“So let’s get started,” Chuck said, handing a shovel to Nancy. “You can take out the first shovelful.”
“We’re going to have to take turns,” Nancy warned as she started digging. “It’s hard to tell how deep we have to go. She hesitated, then added, “Provided there is something buried here. I can’t guarantee that, you know.”
“So dig,” he teased. “We’ll never find anything speculating. ”
Soon, the laughter died away and was replaced by serious work. The hole was growing, but the earth was so hard they had to fight for every foot. Chuck and Nancy had soon given their shovels to Bess and Heather, and they in turn yielded to George and Ngyun. Maria was kept busy bringing out cold drinks and other refreshments to keep the workers going.
As it neared noon, Nancy and Chuck once more took up the shovels and stepped down into the hole. Nancy worked on one end, her hands sore and perspiration forming on her face as the day grew warmer. However, as she forced the shovel in for the fourth time, there was a dull, clanging sound, and the shovel refused to move when she leaned her weight on it.
“Hey,” Chuck shouted, “you’ve hit something!”
“I hope it isn’t another rock,” Nancy said.
“That didn’t sound like a rock,” Chuck told her. “Let me see if I can uncover it.”
Excitement made the soil fly, and in a moment the top of an old, metal trunk was uncovered. Everyone was anxious to help, and in a short time, Chuck was able to free the small trunk from the clinging earth and lift it out of the hole.
For a moment, they just stared at it. Then Mr. McGuire, who’d been watching the entire proceedings from a lawn chair in the shade, called, “Break the lock on it, Chuck. Let’s open it up!”
Chuck stepped forward and used a pick to hack away the old lock, but instead of opening the trunk himself, he turned to Nancy. “I think you should do it,” he said. “You’re the one who found it.”
Everyone nodded agreement. Nancy took a deep breath and moved forward to touch the metal lid that was warming now from the sun after being so long in the cool depths of the earth. Her hand shook as she began lifting the rusty lid!
20
Hilili’s Treasure
Once the lid was open, Nancy gasped in delight as the sun touched the slightly faded, but incredibly beautiful Kachina dolls within. Maria cried out and came to kneel beside the trunk, tears running down her brown cheeks.
“What is it?” Mr. McGuire shouted, struggling to his feet and limping over to join them. “What is the treasure?”
Nancy lifted the first of the Kachinas with reverent gentleness, recognizing it at once as a replica of her guide from the night before. Time had dimmed and broken its feathers, and the paint on the colorful mask was faded, but that only made the little carvings more precious.
“They aren’t gone!” Maria whispered. “We always believed that they were taken away or destroyed when the chiefs fled to Mexico. We’ve mourned their loss all these years.”
“There are some papers in the bottom of the trunk, Nancy,” Chuck said, leaning over her shoulder. “See, under the Kachinas.”
Nancy moved the dolls very carefully, slipping the dusty pages out. “From the journal,” she said. “I recognize Jake Harris’s handwriting, and remember, I told you some of the pages had been torn out. ”
“What does it say?” George asked. “What are the Kachinas doing here? Did he really take them from the Indians after all?”
“I think we should go inside with all this,” Mr. McGuire said. “Nancy can read to us from the journal while the rest of us study the Kachinas.”
After they were all settled in the living room, Nancy scanned the pages quickly, then began to read:Deer Slayer and the other chiefs have come again and this time they left their Kachinas behind for me to guard. They say that Winslow has hired some bad men to follow the members of the tribe and they fear those men will steal the sacred dolls for his collection.
There have been fires in the hills again. I thought it might be Deer Slayer’s people camping nearby to protect my house, but last night a fearsome torch was burning on the ridge and the riders who set it were white men. The door was not fastened when I came home tonight, so I fear Winslow’s men have been here searching for the Kachina dolls.
“Big Jake escaped their first visit,” Bess murmured softly, “but obviously not their second one.”
Nancy nodded, shifting to another page. “The next couple of entries are about his being afraid to go out and not knowing where to turn for help,” Nancy told them, then went on reading.
I fear the Kachinas will be stolen from me if I don’t hide them. I’ve chosen a safe place to bury them and painted a guardian Witch Kachina to mark the spot for Deer Slayer if I’m not here to tell him myself.
Dawn is near and the fearsome torch just beyond the door is burning out. Tomorrow night they may burn even this house to the ground. I shall wait till daylight when they hide from my sight and I’ll bury these few pages with the sacred dolls. When they come tonight, I’ll have my rifle ready.
Nancy put down the stained pages. “That’s all there is,” she said. “He must have done what he said, buried the trunk, then barricaded himself in the house to wait.”
Maria shook her head, turning her attention at last from the Kachinas, which she’d been examining very carefully. “Poor old man, he was so brave. The collector Winslow and his people must have come just as he expected, and he was so old and frail the strain killed him.”
Mr. McGuire nodded. “You can bet that they were the ones that ransacked the house. And they were the ghosts that haunted it the next few years. They knew that he had the Kachinas and they were determined to find them.”
“But they didn’t,” Heather reminded everyone with a grin. “That took someone as smart as Nancy. ”
“With a lot of help from the Kachinas,” Nancy reminded them modestly, as she picked up the Cloud Kachina doll that had been her guide.
“So what happens to the treasure now, Mr. McGuire?” George asked. “I mean, it really is a treasure, isn’t it?”
“For my people, the Kachina dolls are beyond price,” Maria whispered.
“Indeed, they are extremely precious,” McGuire agreed, “and they shall be returned to their rightful owners as soon as possible.”
Maria turned to him, her dark eyes luminous. “You mean it?” she asked. “You know how valuable they are and they were found on your property. There are collectors who would pay any price you ask for them.”
The old man smiled at her. “Your people trusted Big Jake to protect their most sacred treasure, and he managed to do so at the cost of his life. That doesn’t give us any claim to them. Besides, wasn’t your great-grandfather one of the chiefs who entrusted them to Jake?”
Maria nodded. “He died in exile in Mexico, driven there by those who claimed that he and the other chiefs had caused the death of Jake Harris.”
“That terrible collector Winslow probably made up the story to cover his own guilt,” Bess said.
Everyone nodded.
“What do you plan on doing with the Kachinas, Maria?” Nancy asked. “I mean, how will you go about returning them to your tribe?”
Maria leaned back, lost in thought for several minutes, then she smiled. “I think I would like to have Ngyun help me return them,” she said. “He is a descendant of a chief, and it would truly make my brother’s son a member of the tribe.”
“Oh, how wonderful, Ngyun,” Nancy breathed. “You’ll be proud to do it, won’t you?” She looked at the grinning boy.
Ngyun was too overcome to speak, but his happy face when he nodded was answer enough.
“Will you be here for the ceremonial?” Maria asked Nancy.
The girl sighed, then looked at the circle of her friends. “I’d love to,” she replied, “but now that both mysteries here have been solved, I probably should be getting back to River Heights.”
Little did she know that soon after her return home she would be
confronted with a new mystery called The Twin Dilemma.
“How about lunch?” Bess suggested, changing the subject. “Finding treasures makes me hungry.”
“That makes two of us.” Chuck laughed and put an arm around the pretty girl. Chatting happily, the young detectives all headed for the kitchen, leaving Maria and the wide-eyed Ngyun alone with their precious Kachinas.
Carolyn Keene, The Kachina Doll Mystery
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