The Lost Treasure Map Series (11 page)

Bryson
considered if Sir Richard could have cut a hole in it and buried it
in it. However, if he had put it in a place such as that, it would
almost be impossible for them to find it, without taking apart the
castle bit by bit to find it. The immense amount of places that he
could have put it was tremendous – especially if he had cemented
into one of the walls, giving it a thick outer shell enough to stop
them detecting it as a hollow zone.

He
vaguely wondered how safe the castle about him really was. Ancient
craftsmen, with only a basic knowledge, had built it. Who would
know if they had designed it to last a few decades, or something?
Yet if it had stayed up the amount of time that it had, it must be
strong enough not to collapse. They could have easily built it to
last! He had only seen derelict castles crumbling away, and he had
never heard of one such as it falling down. However, he had heard
of
parts
of modern
structures collapsing.

“
If we
could just obtain some more
information
about Sir Richard!” Merton suggested, looking at the books,
with interested.

“
What do
you think ...? Is this Sir Richard’s personal library ...? We’ve
only searched through some.”

“
How
many of them are there,” Mortimer replied.

“
It’s a
large amount.”

“
They
seem to be mainly business books, but I have not thoroughly checked
them.”

“
Let’s
search for an answer to the clue ...”

Bryson shifted
out of his seat. “There is a large collection, but we may be able
to check them without wasting time.”

Chapter 25

Uninvited Guests

Robert’s face
showed signs of strain, so Bryson promptly sat along the table from
him, not wishing to displease him. The stress causing it was not in
any way evident. There were no signs of anything taking place, or
having occurred in his absence.

Nonetheless,
he just took it that he was running out of proper ideas – the many
other problems – and the grim reality of the situation.

The others
stayed almost silent, as they had been, only conferring in mutters,
in their groups, which they were working in; with their discussions
noticeably avoiding talking about their search.

Robert placed
his head in his hands, tightly pressing his elbows against the
table, which had already marked his jumper. Now he knew why they
used those ridiculous elbow patches.

Robert
eventually removed one of his elbows, looking slightly sleepy,
making an effort to be sociable.

Bryson fought
to rectify a smile, which emerged on his face, while Robert pulled
his chair over to him.

“
Do you
know that the police have not found anything?” he spoke, shuffling
a napkin around, and folding it.

“
They’re
doing their best!”

“
They’re
carrying out their investigations at the village,” he continued,
almost yawning.

“
I
didn’t know that.”

Bryson checked
Mortimer, Merton, and Helen sitting silently, in a line, going
along the opposite side of the table. They occasionally took
something to eat.

His watch told
him that it was later than he had imagined, and that they would not
be there long, before they would return to the library, to continue
their search. He was still positive that Merton and Mortimer were
planning to stay there until it was late, to continue to conduct a
proper research of the castle.

“
Where’s
James?” Bryson asked, trying to find some more information about
him, knowing that Robert had been closely watching him, almost
following him around – perhaps to see why he had been so obsessed
with working on his own. Most of the others seemed to have been
working near him, as if he now had magnetism.

“
He
returned to his room, just before I came here,” he instantly
replied, giving a slight venomous grin.

“
So was
he annoyed at not finding anything?”

“
He was
arguing, but I don’t know if it had anything to do with him not
finding anything. Why ...?”

Bryson saw
that the others were growing restless.

“
Let’s
have another look in the library.”

“
Good
idea!” Bryson replied, leaving with him, observing the pictures on
the walls, once again.

Bryson could
not see any sign that there was anything of value. But there could
be a connection between something and the clue. The answer to the
clue could be in one of the scenes of the paintings.

At the door to
the library room, Robert turned silent, looking startled for a
moment, holding his composure. He proceeded in, creeping, not
making any sounds.

Bryson saw the
door partially open, and that the light was on.

He stuck out
his head, and promptly shoved the door wide open.

Bryson, in one
movement, shifted in front of it – instantly seeing James, sitting
himself, at the table.

“
Did you
just come in here!” Robert asked, moving into a seat, surprised
that he had been there.

Bryson watched
him. “Did you move the furniture in here?”

He sighed. “I
was looking around.”

Bryson saw by
his tense attitude, as well as his replies, he was annoyed. Perhaps
at being questioned.

Sarah emerged
at the doorway. Her face showed some surprise at seeing them.

“
Are the
rest of them coming back then?” James asked, curiously.

“
Apparently not.” Robert voiced, watching him become
happier.

“
Who
relit that fire?”

“
We
did,” James confessed.

Sarah stood
where she was, staying away from them, as though waiting for James
to continue, and perhaps somehow sort out a problem.

“
Look!”
Bryson moaned. “We are searching
together
.”

James and
Sarah suddenly moved out of the room, and started whispering.

He tiredly
turned to them. “We’ll share it ...” he replied.

“
We
agree!” Robert swiftly answered, humorously. “But you’ll have to
find something first!”

They vaguely
smiled at each other, with slightly embarrassed expressions.

“
Of
course,” James muttered, “they’re just
useless
books, and we are wasting our time looking for
anything.”

