A Puzzling Door

    In the mountains east of the town of Goodrich, there are said to be treasures untold waiting for the man brave or foolish enough to go out and get them. Out there the wind blows right through you and when it blows through you out here you might hear a whisper that speaks to the very heart of you. It tells you something in the ancient language of evolution that urges us all on to adapt or die.
    The voice in Jeremiah Rickets’ heart was telling him that a dead man’s treasure was not worth freezing’ to death no matter how much gold there was. That maybe slipping off back to town while Reginald Radcliffe, (of the New Hampshire Radcliffes, if you please), was consulting the map he had that old prospector draw for him. A nice hot mug of something pleasing was just about to cause him to slink back to the tree line when Radcliffe whirled around on the spot and looked at him.
Radcliffe cut a dashing figure against the snow and wind. He was born of American Aristocracy, and he never let that detract from his friendship with his young companion, Jeremiah. Radcliffe never feigned interest, it was always genuine.
    “Jeremiah, don’t lose heart! We are well within forty paces of our goal.”
    “Mister Radcliffe it does not make sense. Why are we out this far in the middle of winter? Gold doesn’t spend if you die getting to it.”
    “Because, Jeremiah, if we get to it before that confounded bounder Cornelius Ayres we win the prize.”
    “And what prize might that be sir? If you’ll remember I was confined to the servants’ quarters on account of my stock ‘not being noble enough’. I come from a fine family, sir. Just because they didn’t come over on the Mayflower doesn’t mean we are trash.”
    “The prize, young Jeremiah, is none other than the hand of my dear Elizabeth. Commodore Fontescue has given me his word that we are to be married on my successful return.”
    “Is this to be a dual marriage then? We share a bride? I don’t see how that’s an incentive for me, honestly.”
    Jeremiah started to turn to go. This was quite enough, thank you very much. He could see freezing his hindquarters right off for the right reason, but he would be damned for a fool if he would stand for this, and double damned if the reason for it was just to make sure Radcliffe married well.
    Radcliffe eyed Jeremiah for a split second and then decided that it was time to reveal the real incentive.
    “Your father is alive.”
    Jeremiah halted mid-turn.
    “You’re lying. My father died ten years ago during the battle of Hawthorne Creek. I have his watch. His commander said he died saving the lives of the rest of his company.”
     “While it may be true that your father was severely wounded during that battle, and he saved the lives of many men that day, he did not die. I know where he is. I can take you to him, but I’m asking you to trust me. Can you do that for me? Show a little trust that I know what I’m doing? I’ve not steered you wrong, yet. So it’s a little cold? The human body is made for adaptation. The Esqimaux are certainly proof of that.”
    Jeremiah considered this and reasserted his parka against himself.
    “Fine. We will finish this and you will take me to my father.”
    “Wonderful, my boy. Now, take notice. We are less than forty paces as I indicated before. That tree that looks like an old woman pointing is our next marker. That leads to Marcurio’s cave. We’ll at least be out of this blasted wind before it starts to really get to us. Aha, the cave! Let’s get into the lee of it and light a couple of torches.”
    The pair rushed toward the cave and Jeremiah spent some moments preparing his torch, making sure it was wrapped well, and that the pitch had not rubbed off too badly. All seemed in good repair as Jeremiah pulled his tinder box from his pack and struck it to ignite his torch. Once the business end of his torch was ready, he lit Radcliffe’s from his own and handed it to him.
    “Mister Radcliffe, what if there are bears in there?”
    “Never fear, Jeremiah, we have something interesting up our sleeves.”
    But this just made Jeremiah fretful. When Radcliffe said he had something interesting up his sleeves he usually meant that he had visited that quack scientist friend of his. The one in Monmouth that always made Jeremiah feel as if he were doing mental jumping jacks. His devices were too complex to always work properly, but Radcliffe put his trust in them and, somehow, every time he did he was rewarded with excellent results.
    He also had so many questions. Mostly about his father. What had caused him to run away? How had he survived?  Why hadn’t he come back to him, but entrusted his oldest and oddest friend with his raising?
