Secrets in the Dark (29 page)

“
Don’t get too
comfortable,” Doug warned her. “We’ve got to start digging. We all
hope its buried treasure, but someone might have already dug
something up.”

“
Spoil sport,” Olivia
said. “First you tell me I have to work, then you tell me I may be
doing it for nothing. Didn’t your mom ever tell you — keep quiet
unless you have something nice to say.”

I turned to Shadow who was
purring at my feet. I squashed the momentary feeling I was about to
do something stupid. Who talks to a cat like it could answer? “I
wish you could help us find something in here. Can you?”

The cat stopped purring and
switched her tail. Doug laughed, “I’d take that as a
‘no’.”

“
Yeah, I think so too,” I
agreed, disappointed. Once again, wishing was a totally wasted
effort.

“
Oh well, let’s get
started.” Faith sighed then brightened and grabbed a candle. “I’ll
make sure you can see what you’re doing.”

Olivia tapped her foot
looking annoyed. “I was
gonna do
that!”

“
I got dibs,” Faith said,
grinning. Doug glared at her and lit the lantern, placing it on the
floor of the cave.

Olivia stuck her tongue
out, and then grabbed the hammer. “I’ll use this if we need to open
anything.”

Brady and Doug both had
their arms crossed, glaring at Olivia. Doug turned to Brady. “Who
needs a bunch of girls helping, anyway?” He laughed when Olivia
stuck her tongue out at him, too.

Brady said, “We need to go
about this logically. A methodical plan can help ensure we look
everywhere. We should divide the floor into sections, like a grid.
We’ll check each section on the grid thoroughly before moving to
the next.”

He shoved the berries in
his pocket and began dragging the end of the shovel over the floor
of the cave, creating lines forming sections about two feet
square.

I felt a surge of
excitement, wondering what could be buried here. “You know, I’ve
always wanted to dig for buried treasure!” I spun around in a fast
circle, unable to contain my sudden excitement. “This is just like
being in one of my favorite books!”

We were so excited none of
us noticed when our animals left.



After almost two hours of
shoveling dirt around the floor of the cave, I was hot and sweaty
and ready for lunch. We’d each taken a turn using the shovel. It
was way harder than it looked in the movies. I had broken blisters
stinging the palms of both hands.

I gently wrapped my hands
around a barely cool soda can, and leaned against the wall of the
cave, trying to relax the knots out of my back. This had been a lot
of work, and we had nothing to show for it. I was beginning to
worry that something had already been dug out.

I wasn’t the only one
beginning to wonder if our work was for nothing. “This may be a
colossal waste of time,” Doug said tiredly.

I looked over the cave
floor — most of the grid had already been searched. We’d dug down
more than a foot in each of those sections without finding so much
as a loose rock.

After we snarfed down
sandwiches and apples, we agreed to search one of the other tunnels
to give our aching arms a chance to rest. We started to enter the
third tunnel, but our familiars were all waiting in the main cave
and moved to the short tunnel on the far right. “I guess they want
us to check that one first,” Doug said.

“
I hope it has something
interesting
above
the ground,” Faith muttered. “I’ve decided hunting for buried
treasure is
totally
overrated.”

We crowded into the short
passage, but it ended in a blank wall. We checked carefully, but
couldn’t find anything.

“
So, what are we supposed
to be looking for?” Doug asked, glancing around in
confusion.

“
No clue. I wish I knew
what our animals find so interesting,” Olivia said.

I was about to suggest we
go when the bat squeaked excitedly and flew up over our heads. It
kept squeaking as it flew higher and higher, then the sound faded
up to the right.

Doug lifted his lantern up
in that direction. The light was dim, but reached most of the way
to the roof, at least twenty-five or thirty feet above
us.

Olivia exclaimed, “Shine
the light further right.”

Doug swung the light over
and Olivia said, “Can’t you see it? There’s a hole in the cave
wall, up near the top. That’s where Brady’s bat went.”

Pyg suddenly soared up over
our heads and flew straight where Olivia pointed. It flew out of
sight, but its high-pitched hoots could be heard as it flew away
from us.

We hadn’t stopped staring
in amazement where Pyg had disappeared when the bat’s squeaking
could be heard. It flew back out of the tunnel, diving down the
narrow space and into the main cave, followed closely by
Pyg.

Brady grinned. “Dad
has
ropes and climbing gear in the garage.
He showed me how to use it last summer. Next time we can check out
that tunnel.”

“
What’s the chance there’s
anything up there?” Faith sounded horrified. Not surprising — she
didn’t like heights. But she was
quickly
overruled. Brady and Olivia both claimed to have some rock climbing
experience.

Doug said, “Don’t be silly,
Faith. Fangface and Pyg wouldn’t have shown us the tunnel if they
didn’t think we should check it out.”

Faith rolled her eyes, but
agreed. “Sure, I guess we should do it for our animals.”

Doug shook out his arms.
“We should finish digging in the hidden cave.”

His suggestion was met with
groans and pleas for mercy. None of us relished the idea of doing
more digging. I wondered if I’d feel different if I believed there
was actually something buried there. At some point, I’d lost belief
in that.

“
We’ve been searching very
logically,” Brady said. “We’ve covered three-fourths of the floor.
I agree with Doug, we need to search the rest before we give
up.”

I sighed and felt my
shoulders slump. “I’ll never feel the same way about books where
people find buried treasure. They never describe how tired your
shoulders get from digging, or how much your hands hurt when you
don’t have any gloves. It sucks!”

“
And they don’t say how
heavy the stupid shovel gets.” Olivia added.

Doug rolled his eyes. “How
would you know? You’ve barely touched the shovel, Olivia. You’ve
come up with more excuses than my sister Angie a
nd
all of her friends.
Combined.”

