Slowly Percy made his way to the stone staircase at the center of the ground floor and up to the landing above the first floor. Something seemed to guide his steps. Ahead of him, the centerpiece of the entire house, envisioned in Katherine’s mind’s eye from the beginning, was what would be the large central sitting room, facing due west toward the promontory, its seaward wall comprised nearly in its entirety of three enormous windows, giving the entire room a spectacular vantage point of the promontory. The coastline stretched away north and south as far as the eye could see. The view straight ahead looked out westward toward Ireland, whose own coastline, Katherine hoped, on a clear day, might faintly be seen.
As Percy entered, across the great room, he saw a figure seated on the bare stone floor six or eight feet away from the opening of the largest central window.
The early riser knew whose footsteps were approaching behind her without turning.
Percy sat down beside her and took her hand in his.
“There could not be a house with a more beautiful view than this,” said Gwyneth quietly.
“How long have you been here?” asked Percy.
“I don’t know,” replied Gwyneth. “The storm drew me. I think I have changed my mind about Lady Katherine’s new house. It is the perfect place to have built it. How did you know where to find me?”
“I didn’t. This time, if you weren’t here, I was planning to check the harbor next!”
They sat for a few minutes in silence, gazing out at the wild, windy, gray sky and sea blended in turbulent motion. The sea appeared angry, but Gwyneth found it no less mesmerizing than on a day when its radiant blues and greens stretched westward to the land of her birth.
“As I was looking up at the house, with the empty windows,” said Percy, “it reminded me of the empty eyes of the skull you saw in the cave.”
“Don’t remind me. It frightened me to death!”
“If ever a storm were going to wash the sand away from that old pirate again, this would be the time.”
“Do you really think what I saw was the skull of the old pirate from Grannie’s tale, the same man who gave her the coin?”
“I thought she said they found the man dead on the beach the next morning.”
“Oh, that’s right. Then who did the skull belong to?”
“Maybe there were two pirates. What if one of them made it to the cave, but the man Grannie saw didn’t? We’ll go look at low tide as soon as the storm passes!”
“Not me, Percy!”
“Then I will go myself.”
“Well … maybe I will go with you.”
77
The Cave
The idea of exploring the cave again did not leave Percy all day. By late afternoon the storm showed signs of easing. When night fell, the moon was making sporadic appearances between the clouds, and the wind had nearly ceased. By then Gwyneth’s enthusiasm for the project had mounted as well.
When Percy appeared in the breakfast room the next morning, she was eagerly waiting for him. “The tide is rising, Percy,” she said excitedly. “It will be high sometime before noon.”
“What—you’ve already been out!”
“Of course,” she laughed.
“Don’t we need a low tide?” he asked.
“Yes, and low tide will be late in the afternoon when the sun is going down. It will be perfect—the sun will shine off the water straight into the cave!”
“This afternoon it is, then. We have a date with a pirate’s skull!”
They were at the beach by three, walking leisurely hand in hand along the shoreline at the water’s edge of the outgoing tide. It was obvious to Gwyneth’s eyes that the storm had wreaked havoc with the coastline she knew so well. She scampered about looking at everything excitedly.
By four o’clock, the water had retreated most of the way out of the cave’s mouth, and they crept inside.
“The cave floor is lower,” said Gwyneth as they made their way into the darkness. “I can tell that the roof is higher above me. The outgoing tide must have removed at least six inches of sand.”
“Can you remember where you saw the skull?”
“I don’t know—about halfway back to the end, I think.”
As their eyes accustomed to the darkness, Percy went to his knees and began to crawl about on all fours, his eyes probing and his hands feeling the sand. Back and forth he crawled, feeling about, digging with his fingers all around the area where Gwyneth thought the skull might have been.
“Wait … there, I felt something hard,” he said at length. He brushed his hands about the spot again. “Yes, there it is—look,” he said, removing bit of wet sand from the spot.
“Look, yes … I think it’s a bit of bone!”
Percy continued to rub away the sand then scooped more away with his hand until the rounded top of a human cranium was clearly visible. “It’s the pirate!”
“Oh Percy, let’s leave him where he is. I don’t think I can bear to see those horrid empty eyes again.”
“We’ve got to solve the mystery. What was he doing here? I’ll go get a spade from Chandos.”
“Wait for me. I don’t want to be left alone … with him!”
They ran out of the cave. In the distance, in the direction of the harbor, they saw two horses. As Percy ran toward them, he saw Steven and Florilyn.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” laughed Steven. “I think we found the old pirate in the cave!” he replied. “I’m going to find a spade.”
“Pirate!” exclaimed Steven, but already Percy was running toward the village.
A minute later Gwyneth came hurrying up. They dismounted and tied their horses at the harbor.
“What’s this about a pirate, Gwyneth?” asked Florilyn.
“Haven’t I ever told you about the pirate’s skull I found?”
“No … ugh—that sounds horrid!”
