point on the ground. They lit a human skeleton.
It lay on a stone tablet where the rock ceiling dipped low, its feet closest to them.
âItâs all right,â Sam said to Ruby, placing a hand on her shaking arm. âI think heâs dead.â
Ruby unwound herself from Geraldâs shoulders. âHardly anyone likes you,â she said to her brother, doing her best to still the quaver in her voice. âYou know that, donât you?â
Gerald inched closer to the skeleton for a closer look at the nest of bones. The body was lying on its back, with its right arm stretched behind its head, as if pointing to something deeper into the cavern. The dull grey of the bones suggested it had been there a very long time. Then the lamp caught a glint on the extended hand.
âThereâs something on one of the fingers,â Gerald said. He dropped to his knees and crawled closer.
âItâs a ring,â he said. âA gold ring.â
Then Gerald gasped.
âWhatâs the matter?â Ruby asked, poking her head out from behind Sam.
âThe ring,â Gerald said. âI think it has my family seal on it.â
âNo!â Ruby said. âHow can that be?â
Sam squeezed in beside Gerald, shining his light onto the hand. âThree arms locked in a triangle around a sun,â he said. âLooks like it to me.â
Gerald reached out to take the band of gold but it was stuck on the curled finger, clenched and locked in place by a thumb. And it wouldnât budge.
âHold on,â he said. âThis isnât bone. Itâs more like stone.â
âFossilised,â Sam said. âAll that silt from the bay. All those high tides. A thousand years ago the water must have reached in here and covered him up.â Sam rapped his knuckles on the skull, which emitted a hollow clonk . âLooks like Rubyâs not the only petrified thing down here. This guyâs made of stone.â
Gerald tugged hard on the finger and with a final grunt of effort it snapped off, releasing the ring into his hand. He buffed it against his shirt and held it next to the one on his left hand. Under the yellow beam of the headlamp, the rings gleamed in the surrounding dark.
âIdentical,â Gerald said. He slipped the ring onto the little finger of his right hand; it almost clung to his skin. âA perfect fit,â he said.
âI guess this must be Lucius,â Sam said. âMaybe the ruby casket is buried nearby.â
âItâs all rock,â Ruby said. âNot much hope of burying anything here.â They hunted around the stone platform but there was no sign of any place where a casket could be hidden.
âUnless he snuck in a jack hammer, I donât think weâll find any buried treasure in this place,â Sam said.
Ruby looked doubtfully back at the pool theyâd swum through. âMaybe itâs at the bottom of that thing,â she said. âAnd Iâm not volunteering to go have a look.â
Gerald sat next to his fossilised ancestor and rubbed the cold stone skull. âCome on, Lucius,â he said. âGive it up. Where did you put the casket?â
âHow do you think he died?â Ruby asked. She had edged a little closer to the skeleton, but was still keeping a careful distance.
âHigh cholesterol?â Sam said. âWhat do you think? He was trapped down here, stupid.â
âWell, if he was trapped here, what makes you think we can get out?â Ruby said. âOr hadnât you thought of that?â
Samâs face went blank. âWe can swim back to the other cave,â he said.
âAnd what? Get pounded by the tide twice a day until someone on a relaxing stroll through the quicksand hears our cries for help? Brilliant suggestion.â
Gerald looked at the broken stone finger in his palm. Then at Luciusâs outstretched arm. A wrinkle of a thought unfurled in Geraldâs
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