Chapter 25
When it seemed as if I could not climb another step and my lungs were on fire, a current of cool air brushed my face. Mom felt it at the same time.
“Stop for a minute, Darcy. Let’s rest. I can breathe better, all of a sudden. There’s fresh air coming from somewhere.”
The breeze moved my hair and relief flowed through me. “Wonderful!” I said. “Praise the Lord! We are heading toward an opening to the outside world.”
Once again, I put one weary foot in front of the other, buoyed by the hope that our nightmare might be ending. I was about to stop for another breather when Mom said, “Up ahead! Look, Darcy! There’s a light.”
She was right. The dim light of day filtered into the darkness and my weariness vanished. When I was younger, I went spelunking with Jake, but if I got out of here, never again would I willingly set foot below the ground. Maybe I would just re-think my final arrangements and ask for my earthly resting place to be a mausoleum. Anything would be fine, as long as it was above the ground.
Abruptly, the tunnel came to a dead end with a wide board wall blocking our way. A sliver of light and a current of air pushed through a crack in the wall.
Gasping, I said, “I don’t see a door. How do we get out of here?”
“Maybe we just pull,” said my matter-of-fact mother. “Let’s grab hold of these boards.”
“Got it,” I answered. “One, two, three, pull!”
We both tugged with all our strength. The heavy boards inched toward us.
“Once again, Mom.” I panted. “We can do this.”
And this time, the crack widened. Grasping the boards, I yanked, giving just enough room for my slender mother to slip through.
From the other side of the wall, she said, “I’ll push, Darcy. Squeeze through.”
Grunting, I maneuvered sideways through the opening. Never had I felt happier than I did at that moment, free from the dark and forbidding earth.
Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the anemic light filtering in. We didn’t need the lantern any longer.
“Where in the world are we?” I whispered.
My mother actually clapped her hands. “I believe I know exactly where we are. Just look. It’s no wonder we couldn’t move those boards.”
On the tunnel side, the partition had seemed to be a wall or a gate. On this side, those boards were the backdrop for shelves on which sat jars of canned vegetables and fruit. Several Mason jars lay broken on the floor, knocked off when we tugged the wall open.
Amazed, I muttered, “What in the world?” Mom laughed. “I do believe we are in a cellar.”
She was right. Wooden shelves lined three walls containing the bounty of someone’s garden. In front of us, six wood steps led to a slanting door. Cracks in the door let in the pale but beautiful light of day.
“Well, I don’t care whose cellar it is. I just want out of here. I want to go home!” I started toward the steps.
“It’s Ben’s cellar,” Mom declared, stopping me in my tracks. “It stands to reason if that cave was under his pasture and we were on his land. He must have covered the back wall with shelves to hide the opening into the hiding place for the gold.”
Was Skye planning to show us the cellar when she came for a visit? She had said it was easier to show us the hiding place than tell us about it.
“Are you able to climb those steps and get out of here, Mom?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’ll get up them if I have to crawl.”
Setting the lantern on the floor, I started toward the stairs. I was standing on the second step with Mom behind me when the cellar door burst open and a large form barreled toward us, nearly knocking us over.
“Miss Darcy! Miss Flora! What are you doing here?” he yelled.
Mom caught her breath. “Jasper Harris! What under the sun?”
Peering up at this young giant towering over us, I felt neither shock nor surprise. After such an unbelievable day, I would not have been surprised to see anyone or anything. My mind and body felt numb.
We turned around and retraced our steps as Jasper clattered past us.
He seemed incredulous, staring first at my mother, then me. “Miss Darcy, you look awful. You’ve got blood and mud all over you and Miss Flora, your clothes are all torn and . . . why are you here? What are you doing messing around? Did somebody hurt you? How did you get down here? You shouldn’t be here at all!”
Not wanting to take the time to explain to Jasper all that we had been through and wanting desperately to leave this underground room behind me, I shrugged.
Jasper’s eyes narrowed. At last it must have dawned on him that we very likely knew far more about this place than anyone left alive, except himself. I could see the question coming before he asked it.
“Where did you come from? I mean, well, I don’t mean that. Have you just been down here in the cellar or did you come from . . . .” He paused and glanced at the shelf-covered wall which stood partially open and the broken jars on the floor.
Mom interrupted. “If you are wondering whether we discovered your secret, Jasper, yes. We did. We know that Ben is back there. And we know the gold is there. Two killers are after us, bad men that want Ben’s gold and they tried to kill us to get us out of the way. They chased us into the tunnel. Why did you bring Ben here? He should have been properly buried.”
Jasper’s face reminded me of a small boy who had just heard a story about monsters. “Killers?” he blustered. “Do you mean . . . are they the same ones who killed Mr. Ben?”
Sidling around us, Jasper edged toward the back wall. With a tug, he pulled it open. Lifting both hands, he turned to Mom and pleaded, “Miss Flora, you gotta believe me. I didn’t know Ben was dead until I found him in the cemetery the day of the storm. I moved him ’cause I couldn’t let him stay out in all that rain and hail. You understand, don’t you?”
Mom spoke quietly. “Of course, Jasper.”