They began
where they had been searching, before leaving to have a meal.
Bryson and Robert built up the fire, so that it was heating the
room more. It now seemed colder. It might have been the amount of
people in the room, actively moving around, that had been
there.

Bryson watched
James and Sarah return, and saw that the agreement between them
would last. And that they were in complete agreement over something
else.

He
occasionally observed them, from the edge of his eyes, trying not
to look at them too much. He watched them to see what he was
missing.

They were just
examining the covers more than the contents. It was all that he
needed to know, to realize that they would not find much.

He had
occasionally walked along examining them, without removing them off
the shelves.

It was
noticeable that Sarah did not fully know what she was looking for,
and was going out her way to please James. He did have a good idea
of what he was looking for, and was insisting on looking for it in
particular – especially in the titles.

He was sure
that if the map of the castle had not fallen on the floor, that
they would not have found it.

There was
something about hunting for hidden things that he did not like.
There were too many things suggesting where things could be. The
mind could almost turn anything into looking like a clue, just by
staring at it for long enough, if it wanted to find something badly
enough. They could follow false clues to the day that they left if
they were not careful. He was sure, that if they had not already
been doing it, that they would start doing it as soon as they had
checked the main places at the castle – and had no real ways of
finding it.

Here they were
searching a library for the answer to a clue that could be
anything. The amount of things that the mind could associate with
it was vast. He doubted if the treasure seekers that he had seen in
films, who had chased after clues, could have answered the clues,
which they had solved, in real life. Why had he never heard of
anyone chasing after treasure? As far as he was concerned, the
people who had found things had been looking for them in things
like ships, which people had recorded as having treasure, and which
something had sank in a specific region – not by solving strange
riddles! People found them with machines and knowledge.

They would
need a great deal of luck. People customarily only found treasure,
searching the places that ships sank.

He realized
that he now did not believe that people following clues, from
things like Egyptian sites, ever found anything. They endlessly
chased after the Holy Grail, Golden Fleece, and Egyptian treasures.
The people who had found such things had been lucky – to have been
in the right places, doing the right things, which had led them to
find the things. Many people had found things while looking for
other things. And he could not recall hearing of any of them
finding what they had been looking for. However, he had not heard
about that many searches.

He tried to
compare their circumstances with what he had heard, but he could
not recall anything.

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, which people drew, be incomprehensible to everyone
else? They surely would try to stop someone else putting their
hands on it. Why would they write down obvious places and names
that they knew? If someone found it, the person would take it – if
the person knew what it was (especially someone with an interest in
it).

They could
easily use codes and words that other people would not be able to
understand. Perhaps they would miss out and muddle up things on it,
so that other people would not be able to establish things, and if
numbers were co-ordinates or paces. They could put in false clues,
and easily remember the real ones.

Furthermore,
the clue that Sir Richard had left could be incomprehensible
everyone on the planet – apart from him – without him having even
realized it. He might have based it on something that people from
his era would have answered off the top of their heads.

Bryson was
beginning to believe that James knew something, and it would not
take long before they found out about it.

Chapter 26

The Real Library

As Bryson
thought of where the best place to look was, as an alternative to
flicking through endless empty books, he remembered the plan of the
castle.

Then he
watched James measure the floor, and he removed the crumpled map
from his pocket. It was more damaged. But the plan on it was in the
same condition. It slightly surprised him, as he expected it to
have dulled lines and blemishes to the faint marks, because of its
already bad condition and ancient age.

Bryson glared,
partially blinded by the illumination from the sun, and its
powerful glare from the snow. However, when it decreased, he saw
much more detail – than he had seen before under the room’s light –
and faint lines that had faded, and that had not been visible
before.

He studied the
things on it, astonished at missing them. And he saw something at
the small cross at the library. The cross was so faint that he
could easily have taken it to be a badly drawn mark or correction
rubbed away. But he knew that it was something, after some
consideration on that it was some form of indication!

Yet its
size was not big – it looked too small to be significant – and it
was not just a bad drawing, as it had been
carefully
drawn there. Why had the person gone to such
lengths to draw it so well into the sketch?

Bryson stood
up, and started helping James to measure the room, who took it that
he knew what he knew.

They paced
across the library room – from the furthest wall into the outer
study. Then they left the room, and they paced along the corridor,
to the same distance.

At the door to
the next room, they saw that there was a large distance between
that room wall and the library wall. And the room wall did not
sound as thick when they tested it, and it was not as thick a stone
wall as in the other rooms.

It had to be
some type of cupboard where they had once stored things, and they
had no longer used. If so, someone had hidden it, like the secret
tunnel leading to the kitchen.

Had Sir
Richard known that it had been there? And had he been the one who
had marked it on the old map, and had forgotten about it?

Nonetheless,
how could they check it? Where could the entrance to it be? It
could be sealed, but there could be a way to climb into it.

Bryson
considered it for a moment, remembering the last time that he had
been up at the top floor, and the hole in the wall that they had
made to enter the tunnel. Did James intend to knock a hole in one
of the walls?