back up the tunnel which would lower the buoy deep enough so it wouldn't attract attention. If the rope was light enough we could even use a couple of milk jugs as markers."

So that was what we planned to do. It was quite late in the afternoon by the time we got everything together. Most of us, including Mr. Whiskers, were in the tunnel. I had the rope tied loosely to Hector's waist. Hector was chomping at the bit, raring to go even though the water in the tunnel seemed pretty cold. This was his idea in the beginning and he wanted to prove it out. The actual attempt was anti-climatic as the rope continued to pay out as Hector bulled his way through the tunnel and then swam to the surface of the bay on his first attempt.

Elise was on the phone with Edward trying to talk Edward into staying in the boat. He wanted to dive down and see the opening for himself. I laughed as I listened to her end of the conversation, "Ed Howard, you are not a young man; you stay in that boat ... Yes, I know you are a good swimmer ... You listen to what I tell you ... Okay, but you better wear a life vest ... Yeah, I know it's hard to dive with a life vest ... Make sure that Manuel or Hector are in the water ... Ed! ... Ed! ... Are you still there."

Then she threw down the phone and started running back up the tunnel. Audra picked up the phone and said, "Hello. Manuel, is everything okay? It is? Good."

She turned to us and said, "Hector is in the water showing Edward the opening."

When they returned to the boat they guided me as I anchored the two milk jugs we were using as buoys by tying the rope off to the torch holder in the tunnel. I would pull the jugs under water after I had gotten an idea of where the opening was. We all walked upstairs and looked out over the calm water at the bobbing milk jugs. Edward had a big grin on his face as he stood on the boat looking in at Elise. Elise wasn't about to return Edward's grin. She had a look on her face that told me that Edward was in serious trouble when he got back to shore.

The rest of the evening was spent warming up Manuel, Hector and Edward with liquid spirits while they told and retold the story from different perspectives. They all agreed that the entrance was half hidden by a rock outcropping which was covered by a thick bed of some type of sea grass. The location of the jugs was only about twenty feet off the shoreline. Hector boasted that he could easily have swum in to shore with no difficulty.

Although I knew I now had the third reference point that I needed, I didn't get a chance to work on the map for the rest of that week. Monday was a typical Monday, getting all of the work started for the week. Making sure the subs knew what they had to do. Making sure the equipment ended up at the right job sites.

Tuesday morning I took Hector around and introduced him as my partner to all of the bankers that I knew. Hector was as surprised as Bob Wheatley when I first introduced him as my new partner. Technically he was not yet a partner, but we took care of that detail later in the week with my accountant.

Bob's bank had repossessed the house that Hector and Camilla decided to buy. Bob quoted Hector a price and terms on the house that I thought were more than generous. Hector walked away from the meeting doing a poor job of trying to hide the big grin that was plastered across his face. Bob must have pulled some strings because things moved quite quickly after that. In fact the closing on the house took place late that Friday afternoon.

Bell Whistle and the map were put on the back burner over that weekend as all of us pitched in to help Hector and Camilla get their new home ready to move into. Audra ended up being quite a joyful painter and ended up with more paint on her face, arms and legs than she got on the walls. Irma helped by cooking meals for all of us as we worked. The house looked really beautiful when we finished up late Sunday night.

Hector and I got everything set up for work the following Monday and then I told him to take the rest of the week off. I figured Jorge and I could handle things for a week. Hector laughed and said he wanted to stick around and see that. I think he just wanted to get out from under Camilla's thumb. She had been acting more like an expectant mother about to give birth than a new homeowner. I figured this must mean a lot to her.

It was a typical week at work; nothing had slacked off as far as the business was concerned. We had added a few remodeling jobs, which we assigned to one of Jorge's crew. I thought these would become the meat and potatoes of our business as the economy improved and the number of repo cleanouts decreased.

In addition to the normal workday Audra, Edward, Elise, Irma and I drove over and helped Hector and Camilla with the move on several evenings during the week. Well, actually Edward and I drove over as Audra, Irma and Elise spent most of the week helping Camilla with drapes and decorating.

Thursday evening was an exception that week and Audra and I walked out by the bay examining the topography and matching it to the composite map that I was still fine tuning. We had raised the buoys so that the entrance to the tunnel could be plotted on my map. The tunnel entrance had proved to be the final reference point that we needed. The problem was that it didn't exactly fit in with the other two points that I had found. Using a compass and rangefinder we narrowed down the errors in my earlier plots. We also were eaten alive by some of the largest mosquitoes I have ever seen. By the weekend we were ready for some much needed rest.

Saturday morning was a cloudy day, which was good; the week before had been mostly dry and hot. I hoped that the clouds would give us a break from the almost oppressive heat. I printed out a large copy of my revised map with the location of the treasure marked by a rather large X marking the spot. The reason the X was so large was that the location of the treasure was not exact. If my best guess was correct it was somewhere along the shoreline almost directly behind our house or garage.

All of us were gathered in our kitchen. Mr. Whiskers was lying on the window sill trying to warm up with the little bit of sunlight that managed to break through the clouds. He seemed to be looking over the assembled crowd with that practiced disdain that only cats have perfected.

Everyone else was munching on the Dennon's pastries that Hector had brought as a thank you for all of our help. The fact that Hector and Camilla were here, rather than enjoying their new home, was indicative of the treasure fever that seem to have peaked. As we looked at the map I had spread out on the table I explained about the large X and my best guess as to the treasure's location. After I finished speaking Edward asked, "Who owns all of that land back there?"

I smiled and pointed at Irma who had just taken a large bite of a chocolate frosted donut. I said, "Irma owns all of the land to the waterline. In fact she just paid three years back taxes on it three weeks ago. If we find any treasure, it belongs to her."

Irma was sputtering as she tried to talk with the pastry filling her mouth. Finally she managed to utter, "It doesn't belong to me. Really it belongs to all of you. If you hadn't been interested in exploring this old house we wouldn't ever have found it. I would like any papers or items of historical interest kept with the house, but if it's gold or silver or anything like that I want you all to share it."

That announcement seemed to give everyone a little lift. It's one thing to help your friend find a treasure in her yard but quite another to dream of what you might do with that treasure yourself. About the time we were all talking loudly to each other about the treasure, the old Barenaked Ladies hit 'If I had a Million Dollars' came on the radio. It put voice to what many of us were thinking and since it was probably the first time most had heard the song we all ended up laughing.

As I looked around the room I realized that even if the treasure was something really fabulous the excitement and close camaraderie of the hunt was the real reward. I somehow felt that even if the treasure ended up being something worthless the letdown wouldn't leave anyone feeling as if the effort hadn't been worth it. For me having these people close by and knowing that they were all close friends was something really special.

As we talked things over, looking at the map laid out on the kitchen table, everybody seemed to have their own idea as to where the treasure was located. There were many suggestions as to where we should start digging. While we were discussing this, Edward once again came up with some sound advice on how to proceed. During a pause in the conversation he said, "I think we need something like a long piece of rebar to probe the ground with. We have no idea how deeply the treasure is buried, but in that mucky ground near the water we can probably feel it with a probe. That might help us keep from digging up the whole shoreline."

Then while we were mulling that over and I was trying to remember whether or not I had seen any rebar in the garage, Irma came up with an idea of her own. After hearing her idea I wondered why I hadn't thought of it. She quietly asked, "Why don't we go out and buy a good metal detector. I think I saw one at a shop down next to Dennon's"

Elise asked, "You mean Harry's Coin Shop?"

Irma said, "I think that's the name of the place. I saw a poster on the front glass as we drove by this week advertising a big closeout sale on them. The one in the picture was less than a hundred dollars. I think it might save us some time."

Everyone thought that was a great idea and I was delegated, along with Hector and Edward, to go and purchase the metal detector. I had no knowledge of how the device worked so listened to both Edward and Hector explain how they thought the device worked on the trip to the shop.

The actual purchase was pretty straightforward. I bought the most sensitive one that the shopkeeper had. It was said to be adjustable and sensitive for different metals for different depths. I was hoping to have the treasure discovered and dug up before Edward had the hundred page manual read. When we got back Hector quickly had the detector working while Edward was still reading the book.

Audra had the map and a long piece of rebar from the garage waiting for us at the back of the driveway. You could tell the rest of the ladies were anxious to get started as they already had shovels and were all waiting for us down at the shoreline.

I'd like to say that we turned the metal detector on and found the treasure right away but things didn't work that way. We discovered a wide assortment of bottle tops, old rusted beer cans, nails and even the remains of an old dock, though.

Probing with the rebar didn't give us much better results. We found some big rocks that we excitedly dug up and found that there was a mass of old roots that the shovel wouldn't budge. We ended up with two axes and a mattock as well as all of the shovels. I seriously began to worry about the EPA or the city planners coming down and wanting to check our work permits because of the amount of earth we moved.

We were tired puppies by lunch time as we struggled back up the hill to our back yard. Edward almost had the manual for the metal detector read and said that we had it set all wrong the first go round. He marked a spot that he thought was promising and we agreed to give it one more shot after lunch.

Lunch was an assortment of sandwiches as no one wanted to take the time to cook anything. It was apparent that the mornings' diggings hadn't discouraged the group. Everyone was sure that Edward's spot was the one. Of course we were all sure of several spots that we had dug up during the morning.

It was after two o'clock when we finally did actually locate the treasure. It was quite deeply buried and we found it more through luck than deduction. Hector was using the rebar to try to pry a rock out of the hole we were digging when it seemed to slip through the muck at the bottom of the hole he was working in and hit something solid below. After some probing we all agreed that something was down there and dug much deeper than we had anticipated.

All of us were dog tired by the time we moved almost a dump truck load of muck from that hole. We had to excavate all the way to the bottom of the treasure chest on all sides in order to get it out of the hole because of the suction of the muck. I was surprised that it was an actual wooden chest. I would have thought that the wet soil itself would have rotted anything made out of wood. I learned later through reading online that that is not always the case.

Getting the chest up the hill and to the house was a pain in the butt. After the day of digging none of us were up to actually carrying the chest up the hill. Hector came up with an idea that involved a long rope, a sled fashioned out of some two by fours and a sheet of plywood and dragging the chest up the hill by backing up my truck. After several starts it worked and we pulled the chest all the way to the garage of the house.



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Chapter 6: Treasure Chest Surprise


I'm not sure what we each expected but we all acted almost stunned as we milled around the garage studying what appeared to be an actual pirate's treasure chest. Not that any of us had actually ever seen a real pirate's treasure chest anywhere other than the movies. The chest itself was approximately three feet by two feet by 18 inches tall. It seemed to be constructed of some type of dense wood, a wood strong enough to have withstood possibly 350 years of being buried in a hole by the edge of the bay.

The chest at first appeared black in color but later after a good rinse with the garden hose the exterior lightened to a dark amber hue. It was obvious that some of the fastenings were missing but there were three heavy straps around its circumference that were made of some metal, possibly bronze or brass. The lower corners were reinforced with castings made of the same metal as the other fittings and one of these was missing. The others looked to have been pressed into the wood somehow.

As Edward washed off the muck, the remaining fittings and straps began to take on a heavy green patina. There was no lock or hasp as such. It was held closed by three short bronze or brass fittings that ran from the lid to the front of the chest. Their ends appeared to be bolted to the center strap running around the chest's circumference. We assumed that the lid was hinged on what looked to be the back of the chest as there were no fasteners in evidence there. The hinges must have been fixed on the inside of the chest since they were not visible once the muck was removed.

No one said much as Edward washed away the muck. All of our butts had been dragging at the point that we removed the chest from the large hole, but we seemed to have gained a second wind after moving it up the hill and placing it on the concrete floor of the garage. Hector had silently removed the rope from my truck and returned it and our crude sled to the back of the garage. He came over and stood next to me looking at the chest, seemingly as much in awe of our discovery as I was.

For the moment no one seemed to have an overwhelming curiosity as to the contents of the chest. The chest itself did not appear to be waterlogged but it was very heavy. I had watched a show on one of the educational channels that told of the need to keep newly recovered metal and wooden materials under water to keep the metal from oxidizing and the wood from drying out too quickly. I had no idea how to conserve this chest but I wanted to try, as it was possible that the chest itself might end up being worth more than the contents.

After we discussed things, Hector suggested that we use the sheets of plywood and two by four studs in the back of the garage to make a box that we could line with heavy-gauge plastic sheeting and fill with water. As tired as we were, we began the project immediately. Elise and Camilla volunteered to go to the hardware store and pick up a plastic painter's drop cloth that we could use for lining the plywood box. Edward, Hector and I made short work of building a box that was four foot on a side and three foot high of plywood on a frame made of two by fours. Audra and Irma kept the chest soaked while we hurriedly fashioned the box.

It was almost nightfall by the time we had the plastic lining the box and managed to lift the chest into it. We filled the box with water to where the water level was six inches above the top of the chest. We stood around the sides of the box watching as a few bubbles of air escaped from the chest. I wasn't sure about the others, but I was both physically and emotionally drained at the moment.

An hour and a half later we were all sitting in the kitchen eating chicken straight from an enormous bucket that Camilla and Elise had brought back when they went to get the plastic. We had locked the garage securely before we made our way to the kitchen. All of us were apparently starved as we ate chicken in near silence for fifteen minutes or so before anyone spoke. In a way it was almost as if we had gone through some sort of sacred ritual and were afraid to talk of it.

Finally Audra asked the question that I'm sure was in the forefront of everyone's mind. She asked, "What do you suppose is inside?"

Irma who had been especially quiet answered for all of us when she said, "I have no idea."

Then she added, "I really never thought we would find anything."

That statement put the hole in the conversational dike as it seemed as if everyone wanted to talk at once.

Camilla said, "I was hoping but I never would have thought..."

Hector said, "I don't think it can be gold because that much gold would have weighed too much for us to move."

Edward opined, "I think it must weight 200 or 250 pounds. Even if a lot of that is the chest itself, there's something in there that's fairly hefty."

I had done a lot of research online, mainly by googling pirate's treasure. I added, "I've never heard of a chest like this one. The ones I saw online were either cast iron or iron banded wood. These seem to have straps of brass or bronze. The ones I found online had key locks or a hasp for a padlock of some type."

Edward got a far away look in his eyes as he said, "That wood must be heartwood of some type. I've never seen anything like it. It still has a dark, rich patina after being buried in the muck for several hundred years."

I thought back to the changes in the topography and added, "I'm not sure how long it's actually been buried in muck. When the treasure was buried it was quite a ways inland and not on the shore itself. It may have been in drier conditions for quite a while, as we don't know how long it took the shore to shift to its current location."

Audra tossed her chicken leg back on her plate and asked, "Now that we have eaten, are we going to open the chest tonight or just let it sit there?"

I laughed as it was obvious that Audra had a very low reserve of patience. I thought back to the fight we had about the treasure room itself and laughed again.

Audra looked at me and asked, "What's funny about that?"

I grinned and replied, "You. Your middle name must be Pandora."

Everyone chuckled at that except Irma who said, "I don't think that's funny. I'm with Audra. Now that we've found the chest I think we need to open it and find out what's in it."

Elise smiled at the obvious excitement of her friend. She teased, "I think we need to get a good night's sleep and look at things first thing in the morning."

When she saw the shocked expressions on Irma and Audra's faces she laughed heartily and added, "Don't you want an evening of anticipation? It could end up being a box of rocks or a treasure chest of gold. Either way, it will be there tomorrow after we are better rested."

Surprisingly Camilla joined in next saying, "Makes sense to me. You ready to head home, honey?"

Hector looked from Camilla to Audra to Irma and finally to me, as if he expected that I was the ultimate authority. I looked at the expectation on Audra's face and chickened out saying, "Makes no difference to me; whatever the majority wants."

Audra spoke up immediately and said, "Well, I vote we open that sucker now."

Laughter permeated the room at the intensity of Audra's statement. I said, "Everyone in favor of opening the chest now raise your hand."

Audra and Irma's hands immediately went up. After a moment Edward's hand also went up.

I then said, "Everyone who wants to wait until tomorrow raise your hand."

