Jack sighed and nodded resignedly. “Okay.”
So Delilah handed the garden shovel to Jack, and Henry took the flashlight and guided her across the cavern and back through the tunnel, where they walked single file to the mine’s entrance. The sunlight nearly blinded them, and the air felt warmer immediately.
“Wow, it’s so bright,” Delilah said, leaning against a rock. “I’ll wait right here.” She looked up at the petroglyphs and frowned slightly. “Hurry, Henry.”
“I will,” Henry promised.
He started back into the mine, feeling a strange pang at leaving her and the bright ordinariness of daylight. Holding the flashlight in front of him, he strode into the tunnel, heading straight into the heart of the mountain.
CHAPTER 29
THE DUTCHMAN’S SECRET
WHEN HE REACHED the cavern, Henry found Simon already halfway down the ladder as Jack leaned over the hole, shining the flashlight for him.
“I’m next,” Jack said.
“Okay,” Henry agreed, “but go slowly. See the gaps in the ladder? You’ll have to climb over those parts.”
Jack handed the flashlight down to Simon, who kept it trained on the ladder while Henry helped Jack into the hole. Jack gamely heaved himself down the ladder and, a moment later, jumped from a middle rung to the ground.
“Hen, give him your flashlight,” Simon said. “It’s easier if you use both hands.”
Henry tossed down the flashlight, which Jack caught and immediately started swinging around, sending bright rays of light in every direction.
“Cool!” he cried, sounding more like his old self. “There’s stuff down here!”
“What stuff?” Henry asked as he turned around and lowered himself into the hole, feeling for a wooden rung with his foot.
“Look, a bucket! What’s this, Simon?”
“Hey, you’re right,” Simon said. “There are buckets down here … and a pickax! We must be in the mine!”
Henry climbed quickly down, stretching his legs over the gaps, the wood rough against his palms. He joined his brothers and squinted into the darkness.
Now they were standing in another chamber of the mine, cooler and vaguely damp. The air smelled pungently of earth.
Two wooden buckets sat a few yards from the ladder. In the faint beam of the flashlight, their handles appeared dark with rust. Henry could see a large pickax leaning against one wall, its curving metal blade covered in dry dirt.
Who left it there? he wondered. And how long ago?
“There’s another tunnel,” Simon said urgently. “We don’t have much time. Come on.”
Together they started into the narrow passageway, ducking their heads and pushing through its dark contours. The cold, rough walls scraped against Henry’s arms.
It was like being inside an animal, he thought, moving through the twisted bowels of a living creature.
Almost immediately, the tunnel opened out again into a new cavern. They stumbled together into the center of it.
“This mine goes on forev—” Simon started to say, but the words caught in his throat.
He lifted his flashlight.
Simultaneously, Henry lifted his.
There, in the arcs of white light, they could see walls of glistening, pearly quartz. And shot through the walls were streaks of lustrous, shining, brilliant …
GOLD.
CHAPTER 30
RUN!
“OH, MY GOSH,” Simon gasped.
“It’s real,” Henry whispered.
“We found it!” Jack shouted. “We found the mine!” He whirled in the middle of the cavern, swinging his flashlight wildly at the walls that glittered all around them.
Simon turned to Henry, his eyes huge. “This is it,” he said, barely able to speak the words. “The Lost Dutchman’s Mine.”
“I can’t believe we found it,” Henry whispered. “After all this time.”
He thought of Uncle Hank and his treks up Superstition Mountain, the box with the Spanish coins and the hidden note. How long had he searched for the gold mine? Would they ever know if he made it this far?
If only he were alive to see them now! To see Henry, his namesake, standing in a cavern in the black heart of Superstition Mountain, surrounded by gorgeous, glittering, glistening gold.
“Can we take some?” Jack wanted to know. “How do we get it out of the rock?”
Simon shook his head. “We don’t have time, Jack. But now we know where it is!”
