The Lost Treasure Map Series (13 page)

He listened to
the servants enter the building, laughing at a joke. He realized
that they might be able phone the local council, or where the
snowploughs were, for the region, to ask them to clean the
road.

“
Let’s
go ...” Mortimer muttered, moving to him.

Merton and
Mortimer led him to their room – where they put on some thick
jumpers and jackets.

Once along the
corridor, they increased their pace towards the back door. However,
as they moved outside, and they saw the depth of the snow, they
walked at a normal speed, trying not to become too tired.

On their
entrance to the trees, he looked for anything suspicious in front
of them. There were no footprints or anything like that, but he saw
a few marks that looked as though something large had been there,
but it became clear that it was just the wind blowing through some
trees.

Distant
screeches of crows appeared and vanished from ahead of them, and he
listened for any sign of anything. He realized that it was the
complete absence of normal things, and the unusual silence, which
hid everything there. (Sounds did not seem to carry very far, and
the crows were probably screaming, communicating.)

His tired
eyesight was all he had to detect anything there, and the vast
amount of shapes and shadows, constantly changing about him, was
too vast to search. There could be someone behind any of the
hundreds of trees. If they had a dog, it would have helped
immensely.

He wondered if
humans had been losing senses that could put them in danger in such
places – which all the other animals seemed to rely on, for their
survival.

What captured
his attention, more than anything else, was that Merton and
Mortimer were in a rush to see the tombs. They were not just tombs
to them – they were something important.

Had they came
upon something that had told of something, which told them that
something existed out there, which could perhaps show them why the
place had something haunting it, or perhaps solve part of the
mystery? However, if the others had affected them enough, it might
be something to do with the money. But where would they have found
that information?

As they went
deep into the wood his curiosity grew, especially because Merton
and Mortimer refused to speak about it, and trudged on, determined
to complete their mission. He tried in vain to slow them.

“
What is
so
important
about
going there?” he finally groaned, walking beside Mortimer, who had
perspiration over his brow, and was breathing deeply.

“
It
interests me,” he replied, making Bryson smile.

“
Does it
have to do with: finding the money here?”

“
That as
well!”

“
Perhaps
I can answer your queries first – since I have been there and
looked around there – and you will not have to wait to acquire the
information!”

“
That’s
an idea!” Mortimer replied, finally slowing down, to a reasonable
speed, allowing him to think.

“
What’s
the main thing that you wish to know?”

“
We
really want to look about there, to see if we can find out anything
– especially from the writing that we were told is on the tombs.
And we wish to see if there is any clues about the occurrences
...”

“
And, by
chance, do you think that Sir Richard hid the money away out there
–
at the
tombs
?”

“
They
were considering that clue – ‘where the last dwell’ – and they
think that it refers to
humans
...”

II

Lost in Time

Chapter 29

Mysterious Discoveries

“
You may
be correct about it referring to humans,” Bryson explained, “but
none of my ancestors, in the tombs, were the last ...!”

“
We
believe that it may have something to do with your ancestors in the
tombs,” Mortimer carefully answered. “They could have believed that
they were ‘the last’!”

Bryson smiled,
and thought about it once again. From their angle it was slightly
astonishing. The reason that he, and probably the others, had not
believed that it had been true had been because they had not been
the last – there had been as many of them as there ever had been.
But they might have believed that they had been the last! Or, for
some reason, one of them could have believed that the family would
not have any descendants, or something like that, and had something
written on one of the tombs.

“
So you
believe that there may be something mentioning the clue on one of
the tombs!”

Merton clapped
his hands, congratulating him, on his reply.

“
Nonetheless, we just want to look around, for anything of
interest – especially to see the tombs.”

Bryson was
sure that there was more, and just accepted their reasons, with
interest.

“
We
should have brought torches ...!”

“
Why do
we need torches?” Merton anxiously inquired, shoving his way
through a deep area of snow, moving next to him.

“
There
are stairs running down – to the tombs, and there are no lights –
in the underground chamber.”

“
Therefore, we’ll have to go back!” Mortimer grumbled, coming
to a standstill.

“
No! It
has light. It would have been better ...”

“
My key
ring lighter should be good enough,” Mortimer replied. “If we need
it to read them.”

Bryson worked
out the position of the road, and where the place was where the
servants would have left their cars. It was further away than he
had thought. This part of the wood was more isolated.

Even though
the wood held many hiding places, where anything could be –
including where the killer of the servant could be lurking, it was
far from being as bad as it had been at night. At the most distant
parts, as far as he could see, through all the gaps in the trees,
he imagined the dark shapes of the trees, branches, and undergrowth
as black figures, dwelling there.

They had
correctly timed it, as the sky had hardly changed since they had
left – except it growing brighter.

When he had
told them that it was best to go there before it was nightfall, he
had not meant to race there. If anything did appear, it would
surely kill them. They would not now be able to run properly. The
snow was thick and rugged, and it was too hard to keep a reasonable
speed going through it.

