The spade struck something hard. Andrew froze, heart hammering. He knelt, scraping dirt with trembling fingers until a corner of corroded iron appeared. He gasped aloud. After days of frustration, something real lay beneath him. His pulse thundered in his ears. He had finally found it.
Adrenaline surged as he widened the pit, exposing more of the object: wood swollen with age, iron bands pitted with rust. It was heavy, deliberate, unmistakably a chest. His breath came ragged, disbelief and triumph colliding. All the whispers, the puzzles, the doubts—Henry had hidden something after all.