"It's a good thing you're so experienced with that knife," Sean said.
"This thing? I've never used it like that before."
Tommy's face grew instantly concerned. "Wait. What do you mean, like you've never killed a snake with it like that before?"
"Nah, Tom. I mean I've never even thrown it like that before. Much less to kill a venomous snake. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I could do it or not. I'll have to remember that little trick. Now, you blokes want to get something to dig up this piece of rock, or are we going to stand around here all day talking about snakes?"
Tommy stared in disbelief at Reece. Sean bit his lower lip to keep from laughing.
"It's not funny, man. I could have been killed," Tommy said.
"Oh don't be so dramatic," Sean said. "You heard Reece. It would have taken you forty-five minutes to die."
"Thank you. Very helpful. Now can we please just try to not talk about the snake anymore and dig this thing up?"
Chapter 17
Finding anything useful in the way of digging tools was a chore in and of itself. Sean offered to run back to the vehicle to get some things, but Tommy insisted they didn't have time. The setting sun to the west wasn't slowing down, and dusk would be on them soon.
They still had a good ninety minutes of daylight, but Sean decided not to chase the point. Instead, they found some sticks and small rocks that served the purpose albeit slower than actual tools.
As they cut away at decades of packed dirt, the group realized the white stone was almost a perfectly shaped rectangle. It measured about two feet in length and eighteen inches across. Fortunately, they didn't have to dig very deep to figure out what it was.
Almost twenty minutes into their work, Sean stopped and pointed. "It's a lid," he said.
Adriana leaned over his shoulder and spied the inch-thick stone top. "And a matching box underneath."
"Would be nice if we had something to pry it off," Sean said, casting an accusatory look at Tommy. "Like, I don't know, a crow bar?"
Tommy sighed. "You may have to go get one of those," he resigned. He ran his finger along the seam between the stone container and the lid. This seam is too tight for us to use our fingers."
"And I don't feel like breaking my knife," Reece added.
Sean didn't put up an argument. He turned and trotted back toward the path and a minute later was out of the chasm and back on the main trail. The sun dipped low on the horizon, much lower than he believed it to be when he checked the time while digging.
It was getting late.
He picked up the pace and jogged back to the car. There were only a few tools in their gear bags for doing any sort of excavation: brushes, some small spades, nothing that would really help to lift the stone lid. The car's tire iron, however, did have a nice flat edge to it that would make getting leverage on the heavy object a little easier. Lifting it up enough, on the other hand, might prove impossible."
Sean grabbed one of the spades — just in case — and the tire iron, and started back for the chasm. Something glinted on the eastern horizon, and he froze in place.
"What's that?" he muttered. He kept staring out into the growing darkness to see if he could figure where the burst of light came from. His eyes narrowed, and he put the bridge of his hand against his forehead to shield it from the waning sun. "Must be seeing things."
From time to time, Sean's instincts were a little too on edge. He heard noises in the night that turned out to be nothing. That didn't keep him from staying awake for another hour on those nights.
He started back toward the gap and stopped again to give one last look. He searched the horizon close to where he'd seen the glint. Still nothing. Maybe it was an animal, a stray dog with a shiny collar, perhaps. Sean shook it off and hit the trail.
It took him less than eight minutes to get back.
"What took you so long?" Tommy asked.
Sean decided not to bring up whatever it was that had distracted him. No need to worry the others over nothing. "Thought we had more digging supplies than this."
He handed the tire iron to Reece. "Care to do the honors?"
"Sure."
"Why not me?" Tommy protested.
Sean's eyebrows knit together. "I don't want you to hurt yourself. And that stone looks heavy."
"It can't be that heavy." He crossed his arms and did his best to sound offended.
"I didn't say it was."
Adriana covered her mouth to hide the laughter.
Reece pressed the iron against Tommy's chest and stepped in front of him. "Excuse me."
Reece bent his knees and shoved the iron's sharp edge against the tight seam between the two pieces of stone. He had to wiggle it back and forth before it worked into the opening. Tommy and Adriana watched with intense anticipation. Sean, however, kept looking over his shoulder back toward the entrance to the chasm, just in case.
Reece tried to pry the lid up, but the iron's edge slipped out. He grunted in frustration and started over again, working the slim piece of metal back into the gap. The second time, he shimmied it back and forth in a wider arc until the flat piece was deep into the seam. He looked over at the others. "Be ready when I get this thing up," he said. "Brace it with your spades if you can. Then we can all get a grip underneath it and lift it up."
The others nodded. Sean and Adriana crouched down to the lid and held the little tools close.
"Ready," Sean said.
"I feel useless," Tommy said, still sounding pouty.
"You are. Okay, Reece, do it."
Before Tommy could retort, Reece lifted the tire iron. He used as much leverage as he could and — at the same time — kept shoving the thing forward so it wouldn't slip out. As soon as the heavy lid was a few inches off its seat, Sean and Adriana wedged the flat ends of their spades under it. Reece pulled the iron out and dropped it on the sand. The lid stayed elevated, propped up at a tenuous angle.
"Should probably go ahead and get this thing open all the way," Reece said. "Don't know how long those little shovels are going to hold."
Tommy stepped in next to him and grabbed the underside of the lid. "What are you waiting for?" he asked.
Reece grinned and gripped the lid. The two grunted and lifted the flat stone. Moving it was slow at first, but when they got it high enough, Sean had room to grab a corner and help. With his assistance, the thing went up easily, and a moment later, the lid reached its zenith and toppled over, crashing to the ground on the other side.
Dust erupted on all sides and sent up a cloud around the immediate area for a minute. The visitors waved their hands around to clear the air faster. When the dust finally settled, they all leaned in a little closer, staring into the white stone box. It was empty.
For a few seconds, the group didn't believe — or didn't want to believe — there was nothing in the chest. The drive, the effort to lift the lid, all the time they'd wasted, and for what? To find nothing?
Sean put his hands on his hips. "I have to say, I expected there to be something, anything."
"You don't think there was something in there before and somebody came along and took it, do you?" Adriana's question was the same one Reece was considering.
"No," Tommy said. "You can tell from the ground around the lid that it hadn't been touched in a long time, several decades at the very least. I'd say the last person to see this thing was Mathews himself."
"So why is it empty?" Reece asked.
Sean took his eyes off the chest and looked back at the chasm entrance. Darkness was settling across the land to the east. They were running out of time and needed to get to Alice Springs for a warm meal and a comfortable night's rest. He rubbed his eyes at the thought, the fatigue finally catching up to him.