Sunshine & Shadows-Book 1

by RD Le Coeur

Chapter Six.

  Sunny and Jen sat down beside the old marker and looked at it time and again. They read it once, they read it twice. There was nothing particularly odd about it. It was simply a marker for a dead horse, which someone had cared about deeply enough to create this grave for it.

  "Well we've sussed it now, Sun," said Jen.

  "True, but we're still none the wiser."

  "That's not exactly true. It doesn't matter where the sun or moon shines here, the walls shadow obscures everything. The next clue or the treasure must be located here."

  "I don't fancy digging up a grave." he said.

  "Neither do I, but it must be done or we'll never find out what's next."

  "I've not got anything to dig with for a start, and we don't know where the grave ends for sure. Horses are pretty big you know! "

  "I'm sure it can't be that difficult. My bet is that it'll be near the headstone. We can run back to yours, get a trowel or something and run back. Poor old horse isn't going anywhere."

  "Guess that's the best thing to do then," he said with a sigh.

  "I know it's a shame we can't just get on with it, but 'all things come to he who waits' as my dad would say." replied Jen.

  "Come on then let's get a move on or it'll be time for you to go home before we have finished this today."

  "It's not even midday yet, we should have plenty of time yet." With that they gathered themselves together and set off at a brisk pace back to Sunny's.

  Sunny did not take long to find what he wanted and they returned to the horse's grave as quick as they could. It was not exactly modern earth moving technology. It was a simple trowel that they used around the garden. He had thought of bringing the spade but it was heavy and in the end he was still not happy about digging up a whole grave.

  He wasn't particularly squeamish, it just did not feel right to desecrate someone or something's final resting place. They looked at the grave again, both reluctant to take the first chunk of sod from the grave.

  "Doing your exams next year Jen?"

  "Yeah. who isn't?"

  "What subjects?"

  "All the usual. Should get ten or twelve. It'll be a scrape with some though. Maffs is not my strongest subject."

  "Uncle Pete says GCSe's stands for God Crushes Sixteen year olds Expectations, there again he reckons that opera is ballet for deaf people!"

  "Bit of a wit, your Uncle Pete."

  "Well I think some of his sayings are funny. Can't put it off any longer," he said as he plunged the sharp trowel into the earth.

  Sunny did as Jen wanted and concentrated on the spot nearest the headstone. First he cleared away the grass turf and exposed the plain earth underneath. He burrowed gently until he had made a deep furrow, the whole width of the headstone.

  "Glad we're not doing this at night," he quipped.

  "Me too, do you want me to have a go?"

  "Nah, I'll do a bit more and then we'll see. He had gone down about six inches into the earth when the trowel scraped across something. It was hard but sounded wooden and hollow.

  "Got something, Jen."

  Jen immediately got closer and tried to get a better view. She knelt down by the side of the grave and felt the object with her hands. She tapped it and confirmed to the pair of them that it was definitely wooden. She scrambled more earth away to reveal it's outline.

  "It's got writing on it! " she said excitedly.

  Sunny gently nudged her to one side to get a better look. "It's in foreign' he said.

  "What type of foreign? Let me have a better look-see."

  She regained her original position and scraped some more earth off

  the top. The microbes of the earth had removed some of it but she could clearly see a date of 17 something or other and she could make out Coronas Especiales, Havana.

  "It's Spanish, she said excitedly. It's Spanish treasure."

  Sunny looked out to sea deep in thought. He knew that it was a possibility.

  He knew the Spanish Armada had been blown here and he knew the Welsh had captured some of them at Fishguard or close to it. He began to feel excited as well. He dived straight back into digging. He exposed the complete out line and then carefully excavated around it to get it free.

  Jen looked on excitedly. He got the tip of the trowel under one end, applied a gentle pressure and it came free. They were both a little disappointed. A Spanish treasure chest it was not. It was far too small. It was a cedar wood box about ten inches long, six inches wide and about three inches deep. It had a lid and it appeared to be secured with a small brass nail through the lid and into the side. Sunny got it out into the clear sunlight and onto the grass. "Should come open real easy, Jen, " he said.

  Gingerly he prised the lid open and inside was another clue. It was on the same paper that the other clues had been on and the writing was identical to the others.

  Jen was disappointed. "Merde! another bogging clue. I felt sure we would get at least a gold ring or a pearl necklace. Go on read it out. I hope it's not as convoluted as the last one." She was to be bitterly disappointed.

  Sunny cleared his throat and read it out aloud.

  Dial 37047734 for bat on abacus and 7738 for ancient clappers.

  999 for SOS.

  Sunny looked at Jen. Jen looked at Sunny. They both shrugged their shoulders.

  "I can't even begin to think what that is all about. Let's fill the hole up and leave it tidy and go back to mine for a think and some grub." said Sunny.

