Page 63 of In the Pursuit of Haven
(S)1751: R.P.::D.E. 1751(N)
1751
(E)
1751 was written four times. “There are four numbers in the date—one for each direction. And look!” I said. “Each of the numbers in 1751 touch one of the points on the compass.” This could work!
He tilted his head, watching me blankly.
“You see? We just turn the handle like a combination lock—sort of… except it goes four different directions.” I rushed back down the stairs and tested the handle, pushing it up and down and side to side while I listened to its responding click. This was no normal handle. So far, my theory was spot on. “So, using the numeral one in 1751, we push the handle once to the south,” I said.
“Why?” Jessie asked.
“Because the number one is closest to south in the clue,” I said. “See? Up there!”
“Oh! And then, you’ll push it seven times towards the west because the number seven in 1751 is directly under west?” Jessie asked.
He was catching on. “Yes, like that,” I said, “but… I hit a snag with my theory. “Do I start with the one in 1751 or do I start with north?”
“When measuring your bearings, we start north,” he said with the confidence of an experienced navigator, “then go clockwise, but… huh, wait.” He ran his fingers over the inscription. “Bad news—the compass rose is all turned around up here,” he said. “West is where north should be.”
And the compass rose wasn’t turned around on the compass. “That’s not bad news,” I said.It’s our clue.“Okay, we start west. That’s what this riddle is telling us.” I returned the handle to the neutral position in the center. “Seven is under west?”
“Yes, directly beneath it, but I’m not sure if that’s what this means…”
I moved the handle seven notches to the west. My breath caught when the handle let me do it. “Okay, what’s the next number going clockwise?”
“The number one is next to north.” He sounded unconvinced, but even if we had it wrong, we had to start somewhere.
I moved the handle one notch north.
“If we keep going with this pattern,” he said, “then the numeral five is over east.”
I listened to the clicks as I pushed the handle five times that way.
“This is just too complex,” Jessie said. “Don’t get your hopes up.”
Too late!“The last number is one?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah, the numeral one in 1751 is the closest to south, according to this marker.”
I jerked the handle down once and the side of the casket swung open like a cupboard door.
Jessie stumbled down the stairs in his hurry to see what had happened. He scrambled next to me as we both stared into a narrow tunnel. This was our secret passageway.
“This is crazy,” Jessie said. “That should never… that should never…”
“… be here?” I asked. “You got that right!”
And now we were supposed to crawl through this creepy opening? To what? I couldn’t bring myself to go caving, and who knew what was on the other side of this? “Well, we found it,” I said. “What are we supposed to—?”
The stone covering the tomb above us began to scrape open. I heard Hunter arguing with his team as his voice echoed below us. “Stop worrying. Just let me do the talking. We look legit as long as we throw outhisname…”
“Let’s go!” I whispered. Landing on my elbows, I wriggled through the black chasm into whatever horrible thing lay beyond us. Jessie was right behind me. Maybe I should’ve let him go first, but I wasn’t about to wait for Hunter to catch up to us again. The light of Jessie’s flashlight illuminated only a few feet in front of me as we inched our way through.
I twisted to look back at Jessie’s fleeting form under the light. “Get that door shut behind you.”
“Working on it.” He kicked backwards and I listened to the door we’d discovered slam shut, cutting off Hunter’s voice.
