The Lost Treasure

Dr. Samuel Lee took a swig of water from his Camelbak and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his wrist. The summer heat in the middle of the jungle was starting to wear him down – and the heavily packed rucksack definitely wasn’t helping. Dr. Lee slashed his way through a growth of vines with his silver machete, inherited from his late grandfather and renowned treasure hunter, Sir Jameson P. Lee. Lee’s grandfather discovered a sunken ship, captained by the infamous pirate Blackbeard, off the coast of Argentina with around $2.5 million worth of pirate plunder – including this silver machete.

Lee’s grandfather kept a journal throughout his days of searching for treasure, containing a plethora of clues, notes, symbols, and secrets. This black, leather-bound book had a gold trim around the edge and the letters “JPL” etched onto the cover - his grandfather's initials. Its content was a mystery to most, but not for Lee. It had taken several years, but he was able to track the last clue left behind by his grandfather – coordinates decoded from a series of symbols found in the captain's quarters of Blackbeard's sunken ship.

"Blackbeard smuggled loads of treasure across the globe," Lee's grandfather once told him. "Silver, gold, gems, spices, rum, all of it. If it was valuable, Blackbeard knew about it - which is why I know these symbols lead to something, somewhere..."

When Lee's grandfather discovered the ship, a tablet engraved with the symbols was found in a drawer in a waterlogged desk. Along with the symbols was the phrase written in Latin:

"When the time is right, let the heavens be your guiding light. Like father like son, when they reunite, riches will be in sight."

The markings and this cryptic phrase were copied into the little black book before the original tablet was generously donated to the Cairo museum, and now Lee was staring right back at these same clues.

A fly buzzed past Lee’s ear as he trekked through the humid wilderness. His arms ached from cutting through the brush, but the glimmer of light reflecting off his machete was a constant reminder of his goal.

Treasure.

He pulled out the GPS tracker. The blip on the screen marking the location his grandfather left him was just up ahead. He was close. Close to what, however, Lee had no idea. Nor did his grandfather. The trail runs cold at these coordinates, but Lee was determined to finish his grandfather’s work.

He ventured forward, swatting bugs and dodging the tree roots that littered the jungle floor. It was getting late, and the falling sun was casting an array of shadows between the trees. An aura of nervous excitement shrouded Lee.

What if it's a dead-end? he wondered. Or even worse, what if someone else beat me here...

His thoughts were interrupted by a stream of beeps coming from the GPS tracker. As he made his way through a clearing in the trees, the sound grew much quicker. The rapid tones from the device gave Lee a burst of energy as he picked up the pace towards the glowing dot. He could see a shadowy mass of boulders straight ahead, which had to be what the tracker was pointing him towards. He hesitated, at first not sure what to expect, but then proceeded to the cluster of rocks.

As he approached, a ray of sunlight shone directly on the stones. This must be fate... Lee thought to himself, a wave of exhilaration coursing through his body. Another several paces and he was at the odd grouping of rocks. There were several tall boulders, reaching almost fifteen feet high, towering over a much smaller stone, rendering it nearly invisible beneath the shadows. Rock formations like this were not uncommon in the jungle, but it was no coincidence that the coordinates led to this one. Lee made his way around the rocks, looking for anything that stood out - symbols, etchings, a map, a clue, a treasure. He ran his hand across the rocks as he circled the formation, feeling for any crevice that could be hiding a secret.

But he found nothing.

Nothing, that is, until the setting sun pierced through the canopy. A glisten caught Lee's attention, emanating from the darkness below the imposing boulders. The sun's beams were hitting the smaller rock at the perfect angle, causing the cracks to shimmer brightly in the shadowy mass.

"When the time is right, let the heavens be your guiding light..." Lee whispered audibly. The glow was oddly familiar, and in that instant, Lee remembered how the light had bounced off his machete earlier. Lee checked his watch. It was 6:32 pm.

