The mask aligned itself with the other three and the familiar thunk gave way to silence.

"Is that it?" Mia asked.

"Just like opening any other door." Nate said as he approached the door and pushed. With centuries of resistance the door gave way. Dust and chips of stone fell around him as he forced the door wide enough to let them squeeze through.

He entered first and shone his torch around. Seeing it was clear he called Mia through. They examined the new room and found they were standing on a dais about ten meters wide and half of that long.

Behind them, on either side of the door were two wooden statues about eight meters high. They were carved to depict a man with long hair and wearing a loincloth.

"That's Maui" Mia explained. "He was a folk hero, kind of like a Polynesian Loki, a mischievous trickster."

Nate looked over the side and heard lapping water splashing against the cliff face. He saw nothing but a deep darkness and he was unable to tell what, or how far, the bottom was. He grabbed a snap light from his dry pack and snapped it. A bright green glow lit up in the gloom and Nate dropped it over the side. He counted as the green light disappeared below and, after getting to seven without hearing a sound, he knew enough to know that falling down there was instant death.

Nate pointed his torchlight to the front of the dais where there was a rope bridge leading across the chasm and disappearing into the darkness.

Mia joined him at the bridge, "Where do you think it leads?"

Nate shrugged, "The other side."

Mia punched him in the shoulder, "Thanks Dad."

Nate grinned, "Only one way to find."

"Do you think it's stable?"

His grin only widened, "Only one way to find out," he repeated and grabbed a hold of the wooden post that held the rope railings. It was slimy and difficult to grip. Eventually he managed enough of a hold to satisfy himself and placed his foot on the board. It was slippery but it wasn't going to disintegrate under his light touch. He gradually put more weight on it until it held his full weight and, despite creaking and groaning, it held solid.

He turned to Mia, "Well that's a positive."

"It must be made from cedar. Not much else would survive these conditions for so long."

"God bless native Hawaiian carpentry" Nate said.

Returning to his dry pack, he retrieved some nylon climbers' rope and secured it to one of the statues of Maui guarding the entrance. He gave it a good tug to ensure it held.

Next, he grabbed a climber's harness from the dry pack and pulled it over his wetsuit and clipped it in. And finally, he pulled out a headlamp. He flicked it on and put it on his head.

He turned to Mia, "I'll go ahead and make sure it is all ok. Even though one board held, it doesn't mean the others will, or that they are even there.

"Once I get to the other side I'll secure the line and come back for you."

Mia nodded her understanding and Nate re-secured his daypack on his back and threaded the loose end of the rope through a carabiner attached to his harness.

"Alright" he said to himself and gripped either side of the slimy suspension rope. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "One step after the other," he intoned and took his first step on to the first board and then the next. The boards groaned in protest, as if objecting to being used for the first time in centuries, but they held firm.

Nate cautiously moved forward, the boards creaking and groaning audible over the lapping water below but the stillness and the surrounding darkness leant an eerie, almost sinister presence and right now, in the middle of a suspension bridge in an underground cavern surrounded by impenetrable darkness he felt like the only person in the world.

With his headlight lighting the way he noticed boards were missing, long ago fallen into the abyss below forcing him to cautiously step over the gaps, careful not to add any more weight by jumping on to them and after about 20 minutes he could see the end of the rope bridge and the beginnings of a second dais.

Nate took a breath and focused on the path ahead, no point in worrying about anything else except for what was in front of him.

He suddenly stopped.

"Crap" he muttered. Ahead of him the planks on the bridge had fallen away leaving a four-metre gap that looked like an open maw ready to swallow him whole if he fell in.

He looked at the gap and then thought about the options presented to him. The first, and easiest, was to turn around and go home. But that would make him a pretty poor treasure hunter if he did that. Besides the museum was paying him a decent wage for this.

The second option was to try to take a running leap over the gap but missing it and being with so little light meant that his estimation of how wide the gap is might be wrong, would mean a potential fall to his death, even with the safety rope attached.