Merton
instantly halted, removed a cigarette out of his packet, and handed
him one. He quickly lit them, before he moved away from him. But he
persuaded him to go slow, while they smoked. Mortimer eventually
noticed that they had dropped behind him, and waited for them to
catch up. He then walked slowly along with them.

The pace did
not last long, and Mortimer soon had them going after him again,
but at a more controlled pace.

There were
hardly any differences to the wood, even though he was looking for
prints of creatures anyway. It now seemed even more stranger
thinking of them, and the murder of the servant and footprints from
the castle.

Why had there
been a stranger there at the castle? How many people would have
entered the wood? Had the person walked there, or had the person
arrived by other means. Nobody had seen the stranger, according to
the police. The person had to have been watching the place.

Why had he not
left as soon as he had committed the crime? He had been in the
castle when the police had arrived. Had he been hiding somewhere,
perhaps doing something, until they had arrived there?

The trees had
slightly sheltered the area that they were in, from having too deep
snow, but in areas, it had patches of thick snow, fallen from the
branches over it.

As they
approached the building, Mortimer went further out, in front of
them. Bryson recalled seeing something in it that resembled a stone
seat, and just increased his pace.

Mortimer only
stopped to rest when he reached it.

Bryson led
them around it, cleaning some of the snow and dirt away from the
windows that he passed.

Some had small
cracks in them, from something. But it must have been there for
centuries.

Mortimer
hesitated, as he crept through the door, vaguely surprised that it
opened. Bryson nodded his head, and went straight to the seat in
it. Even though it was more like a block of stone than a seat, and
was there for decoration – like the columns, urns, and other
articles.

Merton sat
beside him, and Mortimer strolled around its walls.

“
It’s
dark!” Merton confirmed.

“
What do
you think?” Bryson asked. “Do you still think that it’s
here?”

“
You
have a point ...” Mortimer moaned. “Who would put it away out here!
Your uncle would have to have been very eccentric to put it here.
Or really determined to hide it from everyone.”

Bryson was
still convinced that Sir Richard would have had the money close at
hand – making it safe – with it there if he needed it.

In fact, it
could even be the best clue that they had, as he was sure that he
would not have left it for such a long time anywhere else. He would
have to have known that he would never need it, and put his trust
in the fact that nobody would have found it.

The interior
had much more light than the last time. He was positive now that
they had used candles to light it, and he saw places that they
could have placed them. It did not have such a bad design, which
made the vault under them too dark.

“
Do you
think that this place is haunted?” Bryson joked, out of
curiosity.

“
Have
you heard anything about it ...?” Mortimer instantly
inquired.

“
No, but
it’s in
this
estate
... I wonder if
anyone has
ever
checked it!
I cannot even imagine any sane person staying out here in the
middle of the night, especially with those things rampaging about
the wood.”

Bryson
observed the interior, and the windows in more detail. It was in
good condition for its age, but it would need a large amount of
cleaning to remove the stains from the stone, done by years of wear
and tear, especially from the bad weather conditions.

“
We can
check it!” Merton explained. “We can set up some of the equipment
at some other time ...”

He wondered if
they would run if the things in the wood attacked. They did not
seem to see that there was any deadly danger.

Yet he had
only heard the things, and seen the light.

He did believe
it to be a good experiment – leaving their equipment there – but if
it led to them staying in it, and those things turned out to be
like what he had been imagining them, then it would be the worst
mistake that they could make.

After five
minutes of silence, and a proper rest, Mortimer went towards the
steps.

Bryson waited
until Merton followed him until he joined him.

The steps
showed signs that water had recently made it into the building, and
had flowed down into the vault, but it had not reached very high at
the bottom. They had compensated for leaks, from the door allowing
water entering into the structure, as the tombs were far above the
ground.

The building
also was on a small hill, on slanted ground, which would not allow
it to become flooded.

It was a
strange design; apparently designed more for its looks ... What
else would they have wanted ...? It hardly was a place, where
people would want to stay.

The original
castle had been a castle, and a type of fort, as castles tended to
be – so there were few leisure places in its originally
structure.

The area with
the tombs was large, and many areas had remained empty, ready for
more tombs. Bryson wondered if there would be any more, and if the
next owner would copy Sir Richard – and not bother.

The more he
saw the tombs the more he wondered if it proved that the person who
had it built had been religious. However, he might have only wanted
a respectable place, and for people to remember him for many
centuries.

Merton copied
things from a tomb onto a piece of paper, while Mortimer just read
them, and thought about what the words meant.

Chapter 30

The Tombs

Mortimer’s attention remained on the tomb of William
Randall – the
oldest
there –
the person who had built the castle – and he had been the most
likely to have known why the supernatural disturbances were taking
place.

“
It’s
just as Robert said, and definitely to do with your
clue!”

He looked
slightly annoyed, when Merton disturbed him, and he could not make
any sense of it as an answer.

“
So
we’re still at the same place as before,” Bryson
muttered.

The whole
event confused Bryson.

Mortimer
stopped, and Merton started copying down the words from other
tombs. Bryson was then able to take a close look, with Mortimer’s
key ring light.

What sort of
person had William Randall been? Bryson examined the features of
his tomb, all the tombs, and the vault that he had built.