“Hey, look!” Jack crowed. “There are little pieces on the ground.”
Henry saw that he was right. At the base of the wall with the shining veins of gold, there was a scattering of tiny flakes, the remnants of someone’s efforts with a pickax. Jack squatted down to gather a handful of them, stuffing them into his pocket.
Henry and Simon were starting to crouch next to him when Simon turned abruptly, looking back down the tunnel. “What’s that?”
They craned into the thick silence, listening. Faint and far away, Henry heard shouts.
“It’s Delilah,” he said. “She’s calling us.” He listened again, then stared at Simon. “Something’s wrong.”
They ran. Back through the tunnel, into the lower cavern, up the ladder, scrambling and hoisting themselves, juggling the flashlights, the rope, the garden shovel.
“We’re coming,” Henry yelled, as loud as he could. “What’s the matter?”
“Run!” Delilah was shouting. “Get out of there!”
“Why? What is it?” Simon called to her.
Then they heard it. So distant, Henry wasn’t sure at first that it was even a sound. It felt like movement, like a shift in the air … a building vibration.
“What’s that noise?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know,” Simon said grimly. “Hurry!”
They were running through the upper chamber now, into the tunnel toward the mine’s entrance. They could hear it clearly—a distant, growing thunder.
The very ground seemed to tremble beneath their feet.
“Simon!” Henry cried. “Is it … the Thunder God?”
Then he saw Delilah at the mouth of the cave, her face white and panicked.
“It’s a rock slide,” she cried. “We have to get out of here, or we’ll be trapped.”
Together they fled the cave, snatching up the backpacks and running as fast as they could through the rocky passageway toward the canyon. The noise became deafening.
High overhead, Henry could see part of the cliff breaking away. Rock after giant rock tumbled down the steep slope, crashing into the canyon.
“Don’t stop,” Simon yelled, yanking Jack out of the passageway and running into the middle of the canyon, away from the bent tree and the rock horse, back toward the place where they’d entered.
Henry grabbed Delilah’s hand, pulling her along. “Faster,” he urged. “We have to go faster.”
It was then that he saw a black streak ahead of them. It darted after Simon and Jack.
Josie!
“Hey! It’s Josie!” he yelled to Simon over the crash and shattering of rocks.
“I know. I saw her,” Simon called. “Hurry!”
As they rushed into the rocky inlet that had led them to the secret canyon, they paused, just for a moment—all of them clustered on the threshold. They looked back at the fold in the canyon wall that hid the Lost Dutchman’s Mine.
The avalanche of rocks poured down all around it and then over it, rock after rock, thundering into the narrow corridor. By the time the avalanche stopped, the entrance to the mine was entirely buried in boulders.
CHAPTER 31
“SOMEBODY’S UP HERE WITH US.…”
AS THEY MADE their way into the main canyon, they couldn’t stop talking, peppering one another with questions, their words blending and braiding.
“What happened?” Delilah asked. “What did you find in there?”
“Gold!” Jack boomed, while Henry asked in turn, “How did the rock slide start?
When did Josie show up?”
“Where?” Delilah cried. “What did it look like? Was it really the mine?”
And then they had to tell her all about the buckets and pickax and tunnel to the lower cavern, with its pale quartz walls streaked with shining veins of gold.
“It was like being inside a treasure chest,” Henry told her. He pictured the treasure chest in Treasure Island.
“And I took some!” Jack said. “And it’s all mine!”
Simon frowned at him. “We should share that. We found it together.”
“Nuh-uh.” Jack shook his head vigorously. “You should have gotten your own.” Then he whirled around, shouting, “I am glad to be out of there! It was too dark and squeezy in that cave.”
“Jack, keep it down,” Simon scolded. “Do you want the whole world to hear you?”
Henry thought about the cascade of rocks that had descended over the cave, burying it … perhaps forever. Had the Thunder God done that? To keep them away from the gold?
