The Lost Treasure Map Series

by V Bertolaccini

  The whole place was mysterious to him, and Bryson also had many mysteries to solve.

  Mitchell stretched his arms out, waking himself, and announced, “It’s time to start work!”

  “Where are you working now?” Bryson quickly asked.

  “We going to lift that tomb out ... Then up through the floor from the hidden chamber ... Then we’ll see if there’s anything else there! So if you’re interested ...?”

  Bryson nodded in agreement, realizing Mitchell wanted him there, as well as the two scientists being there, and realized that it would be a good idea to start there, where they had left off, and he recalled the words on the tomb and that he had not established what they meant.

  Chapter 8

  The Clues

  When they entered the library Bryson examined the tunnel entrance, dug out from the floor and now covered over with an ancient stone slab, and Bryson sensed something unusual. But he only grasped that there was snow falling outside.

  Yet something seemed different and he watched the others grouping about the table with seats, in front of the books, and he made himself familiar with his new surroundings. Most of the people there were Mitchell’s men and the archaeologists.

  Bryson wondered why the books had been hidden away there anyway – in a chamber hidden behind a false wall that opened out like a door – and why someone had gone to such lengths to build it? He knew why the tunnel was hidden out of view but not why they had hidden a small castle library there.

  Yet the others that had looked through the books insisted there was nothing there and he took their word for it!

  He watched Pendleton gasp as he saw the covered over tunnel, and quickly acknowledge it as a different tunnel entrance from the one that he had gone down, which they had not investigated yet.

  Bryson suddenly realized that the books were uneven and hanging out everywhere and that when he had passed by the room earlier that the books had been neatly placed together by the archaeologists, who had been there last, who were the only ones interested in the books, mainly to search for historic accounts of there, and going by what the others had told them.

  Somebody had clearly searched through them for something, and Bryson wondered who had been there, and what had the person been looking for? The majority of the people at the castle had been at the dinning room or with the scientists.

  He examined objects in the room from different perspectives trying to see if there were anything altered, but never saw anything else and started examining the books.

  He eventually asked the archaeologists, “Are there any books missing there?”

  They examined through them but never noticed anything so Bryson ignored it.

  He wondered where the killer had gone and if he was looking for the treasure, and he started wondering why he had been so desperate to do something? Why did he not wait? Was there a trail that led to it somewhere? Had the person been trying to get something to get to it?

  The treasure could be anything and he even wondered if it was the same one that had been in the other castle, and that they would be spending all their time searching for something that they had found already! The treasure could have been there and had been taken by William Randall to the other castle with him! It was only logical that he would have had it near him! Why did he have two treasures anyway?

  Bryson had never heard of people having two treasure before and he considered if there was more than one person involved and that there was a second person who had been at this castle who had been a friend or relative of William Randall, and again he wondered if it had been the person in the tomb buried in the chamber beneath the floor, which they would soon go to and remove from the chamber.

  Who the hell had they been, and what had they been up to? He started searching through the books with the others for information! Something had to be there and he searched what the books were mainly about and what they were interested in, and soon found out that the books never belonged to them and belonged to later owners of the castle, and the earliest had only a few books that were virtually meaningless to him and gave little.

  He was sure that if the map of the castle found in the ring on the person in the tomb proved the person had been with the original people and William Randall, and that if there was information about them, it might be there after all.

  There was something about hunting for hidden things that he did not like and that frustrated him! There were far too many things that suggested where things could be and that could anywhere. The mind could almost turn anything into what looked like a clue just by staring at things for long enough, if the person wanted something badly enough! They could be following false clues all the time and make major mistakes there until they left if they were not careful! He was sure, if they had not already been doing it, that they would start doing it as soon as they checked the main places and clues at the castle, with there being no real ways of finding it left.

  Here they were searching books for the answer to something that could be anything, and not even exist. The amount of things that the mind could conjure up and associate with it was vast. He doubted if the treasure seekers that he had seen in movies, who had chased after clues, could have answered the clues that they had been given. Why had he never heard of anyone chasing after treasure like it? As far as he was now concerned the people who had found things had been looking for them in ships with people who had found records of there having been treasure, and which had been aboard vessels that had sunk in specific regions that they could trace – and with them not solving strange riddles to them! People found them with knowledge and traced them with technology, and spent a long time doing it, and in most cases never found anything or virtually nothing!

  Yet even though they had in the last castle solved the riddles and traced the treasure! And he tried to recall his line of thought when he had found it, and the way the people at the last castle had been that had helped him discover it.