Camilla and Elise quickly put up their hands. Audra quickly said, "I thought you two were my friends."

About then Hector added his upraised hand to even the vote. Everyone looked to me. Audra puckered her lips at me and mimicked little kisses toward me. I knew that I should support my intended but I was suddenly dead tired. Closing my eyes I raised my hand.

When I opened my eyes I saw Audra across from me with a puppy dog pouting expression on her face. I expected to take flack for my decision. Audra surprised me when she immediately smiled at all of us and said, "Well I guess it's for the best. What time do you want to meet in the morning?"

I put my arm around Audra as everyone discussed when we should start in the morning. I looked into her eyes and asked, "No hard feelings?"

Audra smiled up at me and said, "No, you're right I guess. I know you men are tired because you did most of the digging and lifting. I can't help it though. I never could stand not knowing what was in a present. Mom used to get so mad because I would shake packages under the tree until she was afraid I would break them."

I whispered in her ear, "I'm just as excited as you. I just think that it's going to take a good bit of time to open that chest properly and evaluate what's inside."

We all agreed to get an early start in the morning. Hector and Camilla decided to stay in our other guest room rather than drive across town to their new home. Hector wondered whether we should take turns standing guard over the treasure. "That garage isn't all that secure. All it would take would be a rock to bust the window out in the side door and then anyone could get in."

Edward said, "I didn't see anyone else showing any interest in what we were doing. No one from any of the other houses on this side of the bay can see that shoreline because of the way it curves in. I didn't see any boats hanging around or acting suspicious. I guess a random burglar could strike but I doubt if he would spend a whole lot of time trying to pry into a muddy box when there are all those power tools out there."

I added, "Besides, that expensive security system I had installed has motion sensitive lights that go on if anyone comes near the house or the garage at night. I also had door sensors put on the side door of the garage because of all of that woodworking equipment."

Elise laughed and added, "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm so keyed up that I wonder how much sleep I'm going to get anyway."

Everyone nodded agreement. Hell, as tired as I was, I wondered if I would be able to get to sleep myself. Eventually Irma and Audra put away the remainder of the chicken and everyone took that as a hint that we should turn in. I stayed down stairs and locked up and set the security system after Edward and Elise left.

Mr. Whiskers was apparently wide awake as well. He bounded up the stairs ahead of me and patiently waited as I opened my bedroom door. As soon as it was opened he entered and started his own security search of the corners of the room. Finally he settled down on the foot of the bed as if to show us how easy it was to drift off to sleep.

Audra wrapped herself around me as soon as I changed and got into bed. She kissed my cheek, nuzzled my neck and in general let me know that she was not yet ready to surrender to the sand man. As tired as I was from everything that happened I found myself unable to resist her charms. Okay, not unable; more like unwilling. I also found that I was not nearly as tired as I thought.

Morning dawned bright and early with none of the clouds of the previous morning. I'm not sure whether it was my own internal clock, the sun streaming in through the open curtains, or Mr. Whiskers walking up my back that woke me; probably a combination of the three. I raised my head and glanced over at the alarm clock and saw the digital display indicating 6:25. My mind took a moment to engage. On a normal work morning the alarm would have already sounded so I figured it was a weekend and silently cursed the conditions that had awakened me. Then, I thought about what we were doing today and that swept the remaining cobwebs from my mind. I gently lifted my arm from Audra's naked back and moved toward my side of the bed, snagging Mr. Whiskers and carrying him off of the bed with me.

I released Mr. Whiskers outside of the bedroom door and headed to the shower. Fifteen minutes later I was dressed and about to slip out the door when Audra raised her head from the pillow, and apparently oblivious to the circumstances, asked, "Why are you up so early?"

I smiled at her and teased, "Treasure! I didn't want them to open the chest without me."

I couldn't help it and laughed as her eyes suddenly registered her comprehension. "Why didn't you wake me," were the next words she uttered as she threw the covers back and jumped naked from the bed.

She was moving fast when she asked, "Wait for me, please?"

I laughed again and answered, "Honey, I'm teasing. Slow down. Nobody's going to get into the garage until I cut off the security system. Besides me, you and Irma have the only keys."

Audra still didn't slow down. She participated in all the early morning bathroom events and I think set a record in most of them. Ten minutes later we were both ready to head down the stairs. Irma was already in the kitchen, rustling pans as she prepared breakfast. She looked up and said, "It certainly took you two long enough."

I again laughed, remembering that she had voted to open the treasure last night. I hadn't even got my first cup of coffee before Hector and Camilla walked into the kitchen. Immediately Camilla headed over to help Audra and Irma with breakfast. Hector smiled at me and said, "Boss, the walls in this house are thinner than I thought."

I answered, "What do you mean?"

Hector smiled and said, "Last night I was sure someone was in the secret passageway moaning and then I realized the noise was coming from your side of the hall. I don't know how Irma ever manages to get any sleep."

Irma chuckled and said, "It's simple. I stuff my ears with cotton before I go to bed."

Camilla turned around from her frying pan and added, "I'm the one who should be complaining. You got Hector so worked up that he kept me up until after midnight."

Hector blushed and grinned. He stopped by the stove and kissed Camilla on her neck before taking his coffee cup to the table. Audra took her cell phone out and called Elise. As soon as she connected she told Elise to get Edward up and hurry over and eat with us. Elise told her they had been awake and had already eaten.

Soon the kitchen was full as breakfasts were consumed and plans made for the day. Hector and I cleaned up before we headed out to the garage. The day was already hot and I was thankful for the fans that would help keep the temperature in the garage reasonable.

A look into the tank / box showed that more of the muck had come off and was lying on the plastic bottom. Looking at the chest I commented, "Doesn't seem like the metal fittings or the chest itself looks any worse than it was last night. Anyone have any idea how we open this thing?"

Audra reached over inside the tool box on the wall and grabbed a crowbar. She headed to the chest and said, "I bet I can have it open in about five minutes."

Everyone laughed at Audra's exuberance. She looked around and said, "What?"

Edward took her crowbar and set it down on the bench. He said, "I think we can do this without wrecking the chest completely. Of course, that's if the hinges haven't completely frozen up."

Elise then spoke up and said, "I brought my digital camera. I think we should take pictures to document each step of the opening."

No one disagreed with her. The only comment came from Audra who said, "I think that's a good idea, as long as you don't take too much time doing it."

Getting back to the task at hand Edward pointed to the straps securing the top and said, "First thing we need to do is to cut the bolts that secure the lid."

He looked at me and, obviously thinking of the time we had cutting the hasp on the door to the treasure room, said, "I hope you have plenty of hacksaw blades."

Hector, who was standing by the tool box, grabbed the hack saw and brought it over. The actual cutting of the bolts was harder that I thought it would be. We started out with the chest underwater trying to lean sideways from the outside of the tank of water which put us at all kinds of crazy angles. I started first and could get no leverage and with the way I had to twist couldn't even see what I was supposed to be cutting. Both Hector and Edward had to try it before we decided that we needed to bring the chest out of the water.

We agreed that the chest seemed to have gained weight from the water, but after a couple of false starts managed to get it out onto the floor of the garage. Cutting the bolts after that was quickly accomplished at the cost of only one broken hacksaw blade. I was surprised that the lid to the treasure chest opened without the use of the crowbar. It did, however, take the muscles of three of us to pull it up.

After the lid was forced open we were greatly disappointed in that all we first observed was what appeared to be mud coated cloth. Elise snapped some pictures as I lifted it out. The cloth was in such poor shape that much of it came apart into several pieces. I passed the remnants around so each could hold something that came out of the chest. Edward spoke up and said, "I think it was once a folded piece of rough canvas, most likely sail cloth. What's that under it?"

I had already started trying to pull up the layer under the disintegrated cloth. Elise made me stop so she could get some more pictures. When she let me go on I was disappointed as the layer appeared to just be more of the same cloth. Then Irma said, "That's not cloth, that's some type of parchment, possibly made of vellum."

We later found that she was right. I pulled up a series of pages made of vellum which appeared to have held up better than the sailcloth but was still in poor shape. It was slow going as Elise had to photograph each page. As soon as I saw what we had I thought about preserving it from the air and asked Camilla to run the deep sink in the laundry area full of water. Several of us took some care in moving the pages of what may have been an ancient book to that sink full of fresh water.

As soon as the last vellum page was removed we recognized another thick layer of more canvas. This layer also came apart in my hands much as the first layer had. We took time to place the remnants of both layers with the book in the fresh water of the sink. As the last of the sailcloth lifted away the first thing I saw was what appeared to be a golden cross. Camilla, already on her knees next to the chest, bowed her head and quickly made the sign of the cross as soon as she recognized the religious relic. The cross was large, approximately fifteen inches by eight inches. I realized that it was possibly pure gold as I lifted it out of the chest, because it was quite heavy. I handed the cross off to Camilla who cradled it in her arms. Elise was snapping pictures like a Japanese tourist at Disneyland.

The cross was not a crucifix, as it did not appear to have a representation of the body of Christ. What it did have were three large rubies where the nails in Christ's cross would have been. There was also a small skull affixed below the ruby at the foot of the cross. This skull appeared to have been hand carved out of some type of bone or soft white stone.

The cross had been lying on another layer of sailcloth which I removed and passed to Hector. Hector put the cloth into the sink. Again, this layer of cloth had deteriorated, but seemed to be slightly better preserved than the earlier ones above. As soon as we pulled off this layer, we again saw gold. This gold was in rounded ingots and roughly struck coins that almost seemed to have been stacked in an interlocking pattern across most of the bottom of the chest. The ingots ranged in size from some that were the size of large six inch long cigars to even larger ones that were the same length but almost as big around as a banana. Even with all the time they had been buried, each of these ingots looked as if they had just been created. I later found that gold is one of the few metals that won't tarnish, even in a salt water environment.

Elise took pictures of all of this and then made us lay all of the gold items out on the workbench where she photographed each item individually. I could tell that Audra was getting irritated with the delay caused by the photography.

After we resumed we found several small pouches of stiff leather that had been covered by the gold. We almost put them in the deep sink with the vellum and rotted sail cloth until we realized that they were pouches that held other treasure. Audra was the first to lift one of the pouches from the chest and as she did so it fell apart in her hands because the leather was so rotted. As this happened we all saw a number of what appeared to be rocks rain to the floor of the garage. When we recovered them we found the stones each had a deep green color. Later experts would tell us that these were fairly large emeralds, most likely from Columbia in South America.

The pouch that fell apart was only one of three. Almost before we gathered up all of the stones from the garage floor several sets of hands were reaching to examine the other two. Elise slowed everyone down with more pictures which resulted in the remaining pouches being treated more carefully. Hector carefully carried one pouch over to the bench on the side of the garage and sliced the stitches open with his pocket knife. The leather was so old and deteriorated that I'm sure he could have pulled it apart with his hands. This pouch was the smallest of the three and contained a single gold ring that we later found to be a signet ring that had once belonged to an aristocratic Spanish family.

Edward carried the largest of the three pouches over to the bench were Hector again cut it apart with his pocket knife. This pouch had a collection of silver and gold jewelry, some of which was inlaid with precious stones. The silver jewelry had blackened with corrosion, possibly because of the chemicals used to tan the leather or by the salt water environment where the chest had been found. The gold jewelry still looked almost new although some of the silver fittings used to attach the stones had fared poorly.

As we gathered things together, we found that we had almost forty-four pounds of gold. The gold cross alone weighed close to six pounds. In addition we had twenty-three uncut emeralds of various sizes, most of which were larger than the tip of my small finger and almost a pound of gold jewelry plus the signet ring. Truly this was a pirate's treasure worthy of the name.



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Chapter 7: What's Next?

As we gathered things together, we found that we had almost forty-four pounds of gold. The gold cross alone weighed close to six pounds. In addition we had twenty-three uncut emeralds of various sizes, most of which were larger than the tip of my small finger and almost a pound of gold jewelry plus the signet ring. Truly this was a pirate's treasure worthy of the name.

After the emptying of the chest we were quiet and introspective. The only activity occurred when Elise snapped another picture. It almost seemed as if she thought the treasure would somehow slip away from us. This group lethargy may have been the downside of the natural 'high' we had experienced while we were unpacking the treasure. Whatever it was it seemed to have consumed us for an indeterminate amount of time.

I know that in most movies I have seen there are scenes where people dance around and act crazy throwing coins in the air and adorning themselves with pieces of precious jewelry. None of this happened while we were making our discoveries. I believe that most of us were overcome by the enormity of what we had found. Now that the treasure was revealed my thoughts were 'what's next?' I mean honestly what do you do with such treasure? In the quiet of the moment I said as much to Edward and after some thought he bluntly answered, "Hell if I know."

How could he know? What basis of experience prepares someone for this? After another moment of thought Edward added, "I thought we might find a few coins and souvenirs but this is almost beyond my comprehension. I wouldn't even know how to begin to put a value on all this."

Hector had his arm wrapped almost protectively around Camilla as the pair sat quietly in a couple of old folding chairs. It was almost as if they were at some somber religious service. Both had their eyes almost reverently riveted to the golden cross that lay on the workbench next to the gold bars. Hector broke his gaze away from the holy object, his eyes searching for answers. Finally he caught my eyes and asked, "What now, boss?"

There was a pleading in his eyes that along with his words focused everyone's attention on me. Suddenly I realized that they expected me to have the answers. Hell, I wasn't even sure what the questions were. It wasn't as simple as 'What's next?'

My first worry was security. Somehow we had to protect what we had uncovered. I saw no way to do that without sharing the knowledge of our treasure with others. I had a small safety deposit box at the bank but even a simple bank vault seemed inadequate to house such rarities. As everyone's eyes were fixed on me I answered, "Security is our first concern. We need a safe place to keep this for now."

Everybody seemed to accept that but no one offered any further suggestions. I almost laughed at their questioning looks. I wanted to say, 'Don't look at me!'

Instead I said, "How about we put everything except for the stuff in the deep sink into the treasure room in the tunnel under the house? If we get a strong lock for the door that's about as secure as we can make it tonight. Tomorrow we can make some discreet inquiries and find a vault where we can store it for a while. We need to keep this quiet for now. That means we tell no one about it unless we all agree. We'll have to talk about what to do after that. I don't think any of us have ever discovered pirate's treasure before."

Everyone except for Irma and Elise took part of the treasure as we began moving it to the treasure room. Irma guarded the treasure that was left while Elise went to her kitchen to retrieve some large food storage containers to hold the jewelry and precious stones. Camilla reverently carried the cross, holding it much as a priest might carry it during some church procession. We were in the process of closing the garage, having decided to meet in the kitchen, when Edward suggested that we should put the chest back into the water-filled box. I was surprised that we didn't have to weight the empty chest down to get it to stay underwater.

Things were again quiet as we gathered around the kitchen table. I'm sure we were all still processing what had happened. Irma sat down for a moment only to rise up and start coffee brewing and water boiling for hot tea. Elise saw what Irma was doing and stood to help her older friend but Irma said, "Relax dear, I can get it."

My eyes were on Audra. She had been the quietest of all of us since the treasure had been unpacked. I wondered what she was thinking of all this. My gaze found her looking at each of us. As soon as Irma was seated she cleared her throat and said, "A couple of weeks ago I saw a show on the History Channel about treasure recovered from Spanish galleons by a treasure hunter down in Florida. He even had a museum where he had a lot of the it on display."

Every eye was now focused on Audra. I vaguely remembered seeing a similar show but couldn't remember much about it. Audra continued, "The show wasn't just about the treasure, it was also about his fight with the state of Florida over who owned it. Seems the state had laws that said that they controlled all underwater sites and they were reluctant to issue permits to salvage the treasure. The program said that the treasure hunter and the state reached an agreement about that site but that he was still trying to get the law changed for future explorations."

I asked, "I wonder if there is a web site with more information?"

Edward stroked his chin and said, "Probably, but how would that affect us? We're not in Florida and we didn't recover the treasure from a shipwreck. This treasure was found on Irma's land, right?"

