(See the end of the chapter for notes .)

Nancy and Co have finally reached the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and are hot on the trail of the treasure. What will they find? And will Nancy and Henrik be rescued in time?

In which the author is confused by American geography. Who knew the Rocky Mountains were so... well... Rocky? I blame Canada's beautiful landscapes for giving me an unrealistic expectations of what the Rockies would look like.

Chapter Text

“Be safe,” Mary told Tex, and she kissed him on the cheek. He blushed, just visible beneath his wide-brimmed hat.

“We will,” he said gruffly. “I’ll watch `im. Horses will, too.”

He mounted without fuss, and tipped his hat to his wife. Ed and Bet were standing in the shade, and Dave was perched on Bob, fiddling with his reins uncomfortably.

“Let’s get goin’, Tex,” he said.

“Take care of yourselves, boys!” Bet called, waving.

“And the horses,” Ed said.

“Later,” Dave said, and he tapped his heel against Bob’s side. The reliable old horse began to plod along, and Tex squeezed Alice’s sides, urging her to catch up. The rodeo wasn’t enough of a distraction for Dave. Since there were no competitions of interest to him that day, Tex was taking him for a ride around the countryside while Mary and the Rawleys did some sight-seeing. Mary planned to advertise the work of local artists from near the ranch, including her own, and Ed and Bet needed time away from the press of the rodeo crowds.

If there was something they could do to help, they’d be doing it, as far as Tex was concerned. The best he could do right now was keep an eye on his… ‘friend’, if that’s what they were to each other. Tex didn’t have friends, outside of Mary and the horses. He wasn’t even friends with his sister.

“Let’s head t’wards the mountains first,” Tex suggested. “Sun’s on th’ other side at the moment, so it’s a good time t’ catch the shade.”

There were a couple of people running off the mountain path, and the horses nearly reared up. Dave and Tex quietened Bob and Alice swiftly.

“Sorry, we’re in a hurry!” the woman called. She and the man ran off, hand-in-hand, and Tex rolled his eyes.

“City slickers,” he muttered.

Nancy was finally allowed to sit up in the back, and waved to Henrik in the other car, relieved to see him still alive. She wasn’t allowed a window seat, in case she tried to escape, but she ducked her head sometimes to see more of the passing landscape, and wished she had a camera or phone with her.

“You’d better be right about the Rocky Mountains,” Dwayne said, speaking over his shoulder from the front passenger seat.

“It would match El Toro’s map,” Nancy said. “At first I thought it was going to be in the La Plata Mountain Range, Plata meaning ‘silver’, which could also be a sign. But the explorers were after gold, and I don’t think the Aztecs used silver; it was probably a European name. I’m sure the location we’re looking for is in the Sierra Blanca Massif, at the base of the highest peak.”

“I wasn’t planning to get rid of Henrik once he outlived his usefulness to us,” Dwayne said. “But then I expected to have two hostages to… encourage you to find the treasure. At least we still have him for incentive. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good girl.”

They bumped along, now driving off-track; that was probably the reasoning behind using four-wheel drive vehicles. They all climbed out, Shorty giving Nancy a hand down to the ground, and she thanked him quietly before going straight to Henrik.

“Did anything happen?” he asked softly.

“No,” she said. “I’m fine.”

“Good. Let’s find this treasure, shall we?”

They walked. And walked. Clearly the drivers hadn’t parked close enough to the mountains for them to reach the base in five minutes. But they had a map, and there were a few signs scattered around the area. They drank water, Andy carrying the bag of spare bottles. Henrik kept Nancy’s arm linked in his, partly to steady both of them over the rocky ground as they walked through the pass, and partly to make sure they couldn’t be separated without realising it.

“Wish we could take a path up there,” Nancy muttered. “They’re probably paved.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Henrik said. “There don’t seem to be many paths around here. Pity we’re not better prepared for this.”

“What did the Zuni Pueblo look like?” she asked.