“It was in the cave back there, after a terrific storm when the tide was low—just like today. You know the cave, Steven. All the children played in it. I never saw it after that. It was covered over with sand. Percy thinks we’ve found it again. He wants to dig it up.”
“But why?”
“Because when Grannie was a girl, she saw a pirate who had washed up on the beach from a shipwreck. He gave her a gold coin.”
“Gold!”
“The pirate said there was more. But by the next morning he was dead. Look—I’ve got the coin right here. Grannie gave it to me.” She dug in her pocket and pulled out the coin.
Steven and Florilyn looked at it with wide eyes. “I want to see this pirate!” said Steven.
He ran on ahead. By the time Gwyneth and Florilyn followed him into the darkness of the cave, Steven was on his hands and knees where he saw evidence of Percy’s clawing about the cave floor, digging in the hard-packed sand with his fingers.
When Percy returned five minutes later with a spade, Steven had uncovered the eye sockets that had struck such fear into thirteen-year-old Gwyneth Barrie. Immediately, Percy set in with the spade.
“Careful … careful,” said Steven. “If the old fellow’s head is still attached to the rest of him, you don’t want to behead him.”
“Steven … ugh!” exclaimed Florilyn.
Slowly as they dug down, the skull came more into view. Percy gently loosened the sand while Steven scooped it away with his hands. The two girls gradually moved back out of the cave into the sunlight. This was man’s work. They had seen enough!
By now the day was reaching its end. Most of the village men were either on their way to Mistress Chattan’s inn for a pint of ale or were walking home from their day’s labors for evening tea.
The sun continued to settle toward the western horizon. As it did, it sent longer and longer shafts of light into the mouth of the cave where Percy and Steven continued with what seemed to Gwyneth and Florilyn a gruesome task.
It did not take much more excavation before the excited young men were convinced that it was
no mere skull Gwyneth had discovered seven years before but the entire skeleton of a man laying his full length toward the mouth of the cave, buried a foot beneath the surface. A few shards of clothing remained, preserved in the salty, sandy grave.
“Come look!” yelled Percy, his voice echoing to the outside through the cave mouth. “We’ve found the pirate … all of him!”
“I don’t want to look!” Florilyn shouted back. “I would have nightmares for weeks.”
But Gwyneth ventured slowly back inside. She stood for a moment looking down at the trench Percy and Steven had dug in the growing light. A bony human frame lay at the bottom of it, still more than half embedded in the hard sand.
“It looks like he was trying to crawl out of the cave,” she said. “If he was trying to get away from the other man—the pirate who gave Grannie the coin—or if he was trying to find shelter in the cave, he should be facing the other direction.”
“You’re right,” said Steven. “I hadn’t thought of that. Why is he facing toward the cave mouth?”
“Maybe he came in here for shelter,” suggested Percy, “but then was trapped by the incoming tide and tried to get out but then drowned.”
By then the rays of the setting sun were sending their light from the level of the sea directly into the mouth of the cave, illuminating its wet walls of rock and sandy floor that sloped up toward the back of the cave. As Percy glanced about, it seemed as though the violent waters of the storm had also cleared away a good amount of the sand from the back of the cave wall. Slowly he wandered deeper inside where the rock ceiling above him sloped down to meet the cave floor. He dropped to his hands and knees to examine the farthest end of the cave.
“What have you found?” asked Steven, following him.
“I don’t know, maybe nothing,” replied Percy. “I remember being curious about this before. Now that the sunlight is shining on the back of the cave … it looks different. Some of the sand is gone. And look, there is a trickle of water coming out from somewhere.”
“What’s this,” said Steven, stooping and probing with his hand. “It looks like …” He dug about harder. “There is a small hole that extends through the rock … or under it.”
Percy scrambled back for the spade. Within seconds, he was again at Steven’s side, digging away furiously at the base of what appeared as the back wall of the cave. After a minute he stopped, stretched out on his belly, and reached his hand through the opening he had made under the rock, feeling about with his fingers. In another moment, his hand poked through into an opening behind it. Immediately a rush of cool air met his face.
“There’s a cavity behind the rock,” he said. He stretched his arm as far as he could through the hole. “I’m moving my hand about. I think the cave goes farther back. It’s been blocked up by sand!”
He pulled his arm out, grabbed the spade again, and now began digging harder than ever.
“I can feel back in there. There’s definitely an opening! And I’m feeling something … It feels like rope.”
“Watch yourself,” said Steven. “It might be alive!”
By now Gwyneth had come up behind them and was watching intently. Even Florilyn, hearing the conversation in the distance, crept a step or two into the cave mouth to listen.
Working together, Percy and Steven managed to excavate an opening a foot deep under the back wall of the cave. As it required digging out below the level of the cave floor, it would fill with sea water the moment the incoming tide reached it again. As soon as it did, their excavated tunnel would fill with sand.
“We’ve got to get a deeper opening,” said Percy. “I need to squeeze in before the tide.”
“You’re not going to crawl back through there?” said Steven.
“I’m thinner than you. Somebody has to. We have to see what’s there.”