  He believed people that came across treasure were incredibly lucky, in the right place at the right time.

  He had never proven that people had actually followed clues ever found anything, even though that was what he intended to do, and he thought what he had done at the last castle was more like solving an ancient mystery! People endlessly chased after treasures that never existed – or with fake or unsolvable clues.

  Many people had found things while looking for other things though and he could not recall hearing of any of them finding what they had been looking for when it came to major finds like the Holy Grail.

  Yet a long time ago things might have been different, and if people did find them he was sure that most people would have no real reasons to report finding anything! Why would they want to? Why tell that people had actually gone about hiding treasure, leaving maps and riddles?

  Would real treasure maps be incomprehensible to anyone else? Surely people would try to stop someone else getting their hands on it? Why would they write down obvious places and names that other people would know of and allow them to find it? They could easily use codes and words that other people would not be able to understand, and miss out and muddle things up making sure other people would not be able to establish things – hiding if numbers were co-ordinates or paces. They could give false clues that could easily remind them of the real ones!

  The main problem was that there were no real clues or evidence of the treasure existing and that made it incomprehensible to everyone! Yet somewhere there might be another map or mention of it! They might also be able to discover the treasure itself if they searched all the key places people would put it? The archeologists and scientists had very advanced equipment that could be used.

  Yet he was unsure if they could cover the whole castle!

  Bryson had also been starting to believe that someone knew something that at least proved its existence! He kept sensing it and, though he had not proven a thing, he was sure that it would not take long before they found out about it!

&nb
sp; Chapter 9

  The Tomb

  Bryson wondered how they were going to remove the tomb, as he made his way there from having something to eat. The tomb was made of solid heavy stone and he wondered if they could get enough of the men around it to lift it through the floor.

  When he arrived there he was surprised at how far they had gone to do it, and knew right away it was Mitchell’s idea!

  The floorboards of the majority of the room around the entrance were piled in the corner and the entrance had been increased in size to a size far greater than the tomb, surely to allow people to carry it up planks of wood, which were sloped down to the tomb to allow it to be pulled upwards.

  By what they said Bryson realized that they had attempted to lift it and had been unable to get it and the men up the planks and through the entrance.

  Now they were wrapping chains around the tomb and were putting metal poles across the planks of wood, going up through the entrance.

  When they had finished preparing everything he watched them push and roll the tomb up the planks of wood over the poles while the others in the room helped pull the tomb up with the chains.

  When it was finally up they lay about resting, and Bryson managed to get a proper look at it in the lighted room and tried to see what he had missed, but he never saw anything as the tomb itself was far too dirty and covered in debris.

  What interested him most was what they intended to do with it as he could not realize why they were so desperate to get it out, as they had clearly examined it in the chamber with everything that they had, including all the scientists and archaeologists.

  He started examining the tomb to see how valuable it might be, but he could not image it could worth much, unless it had historic value that he never knew about, and he wondered if they knew something there that he never and that the stuff had value somewhere. For some reason he could not imagine them being there if there was nothing with definite value there, even the treasure could be there, and he wondered if collectors might value it as being valuable for some reason that he never knew and he thought of phoning the guy he knew who was having him take photos of things to value there.

  After taking a few photos of it from a few angles he sent the photos and a message to his friend, and soon received an acknowledgment of the receipt of them. He watched the others to see what their reactions would be but they just ignored him.

  Archeologists arrived and got to work cleaning the tomb, and washing all the dirt from it, and Bryson wondered if they intended to make the castle famous and worth something and he wondered what would happen then – and what would happen if it remained haunted and people visited the place from all over the world.

  Bryson realized that they were not properly searching the castle now! Yet even though they had agreed to concentrate in the right places and stay together out of danger it might be a mistake as they surely would start giving up after long enough! He was sure that they were best searching it as quickly as possible and covering as much ground as they could without putting themselves in too much danger, and he wished to discover all the key places and search there.

  Therefore he started trying to realize where the key places were and wondered how he could safely wander about the rooms and corridors looking! Perhaps it would help solve some of the mysteries there that had accumulated over a long time and since they had arrived.

  For a long time he had wanted to investigate somewhere like the last castle as he had missed it greatly and he could not believe he actually had another to investigate. He had always wanted to search the other castle when he had been younger! He had been unable to do it for years as the servants there had kept him in the lounge, on his only visit there, and had persuaded him not to go anywhere else, and he had been unable to visit there again when he had been older as his uncle had not allowed him back.

