Page 39 of Tack’s Bounty

“Oh, good idea. If it’s a chest with ten thousand dollars of gold, then it might be heavy,” Lake said.

Sophia shook her head at her friend. Lake had the unwavering belief that they were going to find the treasure.

She grabbed her phone, slid it into her back pocket, and headed outside. She spotted Pudding with his new lady friend, Honey Bun. She’d been busy and let Lake and Freedom name the new miniature donkey. She had to admit that Honey Bun had been a good influence on Pudding. He still tried to headbutt the guys in the crotch but not quite as much because Pudding didn’t like leaving Honey Bun’s side.

“Let’s do this,” she grinned, hopping on one of the ATVs with Lake and Freedom driving their own. Lake didn’t like being last and quickly took the lead, getting to the tree first.

Sophia stared at the tree, wondering where to start. She didn’t want to damage the tree because she still liked seeing it on the property.

“I was thinking the same thing. Maybe we do it systematically. Dig on one side down to where we think the treasure might be, and if we don’t find it, we could fill that back in and dig in the next spot. Did anybody think to bring a metal detector?” Freedom asked.

Sophia walked all the way around the tree. The picture with Ma Jo had the tree to the right of the house. If she were Ma Jo hiding the treasure, where would she put it? Maybe behind the tree, between the tree and where the house would have been.

“Let’s start here,” Sophia decided, grabbing a shovel and pushing it into the ground. She, Lake, and Freedom dug a small hole behind the tree. When it was about a foot and a half deep, they paused.

“How deep do you guess they would have dug it back then?” Freedom wondered.

“Depends on how big, but I’d be surprised if it was deeper than two feet. It would have taken someone a decent amount of time to dig this much, then they’d have to cover it,” Lake said, wiping the sweat off her face.

Even though they hadn’t dug much, the August heat was making them all sweat.

“I agree. Let’s fill this in and check the opposite side of the tree,” Sophia directed, scooping dirt and dropping it back into the hole. They filled the hole, then walked to the other side of the tree.

Lake dug first. Freedom followed and Sophia was last. She shoved her shovel in deep to get a decent amount of dirt and paused at the sound of her shovel hitting metal.

“Oh, I’m so excited,” Freedom exclaimed. Lake leaned over to watch as Sophia lifted the dirt out of the hole. A small piece of metal glinted in the sun.

Sophia knelt on the ground. “Should we hand dig?”

Lake and Freedom dropped down beside her, pulling dirt out with their hands and tossing it on the pile. Sophia moved dirt and smoothed it off the metal. In minutes, they could see what it was. It wasn’t a box. It was a flat piece of metal with a symbol painted on it. The symbol looked familiar, but Sophia couldn’t immediately recall where.

Lake pulled it out and held it for them to see. “So a flat piece of metal with this symbol on it. Have you seen this, Sophia?”

Sophia nodded. “I have, but I can’t remember exactly where.” Sophia closed her eyes, trying to picture where she’d seen the symbol and why it looked familiar.

“I don’t think it’s in the house because I’ve cleaned that place from top to bottom after you kicked Rufus to the curb. I wanted everything about him gone,” Freedom said.

“No, not in the house,” Sophia mused.

Lake stood up, looking toward the tree line with the farm buildings behind it. “I don’t think it’s in the barn because it’s distinctive enough that I would have noticed it. I’ve never needed to go in the building beside the barn or the small barn that holds the generator. Could you have seen it there?” Lake asked.

Sophia stared at Lake. “You brilliant woman. I know where I’ve seen it. Let’s go,” she called as she ran toward her ATV. She started the ATV and took off, bumping over the field toward the building where her dad kept his motorcycles. She skidded to a stop in front of the door. Crap, she didn’t have the keys. She ran across the yard and into the house. She opened the drawer and took the keys, running back across the yard. Breathing deeply, she unlocked the door, flipping the lights on. She walked over to the wall of pictures, looking through them.

“There,” she pointed at the picture of her mom and dad that was taken in the kennel area of the clinic. The symbol was painted on a piece of metal behind them. Her mom and dad both had huge smiles on their faces in the photo. Despite being excited about the treasure, she’d give away any money she found for one more moment with them.

“That’s the clinic wall, but it’s not in there now, is it?” Lake asked.

“Look, that vent there on the wall. It’s the wall that now has the metal animal cages for after surgery,” Freedom breathed.

Sophia turned to her friends. “Let’s go check. Last one there has to clean out the barn stalls,” Sophia called, running out the door and across the yard to the kitchen. She skidded to a stop, going through the clinic door and then through another door to the area where they had floor-to-ceiling metal cages to keep sick animals in.

“Aww, fuck. I hate cleaning the barn, but Lake tripped me as we crossed the yard,” Freedom whined.

Sophia shook her head at their antics. She motioned for them to help her move the metal unit on the adjacent wall. Luckily, it had wheels on it, or she’d be calling for someone to help them. Once that was out of the way, she stared at the wall.

“I think the symbol should be behind this set because it was close to the vent. Do you agree?” Sophia asked.

Lake and Freedom both nodded as they helped her slide the unit out from the wall and to the right. Sophia paused, seeing the symbol on a piece of metal. She reached for the metal. It wasn’t attached to the wall but only hanging on a small nail. She pulled it off, revealing a safe inset in the wall. She flipped the metal sign over and stared at her dad’s handwriting.