Faith sighed. “With my
luck, we’ll find something dopey in the very last place we
look.”

“
That would be better than
the way my luck has been going,” Brady said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll
find the spot where something used to be.”

I tiredly blew at the hair
that was straggling around my face. “So which side would you search
first, Faith?” After Faith pointed to the left, I said, “If you’re
right about your luck, we should start searching the other
end.”

Everyone laughed, but by
unspoken agreement, we started digging on the right side of the
cave.

We each took short turns
with the shovel. I’d only been at it about ten minutes when I
noticed a softer spot in the dirt. I started digging with more
enthusiasm, forgetting my blistered palms. I jumped when I heard a
dull clunk about six inches down.

“
Hey, listen.” I poked the
shovel into the soft spot again. The sound of the shovel striking
something metal had everyone talking at once. I scooped off a
shovelful of dirt, then we all crowded around, digging our hands
into the soft soil.

My enthusiasm for buried
treasure was totally back. Excitement bubbled through my veins like
fizzy water. My heart was racing. My fingers and toes were
tingling. My head felt so light I wouldn’t be surprised if it
floated off my shoulders and hit the roof. I laughed and wasn’t
sure why, but the others all joined me. I couldn’t remember feeling
this good.

Olivia gave an excited
sound of pleasure as the top of a small metal chest came into view.
“Hey — Faith! It wasn’t the last place we looked!”

Brady spared a moment to
glance around the small cave where only a few feet of unexplored
ground remained. He cleared his throat. “I think this counts as
next to the last place.”

“
Oh, who cares,” Olivia
said eagerly, brushing at the dirt still covering the
chest.

We all reached eager hands
into the hole to pull it up. I began to laugh again. So many arms
tangling and shoulders bumping were making it harder to get the
chest out, not easier. Even knowing that, I couldn’t bring myself
to stop. There were plenty of laughs and impatient exclamations
as
we tried, repeatedly, to tug the chest
out of the ground.

Finally, it came out of the
hole with a sucking sound and a jerk that caused Brady to lose his
balance, ending on his backside.

“
Open it!” Olivia insisted
breathlessly.

Doug tugged on the top of
the chest, but it wouldn’t budge. “It’s locked,” he said,
disappointed.

“
Try the hammer.” Instead
of holding it out to Doug, Olivia raised the heavy hammer above her
head and brought it down on the side of the chest. Nothing
happened.

Brady said, “Let me try.”
He turned the hammer around and used the claw end, trying to pry it
open.

After several minutes of
taking turns striking and prying at the top of the chest, we all
realized we weren’t going to get it open. Doug said, “That’s not a
regular lock. Maybe it’s locked with magic. We should take it to
Ronny. Maybe she’ll know how to open it.”

I sat back on the cave
floor and Shadow came up beside me. “Where have you been?” I began
to pet her, using the side of my hand. My palms were too tender to
touch anything.

“
So now we’ve got to carry
everything back with us, plus a heavy chest that may or may not
have anything interesting in it?”

“
Oh, suck it up, Olivia,”
Brady said cheerfully.

She made a face, then as
Pyg came to rest lightly on her shoulder, she said,
“Ohhhh…
fine
.”

I wasn’t sure if Brady knew
Olivia well enough to recognize the excitement hidden under her
grousing, but I did. Olivia couldn’t wait to get that chest back to
Ronny.

“
We should head straight
back.” Doug started gathering up the tools. “We’ve already been
here a couple hours. I can’t wait to hear what Ronny says.” Rusty
barked in agreement, suddenly at Doug’s side.

“
Sorry Shadow.” I stopped
petting the purring cat and said, “Doug’s right, we’ve got to head
back. Next time, we’ll explore the third tunnel and that space
upstairs. Well, there aren’t any stairs, but you get it.” Shadow
blinked at me, and I couldn’t tell if she understood or
not.

“
I totally don’t care what
we do next time,” Olivia exclaimed. “I just want to get back to
Ronny and see what’s in the chest. My arms are
killing
me. There’d better be
something worth all that work in here.”

It took us a lot longer
than sixty-four minutes to get back to the tree. The chest was too
heavy for one person to carry. Unfortunately. I couldn’t believe
how awkward it was for two people to carry something like that.
When it was my turn, Doug held his side higher than I could, and my
legs kept banging into the bottom of the chest.

Doug told Rusty, “Right
now, I
almost
wish you were a small horse or a llama, boy. Then you could
help carry this thing.”

Rusty barked and spun in a
circle. “I could swear he’s laughing,” said Faith. “Look at his
face. He’s grinning at you.”

Shadow meowed and the owl
hooted as
if agreeing.

By the time we got to the
tree, I wasn’t sure whether it was my arms or my legs that hurt
worse. Doug stepped in, dragging the chest after him. I went next,
waving goodbye to Shadow.

As soon as we were all back
in Santa Ramona, I called Ronny. She agreed to pick us up in front
of the cemetery and take us back to the house. None of us could
wait to see what was in the chest.

Chapter 32

Another Man’s, Uh…Person’s
Treasure

I was amazed how much
different Chris and Ronny’s house felt this time. The first time,
everyone but Olivia looked uncomfortable. Now, we were all lounging
back on the large couch, chattering excitedly, watching as Ronny
looked over the chest sitting on her coffee table.

She finally sat back with a
sigh. “You are right, it is locked by magick.” She smiled at us and
said “Although I cannot do major magick in Santa Ramona, I should
be able to break this spell.”

She leaned forward again
and waved her hands over the top of the chest. After murmuring a
few strange sounds, she traced a symbol in the air over the top of
the chest. I could almost see it, as if the air had been charged
somehow.