Henrik was silent for a minute. Nancy was patient, trying to avoid a twisted ankle.

“It was humbling,” he said. “And suntanned. Parts of it felt untouched by time and tragedy, but then I’d remember that Fray Marcos and Coronado had both stood in that same place centuries ago, and I’d wonder how much the area has changed.”

“Well, this place certainly isn’t suntanned,” she said. “We’re here, and this place is just… granite. It’s dark grey.”

“Ah, but when the sun hits it… look! At that peak. That may be the peak we’re looking for. You can see how bright the stone is with the sun on it.”

“There’s some grass up there,” she said. “But otherwise, it’s just… barren.”

“It is autumn, Nancy.”

“Still… I can’t see it being an easy climb. Can you even see anything which might have a clue?”

“Binoculars. If we had binoculars, perhaps we could see something.”

“Pity we left our only pair on board the ship,” Dwayne said.

“Hmm.” Nancy looked around. “It can’t be the smaller rocks all over the ground, because they’d move around too much. Fray Marcos knew that, El Toro would’ve known it as well. But I can’t see any indication of… a cave, or a mine. No hiding places at all. It’s too open. No centuries’-old trees. If anyone hid anything here, especially with whatever resources they had in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it had to be something unchanging.”

“Like the mountains themselves,” Henrik said.

“Yes.” Nancy’s gaze ran over the ground. “Or underground. Remember, El Toro drew the pyramid at the base of the mountain.”

“Or the top of a valley. The map was quite crude, and there were no markings to suggest what the darker patches represented.”

She traced the line of shadow, and glanced to the top of the mountain. “They never mentioned any time of day, and we don’t know when El Toro visited Colorado.”

“That’s correct,” he said.

“But… there’s something…” She started towards the base of the Blanca Peak. “I have to check something out. I’ll be back down soon!”

“Wha… go with her!” Dwayne said, gesturing wildly. Nancy heard two sets of feet running after her. She looked back, and saw one of the armed guards and Taylor.

“Good, you can stop me from falling,” she said. “Come on! It’ll be noon in less than an hour.”

“You’d better have a good reason,” Taylor grumbled. “I’m not used to running around like this. I’m wearing leather shoes!”

“You had time to pack for this trip,” she said. “I didn’t.”

They eventually reached a ridge, and Nancy looked down to the landscape below. It was a near-perfect outline of a buffalo.

“I can’t be that simple,” she whispered. “But… I don’t know how to interpret this. What am I supposed to look for? What time of day? I need more details.”

“What are you looking at?” the guard asked.

“Don’t you see the shape the mountains have made? With the shadow?”

“Some kind of bull,” Taylor said with a shrug. Nancy rolled her eyes.

“Let’s get back down to ground level before Dwayne blows a gasket,” she said.

Once they were on solid ground again – or as solid as the ground could be when it was covered in unsteady rocks – Nancy stood beside Henrik again.

“There was speculation that the name Cibola came from the word for ‘buffalo’,” she said. “There were a lot of bison herds around the Zuni area, so the name may’ve been a Native American prank on the Spanish. I kind of like that theory.”

“So do I,” Henrik said, grinning as he crossed his arms.

“What does this have to do with your little run up the hill?” Dwayne demanded.

“The shadow from the mountain in the morning makes the shape of a buffalo,” she said. “If El Toro had written down any times, or any other directions, we might’ve been able to find the treasure more easily. As it is, we’d just be digging around with no idea of where to look.”

“Just figure it out,” Dwayne said.

“But…” His scowl deepened. “Okay.”

“Nancy,” Shorty said. “You remember finding Dirk Valentine’s treasure?”

“Yeah, it was in cave dwellings,” she said. “There were markings on the… hang on, I also had to find petroglyphs. You think something might be carved into the rocks? If it hasn’t eroded away over time, maybe with avalanches or too much rain… If there’s a flat enough surface around here, something could be left. Let’s spread out. If anyone finds anything, just holler.”