“And if the tide comes in, you’ll be trapped inside! A hundred years from now someone will be digging up your skeleton.”
“I have more faith in you than that,” laughed Percy. “You won’t let that happen to me.”
“Then we need to dig a wider opening,” said Steven. He took up the spade again.
Without looking too closely, Florilyn crept past the crypt where the silent skeleton lay. Both girls now watched the progress. They did not like the idea of Percy trying to crawl into what looked like an opening too small for a cat.
Fifteen minutes later, a tunnel through the cave floor under the sloping back wall appeared large enough for Percy to make an attempt.
“Percy, be careful!” said Florilyn.
“I don’t know that I like this,” said Gwyneth. “Once it turns, the tide rises quickly.”
“Then you all keep an eye on it. The moment there is any danger, I promise I’ll come right back out.” Percy lay flat, the entire front of his body now wet, and began to wriggle and squeeze into the opening he and Steven had excavated. Inch by inch, he wormed his way into the darkness until his feet disappeared from sight.
“Percy!” wailed Florilyn.
As her voice echoed away, the cave fell silent.
The next sound they heard was Percy’s voice. It sounded a mile away and echoed strangely off the stone walls of the cave.
“I’m inside a small chamber,” he said. “It’s nearly black. I can’t see a thing. I’m feeling about … there’s not room to stand … it’s probably five feet by four feet. The larger cave must originally have included this little back part. There is definitely a rope and … now I’m feeling what I think are two or three cork floats. It must have washed in here when the cave was open … and … wait, there’s something …”
The other three waited.
“There’s some kind of box,” Percy’s voice echoed back again. “I can’t see it, but … it’s too heavy to lift. It’s tangled up in the rope. Steven, hand your knife through. I’ll try to cut away some of the rope.”
Steven lay down and stretched his hand through the tunnel. A moment later, Percy’s hand fumbled from the other side, grabbing for the knife. Again they waited.
“I’ve cut it away from this mess of rope,” called Percy. “I can hardly move it … it feels like there’s a lock … it must be made of metal, otherwise it would have rotted. Here, Steven, take your knife.”
Again Steven reached through and retrieved his knife.
“I’ll try to get the box into the opening … I’ll shove it your way … you’re stronger than I am, Steven—if you can pull it through …” Grunting and pushing sounds followed as Percy struggled with whatever he had discovered.
Still on his stomach looking through the tunnel with what light the sun sent in, Steven saw the black end of a box some eight or nine inches square being pushed toward him from the inner portion of the cave.
“That’s as far as I can move it,” Percy called to him. “It’s so heavy it wants to sink into the sand. I can’t budge it another inch.”
Steven stretched his hand as far as he could reach. It took several minutes and a great effort, but inch by inch he managed to pull the box through toward the open side of the cave. As the girls waited anxiously, behind them a wave sounded on the shoreline outside.
“Percy … the tide!” cried Florilyn. “Whatever is in there isn’t worth you getting trapped!”
Gwyneth turned and ran out to the beach, glanced to her right and left, then out to sea, then hurried back inside. “The tide has turned, Percy,” she said into the darkened tunnel of the cave floor. “Probably fifteen minutes ago.”
“She’s right, old man,” said Steven. “I didn’t want to mention it, but the bottom of this little tunnel we dug is getting soggy. It will fill up with water anytime. I’ve got the box. It’s time you got out of there before this cave becomes known for two graves.”
“Just give me another minute or two. I want to make sure there’s nothing else in here.”
“Like another pirate!”
“I don’t know. But we may not have this chance again.” “Percy!” cried Flori
lyn again.
By the time the fading light of the sun began to reflect off Percy’s white face as he wriggled back into the front of the cave, his hair was matted and wet, and his shirt and trousers soaked and caked with sand. Both girls let out great sighs of relief when he was through and back on his hands and knees.
Nearly the same moment the sun began to sink below the horizon. The briefly lit cave again grew dark.
“I’m getting out of here while I can still see,” said Florilyn. “I don’t want to trip and fall on that old pirate!”
Gwyneth followed her out. Percy and Steven together lugged the small chest behind them into the open air.
“This thing weighs a ton!” said Percy. “It must be made of solid lead.”
“Are you going to open it?” said Florilyn excitedly.
“The box must be of brass or silver not to have rusted,” began Steven, “but that lock is definitely rusted shut.”
Percy turned and ran back inside the cave. He returned with the spade. Two whacks was all it took to demolish latch and lock together.
The four knelt down around it.
“Well, Gwyneth,” said Percy. “If you are the future owner of all this, which I assume includes the land all the way down to the water’s edge, I suppose technically this box belongs to you. You should do the honors.”
“You discovered it, Percy,” said Gwyneth. “I would rather you open it.”
Percy reached out his hand, took hold of the broken latch, and pulled hard on the lid. The two rusted hinges on the other side shattered. The lid swung free and flew back.
Four gasps of disbelief sounded simultaneously at the sight that met their eyes in the golden light of the setting sun.
The Treasure of the Celtic Triangle- Wales Page 36