  It did not take long to repair the damage to the grave. Why was there always more earth out of a hole than it took to fill it up? Sunny patted the earth down as best he could and replaced the turf. It looked like they had buried a small animal on top of the old grave. Sunny was not happy with this state of affairs and stamped on the turf as hard as he could to flatten it. Happy with his handiwork, Jen collected the box and they set off for the second time back towards 'Home Meadow.'

  They chattered all along the way about everything under the sun except the new clue.

  Moonbeam had been busy in their absence and had prepared a vegetarian salad feast for lunch. Sunny had preferred Jen's lunch dripping with salad cream.

  She had enquired about the box, and wondered where they had got their hands on it.

  Sunny said he'd had it for ages and kept his secrets in it. Jen looked askance at him when he said it, but kept her silence. After lunch Jen offered to help Moonbeam clear up, but was thanked most profusely and told to go play with Sunshine.

  Sunshine thought he was now getting a bit old for playtime and told his Mum in a sarky voice that they would go and have their afternoon nap. Moonbeam did not see anything funny in this comment and carried on with her clearing up operations.

  Jen and Sunny retired to his tent, box in hand, to do some serious clue solving.

  "The food was nice. What were those herbs your Mum put in the salad? They tasted peppery and nutty at the same time."

  "Dunno, Don't care. Let's see if we can solve this puzzle before you have to go home."

  "I've got another two hours yet. It should be simple with your brains and my looks!" she said laughing.

  Sunny pulled the clues out of the box again. He studied them and handed them to Jen.

  "There's something not right here Jen, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

  "Let's examine what we know. It was found in a horses grave marked 17 something or other. It was in a box also marked 17 something or other."

  "That's it!" exclaimed Sunny.

  "What's it?"

  "To the best of my knowledge there were no telephones in seventeen something or other. So how can this all be ancient. We should have sussed that from the mobile phone clues.

  No, this is a much more modern puzzle. Can you remember what letters were on the mobile phone for these numbers?"

  "Have a heart, Sun, how do you expect me to remember the whole of a keypad I only saw for a few minutes?"

  "Sorry. I was bit harsh there. Never m
ind we can work it out logically.

  If four was G and Seven thrice was R we can work out the whole keyboard on a bit of paper."

  "Go on then,' said Jen with a disinterested air. She watched as he worked it out. "So there's nothing on one then?" he enquired already confident he was right.

  "S'pose so. To be honest I can't really remember. I am absolutely rubbish with numbers and they give me a headache."

  Sunny worked on. DP?GPPDG or it could be EQ?HQQEH. He worked out all the permutations. They were all gibberish. There was no pattern and it was very imprecise.

  He told Jen of this and she said that maybe they were trying to hard to be clever and maybe it was just a phone number that they had to dial to get the answer. Sunny thought about this for a while. It didn't make sense. These were not mobile numbers they all started with 07 even he knew that. It was not a local number he knew that because they all had six digits and often had a code as a prefix and they all started 0.

  He explained all this to Jen. She suggested that they look at the words instead to see if they gave a clue as to the code.

  "Dial these numbers for bat on Abacus," she recited from the clues.

  "Maybe it's a sort of cryptic clue."

  "Maybe it is. What's another name for a bat?"

  "Stick? Dunno! "

  "What's another name for an abacus?"

  "Calculator."

  "So something Calculator. Maybe it's a sum we have to work out."

  "Can't follow that. How would a sum give us the answer?"

  "I'm sure I don't know. Have you got a calculator in this high class establishment of yours?" she asked.

  "Yeah I got one somewhere. Needed it for school. It's a big one they were giving them away with petrol or oil or something at the garage. Anyhow, Dad knew the guy and he got me one. Sunny rummaged around the tent and found his old school bag. It was right at the bottom and it was difficult for him to get it out. He was tempted to tip the whole thing upside down, but the thought of the mess that he would have to clear up later stopped him. Finally he got it and sat down opposite Jen.

  "Give me those numbers again and I'll add them up. He inputted the numbers added them all up and got the answer of 35. Not much use there. Then he decided to multiply all the numbers and that was no use either. "What if it's 37047734 times 7738?" he asked Jen.

  "Got to be worth a try."

  Sunny slowly inputted the numbers, and asked Jen to check that he had put them in right.

  "Oh my god!" she exclaimed. It makes a word!"

  "What does?"

  "Turn your calculator upside down and read it. It makes words! "

  "Hell Hole', he read and then cleared the number and input 7738.

  "Bell” he announced.

  "Hell Hole and then Bell," she reiterated.

  "999 upside down just means 666. That's the devils number or so they say. Write it down, Jen before we forget."

