“Of course, but it would be cool to see Katie in action again. Did you see her? Just one hit and Susie went down,” Mike said.
“Yeah, she caught all of us by surprise, didn’t she?” Grady asked.
“Yeah, especially Susie. She never knew what hit her,” Mike told him.
“But there’s something else to consider. When we do find the treasure, we’ll have to inform Uncle Sam of our discovery. You do realize that, don’t you?” Grady asked him.
“Uncle Sam? Why would we tell them?” he asked.
“Michael, remember this isn’t just about finding the treasure for our own personal gain. We want to fix the injustice done to Katie’s grandfather. And in order to do that, Uncle Sam will have to be told. And besides, if Barnes did kill once, he’s capable of doing it again. The treasure might be too damn big to guard and move safely,” Grady explained.
“Of course, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking I guess,” Mike told him.
“And back to what you said about having eight wagons and eight drivers, I think I’ve come up with a solution to that question,” Grady told him.
“Well, do tell. I’d like to hear it,” Mike said as he slid his chair a little closer to Grady’s.
“If it were me doing this, would it not be smart to send all eight wagons on a different route with different departure times? Just by doing that, wouldn’t your chances of success be greatly improved?” Grady explained.
“God, I never thought of that. But you’re right. By sending each wagon out on a different route and at different times, that would be the smart move for sure,” Mike answered.
“Well, keep in mind that it’s just a theory, but it would definitely improve their chances I reckon.”
“So what do we do now?” Michael asked.
“I think it’s time that we revisit a certain cave. That cave was huge, and with that one tunnel running off to the right, that would be the very best place to start, I reckon,” Grady said with much anticipation to his voice.
“I agree, sir. We’ll grab some really good flashlights and maybe some extra batteries, and we’ll go check out Katie’s cave,” Mike told him.
“We might want to bring a pickax and maybe a shovel or two. We might have to dig a bit. If it’s there, it’s surely not out in the open just waiting for us to stumble on it,” Grady added.
Exploring Katie’s Cave
Mike and Grady sat the table as Katie and Melissa studied the gold coin. The level of excitement was high. They explained to them about Jack and the map and the fear that Grady had about the extreme possibility that Jack was most likely dead.
But when they told Katie that they intended to go back into the cave, the look of uncertainty came over her face.
“Are you okay with that?” Grady asked.
“Yeah . . . I think I’ll be all right. I’ve made it through this far, but . . . I’ve also shut that part of my memory off. But going back in there just might bring it all back to the surface again. But I think I can deal with it,” she told them.
“Well, before you go in, I’ll go ahead of you and pull up the stakes if they’re still there. That should help, shouldn’t it?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, that would be a great help. But I’ll just have to focus on the task at hand . . . and not dread on what happened in the past,” she told him.
“Ms. Katie Windslow, you’re constitution must be made of cast iron. I think you’re one of the bravest ladies that I’ve ever met,” Melissa told her.
“Well, thanks . . . but even cast iron cracks when it gets stressed,” she replied.
“Maybe so, but considering everything that you’ve been through, you just keep on pushing on,” Melissa answered back.
“And that, my dear Melissa, is her mother showing herself—again,” Grady added.
So the four of them carried some shovels and pickaxes out to the trunk of Mike’s car. Each of them carried a six-volt flashlight, and spare batteries were to be left in the trunk, just in case they needed them. As they drove back out to the cave, Grady had a very good suggestion.
“After we unload the tools, it might be a good idea to hide the car. We don’t need our location known, especially if what we think what Barnes might have done is correct. If he did in fact kill Jack, he would most certainly kill again,” Grady warned them.
So after all of the tools were out of the trunk, Mike drove the car down the road a bit and pulled it behind some large bushes. Someone could actually walk right by it and not see it. And as he said he would, Mike entered the cave first, removing any trace of what had happened there previously.
The cave was a lot darker than any of them remember before and certainly a lot bigger as well. The ceiling was very high, nearly twenty feet at different spots. The walls were a good ten to eighteen feet across. But the tunnel that ran off to the right was more than large enough to allow even the largest wagons of that time to traverse its path. The tunnel itself was totally without light from the outside. And you couldn’t see your hand even if it was up to and not touching your face. The four of them slowly walked the darkened corridor silently without as much as a peep. The tunnel itself held an almost ghostly feeling in the air that never moved. The tunnel went on and on into the darkness. Then the tunnel split into two separate tunnels. They decided to check out the left fork first, but disappointment soon came as the tunnel ended just ten or so feet from where it had started. So they went back to the other tunnel and continued their search. Then after about a hundred feet or so, they came to a dead end. Solid rock lay before them.
“Damn. A dead end. Well, I guess we were wrong about this idea,” Mike proclaimed with a hint of disappointment to his voice.
“Michael, you’re seeing what they want you to see,” Grady told him.
“I see rock. What is it that I’m supposed to see?” he asked.
Grady looked at the girls. “Ladies, what do you see?” he asked.
