"There isn't much left of my great-grandfather's," Ivy mused. "We told Horace years ago that he should clear away any old stuff that wasn't of value. I remember once he sent a package to us with old photos and letters. There were some mementoes of the Second World War. That was about it."
"I suppose those are at home?" questioned Nancy.
"I'm afraid so."
"I doubt if it makes any difference. I don't want to throw too much cold water on this, but it doesn't make much sense to me. If Cyrus had found the treasure why would he leave it in the ground? Why not take it and put it somewhere safe?"
They saw Horace's truck parked outside Sally's Reach, the diner. "Why don't we ask Horace?" wondered Ivy.
"Well for one thing," Jesse was quick to reply, "he acted pretty surly the last time we talked about it." Still, they found themselves walking across the road and through the diner's glass doors. They looked around and found Horace's table.
"Hey kids, how's the treasure hunt going?" Horace smiled amiably at them.
"I didn't think you were interested," said Jesse coldly. "You seemed to think it was a waste of time."
"Oh, well, I was being too hasty there. I didn't mean to sound discouraging."
"Do you know if Cyrus left any map showing the location of the cave?" Ivy inquired.
"No, I don't recall seeing anything like that. But maybe you should look through the house."
They walked the winding, dusty road back to the house.
After dinner, the doorbell rang. Ivy opened the door to be greeted by a short, plump woman with a large head of frizzy gray hair and large spectacles. Ivy recognized her as the woman behind the cash register in the diner.
"I'm Sally, Mr. Podmore's wife. I know it's a little belated but I wanted to welcome you to the island and to the neighborhood. Alfred and I are just down the road from you." Ivy noticed that the woman was carrying a large white shopping bag in one hand and a covered pie plate in the other.
Mr. Fisk came to the door and immediately welcomed Mrs. Podmore in. Soon coffee was being made and the strawberry-rhubarb pie offered by Mrs. Podmore was being cut. No sooner had Mrs. Podmore sat down on the sofa than she remembered she had brought a bouquet of cut flowers.
"Do you have a vase, girls? I took the liberty of bringing a vase in case you didn't have one that was suitable. I hope you don't mind." Mrs. Podmore then went into the kitchen to fill the vase despite Nancy's protestations that they could manage very well and she should rest on the sofa, being a guest in the house.
With everyone bustling about, and not being able to agree on what was the best spot for the flowers, and Mrs. Podmore's long and meandering stories about her husband's boyhood on the island, and their son Kenneth's skiing accident, and their daughter Eliza's wedding, the evening seemed to pass by quickly for everyone except Jesse.
Jesse was, of course, impatient to follow up on the suggestion from Mr. Podmore. Mrs. Podmore gave them two-for-one coupons to Sally's Reach. "I wish I could invite you to dine for free, you being neighbors and all, but half the people on the island are our friends and if they all ate for free, well, we'd be out of business," she said. Finally, Mrs. Podmore said her good-byes and Mr. Fisk retired upstairs.
Jesse took command of the situation. "We won't disturb Mr. Fisk but we can search all the other rooms in the house to see if there's anything of interest. Ivy, you take your room, George the other bedroom, Bess the kitchen, Nancy the living room, and I'll do the den. Whoever finishes first can look in the basement." It did not take them long to scour the rooms for any items that might be significant.
"I'm still not clear what we're looking for," grumbled George. "I mean, the furniture comes from grandfather Cyrus, but I can't imagine him leaving some kind of secret message in the sofa."
When they were all gathered together again in the living room, Nancy gestured towards the bookcase. "I don't think Horace bought all these books and stocked this bookcase for you. These must have been left from Cyrus Fisk's time."
Without need for further prompting they began scanning the shelves. Seeing nothing like a journal or handwritten book, everyone began pulling stacks of books off the shelves. They sat down on the floor or in the seats and leafed through the volumes one at a time. The books were upended and the pages fanned in case there were any loose papers.
"They're mostly just old gardening books and home repair stuff," complained Bess.
"Look, here's an old copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," said George.
"That's interesting," said Nancy. "It's the only children's book I've seen here."
"Hey, isn't there an adventure in a cave in that book?" Bess remarked.
Everyone turned their attention to the battered and worn copy of Twain's immortal work of juvenile literature. George rapidly flipped through the yellowing pages. "Here! At the back. Something's been written on a blank page."
They looked over George's shoulders. The message read, "From the high point find the bare tree. From the tree walk 32 paces south, then 15 paces east. Look down."
"Well that seems straightforward enough," Jesse said eagerly. "The 'high point' must be Fisk's Lookout. Tomorrow morning we'll go get it! I've got a compass, and we better bring a spade."
"I know everybody's excited to find the gold," Nancy cautioned, "but remember that someone has been making attempts to keep us away. We better be on our guard."