The third option was to shimmy across using the ropes. He reasoned that the rope seemed strong enough to hold his weight as it was doing a good job so far and shimming along the bottom rope while using the handrail to support himself was safer than trying to leap over the gap.

Cursing himself for not having a grappling hook, the no-brainer option was the third, shimming across the rope.

Pulling out a double-ended carabiner from his dry pack, he attached one end to the top suspension rope and the other to his harness. A safety measure in case he slipped. Testing the rope against his weight with satisfactory results, Nate took several deep breaths and placed one foot and then the other on to the bottom suspension rope and held tight to the handrail.

The bridge shook and swayed lightly, dipping a little as it adjusted to the weight imbalance, and Nate waited until it slowed before sliding his feet across the slippery rope. He moved cautiously across the gap, sliding his feet inch-by-inch and just as Nate was feeling good about his chances of getting to the other side, the bottom rope snapped.

Nate's heart leapt into his mouth as he fell what felt like to his doom but in reality, it was a couple of inches when his harness snapped taut, held by his carabiner along the top rope.

He hung in the eternal darkness, his body slowly twisting around and his legs dangling over the deep black maw until he reached up and gripped the top rope.

As soon as he had a grip on the top rope, it also snapped, and the entire right side of the bridge dropped. Nate screamed as the momentum swung him under the left side of the bridge which still, thankfully, held. He hung there, hands holding the rope for dear life, while he swung back and forth. Just as the momentum of the swing stopped, the two remaining ropes, unable to take on all the extra weight, snapped.

Nate, still holding on to the rope, screamed into darkness and held on for dear life as the bridge swung in a downwards arc and towards the second dais. His shoulder slammed into the rock face below the dais, his breath knocked out of him and his injured shoulder and ribs flared in pain, but he held on.

"Oh crap" he breathed.

"Nate!" Mia's voice echoed from all directions of the cavern. "Are you there?"

Letting out a laugh that sounded slightly delirious he called back, "Yeah".

"What happened?"

"Ahh...the bridge broke" he said matter-of-factly.

Silence.

"Mia?" Nate called.

"Yes?"

"Just making sure you're still there."

"I'm just a little speechless" she admitted.

Tell me about it.

Nate looked around, thankful his head torch still worked.

"I'm trying to figure out a way to get you out" Mia called out.

Nate said nothing while he studied the cliff face. It was uneven, with lots of small ledges and potential handholds and that suited Nate.

"Nate?"

Nate let himself down the rope a little and reached out to a small ledge. The rock was wet but had a rough texture allowing for a good grip.

"I'm going to try to find a way up" he called back.

"What? How?"

"Just wait, I'll call out when I've reached the other platform."

One hand on the ledge and the other on the rope, Nate placed his feet on the cliff face in a crouching position and then brought his rope hand over to the ledge.

Relieved it held, Nate shimmied along the cliff face, the rough texture on his base of his booties providing much needed grip against the wet face of the cliff. He rounded the curve of the cliff face and found the ledge ended there.

He looked around, the light of his torch illuminating all the nearby options, the nooks and crannies, the uneven face of the cliff. All a potential path to safety.

Reaching up he grabbed onto a handhold and pulled himself up, then to another handhold to his right. He spent the next ten minutes slowly and carefully taking an indirect path, sometimes having to move laterally and even down, reassuring himself to take his time, make sure of his holds and that he would be on top in no time. And sure enough, after another five minutes he could see the lip of the platform about ten meters above.

Nate stopped, grip held tightly onto a narrow handhold, and he looked around for his next hold.

"Crap" he muttered.

There was nothing to grab, not in easy reach anyway. There was a shelf to his left, just out of reach and a handhold above. He hung above the gloom, looking at his options and deciding the best path.

His shoulders and fingers were starting to protest and while he had plenty of experience climbing and the stamina and strength for it, he couldn't do it forever.

