A Matter of Trust

16 -No Rest

They stood in front of the base of the statute, staring up in awe at the size and the mass of carvings that covered the surface. Gretta climbed up a few feet and examined a section of them more closely while Arnold and the professor probed around looking for an entrance.

"The only thing I can see is this slot," Arnold said, pushing aside some vines and shoving his fingers into a long slit. "If this is it, whoever used it must be built like a business envelope." Gretta dropped down beside him and studied the aperture, then scrambled back up on the face of the statue and began tracing the carvings with her fingers. "See anything?"

Time seemed to drag unmercifully as Arny watched the pair, noses close to the stone face, fingers tracing each little groove and bump.

"Well?"

"I think so. Look for a symbol like an upside down coat hanger without the hook."

"A triangle?"

"Okay a triangle, but with rounded corners... like a coat hanger."

Another agonizing delay of silent scrutiny then, "Over here, Gretta!" The professor called excitedly.

She scrambled up beside him and examined the symbol then felt around the adjacent symbols until her fingers felt one of them move. "Got it! See the notches?"

"What?"

"The key." She pulled the symbol from the rock face and showed them the slender piece of stone. "This is the equivalent of leaving the door key under the mat." She dropped back down by Arnold and fitted the key into the slit he'd found. Almost instantly there was a loud grating sound and two seams that hadn't even been visible before, opened as a large rectangular section of stone lowered into the statue like a drawbridge.

"Ali Baba!" Arnold waved away the small cloud of dust that the movement of the door raised. He looked at Gretta and the professor and finally appreciated the depth of the emotion that went into a discovery of this magnitude. "Do we go in?" He asked.

"Have to think about that for a minute," Gretta cautioned. "If it closes when we're all inside we could be in very big trouble."

"Arnold can stay out here with the key," the professor urged. "Show him what you did and let's get inside." His eyes, magnified behind his glasses, looked wild; the calm, studious personality they'd seen up to now was suddenly morphing into an uncontrollable display of avariciousness.

"Hold on, Cheesy. We need a plan. We need to-"

"I'm going in!" He dropped his pack on the ground and armed with only his flashlight, the professor ran down the sloping ramp and disappeared inside the statue.

"Jesus, what got into him?"

"Uncle William used to call it, site fever. I didn't think Cheesy would be susceptible after all his experience." Gretta stepped into the entrance and shone her light down the ramp, calling after the professor.

"Now what?"

Gretta went to the slot and began removing the key. The ramp creaked and started its slow journey back to the original position. She pushed the key back and the ramp returned to the ground.

"Since we can't take it out, I think we follow his suggestion. You wait out here with the key and I'll go after him."

"I don't like that plan. What if our friend Vincent shows up?" He watched her process the question-too slowly. "No. You know what? We'll both go. Cover the key with- with vines or something so they won't see it and we both go. I'm not staying out here alone."

Inside the statue the air was dry and musty, dust clung to the roof of their mouths and tasted gritty; Gretta's light probed along the inner wall, pausing at each display of artistically executed symbols, all in surprisingly bright colours. The divots of the professor's footprints in the sandy floor guided them along the wide tunnel.