The Viking Seal

CHAPTER 25 - Excitement Reigns

The ride back was more of a thrill than Stone cared for. Sand was his domain. Sand and warmer temperatures. When they came alongside, it was a feat of strength and acrobatics to steady the tender while they scrambled up the ladder to the deck and then help Arvil secure the tender to the aft stanchions.

He slipped once climbing back up and Mel managed a frightened scream that gave everyone a start. Captain Eddie stayed on the bridge and held the boat as steadily as he could with the bow into the wind. Below, dry and seated, they all braced themselves against the heaving of the boat and listened to an excited Gretta.

"I was crossing this small trench that I had climbed down into, and it was too deep to just climb out the other side. All these fallen trees and branches were covered with a glaze of ice that made it hell. I tossed my pack up on the other side and then when I realized I couldn't climb up, I went hunting for a branch to pull it back down."

She busied herself loading the images from her camera onto the laptop computer on the table. "When I bent down I could see this stone that looked too regular to be natural, and when I crawled under the trunks and got right up to it, I saw this."

With a vocal fanfare she turned the computer around and showed them the pictures.

"Your chin is cut, you need to clean that out." Arny admonished.

"Forget my chin, look at this stuff, it's staggering!"

"This is the first part of the tunnel. It's natural and quite narrow as you can see. Here is where it changes. See the sides and the ceiling? That's a sign of human activity, not natural erosion. And it is a little larger and more uniform." She clicked on another set of shots, and they all had to brace themselves suddenly before she could continue. "I'd say it runs like this for about thirty feet and then we come to this."

The picture showed the walls becoming craggy and irregular again and then they saw what looked like a lattice of roots and dense brush. In the next shot, Gretta was standing at that point under an embankment, shooting a picture of Stone across the river.

"It goes under the river?" Arny said, surprised.

"Yep. At that point the river's only maybe fifty, sixty feet wide and fairly shallow. There are a lot of rocks partially blocking the flow."

"So you found a tunnel," Mel said, "I don't get the importance." Another thrust from the sea sent the boat tilting, and they all grabbed the table for support.

"Best for last," Gretta smiled, clicking another file and ignoring the weather. On the screen was a close up shot of markings that were definitely akin to those on the material from the bookshop.

"Is that carved in there?" Stone asked.

"Yes. I'm going to send this to Cheesy and see if they can give us a quick translation, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts it's a message from our Viking explorers."

"But what help will it be? Was there anything else in there that looked like they'd laid claim or buried . . . whatever?" Arny asked.

"I'd need more time to really go over the interior, but even if there is nothing else this might be an authentic message from hundreds of years ago." Gretta gazed at the screen with rapt attention. "It's amazing."

"I know exactly how you feel, Gretta," Mel said. "When we found the tomb in Egypt it was like- like being refilled somehow."

"Refilled?" Arvil blurted.

"I can't explain the feeling." She blushed and looked at Stone who was bracing for another toss of their craft by the sea.

"It's like a confirmation of your own existence." Stone said. "I know that sounds a little out there, but there actually is a feeling of- of truth . . . sort of." He shrugged and gave a half smile.

"Well we'll see if there's any truth in this stuff," Gretta said as she electronically dispatched the information to Professor Stilton back in Toronto.

****

Professor Stilton rushed copies of the images received from Gretta down to his lab and the people tasked with deciphering the runic markings. The cipher crew were better prepared, armed with all the research from their previous work and clarifying the new material was accomplished in much less time with equally exciting results.

While not specifically naming figures like Leif Ericson or Bjarni Herjólfsson, it did mention the name of the person responsible for the message and by extension gave them an approximate timeline.

As soon as the lab had the symbols transcribed, a three-day project, the professor e-mailed the results to Gretta aboard the CONGA LINE. The storm had lasted only one more day, and then the weather settled into more seasonal behaviour, allowing the team to return to shore and undertake a more thorough examination of the tunnel Gretta had discovered. They were all ashore when Captain Eddie relayed the news of the professor's e-mail.

"Listen to this!" Gretta squatted down in the tunnel, gathering the others around. "Cheesy's team deciphered these markings and they are definitely from the 800s. There's a name of someone called Lars Ollafsson, presumably the author or maybe the leader of the expedition. Captain Eddie says there are translations all detailed in the e-mail. I have to get back and look at them."

"You think this is the same guy that penned the poem and that this is the place mentioned?" Stone ran his fingers over the markings in the rock.

"It sure sounds possible. Maybe we should take a little more time and see if there is a cache of 'gifts of thanks' down here somewhere."

"They must have provided maps to this place when they returned home or nobody would have found this place." Arny said. "What are the odds of anything useful surviving all that time?"

"We found the tunnel." Gretta replied, undaunted.

"The poem said, caves." He persisted.

"Picky, picky, Arny. You have to keep an open mind."

"Where should we start?" Mel asked.

"I guess we should cover both walls of the tunnel and the floor. You and Stone start back there, and Arny and I will work from this end."