Page 58 of A Treacherous Treasure
“That is very possible.” Caroline winked at Margaret. “I cannot imagine he could do better than your sister, but she may not wish to give up ownership of her home so quickly.”
Rebecca could feel their eyes on her. “Marriage is the farthest thing from my mind,” she said. “I’m still just hoping I can one day take a walk alone without being shot at, or without having to worry who wants my treasure.” She shook her head. “But I am looking forward to dancing. A ball will be a good distraction.”
“Oh yes!” Caroline clasped her hands. “I can hardly wait to hear music, to see people, and to dance!”
Rebecca loved her friend’s enthusiasm.
“I wish Mother would let me go.” Margaret’s brows were lowered and her arms crossed. “You must remember all that happens and tell me everything. I want to know every last detail.” She pointed her finger at Rebecca.
“You know I will tell you everything.” Rebecca laughed. “Nothing terribly exciting will happen, I daresay.”
Once they were out of sight of the house, they took out the two maps and examined them, carefully noting the shape of the tree and the other object on the other side of the “X”.
“Do you think they made the tree trunk crooked like that on purpose?” Rebecca asked.
“I think so,” Thomas said. “And the rock seems to have been carefully drawn as well, with an exact shape. That they drew that shape this way is not coincidental. The person even corrected himself—see there?” He pointed to a smudge where they had tried to blot out a line. “I think we need to look for this exact tree and rock.”
They discussed the map some more, talking about where they should begin looking.
“The map seems to show the treasure close to the garden, near where we’re standing.” Benjamin crossed his arms over his chest.
“We can split into two groups,” Thomas said, “since Benjamin and I have the guns.”
Benjamin immediately looked at Rebecca. She pretended not to notice.
“It looks to me like the treasure is this way, and farther away from the house.” Thomas pointed slightly to the right. “Whoever agrees can go with me, and everyone else needs to stay with Benjamin.”
Without looking at Benjamin, Rebecca started in the direction Thomas pointed. Margaret and Caroline stayed close to Benjamin.
“Don’t lose sight of each other,” Thomas said, falling into step beside Rebecca.
They moved into the tree line and slowly walked the edge, looking all around them. All was quiet until Rebecca broke the silence.
“Is it possible that the tree on the map might not still be standing?”
“Yes, it’s quite possible, considering that this map was drawn fifty or so years ago. It will probably have died, and may even be rotted to nothing by now.”
“I guess we should be focusing on finding the rock, then, not the tree.”
“I agree.”
“But how can we know how big the rock is?”
“I don’t think we can know. I think we’re looking for the shape, more than anything.”
They were getting close to the rocky area. Rocks were embedded in the ground, some jutting aboveground, while some were almost completely hidden, with only a bit of gray showing. Others were sitting on top of the ground, and these were the ones Rebecca paid attention to, checking each one against her memory of the rock on the map.
“There are so many rocks here.”
She turned to see Thomas squatting to examine a rock, then standing up again.
“I haven’t found one yet that looks like the one on the map. But as you said, there are so many.”
She kept looking, feeling a bit guilty as she thought of Benjamin looking with Caroline and Margaret. She prayed he didn’t feel hurt by her going with his brother instead of him, but Rebecca did honestly think the map indicated that the treasure was farther this way.
“Who would have imagined that a map that seemed so precise could be so difficult to interpret?” Rebecca glanced over at Thomas. “But perhaps we’re missing some more precise instructions.”
“It certainly would have been helpful to have something saying, ‘Walk fifty feet east from the back door, then walk ten feet to the south, then four feet east again.’”
