"Yeah, all right." Weedy was more than happy to move on, especially with the way his hands were stinging! But it had been fun to try, at least until it had started to hurt! Boy, them Indians must have tough skin!
As he watched Wyatt go tot he house, he considered that he could 'guard' the chest just as well from the water trough as he could from where he was, so he went over and stuck his hands into the cooling water, sighing as the sting was quenched. Of course, it was going to hurt when he took them out, but for now, he was content, and he wasn't going to complain...in fact, he'd do his best to hide the redness and blisters from the adults, because he didn't want to be told that he couldn't come back or play with Wyatt any more!
Storyteller / Shared NPC
It took Wyatt a while to return, to the other boy it probably seemed a whole lot longer than it really was, but as the young Redmond boy approached, sure enough he had a burning torch in one hand.
"How bout this? Clara made it for me and said if we burn down the barn, she is gonna help Pa skin us alive," Wyatt grinned.
"She doesn't mean half the stuff she sez, I don't know if that's cuz she's a girl or cuz it's just Clara," he certainly did not seem worried.
"Alright then, we start us a smallish fire - not inside the barn - then set the chest onta the fire and let it toast til we see it's blackening. Then we pull it off and it should be much easier to break into the burnt part," Wyatt declared. This was sheer genius alright.
Any discomfort was (sort of) forgotten when Wyatt returned with the torch. Weedy was a little surprised that Clara would let them have fire, but at least their project wasn't stymied! And with good fire, it wouldn't take long to get things actually moving along, and at least they already had the makings for the fire set up.
Crouching down, he waited while Wyatt lit the twigs, the observed, "If we somehow do burn down the barn," he doubted that, and didn't want any animals to get hurt, "we can take our treasure and go to San Francisco." They already had those plans sometime in the future, so that would make sense. Of course, they'd have to leave enough treasure to pay for Addy's horse and a new barn...
Storyteller / Shared NPC
As they started working on the fire then, Weedy took him a bit more seriously than Wyatt had meant, making alternate plans should the barn go up in flames.
"Nah, we aren't going to burn anything down. I've handled a torch before...long with lanterns and candles and such," Wyatt was at ease with this.
Slowly feeding more burnables into the fire at last they got a decent one going. Wyatt studied it then made a declaration, "I think that's plenty good enuff! Let's put the chest on the fire then."
"You take one handle and I'll take the other," he put the end of the torch into the fire so he could have both hands free and then got up to approach the mystery box.
With the fire flaring enough for their project, Weedy went over to help carry the chest, resorting to using his shirt to pad his hands. But the pain was almost completely muted by the excitement of being a step closer to being able to get to their treasure.
"All right..." Weedy stepped back with a satisfied grin after the chest was on the fire. "How long do you think we should wait?" Already, the heady aroma of charring victory was reaching them, it was just a matter of time...
Storyteller / Shared NPC
Together the boys hefted their treasure chest over to the now healthy fire then lowered it on top of the flames. They were lucky that it did not smother the flames but sure enough the fire lapped about all four sides of the thing. Then the pair stood back and watched and waited.
Now that was a good question though, just how long should they wait? Danged if he knew, Wyatt frowned. Still take the chest off too soon and it would be a waste of effort. Nope, it was all about timing. Well....ummm...
"How long do you think we should wait?" there was the big question alright.
"Hmmm, we probably should be patient. Pa and Clara always say I don't show enough patience," Wyatt reasoned.
He stood there some more.
Weedy shrugged but nodded. Sure, he could be patient, too, after all, they'd been at this alllllll day, what was a few hours more? "I don't like being patient," he commented, "even when I know that's the best thing."
He stared at the fire, waiting for something to happen, but for now, the only difference was a slight change in the scent of the smoke. "Even if it isn't pirates, why do you think someone would just leave it in the river?" Of course, the obvious answer was because it was empty and not of any use anymore, but he didn't want to think about it that way!
And as they were chatting, he really didn't register that the flames were getting bigger, sort of engulfing the chest...
Storyteller / Shared NPC
"I like patience is more a girl thing...or woman. We men don't much go for it," Wyatt observed sagely, though in truth his father could be quite patient about a lot of things but that was because he was old.
"Even if it isn't pirates, why do you think someone would just leave it in the river?" Weedy was back on topic about the mysterious chest now smoking away in the fire.
"Well, it's a lake but I get what you mean. Maybe they wanted to leave their treasure out of sight so threw it in there with plans to come back and haul it back out. And maybe bad things happened to 'em and they never got a chance to recover it?" Wyatt thought that a perfectly possible reason.
He now took another hard look at the fire, the chest, the smoke and flames. Hmmm, he suddenly had a twinge of worry.
"I wonder....maybe we should get it out of the fire?" he suggested with a frown.
Weedy liked Wyatt's thoughts on the mystery more than his own, that the chest was empty and had just been thrown away, and he was still going to hold out hope.
For a while, he watched the fire do his work, but then started glancing back and forth from the pyre to his friend, who was starting to look concerned as well, and finally suggested it was time to take it off the fire.
"Um, sure, it looks done." As if there was a way to tell of a chest was 'done'! At least they were smart enough to use their shirts to pad the handles so they didn't get burned, but even so, removing it was no easy task, and in the end, it was easiest to just roll it off the flames, which exposed the smoldering bottom.
Smoldering was a nice way to put it...now that it was off the fire and exposed to air, random places on the wood were birthing small flames that Weedy knew would soon be a conflagration!
"Oh!" No, they didn't want to burn the whole bottom out! Running to the water trough, he scooped out a bucket of water and ran back to throw it over the chest
Storyteller / Shared NPC
By the time the youthful pair got the wooden chest off the flames, it sure was looking awfully blackened on the bottom? A second look and it was actually smoldering away, not good!
Before Wyatt could let out a cry of alarm, Weedy had come to the same alarmed conclusion and raced to get some water.
"Hurry!" Wyatt urged his friend on and the other boy soon returned with a bucket of well water.
"Throw it right on it!" Wyatt declared the obvious.
There was a splatter and a loud hiss but it seemed to have done the job. Now it was Wyatt's turn to spring into action. Using the axe they had borrowed, the boy first flipped the chest over so it's bottom was facing up into the sky. It sure looked blackened, like charcoal. Then he gave his a good whack with the axe.
It worked, the wood splintered as the axe blade sunk in. So much so it was now stuck in the chest. Oh durn it all!
"Now what?" he growled.