“Neither of you are going alone,” Dwayne said.

“Fine, but we have to be quick,” Nancy said. “Let’s search this side first. It’s the one which cast the shadow of a buffalo. I’m starting with the head, down this end. Look for anything which looks like a drawing carved into the rock. Take photos if you can. But most of all, alert either Henrik or me, whoever’s closest.”

There was some grumbling, but they straggled out along the rocks, searching for petroglyphs. There wasn’t anything near the head, but further along the body, the front of the torso – where the heart was? – Taylor called out that he’d found something. He started copying it down, and when no one else found anything resembling pictures, they converged on his spot, Andy and his guard joining them last of all. With a bit of help, they bared the rock as much as possible, moving loose stones out of the way, until a set of six petroglyphs was revealed.

“Great work, Mr. Sinclair,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “Okay. Henrik, what do you think they mean? Dirk Valentine used petroglyphs to form the shape of one of them on a piece of paper, but I don’t know whether he drew them himself.”

“They’re not the typical sort,” he said, squatting beside her in front of the rock face.

“They’re sure not the same as the ones in Arizona.”

“If these were carved by El Toro, or perhaps even de Niza, if he ever travelled this far, they won’t be the same as Native American drawings. And de Niza didn’t have time to travel here on the first journey. There was even doubt that he reached as far as the Zuni area in the time allowed, although this was later disproved.”

“We need to copy these,” Nancy said. “Were there other drawings?” The men shook their heads. “Okay. Maybe there’s some kind of cave. How do you find underground tunnels in mountains? I had to use a cannon once, but it was already in position.”

“This could be a headdress, like the one associated with Moctezuma the Second,” Henrik said, pointing to the first symbol. “And look… there even seems to be a cross in it. Indicating royal treasure in the care of the church? Fray Marcos?”

“It could be!”

“Then a circle with lines going out. That’s fairly obvious.”

“It could be the sun, but it could have different nuances,” Nancy said. Henrik smiled, obviously remembering their first meeting, when he’d told her about the process of interpreting Mayan glyphs.

“Perhaps the noon day sun?” he said.

“It’s nearly noon now,” Shorty said, checking his watch.

“Here’s a bison,” Nancy said, tracing the third symbol, in the first column of the second row. “It’s a bit hard to see—”

“Then feel it,” Henrik said. “This is rock, not a breakable vase. You can’t hurt it.”

“It… under one of the feet, there’s a tiny cross. An ‘x’ cross, not a religious one.”

“Which foot?”

“One of the back feet, the third one along. So not right at the back.”

“And what’s next?” he asked. “The sun’s starting to come over now; it’s hard to see without sunglasses.”

“Looks like a shovel. Dig where the third foot along is located? But there aren’t any feet; it’s just the top of the bison.”

“We may just have to search along from the rear end of the shadow,” he said. “Did anyone know where that was? The shadow’s swiftly disappearing.”

“No,” Nancy said. “It’ll be where the shadow is when the sun is highest in the sky.”

“And the last two symbols?” Dwayne said impatiently.

“Hold your horses,” she said, shifting to her knees. “There’s some arrows here. Someone copy them down. Forward, right, left, forward again, right again.”

“Got it,” Dwayne said, typing on his phone while Taylor scribbled it down.

“Then the last symbol is fire. A light, I guess? Do we have a flashlight?”

“Or a spade?” Henrik asked.

“We’ve got something better,” Dwayne said. “Andy, empty out the bottles.”

Andy blankly removed the bottles of water, and Nancy was grateful to have another drink after walking around for so long, and then racing up the hill. Then Andy produced what looked like an old tape player… oh no.

“You brought a bomb?” she said.

“Live and let die, Nancy,” he said. “It’s nearly noon. You all stay back here. We’re going for a little walk.”

