FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR
CHAPTER 9: MORE TREASURES, MORE MYSTERIES
Mike knelt on the ground above the hole he and his friends had dug in Amanda’s Victorian garden. The glass walls of Amanda’s greenhouse now stood between the explorers and the tunnel stairway they had uncovered under the Majesty Palm Tree. He reached into the minotaur’s lair. The beetle, who had apparently been guarding its bundle of treasures, fled into a nearby tunnel.
“Gosh, there are so many beetle tunnels! Like a maze!” Amanda said. “I can’t believe there could also be a human-made tunnel leading away from the greenhouse!”
“And, look, there are beetles everywhere, scurrying through their own hideaways!” Emily added.
Professor Robert knelt down next to Mike.
“We certainly have a mystery on our hands,” he said. “I wish Sir David was here to explain the source of these jewels.”
Mike stood up, holding a few of the gold balls.
“I know a bit about cat burials from my reading,” Mike said. “But I hope to find the rest of the ancient text we found weeks ago, the crumbling book that was buried under the palm tree.”
Emily pointed at Amanda’s garden statue.
“Mike, I remember seeing a ghostly image the night I saw you pouring over what looked like yellowed pages. In the moonlight it looked like you were talking to yourself and using sign language.”
Mike smiled, but said nothing.
“Well, children,” Robert said. “Do we keep digging or do we stop for the day?”
Emily and Mike looked eagerly at Amanda.
Amanda shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m as curious as the rest of you. As long as my cats are safe I’m ok to keep digging. Robert, are you sure the stairway under the palm tree is filled in? I’d like to let my cats back into the greenhouse. It’s their favorite place to explore.”
“Yes, Amanda. There is no way a cat could dig through the stairway dirt now. And once we dig past this beetle lair, we may find ourselves on the other side of the stone door, as Emily suggested.”
With that Emily leaned down into the hole in progress and gently pulled out the sack of treasures from the minotaur’s lair.
The others gathered around and studied the trinkets Emily held in her hand.
“This bag is fascinating,” Mike said. He touched it gently. “I believe it’s old linen. Quite old.”
Emily placed the sack of beads, gold balls and more on the table with the lemonade and doughnuts.
“I’ll get a box for those artifacts,” Amanda said. “One of my sewing boxes will be perfect.”
Emily and Mike continued to dig. Within minutes their shovels struck a solid surface.
“Ah, stone,” Robert said. “Just as I suspected. We are now above the room on the other side of the stone door. No wonder Wadjet couldn’t push it open. This entire area hides an extensive construction. I can't believe Sir David built this himself. But except for the work of the beetles, it has obviously been undisturbed for perhaps one hundred and fifty years.”
Amanda returned withs more lemonade and a wooden box. She carefully placed the beetle’s treasures inside the box and closed the lid.
While the crew stopped for lemonade, Emily’s parents and her brother, Zach, entered the garden.
“Our curiosity is killing us!” Joann said. “We’ve been watching from our windows.”
“Can I dig, too?” Zach asked. “I’m only five but I’m strong.”
Emily smiled and handed him her shovel.
“Just a few scoops is all we need, Zach,” she said.
”What do you folks hope to find?” her dad asked.
“Oh, gosh, Dad and Mom. I forgot! This is Professor Robert and and our friend, Mike.”
“Yes, we met briefly at the Pyramid Party,” her dad said.
“Brad. Good to meet you, Professor.”
The two men shook hands.
“I’ll get more glasses,” Amanda said, and hurried back into the house.
Robert chuckled. “Well, Brad, to answer your question, we don’t know. But we have been seeing many clues that point to a connection with ancient Egypt and the original owner of this property.”
“And cats, Robert. Don’t forget the cats and the minotaur beetles,” Emily offered as she winked at Mike. “And Bastet?”
Emily looked across the garden. Her new pet, Bes, was sitting in her bedroom window, watching the human activity while slowly switching her tail.
“We really don’t know what we might find,” Robert continued. “But it is apparent that someone spent an awful lot of time and effort reconstructing some kind of ancient Egyptian tomb or building, complete with a tunnel, a stone door and images painted on the tunnel walls. It’s quite remarkable, actually.”
Robert stroked his beard. “How they supported the building of this underground structure is remarkable. The dirt is very sandy.”
“Like the sand in Egypt?” Mike asked. “Sand didn’t stop the ancients from building.”
Robert nodded, his expression was thoughtful.