Irma spoke up and said, "It's my land alright. I just paid a huge past-due tax bill to prove it."

Elise was following the conversation as she sat and sipped her coffee. She looked over first at Edward and then at me and then spoke. "We need someone who knows what the laws are concerning buried treasure in this state. I'm sure Edward knows someone out at the club but after what happened last time with the two professors..."

I laughed at her discomfort. I said, "That's water under the bridge. Remember we also met Lenora through Edward's connections at the club and in my books she's been a big plus and has given us a lot of information with the translation of Willie's story in the slave ledger."

Edward spoke up and added, "I think there are a couple of lawyers that are members of the historical society. Lenora would know if any of them have the type of knowledge we are looking for. Of course we'd have to take her into our confidence."

Audra spoke up and said, "I trust her. I think that she and Matt are nice people."

I purposely made eye contact with each person and that quickly it was decided to invite Lenora back to evaluate what we had found so we could pick her brains on what to do next. Camilla added that we would also need experts to appraise the value of what we had found.

After the next step was agreed upon, everyone was still worked up and no one wanted to end the evening. The previous evening I'm sure we had visions of treasure dancing through our heads and now we had found the reality far exceeded our imaginations. I know I was still a bit numbed by the experience and pinched myself several times to ensure I wasn't dreaming.

I had Hector contact Jorge and put him in charge of the next day's work crews. Hector and Camilla decided to sleep in their own house and so they left early to go home. Elise and Edward followed soon after and I sat at the kitchen table while Irma and Audra cleared away the cups and plates from the table. As she walked back to wipe down the table Irma had a far away look in her eyes.

Curiosity got the better of me and I caught her attention and said, "Penny for your thoughts."

Irma paused looking out over the back yard and with a bit of a faraway look said, "Oh, I was just thinking about all the years we lived here with that treasure just over the hill and no idea in our minds that it was there. As marshy as that ground is, I still must have walked over that treasure dozens of time over the years with no inkling it was there. I once wanted to build a small cabana on the shore right on that spot. I even went so far as to measure it out and put stakes in the ground."

Audra spoke up and added, "I don't remember that."

Irma smiled, evidently almost lost in her memories. She finally replied, "It was right after Chad purchased the property. Lord, you were just a toddler then. After Chad bought the property I decided that I wanted a sailboat and we talked of building a dock there. Then I decided that a small beach house there would be even better. We discussed it but eventually I turned into an antique junkie and lost interest in the idea."

Audra said, "Just think, if you had built your beach house there on that spot you might have found the treasure years ago."

Irma shook her head and said, "Not likely."

I pressed, asking what she meant and she added, "If we had built a cottage there it would most likely have been built on pilings. Chad talked to an architect he knew, and he said that what he called a conventional foundation would be very hard to do that close to the water. Except for running sewer and water lines, there wouldn't have been that much digging so I doubt we would have found anything."

Irma gave me a wan smile and said, "You've been much more persistent finding out things than we ever were. We were content for the most part just to enjoy this place as our home."

With that we said our good nights and I headed up to join Audra in the master bedroom where she was sitting up in bed waiting for me. I found that she had some concerns of her own about the events of the day. She didn't even wait for me to undress but spoke while I was removing my boots.

"Honey, don't you think all this is a bit much?"

The question puzzled me and I continued to undress as I pondered what she meant. Finally as I was heading into the shower I asked, "What do you mean, a bit much?"

I kept waiting for her to say something as I quickly showered but she waited for me to come back into the bedroom after I finished my shower before she swept her arm around and said, "You know, all of this."

Still not sure I understood what she meant I asked, "You mean the house or the treasure?"

Looking a bit exasperated with me she answered, "All of it. I mean how could all of this have gone undiscovered for so long? I've almost put a bruise on my arm pinching myself today. I lived here for all my life and never had any idea that there were secret passageways and tunnels and treasure. I did the normal exploring that any kid does but had no idea there were any tunnels until I found out what dad was doing."

I got under the covers, laid my head back on the pillow and after giving what she said some thought said, "That's not really true. I mean about this going undiscovered. Irma found the tunnel years ago. Remember the flashlight we found. So did Chad and so did your father. If your father hadn't had his eyes on the treasure in the basement who knows what else he might have discovered? We also know someone else was in the secret passageway because of the footprints we found."

Audra lay back and turned her face towards me on the pillow. I could tell she was thinking of all of that as she gently let her fingers play across my chest. She finally said, "Yeah, I can see all of that, but the house has been here over 200 years and the tunnel and treasure for 350 years. It just seems funny that in all that time no one has discovered all this. I'm starting to feel like I'm living in a museum."

Saying that, she scrunched over closer to me and gave me a hug and kiss. I was tired and her proximity was keeping me from concentrating on what she had said. Suddenly, I thought about what she had said and asked, "Does that mean you would rather live someplace else?"

She used her hand that was on my chest to push her head off her pillow and look at me. I think I surprised her with the question. She hesitated as if she was thinking carefully about it and then answered, "I don't think so. I did when I was growing up, but now I don't think so."

I noticed that she got a faraway look in her eyes as she continued, "I grew up as the servant's girl and I always tried to hide that. I think I was always a little embarrassed by who I was. I know I wanted more than anything to live like my friends and be normal but now that I think about it I'm not sure that I know what normal is."

Audra then lay back on her pillow staring at the ceiling thinking.

Lying back on my own pillow I stared at the same ceiling and said, "This is a long way from normal but I'm happier than I've ever been. I love you, honey."

Audra snaked her arm over and pulled me into an embrace. Pressing her lips into my ears she whispered, "I love you too."

Sleep was forgotten as I turned to meet those lips.

I was groggy as I awoke the next morning. Dragging my feet over the edge of the bed I tried to shake the cobwebs from my mind. I looked back out the opened drapes and could see a grey haze in the morning sky that indicated this would most likely be a wet, drizzly day. Audra stirred as I moved off of the bed. Soon we both were going through our morning ablutions with an energy and rhythm that seemed to belie our late night and early morning activities.

I thought we had a half-step head start on the world until I entered the kitchen to find Irma quietly sipping a cup of tea with Elise. The aroma of fresh brewing coffee led my nose to the coffee pot. After I poured I looked back to Audra and held up both the tea kettle and coffee pot. Audra was normally a tea drinker but lately had begun to occasionally request a cup of coffee.

Audra smiled and said, "Coffee this morning, I guess."

Elise gave her a 'look' as I added creamer and sugar to her cup. As I walked to the table I asked, "Where's Edward?"

Elise said, "He's sleeping in this morning. All this work has taken its toll on the poor man. He was in bed and asleep before I even got undressed last night."

I shook my head. "I guess we did have a busy weekend. Do you know if he contacted Lenora last night?"

Elise grinned and said, "The only thing he contacted last night was his pillow. I can call her if you would like."

I held up my cell phone and said, "Nah, I've got her number right here." My fingers moved through the sequence of keys that ended up dialing Lenora's number. Audra raised her eyebrows as the number rang and went to voicemail. I left Lenora a voicemail indicating that she should get in touch with me about a new development at 101 Bell Whistle.

As soon as I closed my cell phone I looked over at Audra who had her arms crossed peering at me. I said, "What?"

She reached out for my cell phone and teased, "Maybe I should look at that thing and find out how many women you have."

I slapped the phone into her open hand and with false exasperation said, "The trust is gone already."

Audra was busy opening the phone as she replied, "Oh, I trust you. It's all these women I don't trust."

I winked at Elise and said, "I guess she'll be after you next. I know you're on there."

Elise looked at me and said, "If Edward keeps going to sleep before giving me my goodnight kiss I might decide to give this nosey little girl some competition."

I don't even think Audra heard her as she was busy going through my extensive address book. Most of the entries were business and listed as such but there were a few exceptions. As I took a cup of coffee I saw her look up from the phone as she asked, "Who is Meg?"

I said, "Why don't you call her and ask?"

Audra looked up at me and while staring me in the eyes said, "Okay." As soon as she said that she pressed the send button on the phone.

I watched with amusement as Audra listened and then said, "Never mind, wrong number."

Sheepishly she handed the phone back to me. I clicked back to the last dialed section and looked at the number and then laughed. Audra said, "That's not funny, you could have told me."

Elise looked from one of us to the other and asked, "Who was it?"

I held the phone over to show her while Audra tried to reach across the table and slap it shut. Elise looked at the number and asked, "Meg, at First National Bank. She's Bob Watley's secretary, isn't she?"

I nodded causing Audra to stick her tongue out at me.

I laughed and said, "Honey, if you knew how little competition there was for my attention I'm sure you could have held out for a much better deal."

Elise patted Audra's hand and added, "I knew almost as soon as Joe met you that he was smitten."

Irma sipped her tea and added, "From the sounds coming across the hall last night I'm sure he still is."

Audra blushed and took a big swig of coffee. Setting the cup down she said, "I guess I'm just too curious sometimes for my own good. It seems like just yesterday that we met. Before then I felt like I didn't have a friend in the world. Now I have more friends than I ever imagined."

As soon as she said it I realized that the words she had just uttered would have been just as true had I said them. I reached across the table for her hands and holding both of hers in mind said, "Me too, honey."

Almost as soon as I got those words out the doorbell rang and Elise said, "I'll get it."

It was Hector and Camilla. Camilla was holding a large bag of breakfast burritos that had obviously been purchased at a local fast food chain. I looked at the bag and raised my eyebrows towards Hector. He almost laughed as he said, "She thinks she's rich now. I may never get another home cooked..."

I noticed that the withering glare Camilla gave Hector stopped him mid-sentence. She then turned to Audra and rattled something off in Spanish that caused all of the ladies to laugh and Hector to wince. At that moment my cell phone rang. I looked at it and saw that it was Lenora returning my call. She was on her way over after getting my message. She said she was about 15 minutes away. As soon as she heard my end of the conversation Elise took her own cell out and called home to rouse Edward from his slumber. Soon all of us except for Edward were eating a Tex-Mex breakfast waiting for Lenora.

15 minutes later I answered the door buzzer and welcomed both Lenora and Edward into the house. As some were still eating I ushered them back into the kitchen. Lenora declined breakfast but did take a cup of coffee. I noticed that the level of tension in the room elevated as soon as she entered. I thought about it for a moment and realized that it was most likely because this brought us another step closer to resolving the status of the treasure.

As we moved into the den the chatter quieted as I noticed everyone's eyes turning back to me. I assumed I was to speak for the group. I sat down opposite Lenora and said, "Lenora, we invited you here to show you some things we've recently discovered. We all agree that the professional work that you and the Historical Society did on translating and showing us the relevance of the slave journal was first rate. We think that this entitles you to first look at our new discoveries. We know you will appreciate these discoveries more than most and we hope you will help make our decision on what to do next."

I could sense the excitement building in Lenora. I quickly continued, "I know this seems mysterious but we need to ask you to keep everything confidential for the time being. When you see what it is I think you'll realize why. We will also need to pick your brain before you leave to help us decide how to proceed."

I could see Lenora hesitate as she thought about the possibilities. She finally answered, "Hopefully you'll clear up my confusion as we go along. As long as it's not something illegal I will always get your permission before releasing anything. I'll also be glad to help you any way I can."

Having heard her promise, I stood up and said, "I'm glad you wore slacks and flats this morning."

Looking at Hector I asked, "Would you plug in the extension cords for the lights?"

I smiled at Lenora and said, "Follow us. Please be careful and don't trip."

Watching where I put my own feet, I led everyone off down into the basement of the house. There we each picked up a flashlight from those stacked on one of the boxes and continued on through the back of the basement into the small doorway in the wall that served as an entrance to the tunnel. We all moved slowly, realizing that most of this was new to Lenora. I heard Lenora gasp as she looked about as we proceeded down the tunnel. I chuckled as I realized that to us this had become almost an everyday occurrence. Who, looking at this house from the outside, would ever imagine this all being under here?

I'm sure that Lenora's mind was still inside the treasure room as we walked back up the stairs from the basement into the den. The story of the discovery of the tunnel system, with its entrance now under water, was related by first one person and then another as we walked along the old tunnels. She was given the opportunity to see for herself the vast open spaces in the cavern and then to dip her hand into the cold brackish waters of the bay at the tunnel's end. After that we took her back and allowed her to explore the treasure room itself. At that time I explained how we found the treasure map hidden in the locked room and what we knew about some of the original contents of the room. I could see her take deep breaths and close her eyes as if even the smells evoked memories of some distant past. I watched her eyes move from one item to another almost as if she was a child seeing presents under the Christmas tree. Finally her eyes lit on the golden cross and I'll be dammed if she didn't almost faint.

While she was examining the cross I gave her more details of the treasure map. I explained where it was found among the ship's logbooks and gave her some ideas of the problems we had in trying to decipher the map. She never took her eyes off of that cross the entire time I was speaking. Everyone helped carry the items from the treasure chest out of the room so that we could show her the entire contents of the chest we had found. I could see she was stunned when she tried to wrap her mind around these discoveries.

After we rested up for a few moments in the den we went to the garage where Hector and Edward carefully lifted the chest itself from the water so that Lenora could examine the it. She asked, "Why are you soaking the chest in water?"

Edward spoke up and said, "I know several of us have seen shows on TV where they do something similar to artifacts that were discovered under water and since the place where we found the chest was so boggy we figured it couldn't hurt."

Then almost as an afterthought Elise took her over to the deep sink and showed her the vellum pages and cotton cloth. Lenora tenderly picked up a piece of sail cloth and I could almost visualize her imagining the sails catching the wind above an actual pirate ship. She picked one of the vellum pages from the deep sink and examined it carefully and then said, "These were probably pages from an old journal or something. You know even though vellum was more common hundreds of years ago than it is now it was still a good bit more expensive than paper. That tells me that the writer thought what he was writing was important. I've read of methods of recovering the writing on vellum depending on the ink used and we might be able to do that here."

Elise asked, "Should we get these out and dry them off for you to take with you?"

Lenora shook her head and answered, "No, let's leave them where they are for the time being."

After we took her down to show her the hole that we removed the chest from and each one told her a story about how tough it was to get the treasure out of the hole and up the hill we returned to the house and sat around the kitchen table explaining things in more detail.

Lenora recommended that we engage a local law firm to smooth the way with the state. "Hoskins and Saunders, PA, has been used by the Historical Society in the past in similar instances, although, quite frankly, we've never had anything like this discovered in this area ... Leonard Hoskins is a charter member of the society and has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of real estate and claims law. He's the one you need to give you legal advice on how to proceed."

Lenora then said, "There's one other thing. I've hesitated to bring this up because I realize that you want to continue to live in the house but I think the house deserves to be designated a national landmark."

I could see Irma squirm in her seat as she seemed quite excited by this idea but then I saw a frown cross her face as she evidently thought of something else. She timidly held up her hand as if in school and when everyone quieted asked, "Does this mean we would have to show people through the house?"

Lenora laughed and answered, "Not unless you wanted to. For the most part it would mean the house would be added to certain guidebooks and a plaque would be mounted near the sidewalk identifying the house and noting its significance."

When satisfied that she had answered Irma's question she turned to me and asked, "I wonder if the society might make copies of the ships logbooks and the map like we did with the slave journal?"

I looked around and as no one seemed to have any objections agreed. Lenora said, "I'll have an expert come over for them along with the vellum pages. He'll know what to do to continue their preservation."

The vellum pages would, in the end, provide the most information on this period of the tunnels under the old house.



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Chapter 8: Historical Perspective


During the next week the treasure was moved from the treasure room to a vault at H. J. Hendley & Company, a company that specialized in storage and appraisal of collectable coins, gold and antique jewelry. I took no chances with the transfer and contracted an armored car service to make the actual move. The brief appearance of the armored car in the neighborhood was hardly noticed by our neighbors.

Leo Hoskins proved to be a fount of knowledge concerning property law and more specifically laws concerning what is more properly called 'treasure trove.' Treasure trove being defined as objects that contain more than 50% gold or silver. Leo explained, "Laws pertaining to treasure trove vary widely from state to state."