“How did the rock slide start?” he asked Delilah again.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I heard a rock fall, like it did when we were climbing down into the canyon, and I thought that was going to be it. But then after a minute, another fell, then another, and then part of the cliff just seemed to break off.”
Simon’s brow was furrowed. “Did you see anybody up there?”
“Where?” Delilah asked. And then, understanding, “At the top of the cliff? No, nobody. You think…” Her voice trailed off, and Henry finished for her, filled with dread. “You think that someone caused the avalanche on purpose? That someone’s up here with us?” Nervously, he scanned the ridge, empty against the blue sky.
“I don’t know,” Simon said. “But we should watch out. And hurry.”
“I want to see the gold,” Delilah protested.
“When we get home,” Simon told her. “It’s after two o’clock. We don’t have time now.”
They hurried through the canyon to the side where they’d climbed down, where the footholds Henry had dug charted a route to the top of the cliff. Simon quickly looped the rope around his waist, then Delilah’s, knotting it tightly.
“You go first, Henry. Then I’ll come with Delilah. Jack will be last. You guys take the backpacks again.”
“What about Josie?” Henry asked. She had raced ahead of them, darting under the gray-green shrubs, looking for rabbits, no doubt.
“She’ll be okay,” Simon said. “She followed us down here—she can follow us back.”
Delilah hesitated, turning to Henry. “What about my dad’s compass? I have to look for it. I need it, Henry.”
“We have to GO!” Simon snapped. “We can get you another compass.”
Henry, seeing her crestfallen face, whispered, “It’s okay. We don’t have time now. But we’ll be back.” He was certain it was true.
So they started up the canyon wall. Even though the route was nearly straight up, it was easier this time, because the footholds marked the way and gave them something to step on.
“When did Josie come?” Henry called down to Delilah.
“It was the strangest thing,” she said, breathing heavily as she climbed after Simon. “I was waiting for you guys, just sitting there, and I heard a rustling noise. When I looked, she was coming toward me. She only let me pet her for a minute. Then she darted into the cave, and I thought she was going to find you, but she started playing with something.”
“What was it?” Henry asked.
“I don’t know,” Delilah said. “She was batting at it.”
Henry frowned. “I wonder what it could have been.”
Delilah shrugged. “Then all of a sudden, she started pacing back and forth. She seemed really nervous or something, and that’s when I heard the first rock fall. And then a bunch of rocks were falling, and I started yelling for you.”
“It was the Thunder God,” Henry said softly.
“It was an avalanche,” Simon corrected. “Or maybe it was those people from the historical society,” he added quietly.
“It sure sounded like the Thunder God,” Delilah said. “I couldn’t believe how loud it was.”
“You should have gotten out of there,” Simon told her. “You could have been buried under all those rocks.”
“I know,” Delilah said matter-of-factly. “But I wasn’t going to leave you guys in the cave.”
Thank goodness she had yelled to them when she did, Henry thought. A minute later, and they would never have been able to make it out. He remembered every book and movie he’d ever seen where people were buried alive. Emmett said that had happened to miners on the mountain, and now it had almost happened to them.
Henry gripped a ledge of rock and hauled himself up, concentrating on the slope ahead. The backpack was heavy on his shoulders, and he could feel the afternoon sun burning the back of his neck. He thought of the petroglyph above the entrance to the mine, with the stick figures flat on their backs. It had felt like a warning. Then he thought of the storm of rocks crashing to the ground. Finally, he thought of the Thunder God, willing to do anything to guard the mountain’s secrets. Despite the heat, a sharp chill prickled through him.
“Hey,” Jack shouted, “Josie’s coming.”
Henry paused for a minute, wiping sweat from his eyes with one arm. He glanced back over the dizzying void of the canyon. He could see Josie’s small black body far below, zigzagging easily up the steep slope.
“Keep going, Hen,” Simon told him. “We’re almost at the top.”
And then they were. They clambered over the rocks until they were standing on flat ground.
