Chapter 9: The Clue from the Letters

Dawn came, and Riley, Hannah, and I headed to the Franklin Institute to get the clue from the letters, while Ben and Abigail went to the store to change clothes. Ben had been worried that, since Ian had the pipe that lead us to the Declaration and the letters, he might have figured out that he needed to go the Franklin Institute. So, to be safe, Riley sent Hannah and me in, since he hadn't seen us before. Since Riley only gave us the line and letter numbers for one letter at a time, so we had to go back in, and go back out for every letter. As we headed out for the last time, I managed to catch Ian out of the corner of my eye. He was talking to one of his men (the bald one from the ship, Shaw). I whispered to Hannah, "We need to get out of here!" Right as I said that, I felt someone grab my arm. As I turn around, I hear an English accented voice say, "Excuse me."

It was Ian. He stared at me for several seconds. I looked down into his open jacket to see a revolver. I heard Hannah's hard breathing behind me. Then Ian cocked his head, and finally said, "Oh, I thought you were someone else. Sorry." He let go of my arm, but still stared at me as Hannah and I walked swiftly out of the building. My heart was beating out of my chest.

"I thought he was going to kill you!" Hannah said to me after we walked outside, "Did you see his gun?"

"Oh yeah!" I replied shakily, "I was just as nervous as you were."

"Do you think he recognized you from the Charlotte?"

I turned around and saw the curtains in one of the windows moving. "Oh yeah!" I said, "Either that or he must have seen us in the van after stealing the Declaration. We need to find Riley now!" We crossed the street, and it wasn't long before we found Riley.

"I've figured out where we need to go!" Riley said as we walked up to him.

"Good," I said, "cause we need to get out of here! Ian's here and he seemed to recognize me. He must have seen me in the van."

"Are you kidding me?" Riley asked gathering his stuff.

"No!" I replied.

"He even grabbed her and stared at her for a minute!" Hannah said.

"Then let's go!" Riley said grabbing his stuff, "He's got to have figured out that you're with us. We need to go before he starts following us."

So we headed off at a brisk pace. I had never been so shaky and nervous in my life. The fact that Ian knew that we were with Ben and Riley scared me. I wasn't just following Ben and Riley on a run for this treasure. I was on my own run, a run that has turned far more dangerous than I had anticipated. Finally, after a nice little jog, we made it to the store that Abigail and Ben were in.

"Hey," Riley said as we met Ben and Abigail at the register.

"Did you guys get it?"

"Oh yes, I got it," Riley said. We rolled our eyes, as we had heard the entire trip of Riley's boasting about how he had figured out the clue. "'The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of Pass and Stow.' Now 'Pass and Stow', of course, are referring to the-"

"Liberty Bell," Abigail and Ben said in unison.

"Why do you have to do that?" Riley whined.

"Well John Pass and John Stow hung the Liberty Bell," Abigail said.

"Even I remember that," Hannah chimed. Riley smirked.

"Well, what does the rest of this mean?" I asked.

"Wait," Ben said, "'The vision to see the treasured past' must refer to a way to read the map."

"I thought the cipher was the map," Riley said.

"No," Ben corrected, "the cipher was a way to find the way to read the map." Riley remained confused.

"And the way to read the map," Abigail continued, "can be found where the 'timely shadow' crosses in front of the Liberty Bell."

"Crosses in front of the house of the Liberty Bell. Independence Hall."

"Right. So timely shadow…it's a specific time."

"Right. What time?" Ben pondered for a minute. Then his face lit up and he said to Abigail, "Wait a minute, wait. You're gonna love this." He turned to the cashier and asked, "Excuse me, can I see one of those hundred-dollar bills I paid you with?"

The cashier looked confused and quickly said, "No."

"Oh. Well, here," Ben bribed, "I have this diver's watch. It's called a Submariner. I dive with it. It's actually quite valuable. You can use it as collateral."

"Whatever," the cashier sighed taking the watch.

"Thank you," Ben said. He turned to Abigail and explained, "On the back of a hundred-dollar bill is an etching of Independence Hall based on a painting done in-"

"Hello," said the cashier holding out the bill.

"Thank you," Ben continued facing the cashier, "…in the 1780's. The artist was actually a friend of Benjamin Franklin's. It's wonderful!"

"Fascinating," the cashier said very under enthused.

