Gasparilla's Treasure (Trip Mongomery Book 1) (11 page)

“I told him you were grounded,” said Mom, “But he said it was really important.”

“They changed our reading assignment in English,” said the Goon.  “And I just wanted to make sure you got the new pages.”

“Isn’t that sweet?” gushed Mom.  “So thoughtful of you.”

The goon noticed the open window and knew that Josh and Sarah had just left.

“Oh, you should close your window,” the goon said.  “The air is on, and that's a terrible waste of electricity.  Don’t you think that’s suspicious, Mrs. Montgomery?”

He hoped Trip’s mom would go to the window and see Josh and Sarah on the roof, or running away.

“You know better, Trip,” said Mom.  “Let me close that.”

Trip’s mom made a move for the window, and Trip blocked her way.

“I got it, Mom,” said Trip in his sweetest voice.  “I’m really sorry.  You’re right, I should have known better.  I just needed a little fresh air.”

Trip closed the window and gave the goon a look that could melt ice.  The goon seemed overly pleased with himself.

Trip, Josh, and Sarah stood outside the lighthouse.  It was white with a black stripe that wound its way around all the way to the top.  On the top, as promised, was the observation level.  And atop the observation level sat the red lamp room.  Josh’s gaze was fixed on the lighthouse steps.

“We have to climb all the way up that?”  Josh asked, incredulous.

“You’ll be fine,” Trip said, but he wasn’t sure if Josh would make it up.  It was a long climb.

“If you keep sneaking out like this,” said Sarah, “you will get busted.”

“I can’t be worried about that right now,” said Trip.  “This is way too important.”

Trip and Sarah started walking towards the lighthouse.  Josh held back a moment, not sure if he really wanted to do this.  He finally made his decision.  He snapped a quick picture of Trip and Sarah heading toward the lighthouse, and hurried off after them.

When they arrived at the observation level, Josh was completely out of breath.  Trip was proud of Josh for sticking with it.

“Are you sure that wasn't two
thousand
nineteen steps?” Josh asked.  Trip was barely able to understand him through the hard breathing.  Josh stopped a passing tour guide.

“Do you have oxygen up here?” Josh asked, grasping her arm.  “I think I need oxygen.”

The guide found this amusing.  She just smiled and walked away.

“OK,” said Trip.  “Now we just need to figure out how to get in the lamp room.”

“This whole sneaking into places is becoming old hat for us,” said Sarah.  “Nothing to it.”

She walked over to the guide Josh had just asked for oxygen.  She was a friendly, motherly looking woman.  Even her smile was motherly as Sarah approached.

“Excuse me,” said Sarah.  “But I was hoping you could help me.”

“Of course,” she said in a friendly voice.  “What can I help you with?”

Sarah poured on the emotion.  “My grandmother is in the hospital dying.  She used to bring me here all the time.  We had so much fun at this old lighthouse.”

Sarah looked at the tour guide.  Her expression changed from smiling tour guide to concerned friend.  This was working.

“Oh you poor thing,” said the guide, with genuine concern in her voice.

“She always wanted to go in the lamp room,” said Sarah.  “If I could just get a picture of me in the lamp room, it would make Nana so happy.”

“Oh honey,” said the worker.  “I'm so sorry, the lamp room is off limits to the public.”

Sarah put on her best cry and hugged the tour guide.  “Oh, Nana.  What am I going to do without you?”

The guide’s heart was breaking.  “I could lose my job if I let you in there.  I just can't do it.  I'm sorry.”

“You don't need to tell me you're sorry,” whimpered Sarah.  “Maybe you can come to Nana's funeral and tell her you’re sorry.”

The guide could not take any more.  She crumbled.  “Listen, I'll take you up there, but only for a second.  You take your picture, and then you get out, OK?”

“Oh, thank you!” cried Sarah.  “Nana will be so happy.”

She turned and looked at Trip and Josh.  Her face changed to a huge grin.  She gave them a thumbs up.  She put her sad face back on and turned back around to the tour guide.

“I'll get my friend and his camera,” said Sarah.  “Oh, thank you so much!”

Sarah rushed back over to Trip and Josh.

“Josh, give me your camera,” said Sarah.

“What?” asked Josh.  “Are you kidding me?  This is my baby.  I can’t just…”

“You either give me your camera,” said Sarah.  “Or you go climb more stairs to the lamp room.   Which is it going to be?”

It didn’t take Josh long to decide.  He reluctantly handed over his camera.  Sarah snatched it out of his hand.

