The air in the cave had gone still, heavy with the dust of time. Eli held the leather-bound ledger carefully in both hands, its cracked spine a reminder of the years it had waited to be found. Kate knelt beside the stone box they had uncovered, gently brushing away debris that had fallen from the broken wall. Inside, wrapped in layers of waxed cloth, was another bundle of papers—and something else.
A metal disc.
“It’s a surveyor’s token,” Kate whispered, wiping it with her shirt sleeve. “This could mark a land boundary—or a claim.”
Eli nodded, his mind racing. "Maybe Elias used it to stake part of the land. Or hide something within it."
Just then, a faint noise echoed down the narrow passage behind them. A crunch—like a footstep on loose gravel.
They froze.
Eli snapped off his flashlight. Kate reached instinctively for the camera she had slung around her shoulder, switching it off too. Darkness pressed around them, broken only by a thin blade of light creeping in from the entrance to the cave. They waited.
Another sound. Closer this time.
Eli’s hand went to the pouch on his belt where he’d tucked away the marked stone and the old compass. He motioned toward Kate, who nodded silently, understanding. They quickly and carefully packed the documents back into the box and tucked it behind a natural crevice in the wall.
A shadow moved across the cave entrance.
Then a voice—low, muttering—carried inside.
“Figures this’d be the spot. GPS always cuts out around these damn bluffs... but that old timer said it’d be here.”
Eli’s pulse jumped. He recognized the voice, though he couldn’t place it right away. It had the edge of someone used to poking around where they didn’t belong. A man stepped inside the cave entrance, backlit by the fading light of day. He was in his late fifties maybe, with sun-leathered skin, cargo pants, and a worn ballcap. A metal detector hung over one shoulder, and in his hand was a folded topo map.
He scanned the walls with a flashlight, then paused to light a cigarette.
Eli exhaled slowly. “Let’s not move yet,” he whispered to Kate, barely audible. “He doesn’t know we’re here.”
Kate nodded again, her eyes wide.
The man stepped further into the cave, waving his light slowly along the stone. “Supposed to be something hidden out here,” he muttered. “Land grant treasure or some buried marker. Been lookin’ for years.”
Eli’s mind raced. Who was feeding this guy information? Had someone seen them out here and said too much?
Then the stranger stopped walking. He held his light steady on a section of wall, just a few feet from where Eli and Kate were hiding.
“There,” the man said quietly to himself. “That looks off.”
He knelt and started poking at the base of the wall with a small hand tool.
Kate leaned toward Eli, whispering, “If he finds the opening, he might find the documents.”
“We need to distract him,” Eli whispered back. “Get him out of here, or at least off that trail.”
Eli slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small rock. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed it down the passage toward the far end of the cave. It clattered against stone, loud and sharp.
The man jumped up, spinning his light toward the noise.
“Who's there?” he barked. He reached into his jacket pocket—pulling out something metal. A flashlight? A tool? Or something worse?
Eli stood, stepping into the beam of the man’s light. “Don’t shoot. Just hikers,” he said, keeping his voice calm but firm.
The man squinted. “Hikers? Out here?”
Kate stood behind Eli. “We’re documenting native ferns,” she said, playing it cool. “Didn’t think we’d run into anyone.”
The man didn’t lower the light. “Funny place to hike.”
“Funny place to dig,” Eli replied.
They locked eyes.
After a long pause, the man gave a dry chuckle. “Fair enough,” he said, and slowly backed toward the cave entrance. “Didn’t mean to scare anyone. Just... out lookin’. You know how old stories get passed around.”
“Sure,” Eli said, his tone neutral. “But sometimes stories are meant to stay in the past.”
The man nodded, then turned and stepped outside. The sound of gravel under his boots faded until all was quiet again.
Kate exhaled. “Who was that?”
Eli shook his head. “I don’t know. But we’re not the only ones chasing Elias Arvin’s legacy anymore.”
He glanced back at the hidden crevice where the papers were stored.
“And now we’re on the clock.”
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