The soldiers glowered at Wilbur, who knew that things were about to take a turn for the worse. Wilbur knew that he could not stay for long, but Vernon said, "I''ve found it! Pull the rope, and the door will open."


    Wilbur charged over and pulled the rope. The door eventually opened, and he said to the others, "Go on, hurry up!"


    The explorers rushed into thest secret room, and Wilbur followed behind them


    as he let go.


    Bam!


    The huge metal door swung shut, blocking the soldiers outside.


    "They''ve gone inside, Captain. What should we do now?"


    The captain of the soldiers glowered. "They''re not getting out of here alive either way! Release the water!"


    A passage appeared in front of the men in the room. There were two chests at the end of the passage, one golden and one ck.


    Below the passage were the waters. There seemed to be something moving in them as the men ran to the podium at the end of the passage to open the chests.


    The golden box contained a pile of gold, and the ck box contained a single ck marble.


    "What''s this? A marble?"


    Vernon picked up the ck marble and nced at it, before handing it to Kean. Kean rubbed the ck marble in his hands, before snorting, "Yeah, it''s just regr ss marble. Machines weren''t as advanced back then, so a transparent ss marble like this was a symbol of wealth."


    The explorers passed the marble around, and it eventuallynded in Wilbur''s hands.


    Just then, Mitch said, "Forget the marble, let''s look at the gold."


    "How should we split it?"


    Vernon said, "I thought that the gold was important before, but then I realized that was not what I was actually after. I''ll give up my portion of the gold."


    Kean said, "Wilbur helped me before we got here, and I believe in returning favors. I''ll pass on my portion too."


    "I don''t want it either."


    "Me neither."


    Atst, all eight explorers gave up their share of the gold, which made Wilbur feel rather pleased.


    Just then, Aite nced at the gold in the chest before saying, "Well, Mister Penn, our agreement''splete. The chest of gold is yours. Let''s go, Eli."


    "Yeah."


    Eli and Aite turned to leave, and Vernon said, "Hey, you can''t do that! At least stick around to help Mister Penn get the gold out of here."


    "Our agreement''s over, so we have nothing to do with this anymore."


    "Well, is everything between us over, then?" Vernon scowled.


    The two brothers stopped in their tracks, and Eli turned around to look at Vernon. "What do you mean, Vernon?"


    "You two were able to get the map to the treasure from a previous civilization, but you hid it from all of us. Did you even see us as friends?"


    Aite said coldly, "We were friends, and we might not be friends anymore. Sorry, Vernon. I hope we''ll still be friends, though."


    Just as Eli and Aite turned to leave, the ground began to shake violently. Across the passage was a huge tree growing along the walls, and its branches began to


    move.