  He felt that he had the freedom to roam this castle and he wanted to take full advantage of it when he could, without getting into any danger, but he was far more interested in finding everything he could about the tomb before doing anything else.

  The others spent a long time tediously cleaning the tomb rock and he joined in and examined the writing on it again in case he had missed something, but never found anything. It was just ancient writing that was usually found on tombs and had nothing of interest or was to do with anything else.

  Yet one of the archeologists washing and cleaning the end of the tomb uncovered some writing there, which had been covered over with dirt, and Bryson went there first to see what was there, but just before he got there the archeologist announced to his surprise, “It’s the identity of the person in the tomb ... His name is William Randall!”

  Bryson was staggered and did not know whether to believe it, but the other archeologists there confirmed that they were positive that it was and Bryson wondered what it meant as he had definitely seen the remains and tomb of his ancestor William Randall at the last castle.

  Bryson had a hard time even remembering William Randall in detail, and what his skeleton had looked like, and started realizing that he could not properly prove the skeleton in the tomb was him or was not him! How could they prove anything? The lack of evidence annoyed him greatly and he could not prove anything and was like a blind man trying to recognize someone from someone that had not spoken, or had identified himself properly, or had any information about his identity revealed and met someone who never said anything that was being identified as the person! He remembered little about William Randall! Yet he had known what he had been like in places, but that was only basic stuff about him and other people like him at the time. If only they could find something that could give them something worthwhile about him and the people at the castles!

  He tried to remember the accounts that they had put together to find the second castle and he tried to recall something about it. He could not remember much about it – yet he could recall that William Randall had been identified as being at the second castle and had been the person who had the second castle built, and he thought that he would have stayed there as well.

  It was as though someone were deliberately trying to muddle the facts up and confuse them! It made him shiver thinking of it and what the consequences were and he would now have to accept that the other skeleton at the other castle was someone else. Yet what the hell difference did it make?

  He examined the skeleton in the tomb wondering if it really was his ancestor and what difference it would make.

  He wondered why they had buried him there under the floor of the castle? Why would someone bury him there? Was there someone after him, or the person there?

  Mitchell marched over seeing his slight distress and examined him and seemed interested in something.

  “Wasn’t William Randall mentioned as being at the last castle?” he enquired, trying to get some information from him.

  “Yes!” he replied firmly and annoyed. “I saw his tomb there though! He was my ancestor that built the castles ...”

  Most of the people turned and stared, surprised that it was his ancestor that they were examining.

  “Incredible!” Mitchell answered. “That’s right! I remember Sir Richard Randall was your uncle ... And Robert Randall the current owner ... It must be strange being in such a place and meeting one of your ancestors here?”

  Bryson finished examining the skeleton and realized that it actually looked the same as the last skeleton!

  “Perhaps they could have both skeletons examined to see if they are genetically linked to you?” Mitchell announced. “That should prove what one is authentic and what one is not!”

  “That’s a good idea!” he replied, surprised that he had not thought of it.

  “I can have it done for you ...?” One of the archeologists firmly replied, examining Bryson’s features and comparing them with the skeleton, with surprise. “I’ve another friend over there ... Near the other castle who can get something from the other skeleton ...”

  Bryson was astonished an
d realized that they had come up with the answer and he agreed firmly and thanked him, and Mitchell for coming up with such a great idea, and he wondered what the outcome of it would be.

  Chapter 10

  The Second Death

  Bryson studied the crumpled up remains of the body of the scientist, who he had worked with many times, trying to realize what had happened. His body was completely drained of water and of something else that he could not recognize.

  He had just arrived there, at the remote region of the castle, with Mitchell and his men, and met with Merton and some scientists and police that had been there.

  One of the other scientists who had been with the dead scientist earlier had gone out searching for him when he had not arrived to meet him.

  For some reason everyone there took it that he had not been killed by the killer and by something else! By something so hideous, evil, and unearthly that they could not even imagine what! He tried to ignore how hideous it was, trying to look upon it as an artist would observe a crazy exhibit, but it was no use! Something was now out to get them! The things in the wood, if they were not the culprits, looked like nothing compared to it, and they now looked as if they had been playing with them and only scaring them away from their territory.

  The complexion of the body showed it was drained of blood and showed the deadliness of the place, and their chances of survival had vastly decreased and danger could now exist there in the castle and during the day now and they never knew what they were up against and how to survive against it. They were becoming defenseless and they could not do anything about it!

  Bryson was confused more than he could ever recall and he had difficulty discovering what was occurring because now he could not even imagine solving what had happened!