  "Yes, Sir!" she said and saluted.

  Yet again he realised how simple clues were when you knew the answer, but he knew they were not home and dry yet. There was more work to be done to crack this. He thought through his mental calculations aloud for Jen to hear and comment on.

  He reasoned quite quickly that "hell hole' was probably the old crypt in the old church up by the horses' grave. Bell/clappers must be an old bell down there and the 999 SOS must mean it's an alarm bell of some kind.

  But why you would have an alarm bell in an old crypt was beyond him for the present. They would have to go and see for themselves. Jen was amazed at how quick Sunny's brain worked. He was quite something on puzzles and conundrums.

  "I need the loo, Sun."

  "Can't you hold on till you get back?" he asked in a kindly sort of pleading voice.

  "No! What's wrong with you?"

  "It's our bog. It's not exactly user friendly or what you would normally expect. Still if you can't hang on I'll show you where it is."

  Sunny led and Jen followed him outside. They went towards the woods and a green canvas tented enclosure. He pointed to it and she went in. She immediately understood his reticence at her going to his toilet.

  It was from the stone-age. Basically it was a hole in the ground with a wooden pole across it. There was a small heap of freshly dug earth and a small hand sized shovel. The toilet paper was hanging on a piece of looped string attached to one of the side poles and all in all, it was as far as she was concerned, the toilet from hell.

  She rejoined Sunny back at the tent. "See what you mean about the bog, Sun. it's a bit primitive."

  "Yeah, but it's eco friendly."

  "Bet it's horrific in the winter."

  "You get used to it."

  "S'pect you've got to."

  "Let's talk about something else."

  "Fine by me. When can we go to the crypt?"

  "With your time scales it will have to be tomorrow now. By the time we get there today we will have to come straight back.

  It's no biggy though. We've done well today. We've desecrated a grave and decoded the clues all in one day. Not bad for us."

  "True but I'm only here for a holiday. Do you think we'll have solved it all by the time I go home?"

  "I hope so, Jen. Whoever has laid this trail has shown great ingenuity and care. It matters to them, and eventually they want it solved."

  "I thought we would have found the treasure by now."

  "It'll come, give it time. I just hope that it will all be worthwhile and the treasure will be worth all the brainpower and effort."

  Sunny was still in a quandary over whether to tell Jen about the first clue in the clay flask or not. In fact he was not sure if he should show her the old spell book.

  "What we gonna do now, Sun? Want to go down the beach? It's a long time till tomorrow."

  "Nah. I want to show you something, but you must promise not to tell a soul."

  "Who am I going to tell?"

  "Never mind. Promise."

  "It's not rude is it?"

  "Don't be stupid! It's a secret that absolutely no-one knows about and it has caused me a lot of grief."

  "OK. I promise," she said holding her hand across her heart in some form of swearing of allegiance.

  Sunny pulled back the rug and brought out his secret stash with the clay flask and the mysterious clue. He left the spell book where it was. One thing at a time he thought.

  She examined the clay flask and read the clue. She could not make head nor tail of it until Sunny realising his mistake, pulled the translation from the pages of the spell book.

  "How did you work this out?" she asked.

  He then told her the whole story. He also admitted that when they had first started he thought they were following the same trail. It was now obvious to him that there were two very different sets of riddles, one nothing to do with the other. He had been unable to crack this first one and it drove him mad. It was very ancient and had something to do with magic, but he did not know what. He showed her the ancient spell book and she carefully turned the pages not understanding a word that was written on each. Sunny had explained that each spell was in code and that had to be broken before you could use any of them. He also confessed his biggest embarrassment to date of the expelling episode with the hamster turning into a pig at school. He felt much better now that he had confided in his best friend and he also knew that she would not scoff or make fun of him for it. They were too close for that already and he had already demonstrated his abilities at clue solving, if she needed any more proof that he was not a raving lunatic.

  Jen was a bit taken aback by these new revelations. If someone else had told her what Sunny had, she would never have believed them in a thousand years. It was too unbelievable not to be true. Half of her wanted Sunny to make a spell. The other half was realistically frightened of what this could do and the consequences of it.

  By the time Sunny had shown her everything and explained in detail all that he knew about the book and artefact, it was time to go home.
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br />   It was with great reluctance that she got ready to depart. Sunny said he would accompany her back to their normal meeting place and he would see her there the next morning at nine ish to go to the old church crypt. He had been right they had done well, and if she was truthful, this holiday was turning out to be the best holiday ever ever in her whole life. She had made a great friend, she had been involved in a great mystery that was still unfolding, and then of course there was still the great lure of finding treasure. She wondered what it would be? Diamonds and gold were not too much to ask for after all their effort as far as she was concerned. If it was, then she would buy Sunny a proper toilet for a start!