You’dhave this mystery solved in the blink of an eye.
Anyway,early start tomorrow,so I’m signing off.
Scout
She stretched, yawning, and then she hit “archive.”
Eleven
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, there is a rapture on the lonely shore.
—Lord Byron, British poet
The sky in front of Cadillac Mountain was a deep cobalt, the kind of pre-dawn hue that held its breath before the sun exhaled light across the earth. Behind Scout, the world was still cloaked in pitch-black, like the stage before the show began. Ahead, the first whisper of light began to tease the horizon, casting a silvery glow over the landscape.
People dotted the granite summit, some bundled in blankets, others with coffee cups steaming in their hands, all facing east to greet the sun. It reminded Scout of a rock concert—only quieter, more reverent, and very chilly.
But unlike the others, she wasn’t here before dawn to just watch the sun emerge on the eastern seaboard. She and Chase had a gold cache on their minds, but they each had their own idea about the meaning of this clue: “The first light finds my secret where sky meets stone, atop the highest peak that greets the dawn before all others.” They agreed to split up to look.
Chase had drilled down on “the highest peak,” so he was combing the summit of Cadillac. Scout kept in mind Naki’s advice—to go below the summit and think of what this area might’ve looked like in 1852. She hiked about halfway down the hillside to watch where the first rays would strike the granite boulders. Happily, it was a gradual decline all the way to the shoreline.
As Scout made her way down the hill, it suddenly occurred to her that the first rays of the sun would hit this hill at different points throughout the year. So if the shipwreck occurred in October, and the keeper had died within the month, and if the keeper’s wife had hidden the gold before winter hit, that would narrow down the section of the hill to search. She turned around to look off in the distance to the ocean, mentally adjusting for the seasons, then she shifted to the far left of the hillside, moving carefully in the dark. “I hope I’m right,” she said, wishing Naki were here to help.
She heard a text ping on her phone and pulled it out of her pocket to read it.
Chase
I feel like I’m in church,waiting for the pastor to say,“Letthere be light.”
Scout
God’s first spoken words.
The very thought took her breath away. The words of Genesis seemed suddenly alive in this moment. The first command of creation—light—powerful enough to dispel chaos and darkness! Just awe-inspiring. Her “cup runneth over” kind of wonder.
And then her thoughts drifted to Naki, to his preaching in church on this summer morning. Imagine that—a man of few words, with a whole lot to say. What topic would he preach on?Who would be in the service? Many ... or few? Would that wife or partner of his be there?
Chase
Show’s about to start. Get readyto hunt for gold. Not entirely sure what I’mlooking for,but I’m looking!
Scout smiled. Chase was fun. Easy to be with.
Here it comes.
Scout slipped her phone into her pocket and turned off her flashlight.
Slowly, the first light of dawn emerged, sending rays against the granite like a match on kindling. Her gaze swept the hillside, back and forth—then she saw it. Several narrow crevices, like stripes, in one boulder. Unique, memorable, yet easy to miss.
“There,” she whispered, her pulse quickening. She scrambled forward, slipping slightly on the slick granite, her knee catching the edge of a rock. Wincing, she pushed on. By the time she reached the boulder, the sunlight had expanded over the entire hillside. If she had guessed wrong and one of these crevices didn’t have the gold, she’d have to return tomorrow and try again. And maybe the next day and the next.
Crevice by crevice, she reached her hand deep into the cold boulder, glad she had remembered gloves. Two cracks were too small, five were way too large, but then ... in the eighth one, the tips of her fingers brushed against the rough edge of something. She ran her fingers alongside it and felt one sharp corner, then another. “Gotcha,” she whispered. Like the others, the box was wedged in tightly, and her arm was nearly swallowed by the crevice as she worked to loosen it. Minutes dragged by, her shoulder aching from the angle, her glove catching on the edgesof the stone. Every few minutes, she switched hands. Finally, she felt the box start to give way.
“Did you find it?” Chase’s voice startled her, and she glanced up to see him bounding toward her, his eyes wide with excitement.
“I think so,” she said. It took more wiggling, more easing, but with a final tug, she pulled the box free and sat back against the rock, panting and triumphant.
He reached for it, but she held the brass box close to her chest as if it might vanish. “Wait! Too crowded.”
