The Theta Prophecy Read Online Free PDF Page A

hoisting something up,” Samuel said, looking at the mechanism attached to the tree limb.
    “Or lowering something down,” Daniel said, his voice low and strained. In all his daydreams of stranded women and forgotten monsters and buried treasure, there had never been something as concrete as this piece of equipment to prove his fantasies might not be foolish after all. Sure, it was only a lever and pulley system and a circle of ground that was recessed directly underneath the pulley, but this was better than any figment of his imagination because it was real and it was unexplainable.
    He repeated what he knew: no one from the mainland was living on these islands. No one had cabins here or a reason for visiting. There was no explanation for a pulley system to be connected to a thick branch like this.
    Each boy looked up at the tackle in wonder. It was nothing more than a rusted metal surface, rounded where ropes would lift or lower heavy objects.
    “Must have been here for a long time,” Samuel said, reaching up and scratching off flecks of corroded, orange metal with his fingernail.
    Everyone knew not to leave their tools lying around. In a place where all of the town’s inhabitants had to band together if everyone wanted to get through the brutal winters, no one would be foolish enough to leave behind a nice piece of equipment like this.
    Then the boys lowered their heads and looked down at the indented circle of ground they were standing in. Without ever having asked them, Daniel assumed each of them spent the evenings wishing for something more exciting to happen than another day of farm life. Maybe the scenarios were different. Maybe instead of stranded blonds or lockers full of gold they fantasized about joining the expedition west that everyone whispered was supposed to happen in the next few years, to explore the uncharted western territories. Or maybe they dreamed of having super powers or of becoming a famous outlaw. No matter what the fantasy was, he was sure they wanted out from the lives they had. And here was the chance.
    Anthony pointed to the pulley system. “It must have been left here by pirates or robbers or someone who wanted to hide something deep underground.”
    The only people Daniel knew of that had ever lived nearby were the natives, but they had all either been killed or run off their land many years earlier.
    “What should we do?” John said, not wanting to do anything that would warrant a beating from his father.
    “Dig,” Daniel mumbled, already dropping to both knees and scooping dirt away with his hands.
    The other three boys immediately joined in. With the marsh nearby and with the rain they had been getting recently, the soil was easy to move. But after they had displaced a foot of dirt from the circle, there was still nothing.
    “Keep digging,” Daniel said. The boys did as they were told.
    After another foot of dirt was gone, their fingers began scraping against stone. Daniel’s heart leapt into his throat. At first, not wanting to get his hopes up, he figured it would be just another rock, common to the area and plentiful anytime the farmers plowed fresh ground. But the surface his fingers ran across was much too smooth, too flat, to be something that just happened to be under two feet of dirt. With his palm, he wiped the mud away to each edge of the circular hole they were digging. The boys were standing on a set of flagstone rocks laid out to form a flat surface.
    “Look,” Anthony said. “Chisel marks. Someone made them this size on purpose.”
    Samuel looked back up at the pulley system directly above them. “Think that’s why the block and tackle is up there, to lay these stones down like this?”
    Daniel took a deep breath and squinted. He wanted to say, “Yes, that’s exactly why someone went to the trouble of making a pulley system and bringing it here, just so they could bury a couple of stones two feet underground.” The only reason he didn’t was because his