Seeing our frowns Leo continued, "Fortunately, the law that applied to the chest you dug up on Ms. Anderson's property is one of the more simple ones. If Mrs. Anderson is one of the finder's then it's finders-keepers as long as the treasure was buried long enough that it is doubtful that the original owner will return to claim it. In your case, the age and condition of the items you found should be proof enough that the original owner will no longer be returning."

After he saw the smiles that produced he once more continued, "I think you need to get an appraisal to ensure that each person receives a fair share. You're all friends now but I've seen arguments about money destroy friendships."

Audra spoke up and said, "We'll just have Hendley & Company do an appraisal since the treasure is already in their vaults."

Leo agreed that Hendley was the best company to do the job and then said, "You've been lucky so far. In some other states the law requires that finds be promptly reported to the police"

When Irma asked what would have happened in those states, Leo shrugged and answered, "It would be subject to confiscation and considering the value of the treasure you can be sure that it would be confiscated."

Then he added, "Other states consider marshland or land within so many feet of navigable waters to belong to the state. In those states you would have to fight the state in court for the treasure."

Elise spoke up and said, "That's terrible," to which everyone murmured their assent.

Leo got their attention and said, "Nevertheless, in this case the law is clear. The chest and all its contents belong by law to Mrs. Anderson who has given each of you an equal share."

At that point everyone was smiling and hugging Irma.

Several days after this Lenora returned to Bell Whistle with conservators from the museum and experts from the historical society. We allowed them to take possession of the vellum pages, the logbooks and the treasure map. The conservator was overjoyed to see that the vellum pages had been kept from drying out. I was told that later in the museum laboratory he and his assistants slowly, under controlled conditions, dried out the three hundred and fifty year old pages. Lenora, who kept us up to speed on what was happening, told us that the conservator was somewhat surprised when faint traces of handwriting began to appear on the apparently blank pages as they were properly dried. She explained that this was due to a property of the iron gall ink, a common ink used during that period of history. Later she explained that an analysis of that ink would lend a certain authenticity to the pages, as iron gall ink is no longer in use, as it severely corrodes the metal used in modern fountain pins.

During this time we were visited by Lenora on almost a daily basis. She was normally accompanied by one or more experts from either the museum staff or the historical society. Audra told me on one day that Herbert Watkins, the museum's archaeologist-in-residence, made a complete inventory of the contents of the treasure room. She said he was returning to complete the inventory with photos and illustrations showing the exact placement of the items within the room. I asked her to make sure that someone from our group was with each visitor during these excursions. Audra, Elise or Irma usually were the ones who were available and each would report to me on what had been accomplished. For several days Audra was quite tired as she followed several members of the society who spent considerable effort in constructing detailed drawings and maps of the tunnel and cavern.

All of this work kept us hopping for several weeks. I had almost forgotten about the vellum pages when I got a call from Lenora late on a Friday evening. "Joe, they've finished transcribing and translating the writing on the vellum pages."

Knowing Lenora better I could hear the controlled excitement in her voice. She continued, "This is as good as the slave journal. Can we come by tomorrow and present this to all of you?"

Of course there was no chance I would say 'no.'

The next morning Lenora arrived at Bell Whistle along with Matt and a young man about my age whom I did not recognize. As soon as we were all seated in the den Lenora excitedly introduced him. Waiting until she had our undivided attention, she said, "This is Peter Wright. Pete is a most unusual member of the society. He has an almost eidetic memory and has a particular passion for what he calls 'the golden age of the buccaneer.' He also has a love of colonial history and lore. More importantly, Pete is the member of the society responsible for monitoring the restoration of the vellum pages from the treasure chest."

Edward raised his hand and after being acknowledged remarked, "I thought a conservator at the museum was in charge of the restoration."

Lenora gave Edward a tolerant smile, "That's right, but Pete was there monitoring the expert as the Historical Society's representative. Anyway, as soon as the conservator finished with the pages, Pete made a duplicate copy on regular paper. After that he shifted gears and began the task of deciphering the writing on the pages. I'll let him give you the details, but I must say that you are lucky that we have someone with Pete's talent to take this on. Pete, they're all yours."

At that moment Mr. Whiskers walked into the room and, after sniffing around Pete's legs, moved over to Audra's lap as if he also wanted to hear what the young man had to say. I could tell Pete was unaccustomed to public speaking as he cleared his throat several times and shuffled nervously through his notes. I spoke up at that point and said, "Pete, I'm sure I speak for everyone. We're glad to have you with us. Take your time. You're among friends. We're all extremely interested although we are not experts by any means."

Pete gave us a nervous smile and then said, "As Lenora mentioned my first real task was to translate the journal into understandable modern English. Early 17th century writings, in the Old English of the time, are not easily understood. Many words had different meanings at that time and even with excellent penmanship certain letters of the alphabet were formed differently. In addition, the writer of the journal did not have what I would call excellent penmanship."

Looking at each of us he explained, "That's why the work took so long."

Nervously shuffling his notes again he continued, "The thirty-two pages you found proved to be the personal journal of one Captain Theodore J. Gallant. Captain Gallant was first a 17th century privateer and later a pirate. Almost all of what I am going to tell you comes from the journal. I say that so that you will understand that the accounts might be embellished. Although the journal narrative might be exaggerated, it is certain that Captain Gallant did exist. We have confirmed his identity from English birth records and certain land grant records. In addition, I have personally verified the historical accuracy of the main events in his narrative. Unfortunately, there is no way to verify all of the details in the journal.

"Captain Gallant began his career as a British privateer. He stated in the journal that he was thus authorized by a letter of marque issued by the personal secretary of Oliver Cromwell in 1651. As you probably know, Oliver Cromwell was not a king of Great Britain but rather at that time a general who would in 1653 become the head of state that led the country during a short period of history when the monarchy was overthrown.

"Captain Gallant stated that his letter of marque, like most that were granted, was very specific in detailing who and where he could attack. We know from historical records that Great Britain had made peace with Spain and was close to war with the Dutch, who were the bane of British merchants throughout the world. The Navigation Act of 1651 was designed to foment that war. That act declared that only British ships could trade with British colonies. This would have cut off a lucrative source of trade for the Dutch, and so they went to war rather than accept the loss of so much of their sea commerce. Captain Gallant's letter of marque specifically authorized him to attack, capture and secure cargo carried by Dutch ships found between Great Britain and the new world to the west."

Looking matter-of-factly around the group Peter's nervousness seemed to leave him as he continued, "As you may or may not know, the Dutch during that time had colonies all over the world. In the west they had colonies in New York and New Jersey in North America. They had island colonies on St. Martin, St. Eustasius, Aruba, Curaçao and many small islands in the Caribbean. Then they had a large number of small colonies in South America as well as controlling most of the coast of Brazil, even though that was nominally claimed by the Portuguese.

"You also need to understand that a privateer's ship was privately owned and funded. If you were attacked by a privateer, you probably wouldn't be able to distinguish that attack from one made by a pirate. These ships were not under the orders of the Royal Navy, which was then in its infancy. In fact, privateers operating under a letter of marque were a way for countries to avoid the expense of maintaining large navies.

"In addition to providing and provisioning the ship Captain Gallant was required to post a performance bond with the government to ensure he lived up to the terms of his authorization. In order to make any money he would have had to locate and capture Dutch ships involved in illegal trade, take the cargo and then sell it at certain specified ports. As soon as he did that he was required to turn over 40% of the value of any ships and cargo to the British Governor. If he failed to follow these exact procedures, even once, his bond was forfeit and he would be declared a pirate.

"Captain Gallant purchased a ship in England and named it Estelle after his mother. The captain had Estelle, originally designed as a fast merchant ship, refitted to carry16 guns. After taking possession of the ship and recruiting a crew, he sailed towards St. Martin, which at the time was a rich island in the possession of the Dutch. He proved his abilities as a captain by capturing several smaller Dutch merchant ships while sailing in the vicinity of that island. Not having recruited enough men for prize crews, he only took high value cargo and provisions from these ships, which he then sank."

At that point Camilla nervously interrupted and asked, "What happened to the crews of these ships?"

Pete, gaining confidence, smiled at her and said, "The captain didn't mention that in his journal. We do know that the British hated the Dutch so most were probably killed in the battle for the ship or sunk with the ship. Anyway, using this tactic, he was able to stay at sea for most of a year and subsist off the provisions he had taken. Finally he sailed to Barbados, then held by England, sold the high value items and turned in the log books of the sunken ships and settled up with the governor. The governor demanded that he pay the port tax in addition to the 40% specified in his letter of marque. The end result was that Captain Gallant was left with enough to pay the crew and reprovison the ship for another voyage but almost no profit for himself.

"Upset with this turn of events, he decided to try his luck around Curaçao, a Dutch island off the northern coast of South America. The Dutch had been at war with Spain up until 1648. The French, Dutch allies in that struggle, were still at war with Spain. Curaçao was the port where many Dutch privateers had brought in their captured cargo and ships to settle up during the war. Many of those Dutch privateers, after having their letters of marque revoked, had turned to other options. Some obtained French letters of marque and continued attacking Spanish galleons at will. Others turned to piracy and attacked ships of any nation.

"For both of these groups the victims of choice were the rich Spanish galleons. The Spanish colonies were still the richest in the New World in terms of gold and silver. Heavily laden Spanish galleons routinely transported this gold and silver, as well as other precious cargos, from those colonies back to Spain. Valuable cargos were normally transported by a small number of heavily laden but lightly armed treasure galleons escorted by heavily armed war galleons. Dutch, and now French, privateers and pirates of all nationalities attacked these small convoys. They would often work together to secure their prizes. The French privateers would then take the cargo to Martinique. The pirates continued to sell their cargos to the Dutch banking houses on Curaçao.

"Captain Gallant's plan was to attack the cargo ships that the Dutch banking houses used to transport the gold and silver back to Holland. Failing that, he would attack the pirate vessels after they had split up but before they reached Curaçao. The plan was a bold one that did have certain obstacles.

"The main obstacle was that, for the most part, these ships traveled in groups. The Dutch cargo ships in these convoys traveling back to Amsterdam usually had escorts of Dutch warships. Most of these warships carried more sail, more guns and more men than the Estelle. The only advantage that the Estelle had was her ability to turn and tack quicker. This meant that it was possible with skill and cunning to pick off any ships that strayed from the already loose formation of many convoys. According to his journal, Captain Gallant would flit around the tail end of these convoys like a gnat. He became an expert at this tactic. Acting quickly, his crew would board and quickly remove any gold, silver or other precious cargo and then set the ship afire. This usually meant that the warship escorting the convoy would stop to render assistance to the crew of the burning ship, giving the Estelle the needed time to escape.

"Usually is a word that will get you killed, and there were several times when his ship was damaged and almost captured. Still, the rewards were worth the effort. After less than six months at sea, the precious cargo he carried back to Barbados was ten times greater than the cargo from his previous trip. At that point he began to have visions of himself as a wealthy man. Unfortunately for the captain, the British governor at Barbados saw things much differently.

"Sir Roger Chadwicke, the British Governor of Barbados, was the third son of His Grace, Cecil Chadwicke, fourth Duke of Northampton. His posting to the island was fortuitous, a prestigious posting for a third son. His salary was only a small portion of his remuneration. A portion of the port tax and of any privateer's cargo also went into the pocket of the governor."

As Pete paused to take a drink of water, Elise said, "I have a question."

Pete's quickly swallowed a sip of water and answered, "Yes, it is."

The rest of us looked puzzled as Pete continued, "I assume you were going to ask if it there was a connection between Sir Roger and the Duke of Northampton's silver service that was found in the treasure room. The answer is 'yes.' If you don't mind, I'll explain that when we get to that part of the journal."

Looking at his watch Pete continued, "As there was no merchant or group of merchants in Barbados that could pay the full value of his cargo, Captain Gallant's crew brought the treasure up the hill to the official governor's residence and laid it out before Sir Roger. Since much of the treasure was silver and gold, he was hoping that the governor might agree to take the government's portion directly from the treasure so he would not have to sail all the way to Britain to make the split. The governor, however, was greedy, and once the treasure was brought into his possession he wanted it all. He told Captain Gallant that he would need a few days to make a decision. When the captain tried to take the treasure back to his ship the governor made it clear that it would be well protected where it was. The governor then abruptly dismissed the captain.

"The next day the watch onboard ship reported a contingent of British soldiers approaching. The officer accompanying the soldiers hailed the ship, tied up at the dock, and met Captain Gallant on the dock. The captain, who was unarmed except for his sword, was informed that he was to be escorted back to the governor's residence. Captain Gallant smelled a rat but was unable to resist. As soon as they were out of site of the ship he found himself stripped of his sword and marched as a prisoner to meet the governor. As soon as he was taken into the residence the governor informed him that his cargo was being confiscated, but gave him no other information. The governor then had the captain placed under arrest and confined him in a small room in the residence.

"Later that day, when the ship's first mate came to inquire as to his captain's whereabouts, an underling informed him of the treasure's confiscation and the captain's detention. The reason given was that the treasure was of Spanish origin. The evidence cited for this was that there were many Spanish milled dollars as well as ingots of gold with Spanish assay markings among the treasure. This, the governor declared, was a violation of Captain Gallant's letter of marque.

"Captain Gallant was stunned at hearing this. Had he not clearly explained to the governor how he had come into the possession of the treasure during their first meeting? After a second audience with the governor the captain was informed that he was to be shipped back to London to face charges of piracy. Immediately after that, the governor had the guard move the captain from the small room into the jail proper. The jail was a dank cell built into the basement of the governor's residence.

"All of this might have spelled an end to our good captain, except for one small problem. The British Navy was very small and was stretched thin during that era. That meant that not only was there no British warship in port to take the captain back to London but there was none expected in the near future. On the other hand, Captain Gallant was very popular with his crew of 108 battle-hardened sailors. That crew had also been promised a share of the captain's portion of the treasure that they had bled and died for. Needless to say they were very unhappy with the governor's decision.

"At first the crew showed their dismay by ripping apart all of the taverns in the port town. Members of the garrison sent out to quell these disturbances were attacked and many soldiers were thrown into the bay. This was more serious than it sounds since hardly any of the island's 50 soldiers could swim. Some of the soldiers drowned. As the disturbance spread and other members of the brotherhood of the coast joined in, the governor began to fear for his own safety.

"As his fears mounted the governor began to draw the garrison closer and closer to his private residence. In the end, the governor decided that 40% of the treasure plus the port tax, with him alive to claim his share, was a much better deal than having his descendants claim all of the treasure while wearing sack cloth and ashes."

At that point our group, who had been following the story closely, broke out into smiles. Audra, who was on the edge of her seat, actually applauded.

Pete smiled and continued, "As you can imagine, Captain Gallant was greatly relieved when he was freed and given the portion of the treasure that he had expected. The governor even rescinded a portion of the port tax to make amends. Although he maintained a civil tongue in his dealings with the governor the captain never forgot the time that he spent in that jail. He vowed never to return to Barbados while Sir Chadwicke was governor.

"In the exchange he did manage to keep most of the Spanish milled dollars and was even able to convert some of the gold bars into gold sovereigns. He divided most of these up among the crew as their portion and used some of the remainder to reprovison the ship. Before leaving he also managed to acquire a small sloop, which he renamed Lucille in honor of his younger sister. He transferred two of the guns from the Estelle to the new ship. He then sailed north to the British island of Nevis and there recruited additional crew and was also able to buy six additional cannon. He placed these six smaller cannon on the Lucille and returned the two guns borrowed from the Estelle so that she regained her full complement of armament.

"Captain Gallant then promoted his first mate to captain of the new vessel and spent the trip back to the vicinity of Curaçao training the crews and learning to operate the two ships as a team. The Lucille, although small, was fast. Her slim lines gave her more speed and maneuverability than the Estelle. He was hoping that she would be able to slip into the Dutch convoys and fire at the warships and then use superior maneuverability to avoid any returned fire and draw the protecting warships into a chase. This would allow the Estelle to take more time and get at larger and hopefully richer cargo ships.

