Black and White Vincent

by the sea. I need a break and have sixty days of vacation saved up."

"But you can't go on vacation for sixty days..."

"Yeah but if I don't start using some I am going to lose it. Both the days and mentally."

"Who'll run the library?"

"I thought I'd ask Cosmole..."

A what?

"Nobody believes in treasure hunts."

"Nobody has time for treasure hunts."

Nineveh

Nineveh, City of Ishtar, by moonlight. Silver lines, sharp edges and all the spectra of the shadows, the purple and blue inevitability of death. And now again, there is a shrill yipping that is tied by the neck; the piping of an unhappy dog tearing the peace of old rest.

A moment, a day, a month, we had one year. But there in that blue flame of moonlight, in Nineveh, that is the memory where I send my heart to rest.

I used to think of Jericho as up the Jordan, "but it is not, it is hard by the Dead Sea..!" I learned so much from you. When we listened to Harry in the tent. Love slow as a rich dig, brushes, chamois and silk.

You told me of my gullibility, laughed at my naivete. Telling me we were no longer in the US, here people played for lives over pride, "Watch your tongue, at first you will amaze them with your innocence, then they will eat the little lamb all gone." I remember they salted a green peach.

The river abandoned Babylon, Ashur and Ur. I know their desolation. I still feel it, twenty years hence. The difference? Now I look down on Nineveh.
You found me Donovan’s Atlantis. I miss you so much...
HGM [Hurdy Gurdy Man]

The Russian Connection

Gold ingots jewels and coins. It was a small start on a horde. No worked pieces of any kind, those would be missed soonest. Any of it could be missed. Why any would understand. That is why it is kept locked up. But he had a theory that value draws value, as well as all the other things it calls too. And his firmly held conviction that treasure is for those who can hold on to it. It had been stolen in the first place and what followed was the history of its ‘acquisition’.

There was a hunting party going to America. He was going. He also held the conviction that treasure in proximity to its last owner was in greater jeopardy than was usually the case with treasure. Nikki was thinking back to the first expedition to the ‘West’. He had been fourteen and had reveled in the rigors of camp life. He gathered and chopped wood though it was not necessary for himself to do so. He went with the scouts fo locate the game, while the rest of his party stayed soft in camp. Soon enough the he had the respect of the scouts and the ‘Major’ for his ability to hike and ride and do so skillfully. His shooting and hunting ability rose steadily. He was tanned and sad when they broke the last camp and rode to the train. The end of the season returned them to blue winter and long nights.

Research in Denver

"To really know where the treasure came from, we’ll will need to return to Denver, it’s not a bad place if you don’t mind looking at the mountains through power lines.", Liz.

"I like Denver."

"I do too. There is this one bar aging gracefully, has a drink called the the ‘Cowtown Cufflink’, mellow, carmel, without a doubt the smoothest skinned knee you’ll ever have..."

"What’s in it?"

"I don’t know.. Anyway, back to the Western reading room, DP library. .:.

"Is there any history to indicate a Masonic treasure trove anywhere locally or statewide for that matter?.. Is it just me, or does it smell a little like a tack shop in here?", Liz.

"Yes, a lot of our older books have leather bindings, so you got that right. And yes there are some indications..The Masonic connection to the forefathers is generally well known. But there was a time in the nineteenth century that they were rather reviled and persecuted in some places, instances of attacks on Masonic Halls some burnt down. I have seen some references to caches being made, lodges bringing their ‘instruments to a place so they could be safeguarded." Clark, librarian.

"I had no idea. So do think there could be such a cache?"

"Perhaps, but there is one group of women that have what they think are some very good clues to a family treasure that has a connection to Czarist Russia, but is also mixed up with the Masons, I have her number. Let me go and get it." Clark goes back into the offices behind the counter.

The Watercolor

It hung in the kitchen and it had greeted every day for a hundred and twenty eight years. It had hung in this spot, in this kitchen, for thirty one years now. She would not tell you she had seen something new in it everyday, but she would say continually, weeks adding to a new mood. Because that was what light was, mood. The joys and contented moments among the Sun warmed woods of her kitchen.

What if a soul were like a tree?. The Spring and the joy where life is in new growth and the seasons run and the dormancy comes. Sleeping in the blue depths, Given a new cycle to go with the older rings? She took another sip of tea...

What is it?

I am calling it a lavalliere. It is a sphere, diameter of 5/8" [16mm], composed of six pyramids, hinged in the standard unfolded cube pattern, so that when it folded point to point the four clasps can be snapped tightly so that to look at it it just a small orb I suppose it could be worn as a pendant or a watch fob, perhaps even as a charm on a bracelet. Unless you saw it up close and examined it carefully, you would not imagine it to be a small group of hidden symbols or messages.