He considered the options: To try and reach the hand hold above provided a safer option, as safe as one could be rock climbing with only a headlamp for light, and no safety equipment in a cave undiscovered for hundreds of years and with no guarantee it provided a route to the top as the light wasn't strong enough to see any holds as they tapered off to the right hand side. But if he missed grabbing the hold, he still had the current handhold as a safety net, whereas the route to the left would see an easy climb to the top, if he could make it to the ledge. Either option presented a serious risk of death.

The caverns darkness seemed to close in on Drake, his hands, despite being calloused from years of climbing, were sore with numerous small, but bleeding, cuts and his arms and his legs were cramping due to the awkward bent over position he was constantly in. He couldn't hang there forever, he had to make a choice.

"Fortune favours the bold," he muttered, "or, in this case, the stupid."

He tensed his shoulders and his arms, and started swaying his body left and right, trying to build momentum.

Oh crap! Oh crap!

On the third sway, he took a deep breath and pushed off with his feet. It wasn't the cleanest of push offs, not with the slippery cliff face but as he sailed through the air, eyes on his target, he reached out and touched the ledge.

"Craaaaapppp" he shouted. His left hand caught the ledge but his right hand slipped and he hung, dangling in mid-air with nothing but a yawning chasm of blackness and death below, by one hand.

"Nate?" he heard Mia call from behind.

Pulling his body up with his left hand, he reached out with his right and grabbed on to the ledge and settled himself into a horizontal crouching position.

Adrenaline coursed through his body and he pulled himself quickly up the remaining ten meters to the platform where he rolled over the side and lay on his back, staring into the darkness, he took deep breaths, his chest heaving as he gulped in the air, and rested his tired arms and legs.

"Nate!" Mia's called again, his name echoing all around him.

"I'm alright" he called. "I'm on the other side."

"Oh, thank God" she said. "What now?"

"I'll see if there is a way out. Wait there."

He took another few minutes to rest then he got up chuckling, even in the midst of danger he always could always see the humour in his adventures. Pulling his daypack off, he pulled out the torch and turned it on. Satisfied it was undamaged, he pulled his headlamp off and put it in the daypack and then unclipped the other end of the rope from his harness.

Rope in hand, he shone the torch around the dais. It was almost identical in size and shape to the other one and even had two tall wooden statues, these ones of the War God Ku, guarding a large doorway.

He approached one of the statues and tied the rope to it and called back to Mia, "I've secured the other end of the rope."

"Rather pointless now, isn't it?" she called back.

"Yeah I guess so."

"What do you see?"

"There's a door. I'm going to have a look. Standby."

The guarded doors were made of timber and at least twice as tall as he was and as wide as two sedans sitting bumper-to-bumper. Running his hand over the hardwood surface he found they were damp and knocking it with his knuckles returned a dull thud.

There were no handles or holds or rings to anything to pull the door, so he gave them a push. And to his surprise they moved easily, like they were on well-oiled hinges.

Torchlight shining ahead he moved into the next room and found it was a smaller chamber with sunlight filtering through the high ceiling. He was no longer under the ocean but somewhere under the island itself.

The chamber was circular with drawings etched into the walls depicting scenes of reverence to the Hawaiian deities, battles, worship, and many other things that Nate couldn't make out. And in the middle of the chamber, guarded by four knee high statues of Kū was a body wrapped in some kind of shroud, surrounded by treasures. Vases and pots made of stone, wooden idols of the Gods, weapons including wooden clubs with ornate carvings, ceremonial knives made of wood and shark's teeth, spears, shields, and a long canoe all surrounded the body.

Nate walked over and examined the body under the unnerving gaze of the four Kū's. It lay on a wooden platform that was slightly damp and rotted in some parts but otherwise was in good condition. Along either side were two spears and a shield lay at the feet. Carefully, he removed the shield and spears and leaned them against the chamber wall and saw that etched at the base of the wooden platform were the words: Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea.

"Hello your Majesty" said Nate. He hurried back to the platform and called out, "Mia?"

His voice echoed through the cavern.

"Nate? Are you ok?"

"Yeah" he laughed, "I found it".

"You found it! It's definitely the burial?"