"Captain Gallant used this tactic successfully along with others that he developed over the next two years. During that time he amassed a fortune and built up quite a reputation. I did find other sources that let me know that he was truly a thorn in the side of the Dutch. True to his word, he never returned to Barbados, choosing instead to make the slightly longer trip to Nevis and deal with the governor there. I imagine the unnamed governor of Nevis became quite wealthy due to Captain Gallant's plundering.

"During this time he accumulated two more ships which he added to his small fleet enabling him to become quite bold in his raids. All good things have to end, though, and Captain Gallant's time as a privateer ended in 1654 when he was informed that hostilities with the Dutch were at an end and that his letter of marque had been revoked. By that time Captain Gallant was fairly wealthy. He might have been even richer except that he provided generously to his crew and spent much of his money buying and outfitting the additional vessels in his small fleet.

"Peace was a chafing yoke about the neck of the young captain. He took opportunities as he found them and ended up sailing the Estelle and her sister ships from port to port carrying high value cargo. These were cargo items that were at risk from the many small pirate ships that harassed merchant ships along the coast. In the end he found that there was not much money to be made using commerce raiders as cargo ships.

"One good thing did come of this effort. It happened while his small convoy was transporting a high value cargo, consisting primarily of casks of rum, to Virginia and Maryland. He hoped to be able to make the return trip with another high value cargo, perhaps tobacco, which would fetch a good price on the islands of the Caribbean. As his small convoy sailed toward their destination the ships ran into a great storm. From the description in his journal we would call this a hurricane. The only thing to be done when caught in such a storm was to take in as many sails as could be without losing the ability to maintain headway against the large waves. The captain's crews did everything they could do and then prayed. The winds and waves battered his four ships for most of the day, almost sinking the Estelle and playing havoc with the rigging and masts on each of the other ships.

"After the storm subsided his ships managed to limp into the harbor here. His crew then managed to beach the Estelle and made needed repairs to her hull. During that time the captain's toughest job was to keep the crew away from the rum that they were carrying as cargo.

"The captain was surprised to find that such a natural harbor had no inhabitants. Because of this the crew had to search the area in order to find wood for repairs and water and game for provisions. On one of those trips his crew found the natural cavern which at that time had its entrance hidden behind a small hill just to the east of a small forest near the coast.

"Since there was no one living nearby Captain Gallant thought the harbor and cavern would make this a good base of operations for his ships. He knew in his heart that his days as a merchant wouldn't last. Both he and the remainder of his once-large crew missed the adventure and the plunder found raiding Dutch shipping. Captain Gallant knew that as soon as he set off on that course he would become an outcast, an enemy hunted by everyone including his British countrymen. There would be no safe refuge in any civilized port. Because of that he would need a secure location where he could resupply his ships and occasionally hide from pursuers. He realized the advantages of the cavern. There he could store supplies for emergencies and have shelter when the Caribbean became too dangerous. The area had plenty of wild deer, feral hogs, and small game. The feral hogs had caused some alarm when they were discovered. The area was searched again for any sign of European settlements. When none were found he concluded that perhaps there had been a shipwreck or the animals had escaped when a ship landed for a short time to replenish water or food supplies. The crew had discovered a good water supply near the caverns.

"One of the first things he did was to build a short tunnel into the back of the cavern where he fashioned a storage room to lock up rum and other valuable provisions to keep them safe from the crew."

As Pete paused Audra asked, "Was that our treasure room?"

Pete shrugged and answered, "We're not sure, but from the description we think so."

Again shuffling his notes Pete continued, "When repairs to the Estelle were completed, the captain left several barrels of rum in that storage room along with extra guns and powder. After that he sailed as a merchant or trader for most of the following two years. During those trips up and down the coast he refined his plan and added to the supplies stored in the cavern. He added barrels of hard tack, sea biscuits, tobacco and rum. All this was done while eking out a break-even existence running rum and tobacco up and down the coast.

"On one trip when he couldn't find anything else to ship he bought slaves in Nassau to sell to plantation owners in Virginia. During that trip he again made port here. While he was here he decided to use the slaves to clear and plow fields. Once the fields were plowed they planted corn and other staple crops. He also used many of the slaves to extend and improve the tunnel he had started. When finished the tunnel went from the back of the cavern into a second entrance hidden in the forest near the edge of the fields that he had prepared. He delayed his voyage for six months as the slaves completed the tunnels. When the ships finally sailed, he left a small crew here with a few slaves to continue to work the crops that they had planted. He now had definite plans to return to the life of a sea bandit.

"Captain Gallant intended this time to cut out the Dutch middlemen and attack the Spanish directly. He was a skilled sea captain and had a nucleus of fine officers and old salts. He knew that being successful at this type of endeavor would require a ship larger than the Estelle, the largest of his four ships. Estelle could only carry 16 guns of which only seven could be brought to bear at one time as a broadside, with two additional, lighter guns as chasers. The captain knew some of the Spanish war galleons carried 40 or more guns on two or sometimes even three gun decks. With this in mind he began to haunt many of the shipyards in the growing British colonies of Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia searching for a larger vessel. He spoke to shipwrights and also ship wreckers hoping to find a place that would construct a new vessel. When he was told that was impossible he tried to purchase and refit an older ship.

"The captain ended up finding the ship he was looking for during a visit to his friend the governor of Nevis. There he found what had been the French frigate Durance listing badly, beached and abandoned near the edge of the harbor. The Durance, less than two years old, already looked like an ancient derelict. After eyeing the ship upon entering the harbor he met with the governor who, being a civilized man, told him the Durance was cursed. When the captain heard the full story he almost agreed with the governor.

"The governor related that the young captain of the Durance made a grave tactical mistake when he decided to engage two much larger Spanish war galleons in a running sea battle. That battle resulted in the main mast and much of the rigging on the Durance being torn away by Spanish chain and bar shot. The ship barely managed to slip away from that disastrous engagement. Then, in a disastrous turn of bad luck Durance was overtaken at sea by a great storm. All of her cannons were pushed over the side in an effort to keep the ship afloat. Even so, the ship nearly foundered as the crew struggled to maintain headway against the churning seas. Many of her crew was washed overboard, including the young captain. Finally, after much of the storm had died down, an even younger third mate led the few remaining crewmen on deck to cut away the wreckage. Those brave seamen managed to raise enough sail on the aft mast and the forward jib to maintain some headway. They sailed the crippled ship to the nearest landfall, which just happened to be Nevis.

"The governor said that, although the French were still at war with the Spanish, Great Britain was a neutral party. The third mate, the only surviving officer, and the few remaining crew would be returned to France. The ship, deemed to be beyond any hope other than the wreckers, would be sold to help defer the cost of the care and transportation for the remaining crewmen. Captain Gallant and his other captains looked over the derelict and agreed that she could be salvaged and repaired. The governor was receptive to his friend's request to bid. The captain's bid was the largest as he was the only bidder who intended to repair the ship. Buying the ship cost nearly half of his remaining gold sovereigns.

"There was no real shipyard on the island, so his crew made emergency repairs to the newly christened Fairwinds and escorted her slowly to the nearest shipyard which was in Maryland. In Maryland the captain sold his three smallest ships and used most of his remaining gold to refit and rebuild Fairwinds and arm her with 24 of the 32 cannons she was able to carry. There were not enough cannon available in port and so most of these guns were a mismatched assortment from the three smaller ships that he sold. It was a full six months later that both the Fairwinds and the Estelle headed back out to sea and set sail for the Spanish Main.

"The political climate in 1659 was mainly one of some confusion. Great Britain, although at peace with most of her neighbors, was absent a regent. Richard Cromwell, Oliver's son stepped down as leader in May of that year. This set the stage for the return of royalty to the throne. Charles II would come from France to reclaim the throne in 1660.

"Spain, a decidedly declining power, was on the losing side in the Thirty Years War. France had continued to press the war against the Spanish, hoping to weaken their claim to lands on the border of France and the Netherlands. The peace treaty that would be signed later in the year would definitely leave Spain as a weaker power. Even after peace with France was brokered, Spain remained mired in a struggle with Portugal. France, despite being on the winning side in the Thirty Years War and winner in the protracted war with Spain, had had many of her southern provinces devastated by the war. These issues meant that the great European powers had their attention elsewhere and for the most part left the details of administering the colonies in the hands of their local governors. The owning nations were in no position to give much military support to those governors.

"All of this was a boon to the pirates of the time. Massive Spanish treasure fleets escorted by multiple war galleons became a thing of the past. In the current political environment, the more common occurrence was two to five lightly armed trade galleons guarded by one war galleon. War galleons were impressive and still outgunned most pirates but they were cumbersome ships that turned slowly and couldn't tack very effectively compared to smaller pirate ships and certainly not as well as Fairwinds, a fast frigate. The results were that Captain Gallant was able to keep the Fairwinds away from the devastating broadsides of the war galleon by using the winds to his advantage. Doing this while close in to a capital ship that in most cases had you outgunned required nerves of steel. When effectively employed it usually gave the captain's gunners the first effective broadside. The captain chose to use his firepower to effectively cripple the larger ships by using chain shot to destroy their rigging. This would make him much more maneuverable and give his gunners opportunities to rake the deck of the opposing war galleon with murderous grapeshot.

"Of course the Spanish had marksmen in the riggings and were fierce fighters when boarded, so men were killed during every engagement. Pirating was a dangerous business. Still, the crew considered the reward worthy of the risk. Some of the crew of Fairwinds grumbled that she was a cursed ship, but those who had served earlier with Captain Gallant on board the Estelle thought that the captain brought his own good luck aboard.

"Captain Gallant's first engagement was typical. Fairwinds and the Estelle faced three galleons, two of which were lightly armed trade galleons carrying only six small cannon. The war galleon accompanying the cargo galleons was an older ship. She carried 36 guns but was only able to fire one broadside as the Fairwinds sailed downwind towards the much larger Spanish ship. As the Fairwinds approached, the Estelle, although barely in gunnery range, started firing at the galleon. The speed that the Fairwinds entered the engagement caused the Spanish broadside to pass harmlessly over the ship. None of the solid shot fired did any damage to the rigging, although several sails were pierced. Fairwinds' first broadside of grapeshot over roundshot neatly cleared most of the Spanish gunners from the upper decks of the larger ship. Soon after, grappling hooks were used to lash the two ships close together. Fairwinds' crew was merciless as they cleared the decks of the larger ship. Within two hours of the start of the engagement the proud Spanish war galleon was left a burning hulk as the Fairwinds sailed away.

"The Fairwinds then approached the nearest trade galleon with her guns run out and each reloaded with grapeshot. The captain of the targeted ship quickly struck her colors and surrendered the richly laden galleon. The Estelle took possession of the trade galleon while the Fairwinds headed out after the second adversary. When the rich cargo from both of the ships had been brought onboard they quickly left the area. Captain Gallant knew he had more treasure from that one engagement than he had managed to acquire in his best year of raiding Dutch ships.

"Word traveled slowly when the only means of communications was sailing ships. After giving the crew their share of the treasure Captain Gallant was able to use his share to purchase another ship the size of the Estelle and fully outfit the Fairwinds with her normal complement of 32 cannons. He again named the new ship Lucille, knowing that his new life would most likely keep him from ever seeing his sister again.

"As winter was approaching, the captain loaded all three ships with stores and sailed to his new settlement. The slaves he had left behind with his small crew had brought in a bumper crop of corn, potatoes and winter squashes from the virgin soil. The crew was comfortable ashore in the cavern sending out hunting parties to bring in wild game to supplement the hard tack and salted pork.

"Gallant Land, as he called his settlement, was only missing the ladies that the crew sought out in every port. The captain boasted to the crew that he would have ladies here before the next winter. Several of the older crew, tired of bunking in the cold drafty cavern, used the fair weather days of early winter to construct log cabins on the other side of the small forest. There the tall trees of the forest blocked the force of the cold winter sea breezes. Captain Gallant kept the remainder of his share of the treasure in the locked room he had constructed in the tunnel.

"During the next year the captain's successes allowed him to add to that treasure. Treasure was hard to spend as it was nearly impossible to find ports where he was not a wanted man. Towards the end of the next season of fighting, Fairwinds, Estelle and Lucille raided several Dutch settlements on a group of small islands. The main object of those raids was Dutch women. The expedition captured a shipload of women that were brought back to the settlement as wives for the crew.

"Captain Gallant himself was reluctant to take a wife, but soon found that he missed the company of the fairer sex as much as any of his crew. During that winter the captain began to take his richest treasure and pack it away separately in a chest in the locked storage room. He still used the room to safeguard things such as rum so that the crew wouldn't use it to excess. Along with those things he stored odds and ends of cargo that were not easily disposed of but were too valuable to abandon.

"During that second winter he also began his journal. At first, the way the journal was written suggested it was written by someone other than the captain, but we learned that he, like many during this period, referred to his exploits as if they had happened to someone else.

"The third year of buccaneering was to be his last. Everyone was looking for the Fairwinds and every Spanish convoy was doubly guarded. Only one convoy was taken as prize that year and he lost Lucille while doing that. The riches taken, although quite respectable, took a heavy toll of crewmen along with the loss of the Lucille. Both ships were heavily laden as they headed up the coast, away from the Spanish Main and towards Gallant Land. So incensed was the captain about losing the Lucille and over a third of his crewmen that he sailed close by Barbados to see if he could find a replacement ship for the Lucille. The ship he spotted was a British revenue cutter that was making her last voyage of the year from London to the Crown Colonies.

"A short battle ensued where roles were reversed. The cutter was outgunned but, surprisingly, faster than her pursuers. The cutter almost made it to the harbor when a broadside from Estelle ripped her rigging away. Captain Gallant boarded the smaller ship almost within firing range of the port's battery. He was delighted to find the younger sister of Sir Roger Chadwicke a passenger onboard.

"Lady Deborah Sutherby was a beautiful young woman who was traveling to Barbados in the company of her husband, Sir Thomas Sutherby, who owned plantations in the island colonies. Sir Thomas was unfortunately killed by a splinter created when one of the masts was shot away. Among the treasures on the cutter was a part of the silver service of the Duke that was being used by his daughter on the trip.

"Captain Gallant was gracious enough to allow the cutter to complete her voyage so word could be taken to Sir Roger of his brother-in-law's death and his sister's capture. At first the captain hoped to ransom Sir Roger's sister in exchange for a complete pardon. That hope was dashed when he was told that if he turned over all his treasure, his crew and his ships a pardon would be recommended. Lady Sutherby was taken back to the captain's settlement where she became first his maid and later his mistress. Soon the captain moved out of the cave into the largest cabin near to the back entrance to the cavern. During that winter, which was extremely cold, Captain Gallant wrote the last entries in his journal. Those last entries told of his plans and his fears.

"Before Captain Gallant set sail in that spring of 1663 he took all of his most precious items, along with his journal, and buried them in a hole that he dug himself under a small vegetable garden in the back of his cabin. The treasure chest had earlier been moved to his cabin in the dark of night on a small wheeled cart. Later he had moved the treasure, piece by piece, to his cabin through the tunnel at night.

"That's really the end of the captain's journal. We have been able to piece together the facts that his ships were sunk later that year while he was attacking a large Spanish convoy. We know that none of the settlers or slaves of Gallant Land were here when the first colonist known to history settled this area in 1757. What happened to those earlier settlers, their cabins and their fields, and why they weren't mentioned by those first colonists will remain a mystery. We do know that there was evidence of much destruction by a great storm that was mentioned by those later settlers. Whether that or something else wiped out the colony, we don't know."

The room was quiet when Pete sorted through his notes. Audra spoke first and said, "All that would make a blockbuster of a movie."

Irma said, "Except that it was real, it really happened. It's hard to believe. I mean that was over 350 years ago. It also gives a history to our treasure. I know that, with antiquities, pieces with a history always are worth more."

Lenora said, "More than that, it means that colonists lived here over sixty years earlier than we had first thought. It's almost as if we have our own 'Lost Colony' similar to the one in North Carolina."

I began to think to myself. I didn't even realize that I was speaking aloud when I commented, "It almost seems a shame to sell the treasure now that we know what it is?"

