“You know, “  Tom said very intelligently, “if the shoe were placed here by some pirate almost 200 years ago as a marker, it probably would  have fallen apart by now. There might not even be  crumbled pieces of it left.”

“Let’s look anyway,” nagged David.

“ The group could find no trace of a shoe.”

Just then Carrie saw something on the wall. It was a drawing, very faded, but yes, it was a drawing.  Mr.
Lomber brought the lantern closer.

“It looks like a drawing of a boot.”

“Yes, it does,” Anna said, “ and after all, a boot is a  shoe.  It is the type of shoes worn in past centuries. We even wear them today, though we call them boots.”

“This must be it, “ David shouted, hardly able to contain his  excitement. “Let’s dig here.”

Jeff tried to prepare his son David for disappointment. But David was too excited. So were Carrie and the others.

 Mr. Lomber started digging.  He dug down two feet, not far
 from the cave wall and found nothing.  He started digging in   
 another spot, then another.

 Finally, at the 4th spot, much closer to the cave wall,  his shovel hit something that sounded like metal.  He dug more and soon discovered that, yes, there was—a metal box,
buried in the earth. It was
much , much larger than the one they found in the garden. 

He dug around the box so that the cover was completely visible.

“This certainly looks like a treasure chest,” he said , looking  up at the others.

It was quite difficult to dig it out. In fact, it was impossible for  him alone with one shovel.  Jeff took a turn digging, but it was too difficult for him as well.

Mr. Lomber had to call the sheriff  on his cell phone who came to the cave with  two of his deputies.
They finally removed the chest out of the ground and brought it down to the sheriff’s office.

Carrying the chest was difficult because it was so heavy.

Opening that treasure chest was even harder. The sheriff finally had to call in someone with a blow torch to burn the lock and get the chest open. The time  had come to see what was in the chest.

Would there be a treasure? Would there be  an old worn-out shoe?  Would there be a treasure chest full of shoes? Would there be a piece of wood?

The chest was heavy. There had to be something inside.