“Trip, you’re with me,” said Sarah.  “We’ll be back in a minute.”

Trip and Sarah rushed off to meet up with the tour guide.

“Ok,” said Josh as he sat down on the ground.  “You two go have an adventure with my camera and I’ll just sit here on the ground and recover from this heart attack.”

Up in the lamp room, the guide was nervous as Trip took pictures of Sarah in different places.  They looked for the map piece as they moved through the room.

“Take one of me right here,” said Sarah.  “Nana will just love this one.”

Trip snapped pictures from as many angles as he could, but he wasn’t having any luck finding the map piece.  The guide grew more agitated.

“Hurry up now, kids,” she said.  “We can not get caught in here.  Let’s go.”

Sarah moved around and looked into the bulb.  For a moment, she thought she saw something, but it was just the light reflecting off the lamp.  Trip snapped some more pictures, but finally the guide reached her boiling point.

“OK, that's enough,” she said.  “That should make Nana happy.  Let's get back down stairs.  Now!”

They reluctantly left the lamp room, and as Trip took the first couple of steps down, he awkwardly pointed the camera up to snap one last picture of Sarah.  He wasn’t even sure if he got her in the frame.

They were feeling disappointed as they rejoined Josh on the observation level.  Trip handed Josh his camera.

“We didn’t find anything,” said Trip.  “If that map piece is in the lamp room, it’s going to have to wait until we can come up with another plan.”

“We’ll regroup back at your house,” said Sarah.  “We’ll figure something out, and come back tomorrow.”

“We need to figure something out today.  Like right now!” said Trip.  “Pappy needs us to find this soon!”

Josh was scanning through the photos from the lamp room. “You take horrible pictures,” he said.  “You might want to take a class or something.  Take a look at this one.”

Josh showed them the last picture Trip had taken as he was going down the stairs.

“I mean seriously.  She’s barely in the frame and the focus is way back on the ceiling.  What were you thinking?  It’s terrible!”

Trip looked closer at the picture.  His mind was trying to make a connection.

“That ceiling,” said Trip.  “I’ve seen it before.  But I can’t remember where.”

“You said Pappy used to bring you here,” said Sarah.  “Maybe you saw it then.”

“I don’t think so,” said Trip.  “We never went in the lamp room.  It was somewhere else.”

Trip made the connection in his mind.  He pulled out the third map piece.

“It’s here.  On the third map piece,” said Trip.

Sure enough, on the front of the map piece was a hand drawn picture of the lamp room ceiling.

“It’s like a compass,” said Trip.  “And on the map piece, there’s this extra line here.  It’s almost like it’s pointing at something.”

They hurried over to the spot near where Trip had taken the picture.  They aligned the camera and the map piece to get as close a match to the ceiling layout as possible.

“It points northwest,” said Sarah.  “But there’s a whole city out there, what does it mean?”

Josh zoomed in on the photo and was able to make out some words engraved in the ceiling.  They were right where the arrow from the map would point if the ceiling had the arrow on it.

“Look here guys,” said Josh.  “It says
beyond the sentry lions
.  I can’t make out anything else.”

They rushed over to the window to look northwest, the direction the arrow pointed.  The city was huge.  What did all these clues mean?

“The Lions!” Sarah hollered with excitement.  “Right there!”

Trip and Josh followed her gaze to a bridge in the distance.  On each side of the road, at the foot of the bridge, a statue of a lion stood proudly.  The lighthouse guide heard Sarah’s outburst and came over to see what was going on.

“Oh, you’re looking at the lions,” she said.  “That bridge is called the Lions Bridge.  Those lions were put there to keep watch over the city.  Did Nana like the lions, too?”

“A sentry is a guard,” said Sarah.  “The lions are there to guard the city.  The sentry lions!”

The words on the ceiling said
beyond the sentry lions
, and as they looked beyond the Lions Bridge, there was one unmistakable landmark.  It was historic, so it fit the quest perfectly.  It was a giant fort, much larger than Fort Matanzas.  It was the Spanish fort, Castillo de San Marcos.

“Right there!” shouted Trip.  “At the fort!  Just past the sentry lions.  That’s where we need to go!”

The trio ran away, leaving the lighthouse guide alone, wondering what just happened.

They headed toward the massive Castillo de San Marcos.  Its war scarred stone walls told the story of over three hundred thirty years of rich history.  The Castillo was built by the Spanish to defend their claim to the New World.  It stood on the water’s edge with four massive walls forming a square around a central courtyard.  A dried up moat surrounded the fort, and there was no shortage of cannons here.  Trip took a moment to imagine some of the battles that must have gone on right here where he stood.