“When you and Miss Darcy went into the chapel, the day of the storm, I slipped out the back. I had thought about what to do since I saw Ben out there on those sticks and rocks. I took him to the cave while you all were inside the chapel. I knew that Ben would want to be in that cave, but I sure couldn’t tell the sheriff! He would’ve thought I killed Ben.”
Jasper paused and wiped sweat from his forehead. “I found those rock steps by accident when I was noodling, and then I followed the tunnel on this side of the cave and came out here through Ben’s cellar. Ben never did know that I found his secret. But I guess it ain’t a secret no more. Now you all know about it and you know where Ben is.”
Jasper looked as if he might start to cry.
Rubbing his hands through his hair, Jasper paced in a circle. “How did you all get out of the cave without setting off the trap?” he asked.
I grasped his arm. “What trap, Jasper?”
He shook me off. “Never mind. Now, I gotta think about this. What am I gonna do?”
Mom grabbed the front of his shirt. “Listen to me! We are all three going to walk out of this cellar, that’s what we’re going to do. Later, we’ll sit down and figure out the whole thing. But right now, you are going to take us straight to your house so we can use the phone and call the sheriff and get Darcy to a doctor. We’ll let the law handle this.”
He shook his head. “No, I can’t do that. The sheriff would find that gold back in there with Ben and he’d throw me in jail and . . . .”
Jasper’s eyes swung toward the steps behind us just as a voice I had hoped never to hear again, said, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that, son.”
Ray Drake jumped down the cellar steps. He wore a smirk and carried a gun that was pointing directly at us. His partner was at his heels. He too held a gun. My mother took two steps toward him, then put her arm around me.
“Hammer?” she whispered.
So, this was the second man, Ben’s nephew. Or something more than a nephew? The man’s dark good looks, the arched nose and chise
led face certainly reminded me of Ben.
For a few seconds, I felt as I had when I was ten years old and fell out of an apple tree flat on my back. My lungs seemed empty and I could not breathe.
How long had they been standing outside the cellar? Had they heard Jasper talking about the gold? Hammer’s next statement answered that question.
“Just imagine finding you and Uncle Ben’s gold all in the same day! So, that’s where it is, back there!” He jerked his head toward the tunnel.
“And, to think, I’ve seen this cellar all my life and didn’t know. I’ve hunted all over these hills, killed three stubborn people and, all along, it was right under my nose! My, my. Lady Luck is certainly smiling on me.”
Mom’s voice was deadly calm as she faced Hammer Ventris. “You murdered him. You murdered Ben, a man who always treated you fairly, had always been good to you. Then you murdered that antiques dealer in Oklahoma City and Skye. Poor little Skye, your own cousin. How could you do such cowardly, evil things?”
Hammer’s eyes became black slits. “Cowardly? Evil? That depends on your line of thought. My thinking is that nobody ever wanted my mother or me. The Ventris family never let us forget that we owed them for the very food we ate. I’m going to take what I should have had in the first place. You see, Miss Flora, I knew that good ol’ Ben had a soft spot for you. He wouldn’t tell me where the gold was, no matter what I threatened. Stubborn old man! But I figured he must have told you. I’ve been back in Ventris County for quite a while. You didn’t know that I was anywhere near, did you?”
“You’re right,” Mom said. “I didn’t know you were back in Ventris County. Last I heard, you were up north. I can’t say much for the sort of friends you made there.” She motioned in Drake’s direction.
Ray Drake growled and started toward my mother. Before I could move, Jasper jumped in front of him. “Don’t you hurt her!” he yelled. “She’s a good woman.”
“Aw, get out of my way, kid,” Drake muttered. “I heard what you said about the gold. So, it’s back in that tunnel there, is it?”
Jasper’s face wore the petulant scowl of a child. “It ain’t your gold. It’s Mr. Ben’s. You’re not going to get your hands on it.”
Drake laughed. “And who’s going to stop me?”
“I am,” I said. Not that I felt courageous. I just wanted to divert Drake’s attention from Jasper who seemed to have no concept of guns and danger.
My ruse worked, probably all too well. Ray Drake turned that deadly looking barrel toward my mid-section. Grinning, he sneered, “Come on, then, if you’re feeling brave.”
I swallowed. At the moment, “brave” was not an accurate description of the way I felt.
While Drake’s and Hammer’s attention was on me, Jasper edged toward the back wall and the open doorway. Crossing my fingers, I hoped he could escape down that tunnel and bring help.
But, as he jumped through the opening, fruit jars fell and shattered. The two gunmen pivoted in his direction. Drake leveled a shot at Jasper, who disappeared in the darkness of the tunnel.
“Come back here, you dumb . . .” Drake yelled.
I felt frozen until I heard the sound of Jasper’s feet growing fainter as he ran. Drake’s shot had missed and I could breathe again.
Hammer turned back to his partner. “Stay here and watch these two. I’m going after that stupid kid!” He grinned and I felt goose bumps rise on my arms. “After I finish with him, I’ll come back and take care of these two.”
Drake’s eyes turned toward Hammer. “Hey, stay away from that gold until we can count it out together!” he yelled.