"Hold this," Ben said giving Abigail the container with the Declaration. He gave her a look and she smiled and said, "I'm not going anywhere." Ben grabbed a water bottle and looked at the bill through it and said, "Now, I think that if we look at this clock tower, we may find the specific time."

"What do you see?" Abigail asked.

"2:22"

"What time is it now?"

"Almost three," the cashier said looking at the watch.

"We missed it," Abigail sighed.

"No we didn't," Riley chimed in, "We didn't miss it because…you don't know this? I-I know something about history that you don't know."

"I'd be very excited to learn about it, Riley," Ben said.

"Well, hold on one second, let me just...let me just take in this moment. This is...this is cool. Is this how you feel all the time? Because, you know... Except for now, of course."

"Riley!" Abigail shouted.

"Alright!" Riley shouted back, "What I know is that daylight savings wasn't established until World War I. If it's 3pm now, ok, that means in 1776, it would be 2pm."

"Let's go!" Abigail said.

"Riley, you're a genius," Ben said as we walked out of the store.

"Yeah," Riley sighed in victory. Then he asked, "Do you actually know who the first person to suggest daylight savings was?"

"Benjamin Franklin," the rest of us said in unison. We then heard Riley quickly stomp his foot in defeat, and I laughed.

We walked outside the store, and made the thirty minute walk to Independence Hall. We got in, paid for a tour, and headed inside. We walked inside, split from the tour, and headed up to the bell tower. Two twenty. We finally got up to the bell, just in the nick of time. Ben checked his watch just to make sure, but then looked down to where the shadow indicated to go.

"There it is," Abigail said.

"Ok, I'm going to go down there," Ben instructed, "and you guys meet me in the signing room."

"Alright," Abigail said, "Let's go."

As we made our way back down the steeple, we heard Riley say, "Three twenty-two, my idea." I giggled as we headed to the signing room. About ten minutes later, Ben returned.

"Hey what did you score?" Riley asked.

"I found these," Ben said holding out the object, "Some kind of ocular device. A 'vision to see the treasured past'?" He handed the glasses to Riley, and grabbed the Declaration's container and walked over to the window.

"Aw, they're like early American x-ray specks," Riley said.

"Benjamin Franklin invented something like these," Abigail stated.

"Uh," Ben said from the window, "I think he invented these." Abigail raised her eyebrows as Ben brought over the Declaration.

"So what do we do with them?" Riley asked holding up the glasses.

"We look through it," Ben replied. "Help me," he said as we unrolled the Declaration. Then Ben just stopped and sighed.

"What?" Riley asked.

"It's just," Ben began, "the last time this was here, it was being signed." With Ben bringing it to light, I also shared in this surreal moment.

Then Riley had to ruin it by saying, "Ben, there's another tour coming."

"Turn it over," Ben replied.

"Careful," Abigail said.

"Spectacles," Ben instructed. Ben put them on, and began to stare at the page.

"What do you see?" asked Abigail.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Is it a treasure map?" Riley added.

"It says, 'Heere at the Wall,' spelled with two E's. Take a look." Abigail grabbed the glasses and put them on. "Wow," is all she could say.

"Why can't it just say 'Go to this place and here's the treasure, spend it wisely'?" Riley commented.

Ben looked out the window and said, "Oh no." We looked out the window as well and saw two of Ian's men walking outside. Riley ran up to the window and asked, "How did they find us?"

"Well, Ian has nearly unlimited resources," Ben said putting the Declaration away, "And he's smart."

"I don't think we'll get out of here without being spotted," Abigail commented.

"Well," Ben said, "we don't want them to have the Declaration or the glasses, but we especially don't want them to have them together."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We're separating the lock from the key," Ben said, "We're splitting up."

"Good idea," Abigail said.

"Really?" Riley asked.

"I'll take the Declaration's case," Ben said, "Riley go with Aviana, and you guys take the actual Declaration." We nodded as Ben turned to Hannah and Abigail and said, "You guys take the glasses."

"Ok," They replied.

"Meet me at the car," Ben said, "You guys call me if you have any problems."

"Like if we get caught and killed?" Riley asked.

"Yeah, that would be a big problem." He pulled Riley and Abigail away and said, "Take care of those girls, ok?"

"We will," they replied. I gulped and hugged Hannah as we followed Ben out of Independence Hall. "Be careful," I told her, and she nodded in reply.