As they looked at the massive fort, they realized they were stuck.  The clue had pointed them here, but they had no instructions on what to do once they arrived.  Trip pulled out the Gasparilla book to see if they could find any help there.

“Take a look in here,” Trip said as he handed the book to Sarah.  “You know this book better than anyone else.”

As Sarah was about to take the book, a hand reached in and snatched the book away from them.  It was Eli.  He took a look at the cover.

“So, this is what you've been up to,” said Eli.  “You little twerps are looking for some sort of treasure.”

Trip was furious.  “That's mine, Eli.  Give it back.”

“Or what?” taunted Eli.  “You're
gonna cry like a baby?  Or run home to momma?”

Eli did not like what he saw in Trip’s eyes.  His victims always had fear in their eyes.  What he saw in Trip’s eyes was passion and resolve.

“Not this time, Eli!” said Trip.  “I'm getting that book back!  Whatever it takes.”

Trip pulled out the only thing he could think of to defend himself, the cast iron plate.  Sarah pulled out her pepper spray, which Eli noticed right away.  Sarah had threatened Eli with a face full of pepper spray before, and he did not want her to make good on her promise.

“Put that stuff away,” said Eli.  The fear started to show on his face.  “You're not going to use that stuff.  You don't have the guts.”

“Bad move taking that book from me without your goons around,” said Trip.  “Looks like it's three on one here.  And we're not letting you have that book.”

Josh heard the words
three
on one and realized that he was expected to participate in this.  He pulled out his camera and held it up like a weapon.  He took a picture of Eli.

“And next time I use the flash,” said Josh, in his most menacing voice.

“If this book leads to a treasure,” said Eli, “then the only person to find it, is going to be me.”

Eli took off running, the trio pursuing.  Eli was fast.

He ran into the inner courtyard of the castle where a war reenactment was taking place.  Cannons fired.  Muskets blasted.  It was chaos.   A troop of soldiers marched by wearing long red ornate jackets, white pants, and authentic hats.  Eli pushed some of them out of the way as he plowed through.

Trip was close behind.  Eli jumped over some dead soldiers, who sat up to see what was going on.  Trip weaved around them, slowing him down a bit.  Josh and Sarah were falling behind. 

Eli ran up a massive stone staircase leading to the second level, Trip matching his every move.  Eli made his way to the inside of the fort, followed closely by Trip.

Inside, they weaved through the rooms until Eli found a spiral staircase leading back down to the ground level.  Eli busted through a door that led to the outside of the fort.  He jumped over a row of old cannons that were lined up like soldiers.

Trip stopped at the sight of the cannons as Eli gained distance, and eventually disappeared.  Josh and Sarah finally caught up, totally winded.

“You had him,” said Josh.  “Why did you stop?  You let him get away with the book.”

“Eli may have the book,” Trip said with confidence.  “But I know where the last piece of the map is.”

Josh and Sarah were speechless.  They waited in silent anticipation for Trip’s next move.  Trip just sat there, not taking his eyes off the row of cannons.

“Every night when I go to bed,” Trip finally continued, “I look at those pictures we found in the box.  There's one of Pappy and my dad when he was a kid.  Dad looks so miserable in that picture.  Pappy had him in such a cheesy pose.”

“And that helps us know where the map piece is because...” asked Josh.

Trip finally looked up from the cannons.  He looked at Josh and Sarah.  It was just dumb luck really.  If Eli had not stolen the book and led him to this exact spot, they may never have found the final map piece.

“Because in the cheesy pose,” Trip continued, “Dad and Pappy are both kneeling on the ground, pointing in the barrel of that cannon right there.”

Trip pointed to one of the cannons.  They walked over to its opening and peered down the barrel.  He was so sure the map piece was in there that he had not even entertained the idea that it might just be a coincidence.  What if it was not in the cannon?  It had to be.

Trip reached his arm in the cannon and felt around.  Sure enough, he pulled out the final piece of the map.  Victory!

Away from the fort, they put the four pieces of the map together for the first time.  The fourth piece had a red X on it.

“Well, there it is,” said Josh.  “We know where the treasure is.  X marks the spot… So where exactly is that X?”

“It looks like they traced the treasure to The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park,” said Sarah.

“That was so easy!” said Josh.  “Let's go get the treasure.”

“You’re right,” said Trip, puzzled.  “It was easy, too easy.  If they knew where the treasure was, why couldn't they find it?”

They all looked at each other.  None of them had an answer.