I looked up from my thoughts to see everyone nodding their agreement to what I had said so I added, "On the other hand we have no place strong enough to display such a treasure even if we kept it here."

One by one we began to ask Pete questions. I could see that he relished the attention brought on by his studies. After the questions tapered off Lenora announced that the original vellum sheets were still at the museum where they were undergoing further conservation. We ended the evening with coffee in the kitchen. It was as if our imaginations were overloaded



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Chapter 9: Conflict Mounts

The following week was a pleasant week of mild fall weather. The uproar surrounding the treasure had slowed and things seemed almost normal as Hector and I returned to work. I immediately noticed the number of foreclosures had decreased dramatically over the past few weeks. I didn't think this was due to an improvement in the local economy. Rather it was a product of the fact that many of the neighborhoods in the working class area of town had few homes that were not already under foreclosure. I thought of my daddy saying, 'the thorniest rose bush sometimes produces the most beautiful blooms.' My daddy seemed to have a saying for every occasion.

In my case the work load of our clean-out business had slowed enough that we could put most of our energy into home remodeling. That business was slow at the moment but growing as the banks began to drop the asking prices on their inventories of foreclosed homes. Many of these were being bought up as rentals but more and more people were buying them to live in. Even with our clean-out and private security in the area many of these houses had been vandalized. Many of the buyers were forced to live in them 'as is' because of the lack of readily available credit. Many large banks were wary of reinvesting in homes that had so recently been foreclosed. That gave me an advantage as my business connections with several of the smaller local banks helped me assist customers in finding sources of credit for their remodeling.

Pete and others at the Historical Society continued to dig into historical records trying to discover the fate of Captain Gallant and his colony. The appraisal of the treasure also moved forward slowly as almost every item was unique. Audra, Irma and I had agreed to donate many of the duplicate artifacts from the treasure room to the local museum as compensation for their invaluable services in cataloging everything not in the hands of the appraiser.

The donation prompted the museum to sponsor a wide-ranging exhibition of Bell Whistle's history at the museum. Eventually we all agreed to co-sponsor the exhibition along with the historical society. The History of Bell Whistle House would run from early in the next spring until the end of the summer. An entire floor of the museum would be used to display the items. Items found in the treasure room would be displayed in an exact replica of that room.

Another room would contain a small theater where a documentary video of the History of Bell Whistle House would run continuously. The video was to be created by a nationally prominent production company. The company was primarily engaged in shooting historical videos for National Geographic. The video would include footage showing a renowned underground explorer traversing the secret passageway, the tunnel system and the cavern under the house. A diver would enter the cavern from the tunnel entrance in the bay.

A special venue would feature a local actor portraying Willie Thompson, the writer of the slave journal. He would appear in a replica of the room in which the slave journal was found surrounded by replicas of the other furniture we found in that room ... He would read an abbreviated version of Matt's translation of the journal. There was to be a highly publicized competition to find the actor for that role.

The largest venue would contain the recently discovered treasure chest along with Captain Gallant's personal journal. Reproductions of actual treasure from the chest would be displayed along with wax figures of Captain Gallant and his adversary Sir Roger Chadwicke. Models of the captain's ships would be displayed in a diorama of the bay that included what we knew of the lost colony. Several digs were planned to try to locate any remnants of that colony.

There were several reasons that we decided to cooperate with the museum. The most obvious was that we knew the story would eventually get out. We were fortunate to be involved with people who were used to maintaining a certain amount of secrecy. We knew that with the seemingly ever expanding group of people involved with studies of Bell Whistle our luck couldn't continue indefinitely. When the word of the discovery did get out we expected our home to be mobbed. The exhibition at the museum would be one way to put a damper on that.

The main reason was that Lenora was on the board of directors of the museum. During the weeks after the reading of Captain Gallant's journal she had become a fixture around the house and grounds. We joked that she should just stay in one of the guest rooms. She didn't take us up on that but did offer both Irma and Elise advisory seats on the board of the museum. Elise was not interested but Irma quickly accepted the offer. Audra ended up accompanying Irma to the meetings and was a few weeks later offered a seat of her own.

Work on Irma's suite on the first floor had stopped after discovery of the treasure due to security concerns. When things returned to normal Jorge's crew returned to complete that work. Hector put every available man on the job, almost getting in Jorge's way as he double checked the work himself. Jorge and Hector had words several times that week. Jorge was displeased at Hector's micromanagement. Several times I had to intervene to keep peace in the company. Jorge was different when Irma came around to look at the work. He treated her the way he would his own grandmother, making sure she wore a helmet and carefully explaining everything that had happened since her last visit.

Since the discovery of the treasure Irma seemed to have the energy of a person half her age. I actually had to caution her to slow down when I found her running up the stairs to get a wall paper sample. I teased her that she'd be sliding down the banister next.

Audra, Irma, Camille and Elise also spent time planning our upcoming wedding. I couldn't understand the fuss as it was still a good six months away. We had settled on a date that would be on a Friday two weeks before the exhibition opening. I would have loved to have it earlier but, well; things kept getting in the way. Irma, Elise and Camille each acted as if Audra was her only daughter and this was to be the social event of the decade. I found out how seriously Audra herself took the wedding when I jokingly told her that I wasn't sure whether I was good enough to attend such a highfalutin event. Audra gave me a hard look and then in a measured voice said, "If you think they're going overboard, you tell them." The hurt look in her eyes had me quickly explaining that it was all a joke. After that I left them to their planning, knowing that it was something I had to endure to have Audra as my wife.

All of these things seem orderly as I relate them, but the truth was that many were happening at the same time and that made a return to what I consider a normal life impossible. There were many evenings that I cuddled up on the couch with Mr. Whiskers and watched documentaries on television to get my mind off the ladies in my life who were talking in the kitchen. Other times I spent my evenings reviewing budgets or plans for remodeling jobs in my office. There were even a few times that I yearned for the peace and quiet of my lonely bachelor days. Then in the early days of November all hell broke loose.

I was watching The History Channel early that evening while Audra and Irma puttered around in the kitchen. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. I had disconnected the door buzzer but had not yet replaced it. I wondered why Elise bothered to knock as I got up to answer the door. When I opened the door I saw an impeccably attired twenty-something woman holding a microphone. I quickly noticed an overgrown kid standing to the side of her recording everything. It took me a second to realize that the video camera was pointed at me and I realized that I was standing there barefooted in my cut-off shorts and tee shirt. Just as the woman began to identify herself I interrupted and loudly said, "Cut off the camera please." When she started over with the same spiel I repeated my request only this time in a much louder voice.

Audra must have heard my demands as she came out of the kitchen to see what was happening. She at least looked presentable in her cotton blouse and jeans. Coming to the open door she put her arm around my back and calmly asked, "Who is it honey?"

I must have looked confused. The CBS logo wrapped around the number 3 clipped onto her microphone gave me a hint of the young woman's identity. Searching my fogged mind I stirred up a vague memory of seeing the young woman on a local news broadcast. I figured this had something to do with Bell Whistle but had no idea what. I mumbled my brilliant observation in answer. "I think it's a reporter."

At that moment I was so off balance that I considered closing the door in her face. Looking at her I said, "I'm sorry but we don't want any," and started to close the door.

Audra looked up at me and whispered, "Don't be rude, invite them in."

I looked at Audra and wondered where this calm, confident woman came from. She had certainly changed a lot. Of course I did as she directed. As we walked inside I saw Irma standing in the hallway, smiling. Irma gestured toward the formal living room and for a moment I felt like a guest in my own home. I noticed the cameraman filming everything and I growled, "Cut that thing off before I break it."

Audra took my hand in hers and said, "Now dear, we knew this was going to happen."

My head cleared and I smiled my acquiescence. Trying to make amends and becoming the genial host I turned to the reporter, whose name I could not for the life of me remember, and said, "Please excuse my manners. It has been a long day and I wasn't expecting company. I recognize your face from the evening news but can't seem to recall your name."

Audra quickly spoke up. "Dear, this is Bethany Willis. She is channel 3's top investigative reporter. You should know that, we watch her every evening."

I was trying to figure out where I was while we were watching 'her' every evening. Oh yeah, I was probably nodding off about that time.

As we entered the room, Audra continued, "Bethany, please have a seat. I'm Audra Miller and this rude man here is my fiancé, Joe Baxter. I'd also like you to meet our good friend, Irma Anderson."

Bethany smiled and took her seat. Looking over at the cameraman she said, "Sit down Harry and for god's sake turn that thing off."

Looking at Audra, Bethany said, "You said you knew this was going to happen. Mind telling me what you were expecting?"

Rather than answer Bethany's question Audra looked over at me and said, "Honey, if you're going to be on TV, and I expect you are, you need to change into something presentable."

I nodded and said, "If you'll excuse me."

I could hear a beginning of small talk behind me as I sprinted up the stairs. Shaking the cobwebs from my head I quickly changed and moved down the stairs. I heard a noise in the kitchen as I reached the bottom of the stairs. I peeked into the kitchen and found Irma filling coffee cups that were sat on a serving tray.

I asked, "What's going on?"

Irma wrinkled her brow and said, "Audra seems to be quite the charmer. They're in there now exchanging cat stories. Apparently Bethany has a calico that is also quite adventurous. Actually they are feeling each other out. Audra is holding up quite well I think. Apparently one of Bethany's confidential sources told her that we had some strange things happening here. She has hinted that it might be treasure but hadn't actually said anything when I left to get some refreshments. Bethany told Audra she wants to ask her questions on camera. Said it looks rehearsed otherwise. Audra firmly told her that there would be no surprises or the only thing she would get would be 'no comment'."

I carried the tray for Irma into the formal living room. I heard laugher as I reached the door. As I entered I was surprised to see Bethany with Mr. Whiskers curled up on her lap. She was just finishing a story about what I assumed was her cat. The cameraman was on the settee and came over to help me with the tray.

Audra looked at me and smiled. Her smile told me that she had everything under control. I sat the tray on the small coffee table and sat quietly as I decided to follow her lead.

Bethany had noted our non-verbal exchange and asked, "Have you set a date yet?"

Audra blushed slightly and said, "Yes, early next spring."

Audra then looked at me and said, "Bethany told me that one of her sources informed her that someone had discovered treasure here on the property. She was hoping that we might be willing to confirm the story and give her some details. I offered her an exclusive story providing she would submit all of her questions in writing and in advance. She wants to break the story on tonight's news program and says that there's not time for written questions and answers. What do you think, dear?"

From Audra's recap I knew that Bethany only had speculation. I wanted to find her sources but knew that was going to be a difficult proposition. I looked at Bethany and said, "I agree with my fiancée. It doesn't appear to me that you have much more than some idle speculation. You would have to reveal your source to have a credible story. You could perhaps stir up some type of viewer frenzy with that, but if we sat down and negotiated with channel 7, I'm sure their story would be much more interesting. Personally, since Audra seems to favor you, I'm all for giving you the story, but you'll have to wait and submit all questions in writing."

Bethany looked at me and said, "So you're admitting that there is treasure?"

I looked to the cameraman who had sat the camera on the floor at his feet. I replied, "Bethany, off the record there is; on the record, no comment."

Bethany smirked and said, "Off the record only works for official sources. You have confirmed that we do have a story. I might be able to hold my editor off if you are willing to guarantee me more than just the bare facts."

Audra seemed angry when she said, "Ms. Willis, we're not going to be intimidated. You go ahead with what you have. You can tell your viewers that they can get the real story by tuning into that cute Bob Thomas on channel 7 later in the week."

Audra then stood up, walked over to Bethany and lifted Mr. Whiskers from her lap. As soon as she had Mr. Whiskers in her arms she said, "Dear, could you show these people out."

I've watched a lot of what I would call horse trader's negotiate things in the past. I've seen them turn and walk away to make their point so I knew what Audra was doing. At least I thought that's what she was doing. She was damned convincing.

Playing my part I smiled at Bethany and said, "Ms. Willis, I think you know the way out."

Looking at the cameraman I scowled and added, "And don't you dare turn that thing on."

I must admit Bethany was a true professional. She was only at a momentary loss for words. As she stood she said, "Audra, Miss Miller, please reconsider. I apologize if it sounded like I was trying to intimidate you. I was merely confirming that I have a story. We can tell that story any way you want to, provided we get an exclusive."

Audra hesitated at the door as if she was considering the offer. She turned around and stared into Bethany's eyes as if trying to guage the veracity of what had been offered. She coldly said, "How do I know I can trust you? You've already dealt with someone who has broken his or her confidentiality agreement with us."

This was it, the gloves were off.

The actual agreement that was hammered out was a coup for channel 3 and also allowed us to spin the story in its best light. The publicity people at the museum were put to work to maximize the opportunity that the free exposure provided. Originally we had planned to make the announcement much closer to the actual opening of the exhibit. Teaser segments of the actual hour long interviews were aired by the station for two days prior to the documentary being aired. The teasers were so effective that excerpts from the locally produced program brought network and national attention. The station's exclusive rights to the interview brought much attention to the small news organization. It also propelled Bethany Willis to national prominence. Fox News apparently thought that by hiring the young journalist they would also get rights to the story.

The focus of the national press on our small city was a fairly short lived but intense experience. During that time the police had a hell of a time trying to keep order in our small subdivision. Because of the close proximity of the homes in the area there was no land that was not either private property or public right of way. As the homeowners in the subdivision were some of the most prominent citizens in the city, their calls to the police to remove broadcast remote vehicles from the streets and right of way were quickly heeded. I must also say that I appreciated that our close in neighbors, most of whom had known Irma for years, refused to allow those remote broadcast vehicles on their property.

Reporters who were thwarted from that approach found that the bay to the other side of the house was public access. There were hundreds of national television broadcasts on various aspects of the treasure story that showed a long camera shot of the hole that the treasure chest had been supposedly dug from. At first I thought some enterprising reporter had dug a hole along the waterline since I knew that Hector and I had personally filled in the hole containing the original chest. Finally an article in the local paper stated that the owner of Harry's Coin Shop, the shop that sold us the metal detector, had changed his mind about selling the devices. The publicity he received from being the one who sold us our metal detector was just what he needed to spur sales. People who associated the detectors with the treasure at first fought each other to buy up the last of his stock. This was in spite of our clear statements that the metal detector had found nothing but bottle caps and rusted nails. The holes that popped up along the shore were treasure seekers trying to find their own treasure. Thankfully no one was hurt in that enterprise.

It was impossible for police to keep reporters from pestering everyone who walked by outside of Bell Whistle. It became background noise that we learned to live with. Trips to Dennon's on early weekend mornings were now clearly impossible.

Security concerns again came to the fore and I decided to have a wrought iron fence installed around the rear of the property. I originally wanted to install the fence around the front as well until it was pointed out to me that there was a subdivision covenant against fences in the front unless they were approved by the homeowner's association. Edward of course was a member of the board of directors of the association. When I asked him about it he said, "It won't happen."

I had expected that it might not be easy but to hear Edward so matter-of-factly state there was no chance took me aback. "What do you mean it won't happen?"

Edward said, "I could push for it but there are bad feelings about that issue. A few years ago there were several burglaries in the neighborhood, which seemed to be a good reason to allow an exception. The board was split but the majority ruled that there should be no exceptions to the covenant. Several of the members of the association went to court to try to force the association's hand. The court had sided with the association saying that the covenant was clearly written and that the board was within its authority. I think most of the same members are still on the board."

I wanted to ask Edward how he had voted but decided not to. I did have a heavy metal security door placed to block entrance into the cavern from the tunnel's bay entrance. Those two changes along with the other security features wouldn't make the house completely secure but they would discourage all but the most professional burglars. Perhaps there were other things that could have been done but those were the only things I could think of that wouldn't completely change the nature of the property.

Even those two small changes met resistance when I went to draw permits for the jobs. The clerk in charge sent me to see the supervisor who said that I had to provide complete detailed construction plans of the entire house in order to get my permit. Apparently someone within the city administration had decided that any changes to Bell Whistle required additional scrutiny. My lawyer had to have a 'show cause' order served in order to get this request dropped. He had found that there was no law that supported such a requirement.

