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The park was deserted when Maddock and Bones returned beneath the cover of darkness. Further research had uncovered an account of treasure being hidden in a small recess on a cliff face in Conkle’s Hollow and marked the spot by carving an arrow in the stone. According to the story, the Native Americans who hid the treasure had reached the recess by climbing a tree, but when they returned months later, a storm had knocked the tree down, and attempts to reach the spot had failed.
They decided if there ever was a treasure there, it was long gone. Maddock concluded that without a tree, they’d use a rope and lower someone down the cliff to retrieve it. Bones added that, “Only white dudes would need an arrow to remind them where they’d hid their treasure.”
With that, the pair of experienced treasure hunters finished their research and plotted their post-midnight excursion.
The three-quarters moon in the nearly cloudless night sky, the warm front that brought with it dry air, and the fact that there wasn’t a child to rescue, changed things. It moved the climb down the cliff face below the west end of Rock House from very challenging to moderately difficult, for them. Close to impossible without ropes and tackle for just about anyone else.
Maddock remembered the route Bones had descended to rescue Billy, and approximately how far down he was when he exclaimed, “Holy crap!” Still, it took him a minute to locate the petroglyph. The fact that it was in a recess, with some vines and moss growing over it, left the carving mostly obscured. Add to that the fact that that particular part of the wall was angled away from the main trail, no wonder it hadn’t been found.
Once Maddock spotted the petroglyph, Bones moved closer and cleaned it with his knife. When he finished, their eyes met. Clinging to the rock like a spider, Bones slid his knife back into its sheath and pulled the key from his pocket.
“You found it,” Maddock said. “You can do the honors.”
Bones took a moment to examine the petroglyph before pressing the key into its center and twisting.
With a scraping sound, the petroglyph turned counter clockwise before a stone plug screwed out. Maddock used his Maglite to illuminate a narrow, hollowed out shaft that plunged deep into the rock.
Bones spotted the beam’s light reflecting off something shiny inside. He pulled his knife again, and carefully prodded, being wary of traps. There were none. After sheathing his knife, Bones reached in. Maddock whistled as he withdrew an exquisitely crafted compound bow. It was made of polished horn and dark, lacquered wood, and tipped in gold at both ends. The grip was colored bright blue.
“This is wild,” Bones said. “Look at the shape, like a flattened ‘W.’ There’s no way this was made by any tribe around here.” He handed the bow to Maddock, who examined it carefully.
“The grip almost looks like it’s colored with powdered azurite.”
“That isn’t all.” Bones withdrew another object—a golden arrow tipped with a lapis lazuli point. The feathers were white with black on the edges.
“Those look like ibis feathers,” Maddock said slowly. Native to Africa and the Middle East, the Ibis was held sacred by the Egyptians for its connection to the god Thoth. “Which means that arrow probably wasn’t crafted anywhere in the Americas.”
“Well, we know it’s not impossible that Egyptians came to this part of the world,” Bones said, remembering a particular discovery they had made many years before.
“Yes, but that was a very specific set of circumstances and probably isolated.”
“Well, check this out,” Bones said, holding the arrow to better show the symbols running down the shaft.
“Hieroglyphs! Here, hold it still,” Maddock said, before placing his Maglite in his mouth and pulling out his cell phone to take a series of photographs. It would’ve been an impossible task for most men. But, considering rock climbing skills, and much more, neither Maddock nor Bones were ‘most men.’
“What do you think we should do with it?” Bones asked.
“Put them back,” Maddock said. “We’ll get this key to that visiting professor Connie mentioned, along with instructions.”
“Don’t tell the girls?”
Maddock shook his head. “It might cause them to run afoul of those three we met earlier. People know you climbed down here to save that boy. As for the key? Who says we didn’t just find it here?”
Bones nodded in agreement before placing the arrow back into its home. How long had it been there? Maddock figured he could give his sister Avery a heads up, to watch for pictures and publications about its ‘discovery’ in newspapers and scholarly journals.
“It’s a shame to leave it behind,” Bones said. “Sort of feels both wrong and right.”
After closing everything up and Bones returned the key to his pocket, Maddock took one more photo, a quick one of the petroglyph, then slid his cell phone back into his pocket. “We found it first, Bones. Nothing will ever change that. It’s what we do.”
“It’s not the only thing we do, Maddock.”
“True. I want to follow up on this. If Egyptians came to this part of the Americas...”
“Not that. I mean rock climbing.” Bones’ wide grin captured the slivers of moonlight. “Race you to the top.”