    Jeremiah pushed these thoughts away for the moment and followed Radcliffe into the cave. He was starting to feel better out of the biting wind when Radcliffe stopped short.
    “Looks like we’ve hit our first obstacle, boy. This seems to be a riddle of devious devisings.”
    Jeremiah tried to not let out a sigh, but found his curiosity had gotten the better of his wisdom and looked at the device that had so excited his mentor.
    It appeared to be a great stone tablet with nine smaller stone tablet buttons along the face of it. Each of the buttons seemed to have a depiction of a Greek letter upon the face of it. Jeremiah looked at it briefly and turned to look at Radcliffe.
    “What is it?”
    “That, my boy, is something we must overcome. Luckily, we have some inside information about our subject. Firstly, we know that this was Marcurio’s cave. We also know that he had an obsession with the classical world. Most notably, the Greek civilization. That makes sense, because without Greece there is no classical world at all. We also know that his wife’s name was Margaret. Now let me consult this array of buttons and see if the letters are there for Margaret. Okay, Mu is there, Alpha, Gamma, Alpha again, Rho again, Epsilon, Tau. Pi and Omega seem to be red herrings. Okay, stand back, Jeremiah. I don’t want you getting hurt if I get this wrong. ”
    Jeremiah backed up a step and immediately started wondering what would happen if Radcliffe did get it wrong. Who would take him in then? Would he ever find his father without Radcliffe? Such were the thoughts swimming in his mind when Radcliffe started pushing the stone buttons into the face of the tablet.
    Gears turned behind the stony edifice as Radcliffe finished inputting the code. Within a few minutes a large stone rolled away leading to a passage. As the dust from the rolling boulder settled Radcliffe beamed at Jeremiah and shouted for joy.
    “Onward to treasure, young master Rickets.”
    Radcliffe pushed forward through the passage, but Jeremiah hesitated for a moment. His feet seemed stuck to the floor. Whatever was in that chamber, someone went to a lot of trouble trying to protect it. Certainly there would be more traps or puzzles ahead to keep it safe.
    His moment of doubt over, Jeremiah stepped over through the passage. When he reached the other side he saw Radcliffe looking at a large urn in the center of the room. On the other side of the room was another door, but the gloom beyond prevented Jeremiah from seeing further. The urn was decorated in the greek style with images of daily life drawn on the sides, but in this case the daily life seemed a lot more modern that the urns Jeremiah had seen in museums.
    “What about this one? Surely this is not the treasure you’ve been talking about ever since Portsmouth?”
    “There is only one way to find out. I’m going to lift the urn from the pedestal. I will do it on a three count. I want you close. If need be I want you to stand on the pedestal.”
    “Why do I have to stand on the pedestal? It’s not going anywhere. Besides, if that’s the treasure, we’re done. Let’s go get some hot beverage and let me warm my bones by the fire.”
    “I need you to stand on it because it seems to be a weight sensitive switch, and you seem about the same weight as our beautiful friend the urn here.”
    “Then why do we need the urn at all? The door on the far side is open. It seems rather counterproductive.”
    “It’s because I think this has further use in the next room. Now please get ready to stand on the platform. I’m about to move the urn.”
    Jeremiah looked at Radcliffe with some measure of bewilderment, but did not back away from the platform. As soon as Radcliffe started to move the urn, both doors began to close. Radcliffe made hurrying noises as he lifted the urn finally away and Jeremiah stepped on the platform. Just as quickly as the doors had started to slide closed, they rolled open again.
Radcliffe started toward the other door. Jeremiah cleared his throat and the other man turned around to look at him.
    “So, I’ll just stay here then?”
    “Cheer up, Jeremiah. The last part should be the easiest of all if the last two puzzles were any indication.”
    Radcliffe walked forward through the next passage and Jeremiah hoped that he was right, but could not help but notice that if anything did happen to the older man Jeremiah would certainly be stuck forever in a god forsaken hole in a mountain that no one ever visited.  The thought made him shudder against the wind that was no longer there as his torch guttered and spat as if in response to his uneasiness.