All of this conflict became almost a natural part of our lives. I had never understood why the Chinese proverb, 'May you live in interesting times, ' was thought of as a curse. My curious nature thought that should be the norm. Suddenly I realized that up until this point in my life, I had never known the real meaning of 'interesting, ' in that saying. Still, after extra effort everything did seem to work out for the best. We drew closer than ever together and found that each of us possessed talents that otherwise we never would have suspected.

Audra's transformation, to me, was the most amazing. She flourished under the daily assault from the media. Her show of gumption in standing up to Bethany was a mere harbinger of things to come. More and more she became our spokesperson; more than that her job on the board of the museum fast became an avocation. I felt at the time that her being offered that position was a sop to us. From the tales Irma told me of the meetings she was anything but. Irma told me that Audra was a tiger-by-the-tail that the board didn't know how to let loose of. Anytime a mention of compromise in the upcoming exhibition was made, whether because of lack of funds or lack of skills on the museum staff she would push for adding the talent and the funds required. Irma told me she was very often successful.

After the appraisal was completed, it was decided to dispose of the actual treasure after the exhibition had run its course. The estimate of value was close to $70 million dollars. None of us expected the value to be anywhere near that amount. The appraiser said the timing of the auction could add several tens of millions of dollars to the final price we would obtain. We were still in a state of shock as we met as a group in the study of Bell Whistle after the chief appraiser from Hendley had just given us the firm's estimate.

I would like to say we were all nonplussed at the thought of becoming multi-millionaires but that was far from the truth. Even after taxes that would leave us with quite a sizeable amount of money. As we were each contemplating our good fortune Camilla nudged Hector, who cleared his throat. With all of us looking at him he said, "I see from what Mr. Hendley said that the cross is the most valuable item on the list."

I looked at my copy of the appraisal and noted that the cross was estimated to be worth between $10 million and $14 million dollars by itself. Most of that value came not from the gold but from the craftsmanship and rarity of the item. Apparently, although many such crosses had been constructed during the period, only a very few had survived intact. Greed and need had both played a part in the destruction of such items.

Hector again cleared his throat and continued, "Camilla and me would be willing to take the cross by itself as our part of the treasure."

Elise said, "I don't think we should do that."

Camilla gave Elise a hard look and asked, "Why not? Its value is less than what our share of the sale would bring."

Elise answered, "That's right; it wouldn't be fair to you. You should get the entire amount."

Camilla asked, "But what if we want the cross itself, and not the money?"

Audra thought she knew the answer but she asked, "What will you do with the cross once you have it?"

Hector looked almost shyly towards Camilla as he answered, "It's not easily explained."

Camilla answered, "It is a cultural thing?"

Irma said, "I'm not sure I understand."

Hector sighed and said, "Many of our former countrymen have given up on the church since they have moved to this country. It may seem foolish to you but many say the reason is that the church in this country has no connection to the past that we knew. You see, in our country, each church has icons, items of religious history, which connect us to our forebears. Here, in this country, that is missing."

Elise's voice was almost a hush when she said, "You are going to donate the cross to the church?"

Camilla said, "Yes, with conditions. They will not be able to sell it or move it out of the local area. It is to be a part of the local parish here."

Edward then spoke up. "Have they agreed to that?"

Camilla said, "The priest has told us that he is sure the church would be willing to accommodate us."

I hadn't said anything because this had caught me unprepared. Hector was my closest friend and although I knew him to be generous to a fault I never saw this coming. I spoke up and said, "I can't agree to this."

Hector looked at me with surprise and a little hurt in his eyes. He asked, "Why not boss?"

Looking him in the eyes I answered, "It's not fair to the rest of us."

Camilla started to rise up but Hector used his hand to keep her seated. His voice was tense as he demanded, "What's not fair about it?"

I smiled to break the tension, "Think about it. That's a $10 to $14 million donation which is a heck of a large tax write-off. If we allow you to donate that as your share all of us will lose out on that tax break. It won't do you any good because you will have donated your entire share anyway."

Hector looked confused and said, "But ... you will have a bigger share, that will help with your taxes, right?"

Edward smiled and said, "I think what Joe is trying to say is that maybe we should all donate the cross to the church. Then the donation would help each of us with our tax burden."

I said, "Exactly. We might even want to donate a piece or two to the museum. I'm sure a good accountant could look at this appraisal and tell us the ideal amount to donate to maximize our share."

Camilla was looking distressed at this. Irma who was sitting next to her asked, "What's the matter dear?"

Camilla had tears in her eyes when she said, "I cannot believe how generous you all are."

Then she looked at me and said, "Esto es patético."

I looked confused as Audra giggled, "She said you are lame."

Camilla continued, "Not him, but his attempt to make this a business decision. I can see his heart, it is muy grande. Joe, you want us to think you are doing this for your own good but ... never have we had such a friend."

I held up my hand and said, "Understand, I was only speaking for myself."

Elise added, "Edward and I are in."

To which Irma said, "Me too, I don't need any of this money."

Audra had her hands on her hips giving me a dirty look as she asked, "Why would you even think I wouldn't want to be a part of this?"

She then smiled and said, "But I forgive you."

So it was decided that the cross would be a donation from all of us and would be used to offset some of our taxes. All in all I found that my friends and I grew closer as we weathered the various confrontations that developed as a result of us finding that treasure. We had shared an adventure that not many would ever experience. I know I felt fortunate to have been a part of this unfolding of history.



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Chapter 10: Loose Ends


I picked up the phone off my desk in my home office. I'd finally broken down and ordered a land line to keep my cell free for more important calls. The text screen on the new phone showed the call was from Lenora Wells. With a touch of sarcasm and a tinge of humor I said, "Lenora, what a surprise. It's been hours and hours since I've heard your voice. What can I do for you?"

Lenora voice seemed a bit strained as she answered, "I wondered if I might have a private word with you and Audra this afternoon?"

"Lenora, you're usually not so mysterious or formal. You know you're always welcome here. Why don't you come for lunch? Audra has gone to the market with Elise. She left Irma here as my keeper, I think. I was planning on watching some football in the afternoon while the girls get together and work out some minor details on the upcoming state wedding."

Lenora chuckled and said, "A girl only gets married once — well, if she's lucky she does. Irma's welcomed to sit in on this. It's not that private."

Then there was a hesitation on the line. I said, "Okay, was there something else?"

Lenora answered, "I'll have a guest with me. You and Audra might throw us out when you find out who he is."

I chuckled. "Never happen. Anyone that you think enough of to bring to our house will be welcomed. We know you well enough to know you have our best interest at heart."

Lenora voice was definitely strained as she answered, "I just hope this guest won't break that trust. I'll see you at noon ... and Joe, thanks."

I was definitely puzzled by her remarks. I didn't let it bother me as I went back to reviewing our new estimator's bids for several new remodeling jobs.

At precisely 12 o'clock I opened the front door to Lenora's knock. She knew from experience that the buzzer still had not been replaced. She quickly introduced the three of us to Dr. James Stryder, President of Southern State University. Even though Dr. Stryder was smiling and effusive with his handshake, I could tell he was upset. Irma quickly ushered us into the formal dining room. She had welcomed the opportunity to use the room, as most of our meals were taken in the kitchen. Mr. Whiskers lay half asleep on one of the occasional chairs in the corner of the room. He lifted his head as if to study the interloper.

I realized almost as soon as the guest was introduced what Lenora was trying to accomplish. What I didn't understand was why, as we had a clear understanding that no members of the university were to be involved in any of the Bell Whistle projects. Maybe I was being petty but the unintentional snub we had received from two of their faculty had rubbed me the wrong way. In my mind the fact that the snub was unintentional was just as damning as if it had been intentional. They obviously didn't think that someone outside their cloistered inner sanctum could have an opinion worthy of consideration. I couldn't work with someone with that prejudice built into their makeup. To their way of thinking we were either pawns to be manipulated or obstacles to be brushed aside.

All of this was playing through my mind as the university's president explained that he was a cultural anthropologist by trade and very much interested in our discoveries. I could feel the butter being slathered on as he heaped praise on the way we had, in such a short period of time, uncovered and preserved for the record so many and varied items of historical significance. After that my ears perked up when he admitted that he didn't understand how his university had been shut out of the whole process. At that point I had to put my hand in Audra's lap to keep her from coming out and telling the professor exactly why his university was not involved.

The doctor was well into an obviously well-rehearsed speech about how Southern State University had a well-earned reputation and was among the best schools of archaeological and anthropological studies in the country. He expounded at length and in great detail on the number and importance of SSU archaeological digs at major sites around the world. At the end he said, "I was reading over clippings that we get from a press clipping service and was extremely disturbed to find an almost unique site, a site located at most 15 minutes from the university, which we had no knowledge of."

Turning to me he said, "Lenora tells me that you did contact the university and had two members of my faculty out here after the initial discovery. She said that there was some problem with the faculty and that you decided that the project would be better served without our assistance. Surely you realize that for this site to be taken seriously it has to be vetted by experts, experts you will be hard pressed to find outside of academia."

I wasn't able to restrain Audra at that point. To my surprise she had calmed considerably and was very charming with her answer. She said, "To my knowledge the museum has adequate staff to determine the pedigree of any of the items we've uncovered. Along with the members of the Historical Society, we've been able to confirm the existence of enough of those we've found written records of to be sure that the records they left were accurate."

Dr. Stryder seemed to stiffen slightly as he listened to Audra. He said, "That may all be well and good, and I'm sure the staff at the museum and the lay people at the Historical Society have done an excellent job as far as they've gone. Still, the only true way to make sure that the information and artifacts on this site are seen in their proper perspective is through the rigors of the academic process. Surely you don't expect people to take this seriously without the site being properly vetted?"

I shook my head and wondered if he realized what he sounded like. He didn't say that history wasn't for the common person. Nor did he say that history didn't exist unless experts like him said it did. Still, that was the inference that you could draw from listening to his statement. I decided not to argue. The scientific method used to mean an open mind looking at information from all the senses and all sources to make a rational decision. It was obvious, to the doctor at least, that someone had changed that to academic sources only.

Before leaving I did promise to think about what the doctor had said. It wasn't that I was closed to the idea of others checking the work we had done, but I'd be damned if those with Dr. Stryder's prejudices would be doing it.

Lenora called me back later that afternoon and apologized profusely. "Honestly Joe, I had no idea he was as bad as the two we first had over here. I was hoping that he would be aghast at what had happened and apologize. He is right in the sense that we will need academic experts to lend their expertise at some point. We have done really well but academic institutions have people who have lived their lives narrowly focused on one specific aspect or even one specific person from the past. The only way to gain access to these people is through their institutions. I'm hopeful that their interest will draw them to our findings. I am planning to invite guest speakers to speak at two or three seminars throughout the course of the exhibition."

Some interesting items were found in the exploration of the cavern that had gone unnoticed by us earlier. Knowing that the cavern had been lived in by the pirate community we expected to find, and had found, places where occupation was obvious. Most of these sites were locations where remains of campfires were evident. Some of the experts from the museum took items from around those campfires back to their labs for analysis. Other than bones, some interesting items were discovered.

Lenora was excited when she told me, "Joe, they found dried Juniper berries, wild rice, and pigweed seeds near one fire pit toward the very back of the cavern."

I answered, "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

Lenora said, "No, I suppose not. It didn't mean anything to me when I was told. I just wanted you to hear it the way it was given to me."

I laughed, thinking only Lenora would do that to me. I asked, "So what did it mean when someone explained it to you?"

She quickly answered, "Europeans and slaves didn't eat those things. Those are things you would expect to find at an Indian, excuse me, Native American, camp site."

I was puzzled. I said, "So, there were Indians, uh, Native Americans living in the cavern. It isn't surprising, is it?"

Lenora said, "Joe, you don't understand. These items were on top of detritus left by the pirates. The, oh hell with it, Indians were here after the pirates. It may explain what happened to the remaining inhabitants of Gallant Land."

We weren't sure if it was an explanation and found no other clues that pointed in that direction. We had that section of the cavern roped off so that it could be more carefully examined as the resources became available.

Another expert spent a great deal of time examining the mechanism that caused the sections of the secret passageway to operate as they did. I was glad to see that for a long while he was as puzzled by the mechanism that opened and closed the entrances as I was. As there was no apparent mechanical room, so to speak, the expert brought in a portable x-ray device that he used to create a diagram of the series of levers and cables that made everything work. When his colleagues saw the model that he made they were begging me to allow them to open the walls to examine the exact mechanisms. It seems that any grease that they could think of that was known in that time would have long dried out, causing the mechanism to fail. I vetoed the idea but did let them drill a small hole and take a sample of the lubricant. The lubricant ended up being graphite. This greatly excited the men as graphite was first patented as a lubricant after the civil war in 1865. This was the first known use of that material in this country.

They took full advantage of the small hole in the wall. Using a fiber optic camera they took detailed pictures of that part of the mechanism. I spent a lot of time with them while they were doing this as the secret passageway was to me one of the most interesting aspects of the house. I was not the only one who felt that way. The model that they made of the passageway was to be one of the most favorably commented upon items in the museum's exhibition.

Audra and I continued to grow closer in spite of all of the obstacles we found that seemed to limit our time together. We made the most of those few evenings that we could spend without outside commitments coming between us. One of those commitments wasn't outside but rather the wedding itself. I should have known that with three proud momma-wanna-bes helping their little girl plan for her big day things would snowball.

One Saturday afternoon I answered a knock at the door in my jeans and t-shirt to find a well dressed man in his mid-fifties on my doorstep. We introduced ourselves and I found out that he was John Gilliard. This happened just as Audra and Irma both appeared as if by magic from the kitchen. Audra was actually in a dress. I didn't really notice what Irma was wearing as it was so unusual to see Audra in a dress that I'm afraid I may have stared. Audra gave me a frosty look as she invited Pastor Gilliard into our formal living room. Irma lagged behind and said, "Run upstairs and put some decent clothes on."

I remained in the hallway for a moment as the name registered. I never claimed to be quick witted but with the wedding only four months off I figured there was a connection. I did as I was told, though, and quickly changed into slacks and a polo shirt. I figured if they had wanted me more dressed up than that they would have laid out my suit. Audra quickly smiled her approval when I returned and said, "Dear, Pastor Gilliard is the chairman of the museum's Board of Directors."

That explained everything to me. I figured he was here for a tour of the house. He declined the tour when offered, though, and asked to speak to Audra and myself alone. It only took a few minutes of that conversation to convince me that this was about the wedding. Now, up until this point I had no idea where we were going to be married. A few minutes after that discussion began I knew Pastor Gilliard was pastor of First Presbyterian Church.

Our fair city doesn't have a cathedral, thank God, but First Presbyterian Church is an imposing 125 year old marble edifice in the middle of downtown. It was the third church building built on that site and was only fifty-three years younger than the present Bell Whistle house. The pastor, after hearing that we were to be wed shortly before the opening of the exhibition, politely offered the use of his church for the occasion. Audra and Irma gratefully accepted the offer on the spot.

Later Lenora would tease me that only those of the town's oldest blue-blood founding families were normally afforded the opportunity to be wed there. She said because of the expense and complexity of staging a wedding at the church it was unusual to see more than three or four held there in any given year. She added, "Word is already out on the social grapevine that your wedding will be the social event of the year."

Then with a sparkle in her eye she teased, "I'm going to have to add a social secretary to my staff just to field all of the calls I'm going to get from people who are trying to wrangle invitations."

When I protested that I was just a poor boy who happened to be in the right place at the right time she got a serious look on her face and said, "First of all, I don't believe that for a second. Using that description you could say that Bill Gates was just a computer nerd who got a lucky business break. While that may have some truth in it, I believe we make our own luck."