These symbols where scattered in quite a number of places in the journals, drawings of the panels, independantly and as groupings. I hadn't really started connecting them until there was one particular set of drawings...

It was nested in an old dictionary, the onion skin pages had been bored out just enought to close upon the lavalliere in its chamois drawstring sack.

Blogs in General

Most blogs start with the earliest material at the front, Which means furthereset in the past. So it will be helpful to take a look at the older portions.

Second Opinion

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/travel/escapes/11crestone.html

School Daze

"Volume of a Cone equals Pi x r² x h over 3 .
Pyramid V = A x h over 3.
Sphere V = 4 x Pi x r³ over 3.
Does anyone see any similarities?" The air in the classroom had been scooped out of a million yawns. The dust motes languid as the afternoon strolled on.

"Over three., that’s correct..", though no one had replied, out of the stupor induced by lunch. The door swept the worn but raised arc of the carpet as Breezy came in, her eyes wide open. Mr. Chas said, "Go ahead and put your heads down on your desks and just relax for a few minutes. He walked over to the door, stepped through and pulled it mostly too. "What’s up?"

She draws him closer, whispering, "There’s a map for the treasure, really. They’ve got it over at the library. I can’t believe it, You know how rich we’re gonna be?! I can finally get a new car, and a new wardrobe, a vacation.."

Mr Chas was hearing small giggles and rustlings, they were comatose just thirty seconds ago.
"Okay, Breezy, thanks for the news. Duty calls.."

"The principal wants to see you in his office. Like now.. I’m supposed to watch your class for you..."

"Alright, but first, I don’t want you to let them get to worked up. This is science not circus. And don’t tell them about the treasure. Let them find out at home..? Right?"
She nods and they go in to explain the change in schedule.

In the office.
The principal is standing looking out the north window looking at the peak in question. He had pulled the blinds to the ceiling, letting his words bounce off the glass. Mr Chas, who now felt the soporific of afternoon seated, he shook himself as he heard the tone, question, first part missed..
"Well? How much do you think it’s worth?"

"That would be difficult to say since we haven’t found it."

"Yet, Yet, Not Yet!" Mr Chas thought the principal sounded like a cheerleader on steroids, in a losing cause.

"Alright., not yet. Shall we cancel school until we do?"

"No, no of course not..."

"What’s the rest of it Clem?"

"Well I thought I might.. Well, I might take a few days off.. I mean if you thought you guys could get along without me..? I’ll make it up to you..."

"Alright.", is what Mr Chas said, and behind his neutral visiage, thinking, "at last a break" and I should really give poker a try.

"What do you mean alright?"

"Alright. You can make it up to me.."

The principal was headed out the door, saying, "I will, I’ll make it up to you. If my wife calls tell her I got called across the valley on district business. See ya next week."

When Mr Chas got back to his rowdy classroom the first question they asked him was, "What are you gonna buy?"

"Okay Breezy, you had better get back to the office. Somebody is going to need to monitor the phone. Alright Class! You can all hunt treasure in one hour and forty seven minutes, at three o’clock. Back to volumes..."

Mallow

"What are those?", had stopped the argument, that had burst into her office and continued at her desk. Biddy and Martha stared at the hand tooled leather covers all a different shade covering the spectrum, Cordovan pastels..

"Theyare from.., my mother, she is getting on and she wanted me to have them before she passed, in case I had any questions after reading them... Family stuff.."

"Mind if I look?" Biddy started around the desk, same old arguments forgotten..

"Yes, I DO! And how dare you two just pop in here without knocking first..."

"We never knock.."

"Yes I know and I am tired of it! Back out front!" barked Liz, as she rose from her desk and herded the ladies out of her office.

Well you know how small towns are. The Too Much Time On Our Hands Detective Agency was soon full time on the case. AKA, Martha and Biddy against all others. "No she hasn't got any packages lately... I shouldn't be discussing this, postmaster have my ass..." No mail.

"An apple pie? For me?"

"Oh go on Horace! It's not like we haven't done nice things for you before..."

"When you want something."

"Shame on on you! Biddy let's go.."

"Homemade, right, crust and fillin?"

"Shame on you again! Let's go Martha.."

"Come on in.." And he swings open the screen door.

"I'm telling you, no callers, no visitors, no UPS or Fedex. She just lives across the street not down the block. Mabel on the next block, she's hard to keep track of.. This certainly is good pie. I'm just gonna slip it into some tupperware, so you can take this dish right on home.."

Out on the sidewalk, "He didn't even rinse this out." No deliveries...