As Rock stepped carefully into the room, he never noticed that he stood on wood, not the stone floor in the rest of the room. Suddenly that wood trap door swung down and Rock fell toward certain death below on large wooden spikes! But he managed to grab hold of the floor, just holding on with his strong fingers. Meow,meow.=Give me rope, I tie around human Rock. Harris had some rope with him so Jennifer took it and gave one end to Muffin and told her to go fast.

She jumped onto Rock’s shoulder and crawled around him, under his arms with the rope and back up again. The girls held on while Harris put a piece of the wood door across the hole in front of Rock so he could have something better to hold onto. Rock did this but the wood began cracking! Harris had another piece ready and put it down too and Rock was then able to pull himself up with Harris pulling on his arms and the girls holding on tightly to the rope in case he fell.

“You are one heavy man,” said Harris after getting Rock back up on the floor. “That weight sure comes in handy at times though,” said Jennifer smiling, “I’m sure glad we got you out of there!” Meow,meow.=Me too glad. Rock picked up Muffin for a hug. Then they used their flashlights to look around a rather large room full of very old furniture. And in one corner was a metal chest, chained to two skeletons. “I guess these two were meant to guard the chest until they died,” said Candace. They went over to check out the chest, which had a large lock on it.

Rock smashed the lock off with that big axe he had brought and had left outside the door before coming into the room. Rock told Jennifer to open it which she did…it was empty! Well, almost. Inside there was an old piece of paper which apparently showed the location of the treasure. “Well, this should not be hard to find,” said Jennifer, “unless someone has already found it accidently, which is always possible.” “Yeah, it could have been found centuries ago,” said Harris. “Or maybe it is all just a hoax,” added Angel. “Thank you so much for doing all this work for me,” said a voice.

They all looked around but saw no one. Just then an iron barred door slid down from the ceiling, closing off the doorway. Then a man appeared on the other side of it, completely white. “Just hand me that map and you will be allowed to go free,” said the man in white, “in about an hour, which should give me enough time to find the treasure and be on my way.” Jennifer looked at the piece of paper and walked slowly to the iron gate and handed it to the man.

“A wise decision,” he said calmly, “or I would have had to kill all of you.” Then off he went without another word. “You realize he will not let us out of here,” said Rock to Jennifer. “Yes, I know,” she answered, “but I figure this way we might have a chance.” Rock went over to the iron gate and tried bending those bars and he managed to move them a bit, but certainly not enough to help. “There must be another way out of here,” said Angel, “I hope.”

“Hey, where is Muffin?”, asked Candace. They called for her to come out, but there was no answer. Harris went over to look in the hole, but she was not down there either. She had just disappeared somewhere. “Could she have found some way out of here?”, asked Angel. “Maybe,” said Jenny. So they started moving furniture and looking for a small hole big enough for Muffin to use. But they could not find anything. At least they all had places to sit, everything was just dusty that’s all.

“You know, the air in here is not really that bad for a room that has been closed up for centuries,” said Candace. “That’s true,” agreed Harris, “I would think it would be very stale and rotten smelling in here by now.” Meow,meow!=Me back, find something big over behind twin skinny people. They all went over to look and sure enough there was a small opening in the wall right down at the floor behind one of the skeletons. “That is where the fresh air is coming from,” said Angel, “but that hole is way too small for any of us.”

Meow,meow.=Nope, it big door on other side, must have way to open. They took turns looking but could not find any way to open the door. Muffin decided to go look on the other side again. Rock decided to run and crash his way through. Just as he got to the door, Muffin on the other side pushed a small rock and the door swung open and Rock went flying onto the floor! “Spiders!”, he yelled as he brushed them off. Meow,meow!=Yep, lots of spiders in here, taste good. “Muffin, don’t say that,” said Angel shuddering. Meow,meow.=Follow me. Then she led them up a narrow staircase to another room, and against one wall…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.