"Yeah, even has his name on it."

Mia let out a whoop of joy and then said, "I wish I could have seen it."

"You will. Listen, take the gear and go back to the boat. Sully should be waiting at the SMB we set up. You'll need to organise a way to get across the bridge. I'll video the site and see if there is another way out.

"Ok" Mia called and then silence.

Pulling out four more snap lights, Nate set them spaced across the platform given the cavern a green glow and hopefully some visibility for the engineers who will need to cross the gap.

He then pulled out his camera, and with torch in his other hand, and started recording, walking back into the tomb of King Kamehameha.

Nate spent the next hour filming everything as best as he could with only torchlight to illuminate the chamber. He replaced the shield and spear from where he found them after recording the body and browsed through the items, carefully filming without touching them.

He filmed the body one final time, passing over the text when something tickled the back of his mind. There was something off about the text and then it hit him. The ancient Hawaiians didn't have a written language! Not until it was introduced by missionaries who arrived in 1820 and even then it would have taken them some time to formulate it. King Kamehameha died in 1819, so who wrote this?

He put the thought aside, reminding himself to ask Mia when he got a chance.

He moved to the back of the chamber there were three archways

and a shelf cut into the wall with more artefacts.

Entering the first archway and he found it led into a stone antechamber. The chamber, barely the size of a jail cell, looked like a preparation room with shelves full of stone bowls, wooden tools and a small stone table in the centre of the room.

He exited the chamber and moved into the second archway but found the tunnel had caved in, impenetrable slabs of rock and dirt piled high and Nate fervently hoped it wasn't a way out.

Exiting the second chamber, he walked through the final archway which led into a tunnel. The tunnel extended beyond the other antechambers, the walls tall and smooth and ready to fall in on him, the darkness overbearing but Nate kept his focus, his torch leading the way.

After what felt like an age, the smell of dry dirt and dust hit invaded his nostrils and Nate felt the tunnel start to ascend at a gentle slope and not long after his light fell upon stone steps. They were crudely laid, uneven with gaps but they led up and there was a faint light coming from above, and that was all Nate cared about.

With a light step he hurried up the crude stairs, the light becoming brighter and the tunnel widened until he came to a pile of rocks stacked on top of each other with slivers of sunlight and tree roots poking through the gaps. Placing the torch back in his pack, Nate started pulling at the rocks, shoving them away until he created a gap big enough to squeeze through.

The sound of birds and a slight breeze through the trees greeted him as he pulled himself through the gap in the tunnel and into a dense forested area.

He looked around, examining the area which amounted to nothing but Ash Trees and no indication on which was to go

"At least I am out" Nate said relieved. He pulled off his pack, opened it and pulled out his cell phone and opened an app that provided his longitude and latitude and pinned the location on the map. He then opened his map app and found his location was within the Kohala Forest, south-east of the top point of the Hawaiian Island.

Then he dialed a number.

"Nate?" came Sully's deep, gruff voice. "Did you find it?"

"Yeah, Sully. I found it. And I'm fine by the way."

Sully grunted, "Of course you are. Always had faith in you, kid."

"Gee thanks. Is Mia there?"

"Yeah, she surfaced awhile back. Said something about a bridge collapse and has been on the phone since." He snorted, "Trust you to take the hard way."

"You're not kidding Sully. Put Mia on the phone."

After a moment of faint talking, Mia was on the phone, "Nate? You ok?"

"Yeah. It's definitely it, Mia. King Kamehameha's burial site."

There was an intake of breath, and then a sigh of relief, "How was it?"

"It's intact. I've documented the initial findings for you and there is a way in without having to take the route we took to get there."

"That's great Nate!" He could hear the smile in her voice, "Where are you now?"

"Somewhere in the Kohala Forest," he replied, "once I'm out we can send the guys in without having to repair the bridge. I'll call back when I get out of here."

He hung up the phone and opened the maps app again and studied the area. Finding the nearest likely exit he closed his phone and set off in a northerly direction.