“Well, I’m not sure but that does it all look like, well, out of place,” Katie asked.
“Oh, I see what you’re getting at,” Melissa said with a smile that nobody could see in the dark.
“Follow me, guys, ladies,” Grady told them as he headed back to the other fork of the tunnel. Standing at the end of the tunnel, Grady held his flashlight up onto the wall.
“Okay, look at this wall. What do you see?” he asked.
All of them agreed that it was solid rock. Just one huge piece of rock. You could see the grains of materials that flowed through the rock. Then he took them back to the other tunnel.
“Now look at this wall, and tell me what you see,” he told them.
As they studied the wall, they noticed there were no veins of materials like the other wall had. In fact, this wall was a mixture of different ores and minerals. Then they saw what Grady had seen. This wall was in fact man made by stacking rocks on top of each other and then throwing loose dirt and gravel against the wall to fill in the gaps that was left between the rocks. All at once, they started to smile.
“Okay, I’m not sure what’s behind this wall, but whatever it is, before we leave, we’ll have to restack this wall, okay? We can’t let anyone know that we’ve been here. Okay?” Grady asked.
Again they all agreed. The anticipation of whatever lay on the other side was so high that they might have agreed to rebuild the entire mountain if they had just been asked.
“Okay, let’s move only those rocks that we need to, and since the rocks on this side are bigger, let’s start here,” Grady said as he pointed at the left side of the wall.
One by one they all helped to move rock after rock. After about ten or so rocks had been removed, there was an opening up in the top left corner.
“Katie, you’re the smallest, so we’ll lift you up so you can see what’s on the other side, okay?” Mike asked her.
“Oh yeah, lift me up. This is so cool,” she said as she lifted up her foot to meet Michael’s hands. One fast hoist and she was up, peering through the hole
with her flashlight.
“Well, what do you see?” Melissa asked.
“Hang on. It’s really dark in there. Wait a second . . . Oh my god! I see a wagon—no, two wagons and some boxes! Daddy, I think we’ve found it. The treasure is here!” she told him in an overly eager tone.
“Good job, Katie! Get down now so we can move some more rocks,” he told her.
She jumped down and grabbed Melissa by the shoulders. “We’ve found it, Mel! We’ve really found it!” Katie half screamed at her.
Melissa just stood there speechless as Katie continued to shake her back and forth. Then Katie realized what she was doing and stopped.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I got carried away,” Katie told Melissa.
“That’s all right. If anyone has a reason to celebrate, it would be you,” Melissa told her.
“Well, why don’t you two get carried away over here and carry away some of these rocks?” Grady snapped.
“Sorry, Grady,” Melissa told him as she and Katie went back to helping with the rocks. Soon, they had an opening large enough for them to climb through, one at a time of course. One by one, they entered the silent area, which felt more like a tomb. They just stood there looking at the back of the first wagon. American history was about to be rewritten, and a sense of achievement soon overtook all of them. As Katie walked alongside the first wagon, her light shone on something that scared the holy shit out of her. She screamed and turned into Michael’s chest.
“What in the hell is that?” she asked half crying.
“That, my dear, would be a horse, or what’s left of it anyways,” he told her.
There appeared to be two of them before each wagon.
“They left those poor animals hooked to their wagons and sealed them in here to die. What kind of people are we dealing with?” Melissa asked.
Grady stared at the skeletons of the horses and at their riggings.
“Look, you can see where these poor animals tried to chew through their harness as they fought to escape. These poor animals died a very slow and painful death. What a waste,” he said in disgust.
Everyone just stood there in complete silence as they paid tribute to all of the poor animals and the way that they had died. Melissa and Katie had tears in their eyes.
Grady said the best prayer that he could muster considering the circumstances, for he truly believed that all animals deserved their spot on God’s green earth right along with all of mankind and, therefore, deserved the same right to life. No animal, large or small, should ever have to endure the pain and agony that these poor animals did. When he had finished, all of them had tears in their eyes. But they tried to move past it.
“Hey, guys, look at these,” Katie said he she held out her hand holding four more double-eagle coins.
“Where did find you those?” Melissa asked.
“Right here on the floor of the second wagon,” she said as she pointed to the spot. Then Mike found a couple, then Melissa. Grady only found three of the valuable coins. In total, they found seventeen coins.
“So where’s the treasure?” Katie asked.
“Yeah, I thought the treasure was here,” Melissa added.
“Just calm down, you two. What we have discovered here is concrete proof that the treasure is here. Well, maybe not here in this very spot but somewhere close by. And for those of you who can’t count, there’s only six wagons here, and not the eight that we thought,” Grady explained.
“So where’s the other two wagons?” Katie asked.
“Well, Mike and I kind of figured that if we did find all eight wagons, it would have been a miracle. I reckon that not all of the wagons made it through. What happened to the other two? Well, that’s anyone’s guess, I reckon. Did the Union capture it or did the South? Who knows? And I have to assume that we’ll never know for sure. But we have six out of the original eight. That’s pretty good odds if you ask me,” Grady told them.
