Chapter 2
It was 9 p.m. at the McIntyre Estate; Mrs. Reg was busy getting the girls to bed. Lisa, Stevie and Carole said their "good nights" and went to their separate rooms. When all the upstairs commotion was over and silence had settled over the hallway. Lisa slipped out of bed. Crossing the room she entered her closet. Closing the closet door she reached up and turned a knob on the bottom of the brass light fixture hanging on the wall. There was the soft sound of wood scrubbing on wood as a hidden door in the wall behind a stack of hundred- year-old steamer trunks.
Walking around the trunks she stepped through the secret doorway into narrow passage way inside the brick wall. She walked about 15 feet down the passage way and turned a corner to face an antique elevator. She raised the gate and stepped into the elevator lowering the gate back into place. She pulled the lever and the elevator started down. The elevator kept going down until it was well underground. Finally the elevator came to a stop and Lisa walked out of it into a secret library built into a cave.
The books shelves were so tall that you had to have a ladder to reach the top shelves and there were three levels to this library. The library was in a semi-circle around a large open area. In the corner of the open area stood a large oak desk with a state of the art computer. There were also several grand display cases with ancient gems and other artifacts. A large chair stood in the middle of this open area. A pair of human legs extended from the chair and rested crossed on the table. Lisa smiled when she saw a hand place a brown leather Crocodile Dundee hat on the smaller table next two the chair. She walked up him and unceremoniously plopped right down in his lap.
"Hello," she said
"Hello," said Jason, "What brings you down here?"
"Well," she said, "I just wanted to know what you were hunting."
"What makes you think that I'm in the middle of a hunt?" said Jason playing dumb.
"Jason," Said Lisa giving him her patented don't-insult- my- intelligence-look, "if you don't spill I'm going to tell those two wacky blondes upstairs that your full name is Jason Kyle Ellison."
"You wouldn't," said Jason
"Wanna bet," said Lisa lowering her eyebrows.
"All right, all right," said Jason, "you win and call me Kyle it's the name I prefer." He reached down and picked up the book he had dropped when Lisa landed in his lap.
"This is what I'm working on." He said opening the leather bound book. Lisa's eyes moved from him to the page in front of her. She read for several seconds.
"This is the legend of Jonathan "Blackjack" LeFoe," she said looking up from the book, "Kyle, are you telling me that you think that the legend about him burying his treasure around here is true?"
He nodded, "I thought it was a legend myself until about a week ago when I found this while scuba diving off the coast." He produced a very old bronze plate with a seal on it."
"Here," he said handing her a magnifier, "Look at it with the magnifying glass."
"These markings," said Lisa, "they're identical to the royal seals that were on the treasure ship, the HMS Dartmouth, Blackjack LeFoe was said to have gutted and sank!"
"That's right," said Kyle.
"That means that the story is true and the Treasure is real!" Lisa said as her excitement grew.
"That's right," said Kyle
"Wait a minute," said Lisa her enthusiasm waning, "how are we supposed to find the treasure? Captain LeFoe was the only person who knew the exact location of the treasure."
"That's true," said Kyle, "It stumped me for a while too. Then I found an old Newspaper article from about a hundred years ago that says that LeFoe kept a journal and that the journal was kept in the archives of the old Dartmouth Library. It is possible that he might have left some clue to the whereabouts of the treasure in his journal."
"But the old Dartmouth library was leveled in a rock slide in 1929." Lisa Said, LeFoe's journal was probably destroyed."
"That's what I thought too," Kyle said, "then I found the blueprints for that library at the county courthouse. The main floor of the library and the second story were wood walls and frames, but the basement where the journal was kept was made of stone." Lisa's excitement began to return,
"So there is a chance that old Dartmouth archives are still intact!" she said
"Right," said Kyle, "tomorrow I'm going to meet with Johnny Murdock, I'm going to trade a gold statue that he asked me to find for an antique map of the area that he has."
"Johnny Murdock is a dangerous gangster," said Lisa, "You'll need me to back you up."
"Hold it," said Kyle, "first this is too dangerous and second your mother is going to be here this weekend to see you ride. If she finds out that I've been letting you tag along on my hunts every now and then she'll kill both of us!"
"Do you want me to tell those blonde's upstairs all of your secrets?" asked Lisa. She had him right where she wanted him and she knew it. He threw up his hands,
"Alright but if I say run, you run and don't look back, understand?" Lisa nodded
"Good," said Kyle as he stood up lifting her in his arms, "I want to keep you safe, I happen to be partial to brunettes." He kissed her cheek and sat her down gently on her feet.
"Night princess," he said giving her a little wink before dissapearing into the elevator that led to the hidden panel in his closet.
An elevator ride and a short walk later Lisa snuggled down into her bed she smiled as she thought about Kyle. he was too modest to think of himself as handsome and charmimg. it made her giggle a little bit as she thought of how mystified he always was by the attention that he recieved from her side of the species. she had to admit she liked J. Kyle Ellison too, but not necessarily the treasure hunter. She liked the nice guy that called her princess and alway looked out for her. her musings over she nestled down in the bed and drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.
TBC Please review