The Deep

Gail handed him the flashlight and pointed to a spot in the sand. There was nothing visible, but as Sanders held the light for her, she waved her hand over the sand, fanning it into a cloud that cut visibility to six inches. She kept fanning in the pool of light, and soon she had made a depression two or three inches deep. She fanned again, and there—at the bottom of the dent in the sand—was a glimmer.

Sanders put his face into the depression andwiththe tips of his fingers brushed sand away from the glint. It was an ampule, filled with a colorless liquid. It might have been empty, except that when he moved it, a bubble shifted within. Gently, he pried it from the sand, passed it to Gail, and backed away from the hole he had made. He pushed sand into the hole until it was level once again, and then placed a rock marker on the spot.

They left the cave and swam along the base of the reef. Now and then, Gail would stop by a rock or timber and flash the light beneath it or fan away the sand beside it. They found nothing.

Gail moved farther along, then stopped to look for Sanders. He was behind her, digging at something in the reef. She swam to him and saw that he was using a rock to break off pieces of coral. Every few seconds he would stop hammering with the rock and would try to fit his hand into a hole. Finally, he managed to squeeze three fingers into the hole and, using them as tongs, picked out a piece of yellow metal. It was bent and dented, roughly the size of a fifty-cent piece. But as Sanders held it up for Gail to examine with the flashlight, he saw that it was not a coin: there was a concave lip around one edge, as if something had once been held inside. At four points on the lip there were empty pockets, each perhaps a quarter of an inch in diameter. The metal shone brightly, evidently undamaged by corrosion or marine growth.

Sanders turned it over, and in the beam of light he saw the etched letters “E.f.” Holding the ampule in one hand and the piece of metal in the other, he started for the surface.

When they were back in the boat, Sanders said, “I thought for a minute we might have found a gold doubloon.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know.” Sanders thought. “Jewelry, I suppose… but Jesus, it’s awful clean to be old. You’d think it would be worn away, or at least covered with something.”

Sanders put the piece of metal aside and looked at the ampule. He held it to the sunlight, and the glass sparkled. “Different color from the other one.”

His eyes focused on the ampule and did not see the figure standing on the Orange Grove cliffs.

It was after six when the Sanderses reached Treece’s house.

Treece came out and gestured for the Sanderses to follow him around to the back. “Did you find any more ampules?”

“One,” said Sanders. “It looks like there’s different stuff in it.”

Gail handed Treece the ampule. “It was in the same place as last time.”

Treece nodded at Sanders. “You’re right; different chemical.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure. It could be a number of things. A heroin mixture or some other opium-based liquid. Might even be another morphine solution. Did you mark it?”

“Yes,” Gail said. She gave Treece the remaining rock marker.

“There were no others sprinkled around?”

“No, and that one wasn’t on top of the sand. We had to dig for it.”

Treece said, “I best have a look tomorrow night.”

“Do you want us along?” Gail asked, half-hoping Treece would say no.

Treece sensed her reluctance. “It’s up to you. You’re welcome to come if you want. Or, you can cut now.”

“You bet we’re coming,” Sanders said. He pointed to Gail’s purse. “Show him the other thing.”

Treece studied the piece of metal carefully, running his finger around the lip on the inner edge. He squeezed it between thumb and forefinger, and the metal bent easily. “You found this where?”

“In some rocks,” Sanders said. “It was lodged pretty tight. I had to break some coral to get at it.”

“You might have used the other rock to mark the spot.”

“Why?”

Treece grinned at Sanders. “It’s gold.”

“Gold? Christ, it looks like somebody threw it away.”

“No man threw that away. If you’d dug deeper, you’d like have found his bones.”

“How come it isn’t all crapped up?”

“That’s one of the marvels of gold,” said Treece.

“It’s chemically impervious. You could put a fresh-minted gold coin in sea water and leave it there till the end of time, and when you went to fetch it on Judgment Day, it’d be as good as new. Nothing grows on it; nothing eats away at it.”

Gail asked, “What was it?”

“A cameo of some kind.” Treece pointed to the inner circle. “The picture or etching was in here. These”—he touched, one by one, the four pockets on the rim—“held pearls, the symbol of purity. The lad might have worn it around his neck.”

“What does it mean?”