They resumed searching the area. Very little of the old mill remained, though Dane spotted the occasional stone or piece of mortar that clearly didn’t fit in naturally. He could feel the tingle of anticipation as he looked. They had followed all the clues thus far, and only one remained.
“Score one for the red man!” Bones’ voice boomed from twenty feet away, startling Dane. Bones had uncovered a flat stone on the ground, one of those omnipresent pieces of blue schist. Carved in the middle was a logo of a bald eagle with outstretched wings. The logo contained words in a circular pattern around the center of the eagle, with some sort of figure inside the circle of words.
“Is that what I think it is?”
Bones laughed. “Well I imagine it’s supposed to be an eagle, but it kinda looks like a turkey to me. You know, I remember now that Ben Franklin once called the turkey a more noble bird than the bald eagle. Of course, he probably had the munchies when he said it.”
“That’s true, but that’s not what I meant. I know this logo. This is the logo of the Society of Cincinnatus. Want to guess who was an honorary member?”
“Pete Rose?”
“Nice try. Not only Ben Franklin, but George Washington and several other Founding Fathers.”
Bones scrutinized the stone. “I can’t make out those words in the middle.”
“Neither can I, but I think I know what they say. Most versions of this logo don’t contain the words, but their motto is ‘Omnia relinquit servare Rempublicam.’ It means ‘He gave everything to preserve the Republic.’”
“Sounds like something our friends in the Sons of the Republic could twist to serve their own ends.” At the mention of the Sons of the Republic, Bones open and closed his hands, as if ready to choke someone. “So what do we do now?”
“Good question. I guess we could try to move it.”
Attempts to move the stone didn’t fare any better than they had with the grindstone. It simply wouldn’t budge. Eventually they gave up, and Dane stood and stared at the logo.
“You know that turkey is mocking us.” Bones frowned at the offending bird.
Dane knelt again and ran his hands over the logo. He could feel the ripples and lines of the carving, but he also noticed an indentation around the outer perimeter. He tried moving just the carved logo, which didn’t work. Then he pressed down on it and he detected about half an inch of movement. A couple of additional attempts achieved the same result.
“Bones, I have a thought.”
“First time for everything.”
“Funny guy. Here’s the thing. Whatever we’re missing here can’t be something someone would stumble on easily. We only know about the relationship between the cross and the logo because of Bache’s letter, but otherwise we’d never assume there’s a connection. We were able to move each of them a tiny bit, but only in a single direction.”
Understanding dawned on Bones’ face. “So you think we need to move both of them at the same time?”
Dane nodded. “It’s worth a try. Go over to the grindstone. I’ll start by pushing the logo down and then you see if you can turn the stone.”
When Bones was ready, Dane pushed down the logo and held it in the depressed position. Bones let out a grunt as he put his back into turning the grindstone.
With a grunt of surprise, Bones fell forward as the grindstone spun easily. As they watched, the logo under Dane’s hand dropped six inches.
Then the ground under Dane’s feet began to vibrate, a steady feeling as opposed to the shaking of the minor earthquake he and Bones had experienced a few months back during their training in southern California. A grinding noise accompanied the movement. Dane spun around, unable to place the source of it.
Until he looked at Bones. Next to the grindstone and the location of Bones’ unexpected face plant, the earth had started bunching up as if an invisible plow were carving a five foot wide furrow. Dane watched with a slack jaw until the sound and the movement both stopped.
Only a few seconds had passed. Bones jumped to his feet and stared down at the ground without a word. Then he looked up and dipped his chin in Dane’s direction. Dane walked towards the disturbed earth, stopping in disbelief when he reached it.
A hole in the earth had opened up, about five feet by five feet. The rumbling and movement had been caused by a slab of stone sliding away to expose it. Steps led from one edge down into a cave of sorts with rugged walls that appeared natural in the first couple of meters, which was all Dane could make out before darkness took over.
Bones was already on the first step with his flashlight out. “Dude, that was awesome. The combination of pressing the logo and turning the grindstone triggered it. How did you know?”
“I didn’t know. I just asked myself what Indiana Jones would do.”
“Yeah, all you need is a whip. Mind if I go first?”
Dane nodded. “I’m right behind you.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The final door proved no challenge at all. The steps had led to a tunnel that was largely natural, though Dane’s light shone on signs of tool-marks directed at widening it. He and Bones both had to duck a little bit to walk through it. It wasn’t completely dry, but it also wasn’t as wet as Dane would have expected if some sort of care hadn’t been taken to keep out moisture.
After forty feet or so, they reached a large door constructed of wood and iron. Dane expected one more puzzle to solve to gain entry, but Bones simply reached for the huge handle and turned it. It didn’t turn as easily as an average doorknob, but it eventually succumbed to his efforts.
As soon as the door had opened enough, Bones slipped through.
Dane moved it further, surprised at how heavy it was. He could tell the door had been carefully crafted to marry closely with its frame to minimize the amount of air and water reaching the room. His surprise at this evaporated when he beheld the contents of the room, replaced by a much greater shock.
“Whoa! It’s the first Library of Congress.” Bones’ voice contained the kind of tone he normally reserved for moments when an exceptionally attractive woman passed by.
The room was similar in size to a small bedroom, and unlike the tunnel its walls were made of a combination of wood and iron similar to the door. Like the door, the wood remained in surprisingly good shape despite what Dane assumed was nearly two centuries of wear.
The walls only attracted a moment of his attention, however. Two of the walls contained shelves filled with books. Dane didn’t move, just standing and taking in what they had found. Eventually he found his voice.
“We did it Bones.”
Bones cracked a smile, which reflected something different than his normal combination of mischief and feigned innocence. This smile conveyed pure joy, and Dane couldn’t help matching it.
“Of course we did, Maddock. I never doubted us. You ready to find us a map?”
They approached one of the book cases, and Dane carefully put his hands on one volume. As he attempted to pick it up, he could feel the cover beginning to crumble in his fingers, and he immediately let it go.
“Maybe we better leave the books alone. There were three maps, right? Should be easy to find the one we’re looking for.”
Bones frowned. “If it’s even here. There were three thousand volumes in the library in 1814 when it disappeared, but there aren’t more than a few hundred here.”
“Bache wouldn’t have directed us here if the map we’re looking for wasn’t saved.”
Finding the single group of maps didn’t take long. When Bones reached for one, he immediately withdrew his hand. “If we even breathe on that paper wrong, it will disintegrate.”