“Yeah, remember what the note said—the treasure was hidden at Matterson House, and this cave isn’t Matterson House. So we’re on the right track, just not where the X marks the spot. So I can only suggest that we keep looking,” Mike added.
“I agree with Mike. But you can keep the coins that you found. And remember, you can’t tell or show them to anyone. Not until we find the rest of them,” Grady added.
“So where do we go from here?” Melissa asked.
“Well, first, we get out of here and put that wall back up, then I would have to say back to Matterson House. I really believe that the answer is in those papers. We just missed it, is all,” Grady told them.
The wall soon proved easier to tear down than it was to rebuild. But they got it done. As they exited the cave, Mike went over to a large tree and broke off a good size branch and went back into the cave.
“What is he doing?” Katie asked.
“I reckon he’s erasing our footprints so nobody will know that someone had been there. You have a pretty smart guy there, Katie,” Grady told his daughter.
“Yeah, I know. I’m a pretty lucky gal,” she said with a huge smile on her face.
Squares Turned to Diamonds
Back at Matterson House, they spread out all of the documents on the table. They studied them but still came up empty.
“What are we missing here? The answer has got to be here. It has to be here,” Melissa said.
“Yeah, but where?” Katie answered.
“We’re this close but yet so far. Damn!” Mike said in a very frustrated voice.
Grady was busy studying the riddle.
Squares turned to diamonds
From the roof’s peak.
Be careful of your steps
If it’s the treasure that you seek.
But it just didn’t make much sense.
Meanwhile, Mike was studying the etchings of Matterson House. There was something about the pictures, something that told him to look at them closer. And so he was doing just that. Then it jumped out at him.
“Grady, how many white pillars are on your front porch?” he asked.
“Six. Three on each side. Why do you ask?” he asked.
“Well I’ll be!” Mike proclaimed.
Suddenly, everyone was peering over his shoulder.
“What did you find Mike?” Grady asked.
“These etchings. Are you sure these are of this house?” he asked.
“I reckon I never double-checked. Aren’t they all marked Matterson House?” he asked.
“Yeah, but these only show four pillars, and not six. So this may not be this house,” he explained.
“What?” Grady asked. But as he looked at the etchings, he had to agree with Mike. It wasn’t this house. “So where is this house if it isn’t here?” he asked.
“But look at this. This etching shows mountains behind the house, but there are no mountains behind this house. But if this isn’t your house, why is it labeled Matterson House? And your house, if I remember right, has eight windows across the upper story, and this one only shows four. And the chimneys are wrong. You have four or five, but this shows just one. What’s going on here?” Mike asked.
“Well, I know for a fact, this is Matterson House because I read a book on Southern plantations for school,” Melissa told them.
“Well, is it possible that there might have been two houses by the same name in Savannah?” Katie asked.
“Okay, let’s assume that these etchings are labeled wrong, then why would they be in here with all of these Civil War era documents? Why would he save these etchings if this isn’t supposed to be this house?” Grady added.
“Well, surprise, everyone, another hurdle to jump over,” Mike added.
“Wait a second. Katie, I think you hit the nail on the head,” Melissa said.
“How’s that?” she asked.
“I remember reading something about the original Matterson House being built, but they couldn’t finish it. Something about a well—either they couldn’t dig it or something lik
e that. So they rebuilt it in a different location and made it even bigger. So if I remember right, could those etchings be of the original Matterson House?” she asked.
“Really? Wow, so if the treasure was hidden at Matterson House, could it be at the old location?” Grady asked.
“Don’t quote me, Grady. I could be wrong and totally offtrack. But it would be easy to research to find out the facts,” Melissa added.
“Well, if you’re right, it would explain everything, especially these etchings,” Mike answered.
“You wouldn’t know where the original location was, would ya?” Katie asked.
“No, I haven’t a clue. But like I said, it would be easy to research to figure it out. Give me about an hour tomorrow, and we’ll know for sure,” she told them.
“Ya all want to know what bothers me the most with all of this?” Katie asked.
“Sure, honey, what bothers you the most?” Grady asked.
“Even with all of the stealing and deceit that had to happen to pull off this perfect robbery almost a hundred years ago, in my mind, I can just picture those poor defenseless horses and how they suffered and died. That goes beyond sick. That’s just cruel and mean. Whoever did it should feel damn lucky that they’re already dead ’cause, without thinking twice, I would have shot the sick, evil bastards just on general principles,” she told all of them.
“Speaking for myself, and maybe everyone else, I would have to say that I would load the damn gun for ya, I reckon,” Grady answered.
“Well, I don’t know about the rest of ya, but this treasure-hunting business is making me thirsty. Katie, my love, how would you like to join me for a malted?” Mike asked.
“Gee, let me think about it for a while. Okay, I’ve thought about it. It sounds like a super swell idea. I’d love to,” she replied.
“And what about you, sis, would you like to join us?” he asked.
Hearts of Grey Page 17