Henrik had to be held back by two of the Greek guards, while Dwayne hauled Nancy along, forcing her to carry the bomb, which was nearly identical to the one he’d left in Rick Arlen’s dressing room. He held a gun against her back, and now Nancy had ten times the incentive not to trip suddenly.

“And now… it’s twelve,” Dwayne said. “The sun’s high. Where’s the bison leg?”

“Looks like it’d be around here,” Nancy said. “Will the explosion be big?”

“Yes, but go big or go home, Miss Drew. Didn’t you learn anything about show business while you were pretending to be an extra at WWB?”

“Life isn’t a soap opera,” she said. “Remember?”

“Just set the bomb, and stand back here,” he said. “Actually, run back over here, to the side. Just in case there’s a landslide.”

“I hope there aren’t any other people around,” Nancy muttered. She followed the shadow of the bison as best she could, and set the bomb according to Dwayne’s instructions. Then she ran back to his side, and covered her ears.

The explosion certainly shook a lot of stones loose, but it also revealed a cave. Nancy shook the trembling feeling out of her legs. Then she preceded Dwayne into the caves, only his phone to light the way.

“At least we won’t find his bones here,” she said. “Those were on Dread Isle.”

“Quiet!” he snapped. “Here’s a cross section.”

“It was forward first,” she said.

“Lead the way, little miss detective.”

They walked through the passages, stepping over bits of debris, some probably shaken down by the explosion. Shovels would’ve been slower, but also quieter. If anyone was in the vicinity, they would’ve heard the explosion, and would investigate.

“Hey, there are stairs here!” Nancy said, after they turned left.

“After you.”

Instead of the usual excitement she felt when she came close to solving a puzzle, Nancy felt dread. Dwayne would no longer need her after this, and he’d either destroy everything he found in a fit of temper – unless they really did find an underground city of gold – or he’d steal artefacts which belonged to Doña Isabel’s people. It was completely unfair that greedy men like him should get their hands on religious relics.

Assuming there was anything left, and El Toro’s map had been a boast, not a clue. Was the treasure part of the Spanish hoard which had sunk with the rest of his fleet?

They reach the top of the stairs, and turned right again. At the next juncture, they continued forward until they found a small room, with a strange-looking wall on the right. It had seams at the corners. El Toro had rigged up a closable cave before, on Dread Isle. Had he done the same thing here?

“Where’s the gold?” Dwayne said.

“I told you there probably wouldn’t be any,” Nancy said. “Henrik told you that as well. Any research would’ve—”

Dwayne slapped her, and Nancy touched her stinging cheek in shock.

“There was a map with a golden pyramid,” he said slowly. “You found it for me. Now find me the treasure!”

“Give me your phone so I can see,” she said. He complied, and she searched the walls, beginning with the left. There was an alcove, which didn’t hold much… although it looked like there was movement inside. Nancy didn’t dare reach in.

“What’s there?” he said.

“I’m not sure. I’m gonna finish exploring first.”

On the far wall, she looked high and low, and found some low-growing plant. She cleared it out of the way, and found a long sentence in Spanish.

“Uh, it says… ‘Only the worthy will find the treasure, and the false will be doomed to a… bitter death’? I think that’s bitter. I didn’t get that many lessons from Henrik, but parts of it are close enough to French, which Hotchkiss was teaching us.”

“But the treasure,” Dwayne said. “Where is it?”

“Let me try over here,” she said, walking back to the way they’d come in. “The instructions didn’t say to go any further forward, or which side to choose, so maybe there’s something near the door.” She examined the walls from the door outwards, and realised that there was a straight line of rocks along the floor. She knelt down, and shuffled along on her knees, studying them. “There are drawings on these.”

“Are there any marked ‘treasure’?”

“I’m checking.” There was a cross on one, which Nancy dismissed; Moctezuma’s treasure wouldn’t be Christian artefacts. She found a rock with a crown and a chest of coins carved on it. “This one has treasure. I’ll just check the others.”

