“But we were there yesterday and there was no buildings standing at all,” I said again. “All the buildings, except one should still be standing,” she said, “are you sure you were in the right place?” I pointed out where we were. “That’s the neighbor’s property over that way, and that’s their old homestead. Ours is over that way,” she said while pointing out the window. Now we’re getting somewhere, I thought to myself. “Then let’s get going over to that place,” I said, a bit more excited now. However, we can’t go down the hall, I heard Charlie down in the kitchen, and there’s no point going back into that passageway either. I look at the window. Hmm, it has been nailed shut, no way to go out there without making a lot of noise. “This isn’t going to be easy getting out of here,” I said, “without anyone seeing you anyway, and we don’t want that just yet.”

“Why not go out through the passageway?”, asked Lena. “There’s no way out of there except to go back through the attic, and your grandma and the other Lena are up there,” I replied. “No, there is a way to go right outside,” said Lena, “I used to enjoy using that passageway, no one else knew about it until recently. When that woman came to give me breakfast and that pill that knocks me out, I managed to fool her today by quickly hiding the pill under the mattress when she turned away briefly. So I was lying there planning how to escape through the passage.” “Great,” I said, “then we’ll let you lead the way. Then we can go over to the old homestead to look around.” “Yes, and no one will miss me until they bring me my dinner and my next pill,” said Lena.

That will give us lots of time to look around, I thought to myself. Off we went into the passage once again. The cats had whispered something to me which was quite interesting and made me even more sure that this is the right Lena. We definitely need to help her get away from here, but how do any of us get away safely? I’m sure they will try to kill us after we find the treasure, if there even is one, and if we don’t find it they will kill us anyway. Not many choices for us, that’s for sure. It depends on how many friends Charlie has to help him. We went back down to the cellar level and Lena pushed a spot on the wall which opened another door leading into a very nice little room, well furnished like a small bedroom. “I used to like coming to this little room just to think and write,” said Lena, “it was cozy and comfortable.”

She pushed another spot on what was the outside wall opening yet another door which led to a small tunnel. We followed along until we came to a ladder which led us up into one of the small sheds behind the house. From there we ran quickly into the trees and once out of sight we walked the rest of the way to the old homestead. She was right, the buildings are still standing, though in rough condition. “Okay, the first thing the letter said…” I stopped, “since you knew about the passageway, how come you never found that curious letter?”, I asked Lena. “I was never brave enough to put my arm into that hole,” she said, “especially after seeing a huge spider in there one day.” Meow, meow!=Yep, spider no more, it delicious! Meow!=Yep, I agree!

Lena just looked at the cats and shuddered at the thought. They both rubbed against her legs. Lena bent down to pet them. “I just love you two,” she said softly. Both cats started bouncing around like kangaroos! “Anyway, the letter said to look out the front door,” I continued, “and a flying eagle will point the way.” We all went and stood by the front door. None of us saw anything that looked like an eagle, this is not going to be easy. Meow.=Maybe it weather vane, back home have weather vane with bird on it, it show wind blowing. “Hey Mr. Cat, that’s right, there was probably a weather vane on that old barn,” I said, more excited now. “That’s what it’s called?, asked Lena, “it fell down during a storm we had last year, I put it inside the barn.” We ran over to take a look at it. Sure enough, it did look like an eagle, very unusual bird for a weather vane, it even had it’s wings spread out.

To Be Continued.

Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.

Previous chapters of this story and other stories can be found on my home page under 20/20 Investigations, Inc.

©2020 Steve McLeod.