Chapter Six

“One . . . two . . . three . . . push!” Harry commanded. But nothing happened.
“Does this mean we’ll have to come up here at two in the morning?” asked Randall.
“Could be.”
“Oh, well, uh, as much as I would love to find his key,” he said, “maybe you could try it solo tonight?”
“Why? I thought you wanted to find the treasure yourself?” the detective probed warily, sensing that his young friend was keeping something important from him.
Randall turned a little red and was silent.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Never mind.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Tell me.”
Randall sighed in frustration and then blurted out, “The clock tower is haunted.”
Harry was speechless. “Haunted,” he finally said. “How do you know?”
“Those noises you heard last night? I heard them too, and I’ve been hearing them for several weeks now.”
“It’s probably just the water pipes groaning,” Harry said.
“But we’ve seen a ghost too!”
“ ‘We’?”
“Patrick . . . and myself. I’ll grant that he is a bit superstitious,” he said condescendingly, “but I know I saw one.”
“At different times then?”
“Yes. It was ghostly figure with snow white hands and a pale face wearing a black hooded cloak.”
“You saw the face? Did it look like anyone in particular?” Harry asked intrigued.
“I didn’t stick around long enough to decide if the features were familiar!” Randall retorted.
“Then in that case I won’t ask you to accompany me tonight. Poking around dark castles in the middle of the night with a . . . torch, all by myself is one of my favorite hobbies,” Harry said with a smirk. “But I do still want to do a little snooping before then. Coming along?”
“Depends on where you’re going.”
“Larry’s computer in the library. I want to see if he makes any mention about searching for the treasure.”
“You think he’s behind the accidents, do you?” Randall asked curiously. “Do you really think he’d chronicle his movements for the world to view?”
“That’s what I intend to find out.”

* * * * *

“Oh good, no password needed,” Harry said happily.
“I’m not surprised. Now Louis’ computer in the museum, that’s another story. That one is impossible to get into. Louis is a nut about security, not that he does much about it.”
“Hmm . . . ” Harry said after a few minutes. “It’s all about artifacts from the museum.” He started browsing through the folders, trying to find something helpful.
“Wait!” Randall cried suddenly. “There it is!”
“Where? What?” His eyes searched the screen for what he had missed.
“Look!”
Harry did. Randall was no longer interested in the computer, but was pointing to the mantel above the fireplace.
There, carved in six frames of stone, were the symbols of the brothers!
Quickly shutting down the computer, he joined Randall at the fireplace. “Let’s examine it,” he said.
“For what? What are we looking for?” the young man asked.
“There may be another clue somewhere.” Randall excitedly started pushing and jiggling anything he could to see what would happen. Harry knelt down to examine the bricks around the fireplace. After searching for several minutes and finding nothing, Harry was covered in ashes from the knees down and his hands were smudged with soot. Randall’s excitement began to die down, when he found that one of the bricks on the side above the mantel jiggled a little more than the rest.
“Hey!” He pulled out a pocket knife and started to loosen the dirt around it. Harry stood up and watched as Randall extracted the stone, revealing a handle behind. Randall looked over at him, his eyes sparkling with delight. He gave it a tug, and a stony scraping sound was heard.
“They moved,” Harry declared.
“What did?”
“These carved symbols,” he replied, scrutinizing them. He reached up to touch them and found they spun easily.
“They spin?” Randall gasped, asking the obvious.
The six symbols were carved onto stone cubes, each with a different symbol carved on all four sides. The scraping noise they had heard was made by the stones which separated the blocks receding into the chimney, and thus allowing for the movement of the spinning.
“It must be a combination lock to open a panel or something,” Harry commented. “I wonder what order they have to be turned to?”
“It’s not eldest to youngest, that’s what they were set to. Maybe youngest to eldest?”
“There’s one way to find out.” Harry tried the combination. “Can’t do it that way. Thomas’ symbol isn’t even on the right block.”
They stood back and stared frustrated at the panel.
“Think the book would help?”
“Could be,” Randall agreed. “I’ll get it and be right back.”

“Here we go,” he said returning to the room. “It’s William, Walter, Charles, Thomas, Edmund, and Richard.”
“Richard’s block looks like a y, right?”
“No, no. That’s Edmund. You’ve got those two switched around.”
“Oh, ok. There we . . . whoa!” With a deep rumble, the back of the fireplace slid to one side.
“It’s a tunnel!” Randall nearly shouted. “We did it!”
“Shh!” Harry cautioned him. “We don’t want anyone to hear us. This must be where the treasure is hidden. William said that when we found the door to the hiding place, our quest would begin. And look, there are the stars and moon on the chimney, ‘shining’ on us You go put the book back, and get some flashlights so we can see in there. I’ll stay here. I don’t want anyone dropping in at an inopportune moment.”
“I told you before, it’s called a torch . . .”
“Whatever!”