Gold of the Gods Read Online Free PDF Page B

through his
body as Christina let out a yelp of surprise.
    It was at that very moment that Beck saw
it. Above the fireplace directly opposite his
chair hung an oil painting of Don Gonzalo.
By now Beck recognized the conquistador's
features as if they were his own. No one
could mistake the goatee beard or the long
face with its distinctive Roman nose.
    But it was not these that caught his
attention now. Beck's eagle eyes had noted
them the moment he entered the room. It
was Don Gonzalo's pointing finger and the
direction in which his eyes were gazing that
made his heart knock against his ribs. From
his position in the chair, and only from the
exact position where he was now sitting, he
could see that both the finger and Don
Gonzalo's eyes were pointing directly at the
words under the family crest on the ornate
gilt frame.
    ' Perdido no más .' Beck whispered the
words as if in a trance. 'That's it. That's
the clue. Your father was staring right at it
all the time and never realized.'
    Mystified, the twins followed Beck's gaze
across the room and stared blankly at the
painting of Gonzalo.
    'Look. Follow his finger directly up.'
Beck traced a straight line through the air
from the top of Gonzalo's finger towards
the top of the portrait where it bordered the
frame. 'His eyes are looking at your family
motto. But his finger is pointing directly at
the letter O.'
    In an instant Marco had dashed around
the table and was lifting the dusty old portrait
down from the wall. Laying it flat on the
table, the three teenagers stared down at the
embossed wooden crest of la rana , the toad,
and the family motto beneath.
    'And the letter O is different to all the
other letters,' whispered Christina, finishing
Beck's sentence. 'It seems to be covered by
some sort of flap.'
    'And that's because it's actually a keyhole,'
said Beck, pushing a fingernail into the
curve on the outer side of the carved O.
There was a click as the central portion of
the O slid back. Beneath was the unmistakable
outline of a keyhole.
    'The other key. It's the lock for the other
key,' murmured Marco. 'Beck, you're a
genius. And not one of us ever saw it. We
never knew what this key was for and it was
in front of us all along. We were all so scared
of the curse, we never dared to sit in
Gonzalo's chair. That's what he's been trying
to tell us all along.'
    Marco grappled with the smaller key and,
with shaking hands, inserted it into the
lock. And turned. As if by magic, the belly
of the toad on the embossed crest swung
open. Beck blinked in astonishment. In
front of them lay a golden amulet. It had
been made in the shape of a toad, just like
the one on the family's coat of arms. Its
stomach bulged and its eyes glowed green in
the dim light while its mouth gaped wide
open.
    Christina picked up the amulet on its
gold chain and dangled it in front of them.
' La rana ,' said Marco in disbelief. 'The
legend we were told as children. The toad
will appear when the Lost City is found.'
    But Beck's attention had shifted to a
folded parchment that still lay in a
delicately carved recess at the back of the
secret compartment. The words Mapa Ciudad de Los Koguis were still clearly visible
in a copybook italic script.
    'Map of the City of the Kogis,' said Beck,
his voice breaking with excitement. 'This is
what your dad was looking for all along. But
he must have decided to hunt for the Lost
City without the map . . .'
    '. . . and the kidnappers must have
thought he had discovered it,' said Marco,
finishing Beck's sentence. 'And now they
want to find the Lost City and loot the
gold.'
    'So at last it all makes sense,' whispered
Christina in a trance, her head swaying
gently in time with the golden frog. ' Perdido no más .'
    ' Perdido no más ,' echoed Beck. 'Lost no
more. The Lost City is lost no more!'

CHAPTER FIVE
    Huddled over Gonzalo's table, Beck and the
twins peered down at the ancient piece of
parchment in awed silence. At first glance it
hardly looked like a map at all.