This must be the right time Blackbeard's message was referring to, and with the sun shining on these rocks...

He knelt down and touched the shining rock. What was laying in front of him was no ordinary rock, but a vein of silver!

Lee tried to lift the silver ore but had no luck - it was far too heavy and partially buried beneath the ground. Frustrated, he gave it a kick with his steel-toed boots. Then, he remembered the second half of the riddle:

"...Like father like son, when they reunite, riches will be in sight."

Like father like son? Lee questioned. Does my father have the answers? Or maybe Blackbeard's father..?

Lee needed to think. He took his backpack off and plopped down onto the forest floor, giving his legs a chance to finally rest. He drew his machete and began to sharpen it with the sheath's built-in whetstone, an unconscious habit he developed whenever he was deep in thought.

What riches are in sight? he thought, as sparks flew from the sharpening of the machete, landed by his feet, and then sizzled out on the damp jungle ground. He looked around, straining his eyes to see anything that could point him to the next clue.

And then it clicked.

He looked at his machete, and then to the vein of silver that lay in front of him. He realized the roughness of the vein was not naturally formed, almost as if part of it was mined out. Lee knew what had to be done.

"Like father like son," he spoke in awe, "when they reunite..."

He picked up his freshly sharpened silver machete, raised it high above his head, and in one fell swoop, he struck down on the rock, splitting it clean in half.

Lee had finally understood what the riddle meant. Blackbeard himself must have been here before to mine out some of the silver. The machete that Lee was currently holding in his hands must have born from this exact same silver vein, and when he "reunited" the machete and the vein it was forged from, he found exactly what he was looking for.

With the freshly split rock in front of him, he was able to finally dislodge the pieces, revealing a small cavity in the ground, just big enough to hide its content: a rusted metal lockbox.

Lee carefully lifted the container out of the ground and set it on top of the now broken stones. There was a small leather band on the outside with a bronze buckle that Lee cautiously undid. The leather bounds loosened around the box fell to the ground. Lee took a deep breath, and then slowly lifted the top open.

Inside, was a two-piece glass casing with intricate etchings on top and a crack running through the side. He pulled it apart, and let out a gasp of relief and wonder.

A stack of United States $100 bills now rested in his palms. He thumbed through the bills, catching a whiff of stale paper and jungle rainwater. Lee took the first bill off the stack and examined it closer. This wasn't just an ordinary bill. This was an 1864 interest-bearing banknote with a depiction of George Washington on the front.

Lee remembered one of the first entries in Lee's grandfather's journal detailed a missing American treasure. He opened the little black book and found a passage mentioning "a lost circulation of currency printed in the mid-1800s with a portrayal of our First President, that many thought to have never even existed." Only a handful of people have ever claimed to see one, let alone have it in their possession, and after a count and a recount, Lee was holding exactly 200 of them - totaling $20,000.

Lee's hands trembled as he continued to read through the journal entry. His grandfather's entry had noted that the rarity and allure surrounding these bills would have drastically increased their worth past their face value. Lee flipped the page, and read a passage written by his grandfather:

"I continue my search to find the elusive Washington '64s. To find such a treasure would be priceless. I have no use for their monetary value, their mere existence would be enough fulfillment for a lifetime. If I, Sir Jameson Lee, can discover the existence of said banknotes, I would dutifully give back to the establishments that have so educated me in the ways of our history. The Cairo, the Louvre, the Smithsonian, they would all share a part of this history. However, I cannot but help to wonder about their actual worth. I estimate their value, beyond that of the face, to be approximately $200,000 in today's standards..."

Lee was at a loss for words. He had to reread the last line twice. Each bill was worth around $200,000. He had just discovered a $40 million lost American treasure.

But he knew that the real value was, as his grandfather said, priceless. Lee carefully put the bills back into the glass casing, back into the rusty black box, and stowed it away in his backpack. He knew what he had to do. He knew where he had to go.

He knew grandfather would be so proud.