“Oh my gosh!” Emily cried out, just as Amanda returned with a new pitcher of lemonade and more glasses. “Oh my gosh! Hey, everybody, what if Sir David didn’t build the tomb and tunnel or tunnels underground?”
The others simply stared at her. Zach dropped his shovel and ran to the table for a doughnut.
“What exactly do you mean?” Robert asked.
Emily looked up at Amanda’s massive Victorian house and the attached glass greenhouse.
“What if the house is on top of more tunnels? What if . . . what if the ground had been cleared years ago, before any one had houses here. It was all forest or farmland. Sir David must have hired lots of people with equipment to clear all of this ground down to solid rock! Then he had the structures built on rock! When it was done to Sir David’s liking, maybe the workers covered the stone temples or tunnels or whatever they had built! The house and greenhouse were built later!”
“The house is dated at 1880,” Amanda added. “So it’s possible you are on to something, Emily.”
“If that is the case, we might have something bigger than a few beetle tunnels to explore!” Robert said.
“And,” Mike added, “It would help explain where the minotaurs have found those treasures, and maybe more! Minotaur beetles are native to desert areas, like Egypt. They may have been a part of Sir David’s cargo!”
Mike turned to Emily.
“You are quire clever to suggest this plan that Sir David might have had. But do you think he actually might have found Bastet’s tomb from the City of Bubastis and brought it here?”
“Maybe her mummy, too?” Emily added.
“What’s a mummy, Mommy?” Zach asked, as he grabbed Joann’s hand with his own sticky one. “Is it scary?”
“No, darling, it’s just a bunch of old rags.”
“Like the minotaur beetle’s linen rag that he used to wrap his treasures,” Emily muttered.
“Now that I think of it,” Amanda said. “I have been noticing cracks in my basement foundation. And there is a space forming between my house and the greenhouse.”
The others nodded, reflecting on the many possibilities before them.
“I’m not convinced,” Robert said. “Why would Sir David take on such a feat? And why would he bury his hard work under tons of sand and gravel? It doesn’t make sense.”
Bored with grownup talk and licking his fingers, Zach ran back to the hole and resumed his digging.
“Look what I found!” he exclaimed as, minutes later, he climbed out of the hole.
He held out a brilliant blue stone carving full of Egyptian symbols.
“What is that, Zach?” his mother asked.
The stone was passed around to outstretched hands.
“This looks like the designs I have found in my research on ancient costumes,” Amanda said.
“Well,” Robert said, “Let’s keep digging. We may have trouble breaking through the stone ceiling and we don’t want to damage anything that may be below us. If we don’t break though gently, we may have to call in the experts.”
Taking this advice, Mike quickly stepped in the hole.
“Let me work on this for a few minutes. I know a bit about the construction of these tombs.”
Silenced by the twelve-year-old’s serious tone, the adults stepped back, pouring lemonade and eating donuts while they watched in fascination.
“What do you think you will find?” Joann asked. “Maybe tons of gold like they found in Tutankhamun’s tomb?”
“Maybe,” Emily said slowly. “Maybe we will find a cat guarding the tomb.”
She laughed out loud at her own imagination as her creative brain went wild.
Emily glanced again at her bedroom window. Bes was no longer watching. But Emily’s attention was diverted by a strange sight that appeared on the roof. Before she could point the vision out to the others, the image had disappeared.
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THANK YOU to all of my new and current readers! A special thank you to many of my educator and student readers from around the world!
FELINE ONLINE AND THE MAZE OF THE MINOTAUR continues with Chapter Ten, scheduled for Friday, April 25. What does Bastet hope the humans will find? Where did the beetle’s treasures come from?
Posted on Friday, April 11: CATS IN ART: Chapter 4. PASTEL. You may find earlier chapters of CATS IN ART: DRAWING, WATERCOLOR, AND OIL on this site: MORE CATS, PLEASE!
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CREDITS: Cover Illustration: Tamara Clark
Book chapter illustrations: Tamara Clark and Rosetta Clark-Smith
Drawings of Minotaur beetle with treasures and Bastet on garden statue: Tamara Clark
Hypnotizing Hoopoe Bird Blog and Brilliant Beetle Blog (and more) include ancient myths and nature lore: Tamara Clark
Siamese cat at stone door: AI image generated by Google Gemini
Victorian house photo: Elyse Cregar
Other Photos: Commons.wikimedia.org