They took a quick water break—and water had never tasted so good to Henry, coursing coolly down his parched throat—but they were all too hot and exhausted to be hungry, so they turned their attention to the faint remnants of the path and began their hurried journey home. Henry could feel the mountain watching, pulsing its disapproval all around them.
CHAPTER 32
STONES ON THE PATH
THEY TROMPED DOWN the mountain largely in silence. Delilah looked exhausted, Henry thought. She bumped along on her cast, but she was much slower than she’d been on the way up, and she eventually dropped into last place by a good distance. Henry kept slowing down to check on her.
“Are you okay? Do you want to rest?”
She shook her head, and Simon called from up ahead, “We don’t have time. She can rest when we get home.”
Home! It had never sounded so wonderful to Henry. Or so far away.
They continued down the uneven trail, marked occasionally by the sticks they had left on their first journey up the mountain. At least it was broad daylight. There was no danger of getting lost in the dark, though the path was narrow in places, and occluded by shrubbery or grass. Sometimes it was hard to know they had gone the right way.
“Is that you guys?” Simon asked.
“What?” Henry called.
Simon was standing still, looking around. “I don’t know. I thought I heard something. Shhhhh, be quiet for a minute.”
They stood absolutely still, even Jack, listening. The air was hot and motionless. Henry didn’t hear anything except their own breathing.
“Is it Josie?” Henry asked.
Simon shook his head. “No. She ran past us a long time ago. She’s way ahead now.”
Henry peered back up the rocky length of the trail. “What did it sound like?”
A furrow of worry creased Simon’s forehead. “Something behind us. In the bushes. It was probably just you guys.”
“Do you think someone’s following us?” Delilah turned to squint at the winding contours of the trail. The tufts of dry grass alongside it shimmered in the afternoon sun. A gray lizard darted under a shrub. Otherwise, nothing stirred.
“I don’t know,” Simon repeated. “I don’t like hearing things I can’t see.”
Henry nodded slowly. “Like when you fell into the basement in the ghost town
. With whatever was down there.”
“Yeah,” Simon said. “Like that. Let’s keep going.”
They began their descent again, but Henry kept glancing back over his shoulder, his neck prickling with fear.
“What time is it?” Jack wanted to know.
Simon extended his wrist, and the face of his watch flashed whitely. “Three thirty. Aunt Kathy might be back as early as four.”
“Can’t we have a snack?” Jack complained. “I want more candy.”
“When we get home,” Simon told him. “It will be your reward.”
“That’s what you always say. I don’t want it to be my reward. I want it now. And this is too heavy. I need a rest.” Jack shifted Delilah’s backpack off his shoulders and dropped it abruptly on the ground, stopping in the middle of the path.
Henry picked it up. “Come on, Jack,” he coaxed. “Remember what we talked about? Do you think this is what real explorers do when they get tired?”
“Yes!” Jack said defiantly.
“Hey,” Simon said, “look at that.”
He pointed a few yards ahead. On the edge of the trail, Henry saw their mother’s green net shopping bag, lying in an empty heap. The rattlesnake was gone.
“Oh, good,” Delilah said. “It got free.”
“Right,” Simon said. “Which means it is free. Which means we have to be careful walking through here, ’cuz it could be anywhere.”
Henry touched Simon’s arm. “What’s that?” he asked softly.
“What?” Simon asked. “Do you see the snake?”
“No,” Henry said slowly. “Something else.”
A short distance past the green bag, smack in the middle of the path, there was a small, neat pile of stones, stacked into a triangular tower.
“Huh,” Simon said. “That wasn’t there before.”
Cautiously, they walked down the trail toward it.
“What is that thing?” Jack asked.
“I’m not sure,” Simon said. “Somebody made it.”
“Simon.” Henry froze.
“What is it?”
“Look.”
At the base of the pile of stones, something was scratched into the dirt. Thick, crooked letters, dug into the ground with a stick: