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"So are we still talking about the gold?" Kiara asked as we sat around the fire. I held a stick in my hand as I was using it to play with the embers. The warm glow of the fire illuminated me and the pogues. Pope and Kiara were annoyed, they had left the party which was going to get them in trouble.
"Just hear him out, all right?" JJ instructed, silencing Pope and Kiara's arguments. John B's eyes glanced around the group before he spoke. Clearing his throat first. "it's been here the whole time, it's on the island" He said, once again, looking at each of the pogues. Waiting for our reactions.
"Are you serious?" Kiara asked, her eyes widening as she looked over at me. I just playfully shrugged my shoulders, a smile on my face. "I'd like to voice my skepticism," Pope said, all eyes directed to him.
"I'm sure you would Pope, but can I please present you with my evidence, sir?" John B asked, his bag by his side. "proceed," Pope told him, waiting for something good.
"So in my backpack-" John B started, leaning down and grabbing something from his bag. My attention focused on him. "I have a letter from Denmark Tanney," He said. I furrowed my brows together as I listened, looking across the fire to Kiara who looked just as confused.
"Who the hell is that," Both of us asked, slightly laughing when we spoke at the same time.
"Denmark Tanney was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck. Check this out." John B told us, passing the note to Kiara. I was curious, I had only heard the bit about the gold not going down with the royal merchant before JJ and John B dropped me off.
"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery. So Tanney used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom. After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please, because that farm is..." John B paused and I humorously patted my legs, the pogues joining as we created a drumroll.
"Tannyhill Plantation." He said, the letter finally being passed to me. I sat, half blocking out what they were saying. My eyes scanned the paper, it was in a different language but I noticed the symbol at the bottom of the page.
"-and in the last line of that letter, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold." John B tells us, standing now as he directed the story. "where?" Kiara let out, all of the pogues attention on the boy.
"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water. Except... there's no wheat. You see, wheat is code for gold." He continued, grabbing the letter from my hands. I leaned closer to him as he pointed out the symbol I was looking at.
"The gold is in parcel nine, near the water."
"holy shit" I let out, the others reacting similarly to me. I looked back to John B as JJ pulled the map from him, taking a look for himself. "All we need is an original survey map of the property, and we've found the gold." John B let out, the group all taking their own moment to let it sink in.