When I started to protest that I was no Bill Gates she added, "Joe, coming upon this house may have been a bit of luck, but recognizing its potential and buying it quickly took an adventurous spirit. Finding Irma and giving her the proceeds from the sale of the books and antiques took a generous spirit. Bringing her back to live here took a big heart. All those things contributed to your luck. Every decision you have made has been on the mark. Like it or not, you and Audra, and to a lesser extent the rest of the group, are the closest things that this town has to celebrities at the moment. That's why John Gilliard offered his church for the wedding."

I wasn't sure how I felt about our supposed celebrity status. On the one hand having Audra and her momma hens happy was nice. On the other hand having every Tom, Dick and Harry stop me on the street was time consuming. I found myself becoming a more private person, reluctant to go out and do the simple things that I used to enjoy. Audra enjoyed the attention at first, but after a few times being accosted in public by people who seemed demanding, she too began to find our celebrity status wearing.

This affected our business as well. Occasionally we would find reporters posing as customers to try to get details from us about all that happened at Bell Whistle. Some who were real customers would want to spend time talking about the treasure or about Bell Whistle. They seemed to feel that their remodeling contract entitled them to information that the public was not privy to. Eventually we hired Jorge's sister to screen out those types of customers. I'm sure in the end we lost good contracts because of this.

All of this occupied our time during an unusually wet winter. Thanksgiving and then Christmas at Bell Whistle were happy times. Even with all the distractions all of us managed to get together several times during the extended holiday season. We had a formal dinner for our core group for Thanksgiving. During Christmas we had two large parties at Bell Whistle.

The first was a children's party for all of the children of our employees. During that party I dressed as Santa and I talked Audra into dressing as Mrs. Claus. So many of the children were Hispanic that I thought I might need an interpreter. I was surprised that all of the children who were old enough to talk seemed to have an excellent command of the English language. I was even more surprised at the number of babies and even toddlers who cried as if they were being punished when they were brought up to sit in the lap of this big guy with white whiskers in a red suit.

A week before Christmas we had all of our employees and their spouses out for a catered dinner. During that evening I gave out Christmas bonuses to each employee. The year had been good to the company. We decided to give one-half of the profits of the year to the employees. Audra and I both liked the idea after Hector suggested it. He knew we would want to do it and had come to the meeting with a detailed plan drawn up as to how much to give to each employee based on seniority and position. With all of the good fortune we three had enjoyed during the year we would have felt guilty to have done otherwise. The bonuses were kept secret and were definitely well received.

The year ended with all of us in the group attending a formal New Year's Eve party at the museum. Although I sat with Audra at the director's table, the evening was a dull affair. The highlight of my evening was dancing with Audra. Even the opportunity to dance with the love of my life was somewhat muted when I realized that I was expected to occasionally dance with some of the other directors' wives. Audra's kiss at midnight more than made up for it however and for at least a moment it seemed that we were the only two people on the dance floor. We left quickly after that kiss and began our New Year with a more personal celebration in our room at Bell Whistle.



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Chapter 11: Wedding Bells


The first Friday in April was the date set for our wedding. It was not April Fools day, although it only missed being so by one day. That it was not on that ignoble holiday did not keep me from feeling a fool as we approached that day. That's not to say that I was having second thoughts about marriage but I was having second thoughts about having such an elaborate wedding ceremony.

In the first place I felt having a full six months to prepare for the wedding should have given us an abundance of time. Through the fall and winter I accepted the long leisurely wedding planning meetings that Audra, Irma, Camille, Elise and finally Lenora attended as necessary. I was actually happy that my friends and my intended had things so well organized, or so I thought. Instead of five women planning the wedding and making things easier, it seemed that it was wedding planning by committee, with each member of that committee having a veto.

I gladly brought samples of flowers and wedding floral arrangement plans home from ten different florists. I know that I stopped at almost twice that number of bakeries for samples of the wedding cake and the groom's cake. Prior to that I wouldn't have guessed we had that many bakeries in our small town. I brought home menu plans from uncounted caterers for both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception. I wasn't involved in the selection of Audra's wedding dress but I did get to accompany the wedding committee to three dressmakers and two department stores to help the committee decide what the ladies in the wedding party would wear. Like anyone would listen to me...

I did put my foot down and insist on conservative black tuxedoes for the men who would escort the ladies and that decision was accepted. After I was given that concession I was told that the committee would decide on the style and color of the cummerbund and shirt we would wear.

Things all seemed so easy when I proposed. I had some idea somewhere in the back of my mind that there would need to be a short ceremony but nothing like this. I was told afterwards that things could have been even more complicated. First Presbyterian Church actually had a wedding policy manual and one requirement was that we employ a wedding coordinator. After the wedding coordinator was in place she and her crew ended up taking my place as the wedding gofers.

Lenora to me was a wonder woman for what she had done for us as president of the Historical Society. As a member of the wedding committee I saw her other side. As a member of FPC she had been invited to many of the most elaborate weddings at that institution. Her abilities as a story teller were such that she was able to impart to the wedding committee rose-colored images of those elaborate events. Somewhere along the way that translated into the committee deciding that our wedding would outshine all of those others. Irma had insisted that she would bear all of the cost of the wedding and repeatedly said that cost was no object. At times I wished that I was paying for it so that I could at least have that leverage to use to exercise some control over things.

By the time the first warm rains of March began I began to feel more like the father of the bride than the groom. There were times when I didn't think I would make it until April. I began to wonder if perhaps the purpose of the honeymoon was to allow the groom to recuperate from all of the pre-wedding frustrations. I spoke to Audra several times and found that there were times when she felt as overwhelmed by circumstances as I did; after all this was her wedding.

The tension between us was so physical at times that it was as if we were stretching a giant rubber band between us. Several times that rubber band snapped back to sting one of us. The angry words were most often about some minute but critically important detail of our impending nuptial ceremony. Audra tried to answer my concerns. On occasion she would agree but say things were too far along to be changed.

So we roller-coasted along following the tracks laid down by custom and the committee. I expect that most brides at least secretly want a big ceremony where they are the centerpiece. Audra was no different and because I loved her I knew I could endure anything to make her day a special one.

The biggest disagreement both of us had with 'the committee' was about our respective families. Irma tried to convince us that we needed at least some family here with us. My mother had died less than a year after my father's passing several years back. My remaining 'blood-family' consisted of assorted aunts and uncles spread out over four or five adjacent states. None were likely to make the trip to attend the wedding of a nephew that they hardly knew unless there was something in it for them. I honestly could care less whether any of them attended.

That may sound harsh but the memory of their apparent lack of concern for the welfare of my mother after my father's untimely death still angered me. My mother had attempted to deal with that loss and the hole that it left in her life with only the love of her son to console her. I blamed myself at first. A kindly grief-counselor helped me to understand that my mother needed more support than even the most loving son could provide. His questions about my family along with the memory of being the only family present at my mother's funeral left me bitter.

When Irma came asking for a list of relatives and addresses for invitations there wasn't much I wanted to tell her. I didn't want to explain all of this, even to someone as close as Irma had become. I told her I had no close family and reasons for not wanting any distant relatives invited. Audra understood but only because of her own situation. While trying to comfort her about her own feelings I had laid myself bare with her about my own family situation.

Irma was not beyond trying to play one of us against the other in an attempt to get some blood relatives invited. I found later that she had tried to guilt Audra into inviting her parents so that I would see the need to invite my aunts and uncles. She tried the same approach with me. Since Audra and I had already discussed this we were united in our approach to Irma and later to other members of the committee. No family would witness our union.

That's not to say that we didn't have the opportunity to speak with Audra's parents. Almost as soon as they found out about Audra's good fortune they came around with their hands out. I only heard a few loud words as Audra met with them behind the closed doors of the den. I heard a loud, 'but we're your parents, ' practically shouted by her father. Normally quiet Audra then in a shrill voice replied, "Like hell you are."

I started to open the door when it opened as Audra tersely said, "You can leave now."

I could see the lines of the muscles in her jaw standing out as she stared down the glare of her mother. I looked at her father and said, "I think after working here for all of those years you know where the door is."

Momentarily I was afraid the man was going to have a stroke. His face, already red, became almost white as he stared at me. After clearing the spittle running down the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, he gave me a look filled with hatred and rage. After clearing his throat he asked, "You defiler. What have you done to our sweet daughter? I've a good mind to report you to the authorities."

I was fixing to speak when a sharp voice behind me exclaimed, "Samuel Miller, if I hear one more word like that come out of your mouth I will be the one calling for the authorities. The very idea ... threatening a man in his own home! A man who took your daughter in after you threw her out. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, but I can see now that you're not only a crook, but a brazen one at that."

With that Irma put her hands on her hips and stared Audra's father out of the room and out of the house. Audra's mother lagged behind and looked at Irma with pleading eyes. She looked at Irma's feet and asked, "Please, Mrs. Anderson..."

Irma wasn't moved and said, "Kimberly, when you decide to leave that man let me know. Until then I have nothing to say to you."

Audra then walked over to her mom and slipped something in her hand. Afterwards I found it was a small amount of money. Audra considered it repayment of the money that her mother had given her when she left. After Audra slipped her the money her mother looked at it briefly and then said, "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry," and slipped out with her husband.

Audra was a wreck after that. She told me later that telling her parents to leave was the hardest thing she had ever done. She felt like talking about it late at night before we drifted off to sleep. She was quietly weeping when she whispered, "I know all my father cares about is money but I think my mom loves me. Was I wrong to send them away?"

I held her hand under her pillow and pulled her closer to me. I whispered, "Honey, you did what you felt was right at the time. I didn't hear all that went on but I think you showed remarkable restraint."

Audra started softly sobbing then. She didn't say anything for a while. Just about the time I thought she was asleep she murmured, "Honey, I put a note into the money I returned to mom."

I tasted her salty tears on my lips as I lightly kissed on the bridge of her nose. I then asked, "What did you tell her?"

"I told her she was welcomed to attend my wedding, but not with my father. I still love her, Joe."

We drifted off to sleep after that. The next morning Audra awoke seemingly well rested, more at peace with what had happened. By some unspoken agreement we never again discussed the visit.

By the time the last week in March rolled around we were all worn to a frazzle. Every decision had been made, every preparation committed into some professional's capable hands. At that point it seemed that we were just along for the ride. It was like sitting in the seat of an airliner; when the turbulence begins, you can't get up and leave. You have to depend on the maintenance performed by the airline's ground crew and the knowledge and experience of the pilot and crew to bring you safely back to a safe landing.

Our pilot was Melissa 'just call me Missy' Carter. She was way too perky for me to take in large doses. Everything with her was 'perfect.' I think that she felt her main job was to ensure us that everything was going well, whether there were glitches or not. Inevitably each morning would begin with a call from Missy to remind us what our schedule was for the day. A typical conversation would begin with her saying, "Good morning, Missy here! It's only nine days and a wake-up to the most wonderful day in your life. Isn't that exciting? I'm so happy for you. Today at ten we need to sign off on the mock-up of the wedding cake. We also need to make the final alterations to the wedding dress to ensure it's perfect. That's at two. You just wait. We're going to have a wonderful day. See you in a bit."

I'm not going to bore you with every detail of those last few days. I'm sure there are some who would relish those details. I would much rather have just shown up in front of the minister and gotten married and let someone else enjoy all of the preparation.

In all of this 'excitement' we had many days that Audra and I would only see each other in passing. Our alone time disappeared. A few mornings she would be gone from my bed before I awoke and I would perhaps brush by her once or twice during the day and then find her exhausted in the evening. It wasn't all wedding as she was heavily involved in planning and arrangements for the upcoming exhibition. Sometimes there were conflicts in scheduling between the two and the pressure of resolving them weighed heavily on her.

The Saturday before the wedding it all came to a head. Audra approached me late in the evening, looking even more bedraggled than most evenings, and in her most seductive voice said, "Joe, honey, we need to talk."

Frankly, those words scared me. I took her by the hand and led her to the stiff leather couch in the den. It wasn't by chance that the spot I picked was the place we had enjoyed our first kiss. That stiff formal piece of furniture had remained our 'snuggle spot.' I was hoping to evoke memories of that 'first kiss' to overlay any other thoughts or feelings she might be having.

After I tried to steal a kiss Audra pushed me away and in an almost syrupy voice repeated, "We really do need to talk, honey."

'Honey' worried me. 'Honey' in that tone was a 'twist Joe around my finger and get what I want' type of phrase. If she had forgotten the milk and wanted me to go back to the store late at night she would always begin with 'honey.' I soon realized that my inconvenience was directly proportional to the sugar content of her request. On that scale this must be a humdinger.

I looked into her eyes and for a moment saw a glimpse of the scared childlike creature I had rescued. I realized in that instant that I had loved her from that first glance. I also knew that I would gladly put up with any inconvenience for the woman I loved. I smiled at her and said, "Well?"

She tried to smile then looked at her hands being held in mine. "Joe, I know this is a big thing to ask but, please, hear me out before you say anything."

She looked back up to my eyes. I could see determination in those eyes. She then asked, "Would it be possible to shorten our honeymoon by a few days?"

My first reaction was defensive. The honeymoon was our time to be alone. I had insisted we get completely out of the area. I had also invested big bucks on first class airfare and a luxury suite at an exclusive Hawaiian resort. None of that was refundable but that wasn't the issue. This was our time. No more meetings ... no work ... nothing but us. Audra knew how much I was looking forward to this time away. Up until this moment I thought she was looking forward to it just as much as I was. I'm sure that I wasn't able to hide the look of disappointment on my face.

I tried to the bitterness I felt as I asked, "Why? What's so important that it can't wait two weeks until we get back."

What I really wanted to ask her was, 'What is more important in your life than me?'

I think she saw the second question hidden in the first. She smiled as she squeezed my hands and said, "We're more important than anything. Please, forget that I even asked."

Of course I couldn't forget. This time in a much more even voice I calmly asked, "Tell me why. Maybe we can work something out."

Audra then said, "It's not that important. They'll just have to get along without me."

I asked, "Who're they and what are they doing?"

Audra answered, "It's the steering committee."

I almost exploded, "The damn exhibition. Sometime I wish we'd never agreed to all that. It's been running you ragged, along with all the wedding planning."

Audra in a calming voice quickly replied, "I know. There are times that I wish we'd never found anything here other than a place to live."

I pulled her into my arms and in a determined voice exclaimed, "The most precious thing that I found here was you. If you want to come back early, we will."

Audra murmured, "It's not that I want to come back but ... well, they say they need me, Joe. You have your company and your work. I have found something that may be what I want to do for the rest of my life, other than being your wife of course. I'm learning a lot about historical research and each day we discover something new."

I said, "Now that you've explained it, of course we can come back a few days early."

With that being said I picked her up in my arms and carried her up the stairs to our room. The last thing I remember her saying was, "Yes, Joe, honey!"

The wedding was spectacular but in a way, anticlimactic. Audra was the most beautiful bride in the world. Her gown was worth every cent Irma paid for it. I know that a lot of things that were paid for were for other people to enjoy. Once Audra came down the aisle my gaze was fixated on her. During the ceremony itself, I faced her and all of the other trappings disappeared. It was just her and me recommitting ourselves to a lifetime together. I knew in my heart that I had married way above any expectations I may have had earlier. The words were a blur and the kiss at the end of the ceremony was our commitment to each other. As I kissed her my memory drifted back to that first kiss. The promise of that kiss was still evident on her lips.

During the reception we danced until my feet were killing me. Next time I buy new shoes for a prolonged event, I'll break them in early. I danced with every woman there it seemed. Audra was gracious and danced with most of the men. Each of the women that I danced with told me how happy they were for us. After each dance we would return to our table where Audra would wipe the lipstick mark from my cheek. It was actually a fun party.

Kelli edged Maria out when Audra tossed the bouquet. I could see that she looked over her shoulder before tossing it and winked at Kelli after it was caught. There weren't that many bachelors there. I was happy though when Manuel jumped up and caught the garter.

The limousine left in plenty of time to get us to the airport. The flight was perfect and the resort lovely. If you were expecting any more details about the honeymoon you will have to use your imagination. Of all of Bell Whistle's Secrets, this is one that I am going to keep.


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The End
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Posted:  2009-09-20
Last Modified: 2009-10-24 / 07:57:46 pm
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