By the time the sheriff got there, collected the gas can Reed had retrieved from behind the rink, and arrested the man who likely left it there, Jesse was home from work. After supper, he and Reed gathered shovels and lanterns from Si’s shed and met Daisy and Anna at the rink.
As Reed shone a light into the opening Clanahan had fallen through, they could see a flight of stone steps leading into darkness.
“Man alive!” Jesse said.
“I smell river,” Daisy said.
“How can you smell a river?” Anna wanted to know.
“Trust me. If you grew up on the Mississippi, you can smell a river.”
“So now what?” Jesse asked Reed. “Maybe Anna and Daisy should stay up here while we check it out?”
“No! I want to go!” Anna insisted.
“Daisy?” Reed asked.
“I’m goin’.”
“Well then, I guess we’ll all go,” Reed said.
He and Jesse used their shovels to tear apart what remained of a trapdoor, leaving a large opening above the steps. The four of them made their way slowly down and into the darkness below. They could hear the water before they could see it, lapping against something in the pitch black.
As their eyes adjusted to the eerie glow of their lanterns in the darkness, they could finally see what Catherine had seen—an underground tributary that had been cutting caverns beneath the pasturelands above for hundreds of years.
“I feel like we all just fell into one o’ those dang Hardy Boys books,” Daisy said. “Somebody write somethin’ in invisible ink so we’ll fit in. Hey, y’all shine your lanterns over there. What’s that?”
Reed and Jesse moved in the direction Daisy was pointing until their lights struck what must have been the dock described in Catherine’s journal. Most of it had long since rotted away, but a couple of the pilings were still there.
“So if the dock’s there,” Jesse said, “then the iron bench should be right about . . . here.” His lantern struck the remains of an iron bench. Its wooden slats were long gone, but the iron frame remained—rusty but still whole.
The foursome gathered around the bench. Jesse pushed against it, and it tilted, just as Catherine had described. He and Reed held their lanterns over an iron box below and saw two dingy white bags about the size of ten-pound flour sacks. Jesse jumped in and picked up one of the sacks. He handed it out to Reed, who set it down, opened it up, and poured out very small coins that looked like they were made of gold.
“Dang!” Daisy said.
“They’ve got a five-dollar mark on the back,” Reed said. “Looks like they came outta the plain ol’ US Treasury instead of a treasure chest.”
Jesse lifted the other bag from the iron box before climbing out.
“Looks like the same kinda coins in here,” Reed said.
“We need to figure out exactly what this is before we tell Dolly,” Anna said. “She couldn’t take another disappointment.”
Daisy nodded. “Anna’s right.”
“Well then, tomorrow mornin’ Daisy and me can take it to the bank and see what’s what,” Reed said. “Anna should prob’ly come too. This looks to be a lotta money, and I want everybody to feel sure we handled it fair.”
“Nobody here thinks you’re a thief, Reed,” Anna said. “You and Daisy go to the bank, and I’ll stay with Dolly. Right now, I think I need to go back up, Jesse. I don’t feel so good.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Maybe it’s the dampness down here and the smell of the water—it’s making me queasy.”
“Let’s get you some fresh air, then.”
“I’ll go up with Anna so y’all can take care o’ the loot,” Daisy said. “How ’bout that, y’all—we’ve got actual loot.”
Daisy took one of the lanterns and helped Anna up the stairs, leaving Jesse and Reed behind to carry up one last hope for Dolly’s house.