The Levitating Village
Chapter Fifteen - The Auronauts
Marshall and Son turned up out of the thickets.
The world suddenly became much smaller again. The sense of claustrophobia returned as I heard behind me a cut off gasp and a thump followed by a thud. A shovel, rusted and charred from fire damage, was thrown before me, while I was still on all fours. Of course it had been easy to escape. I think I was too distracted by the thought of the seemingly utter insanity of the Marshall clan. They had exaggerated it for effect. This effect, in fact - for me to lead them right to the spot that my ancestors had tried to hide from his family for centuries.
Marshall smiled, “Thank you for that, Douglas, my boy. I knew if we left you to escape, you would lead us right to the spot. You know what comes next. Dig, Doug.” I began to dig.
Sweat poured down my back and my shirt soon became sodden and annoyingly clingy. I didn’t have the stamina for this, and the dig seemed endless. I looked over to the unconscious Professor and the subdued Lana. Never mind what she had done to me, I was going to be the bigger person in all this. Sir William was distracted looking over the Convent ruins. I sensed in his actions a man trying to think of a way of taking advantage of such a find. Dick was standing over me, watching my every move. Options few, I resorted to subterfuge. It seemed a common practice in this Village.
“Hey, Richard. You know it’s yours as well? I mean, all this treasure? It’s yours as well.”
William became aware that I had worked out something he had chosen not to tell Dick, “Shut up and dig.”
I wasn’t finished, “But think of it. If your Father can have it, why can’t you? You’re just as entitled to it.”
“I know what you’re doing. And it isn’t going to work.” said Dick. He obviously didn’t know what I was doing. He looked confused.
I pushed harder, “He abandoned you when you were young. You had to find him. What’s to say he won’t keep it all to himself?”
“That’s enough! Dig! Or she gets it!” yelled Dick, pointing at Lana. Of course I had no choice.
Dick was too devoted. Or too under Sir William’s control. Sir William was still too distracted to notice what had transpired. I continued to dig. I got slower due to tiredness, but I eventually struck bones and tattered cloth. The Professor had regained consciousness and was being lightly tended to by his wife. That still seemed odd to say. Forced to continue, I had to pull the bones and rags out and throw them on a pile by hand. These were the ancestors of the Villagers. Some of my family was probably going through my hands with every fistful of bones. And then I hit something solid. It made a deep thud even in situ, packed by mud and human remains. Whatever happened now, the three of us really shouldn’t be witness to. Witnesses get killed.
“That’s it! Can’t be much further!” said Marshall excitedly.
I climbed out of the hole unnoticed as Dick jumped in, scrabbling among the dirt to reveal the old battered chest.
“Dad! It’s here! We found it!” shouted Dick.
But we ran. We got some distance before we slowed, but we were in enough earshot to hear the contretemps between Father and son.
“There’s nothing in it!” said Dick.
“What do you mean there’s nothing in it?” said Marshall.
“I mean it’s empty!”
“Maybe there’s a false bottom. Move over.”
“It’s empty Dad!”
“It can’t be! Not after all this time! It can’t be! Where is it damn you! Where is it?”
“I have as much idea as you do!”
“But it can’t be empty! Otherwise what was the point of it all?”
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