Mount Treasure Ch2

Chapter Two: Jim Opens the Map

"Yes, sir, that is correct. Alright, we appreciate your help. Thank you, goodbye."

The sound of the front door shutting alerts Jim to return to his seat. He'd been studying the Doctor's audiphone. Not that the Doctor would mind. In fact, he'd probably be delighted. Perhaps even to the point of demonstrating to Jim how it worked and tell him when it was made and what model it was and what so-and-so-smart-guy had to say about it.

That is why Jim nonchalantly walks away from it.

The Doctor enters just as Jim is sitting on a sofa. "Well, the constabulary is on the case, although it seems that those rotten pirates have fled without a trace." He pauses for a moment before saying, "And I'm afraid that the old Benbow Inn has . . . burned to the ground."

Jim looks up at his mother, seated in a plush armchair. Her head is buried in her hands. Her shoulders shudder slightly.

Jim looks away.

"There, there, Sarah. I'm sure we can build a new one. Just with time. And money." The Doctor is rich, but he isn't that rich.

Jim doesn't want to listen to any more of this. The Doctor will just continue to awkwardly offer semi-consoling words, and Sarah will refuse to be consoled. "I'm just gonna go to the cellar. Work on some things."

His departure was acknowledged only by a slight nod from the Doctor.

The Hawkins family was often over at the Doppler mansion. While Sarah and Delbert chatted, Jim would usually disappear into the cellar where Delbert allowed Jim to tinker around with whatever he found. Mostly old motors and broken wind up toys or clocks.

Jim brings along the little bundle he got from the old airman.

He grabs a lamp from a hall table and lights it with a match before he descends the old wooden steps into the cellar. He proceeds to the counter, where he clears off some space by crowding a collection of old junk together. Sitting down on a stool, he begins to unravel the leather bundle carefully.

Jim's eyes widen.

Before him is something unlike any he's ever seen.

It is rectangular in shape, like a book, but completely metal . . . mechanical. There's steel and bronze and copper components. Large and small. Simple and complex.

And a lock.

A big one.

With disbelief, Jim looks at it, willing it to open.

This was impossible! There was no way to pick this lock, it was far too intricate, and very possibly too delicate. He could damage it if he tried and failed.

Jim lifts the contraption up in near-vain hopes of finding another way to open it when he hears a faint ding! of a small object falling on the ground.

A little key lies at his feet.

Jim picks it up quickly and fits it into the lock.

And turns.

The lock springs open and Jim opens the contraption as he would a book. Within it is revealed to be a complex system of machinery. There are cogwheels and springs and other various mechanisms arranged in a seemingly haphazard and random fashion. But while these foreign gears are fascinating, what lies behind them is even more so. The strange object begins to give a small crackling sound before it seems to ignite in Jim's hands. Startled, he drops it onto the counter, but the light doesn't even flicker. Looking closer, Jim gasps. Never before has he seen it with his own eyes. "Electricity," he breathes.

He reaches out a finger, tracing the light's path in the cracks of the machine before landing on it's source in a cluster of rivets. Their arrangement looks reminiscent of a range of . . .

"Mountains," Jim barely even says the word, as if saying it too loudly would scare away his hope.

Could it be?

His fingers graze the one rivet closest to the light, and in an instant, the light dims before a faint whirring begins to start up. Jim pries up the rivet with his fingernails to see if he can find what caused the dimming, but cogs begin to turn and the whole machine starts to rearrange itself into something that very much resembles a . . .

"Map."

And with the device clutched closely in his arms, Jim runs upstairs.