As soon as she was out of the way, continuing to look, Dwayne snatched the phone from her, found the treasure stone, and pressed it in. There was a loud clicking sound from the alcove Nancy had found before, and he ran over to it.

“There’s a lever poking out!” he exclaimed. He stuck his hand into the alcove, presumably to pull the lever, and then screamed in pain. He yanked his hand out, dropping his phone, and Nancy noticed a scorpion running away. Dwayne sank to the floor, gasping pained breaths, and Nancy scuttled to his side.

“Hold still,” she said. “Keep calm. Take the deepest breaths you can. Sometimes scorpion stings cause the throat to feel like it’s swollen, and I haven’t got a pen or a knife to give you a tracheotomy.”

“It kind of hurts,” Dwayne said faintly. “It’s also kinda numb.”

“Just sit still. I’m gonna check your phone for instructions on treating a scorpion sting. Darn it.” She tried to use the internet. “No reception. Look, it was only a little scorpion. Just hang in there. I can get help.”

“Door,” he slurred.

Nancy heard a scraping sound, and looked behind her to see a stone rumbling up from the threshold of the door, sealing them in. The debris in the room was finally explained: thoroughly decomposed corpses. Nancy took the light back to the stones, and wondered about the cross. But she hadn’t checked all the stones, and searched until she found… a knife, or a sword. That’s what it looked like.

The Aztec religion involved sacrifices. That she knew. Was this going to lead to the treasure, or at least an exit? Nancy pressed down on the stone, and waited.

Another click from the alcove. She crept back there, stepping over Dwayne, who was whimpering and moaning.

“Which way was the lever sticking out?” she asked him.

“L-left,” he said. The one Nancy was looking out was sticking out from the right.

“Here goes nothing,” she said, and she gingerly tugged at it.

Air! Light! She turned to see the entire right wall divide down the middle, each side disappearing into the edge. It dislodged stones which had been concealing the exit for possibly centuries. Nancy ran to the opening, and smiled in disbelief. The sun had struck the opposite mountain, and it did shine brightly. Like the pueblo de Niza had described. Not quite like gold, but still metallic. A dark silver.

“We have a way out, Dwayne!” she said, leaning against the wall in relief.

“Good.”

She barely had time to turn before he shoved, and Nancy grabbed onto the edge of the wall, screaming as her feet scrabbled for purchase on the rock. There was a straight drop for several feet, and rocks were still skidding down.

Then the most unexpected thing happened. A drone zipped up to her, and stopped inches away from her face. Nancy held tight, and glanced past to Dwayne, who batted at the drone with his uninjured hand. He seemed to be going cross-eyed, and the drone didn’t react well to being hit. It rammed back against him.

Dwayne teetered on the edge, and then seemed to be propelled forward. Nancy looked away, and caught her breath before climbing into the cave. She heard several voices calling her name from below, and looked up at the drone.

“Hello?” she said.

“Nancy!”

She frowned in confusion as the machine spoke to her in a familiar voice.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“I do not blame you for forgetting me,” he said mournfully.

“Rentaro?”

“Oh! You do remember? We are on our way. If you need first aid, open the top of the drone. There are some things inside.”

Nancy didn’t question it. She thanked him, and then opened the lid. She probably had a lot of bruises and numerous cuts, not enough for the kit to cover, but it was a kind thought, and a really useful invention.

There was another scraping noise, and Nancy spun around, expecting to see the cave close up again. But instead, either side of the doorway, two larger alcoves were opened. Inside were pieces of ceremonial armour reminiscent of the Aztecs, daggers stained with old blood, and panels with drawings, including what must have been a picture of Moctezuma II with his wife, and his children represented below. Each had the same inscription on the base of the alcove, and Nancy leaned close enough to read.

“‘Only the children of Doña Isabel can touch these’,” she said. “There are bound to be descendents. Of course, how El Toro arranged such a thing I don’t know. But… it’s best not to mess with his wishes. Thank you, El Toro. And Friar Marcos. I’ll make sure these go to the right people.”