Sometimes desperation spurs even the weakest creature to act irrationally. In the three seconds Drake’s attention was on his partner, and with no doubt about what Hammer had in mind, I felt along the shelf behind me for a possible weapon. My probing fingers touched the cool, smooth sides of a heavy jar that Ben’s wife probably canned years ago. Grasping the full jar, I swung my arm around, and hurled the missile at Drake’s head.
It missed. The jar smacked Drake’s hand and exploded. His gun flew across the cellar and slid along the floor toward me. I did not think; I reacted. Adrenalin surged through me and I lunged for the gun. Grabbing the weapon, I pointed it toward the man who had caused my mother and me such anguish.
The exploding jar had sprayed its contents all over Drake’s face. He wiped peaches out of his eyes and glared at me. “That wasn’t too smart. You know you’re not going to shoot me,” he muttered.
At that moment, fury gripped me such as I had never known. The cellar receded and all I could see was Drake’s obnoxious grin, daring me to shoot.
“Just watch me,” I said.
Mom’s voice penetrated the haze. “Darcy!” she shouted. “Don’t shoot! He’s not worth it.”
Drake sneered, “Sure, go ahead. You know you don’t have the nerve.” He started toward me.
At any moment, he would jump and grab the gun. Pointing the barrel in Drake’s direction, I closed my eyes, and squeezed the trigger.
The gunshot, in that confined space, sounded like a cannon. The bullet hit the wall behind Drake, zinged across the room, and clinked into a shelf beside me. I hadn’t considered a ricochet. For the space of half a dozen heartbeats, the three of us stood motionless.
Then, a big, black-looking blob appeared and spread across Drake’s trouser leg, just above his knee. Staring at it, then at me, he croaked, “You shot me.”
Evidently, the slug went through his leg before it bounced around the cellar. Glaring at me with pure hatred burning in his eyes, he slowly crumpled, like a disjointed puppet, to the floor.
Glancing at Mom, I expected to see her faint, but she astonished me. Her voice was strong as she said, “All right, he’s not going to hurt us. Let’s get out of here before that snake Hammer comes back.” She plucked the gun from my suddenly limp fingers and slipped it into the pocket of her shirt.
“We are taking this with us,” she said.
Turning our backs on Drake, who was screaming things no lady should ever hear, we hurried up the cellar steps to freedom. The feel of fresh, clean, moving air propelled me into the brightness of day-light. The rain had stopped at last and the sun had slipped toward the western horizon.
The longest day of my life was drawing to a close. I felt as if I had been underground for a week.
We paused on the cellar’s top step. “Thank You, Lord,” Mom whispered.
The spring day smiled innocently at us as if it knew nothing of storms or murderers or dead bodies. A raucous crow flew above the roof of Ben’s red barn.
Mom pointed to an old, crumbling stone wall near the barn. “Let’s get behind that fence,” she said. “Hammer may come poking out of the cellar at any minute and, remember, he has a gun too.”
We were halfway to the stone fence when the explosion came. A roar like a dozen freight trains crashed against my eardrums. The ground shook, an acrid smell filled the air, and it felt as if a giant hand pushed me to the earth.
Dazed, Mom and I stared at each other. “What happened?” I asked.
Slowly, I raised up on my knees and helped my mother from her prone position. A cloud of dust and smoke poured from the open cellar. Its door lay on the ground beside us. I watched, hypnotized as a yellow-black cloud drifted up into the sky and dissipated.
Like a gray ghost rising from the depths of the earth, a figure emerged from the cellar. It staggered toward us and flopped down at our feet.
“He bumped against the wire to my trap,” Jasper said, gasping for air. “I didn’t want to hurt nobody but anyhow, he won’t bother you no more.”
I put out my hand to touch Pat’s dirt-covered son, just to be sure he was real. My voice sounded faintly over the ringing in my ears.
“He? Who, Jasper? Was it Hammer that set off your trap?”
Jasper nodded.
Mom scooted beside him. “And Drake? What about Drake?”
Jasper wiped grime off his
face with his shirt sleeve. “He’s still there in the cellar. He’ll be there when Grant comes, I reckon. I knew Hammer was going to bump that wire. I yelled at him to stop but he shot at me. I started back to the cellar and the explosion happened and knocked me down.”
An overwhelming weariness filled every muscle and bone of my body. I did not think I could move, even if I saw Drake and Hammer both coming at me.
“Your trap, Jasper, what kind of trap did you build?” I asked.
He breathed deeply and said, “I borrowed some dynamite from that ol’ geezer that was damming the creek. I just took one stick and I wedged it in a crack close to that shelf that has the gold. I ran a wire from the stick and let it dangle above that wall that turns. I don’t see how you all missed gettin’ blown all to smithereens if you were around that turnin’ wall.”
Shaking my head, I admitted that I didn’t understand either. But my mother did.
“God sent an angel to protect us,” she said.
Somewhere down the road that led from Ben’s place to town, came the wail of a patrol car. Or maybe it was an ambulance. Whichever it was, some worried neighbor must have heard the explosion and called the authorities. I was glad. It would be good to see Grant again. I wouldn’t even mind if he yelled at me.