Treasure Hunt

``No no no no no... this cannot be the case!'' Lucius stammered out as he staggered backwards in horror. It was his worst dreams come true, no doubt, and he was kicking himself for even thinking that it would turn out in any other way.

Just a few days earlier, Lucius had stumbled upon a yellowing piece of paper that was slipped in between the cracks of the brick wall of the house that he stayed in. He hadn't seen that crack before ever since he had lived in the house, but that was because the covering mortar had kept it hidden---it was only after accidentally bumping into the wall with a heavy table that he was shifting that caused the sliver of mortar camouflage to drop off and reveal the hiding place. He had picked up the paper and unrolled it, revealing some writing.

``NE 250N 170E 3 6''

That was all that was written on it. Reading the note, he had felt a strange tingling sensation through him, but he dismissed it outright as some kind of odd visceral reaction. Puzzling over it for days, he finally came up with a decipherment.

``NE''---clearly it was referring to the north-east cornerstone of the house. The house had four corner pillars that were made of stone, different from the bricks that made up the walls themselves. It was said that these stone pillars had been in existence since the very first incarnation of the house before the Civil War, and was what was left after it had happened.

``250N 170E''---it seemed to be the number of paces to walk in the two directions stated respectively. Or it could have been distance, but it was unlikely because there were no units associated with it.

It was the last two digits ``3 6'' that he had no idea what it meant, and was debating about it internally for a while. Curiosity finally gave in and he decided to just try out the coordinates and see where it ended up taking him.

He took his place at the north-eastern cornerstone, and walked out the two hundred and fifty paces north and one hundred and seventy east. There were intervening trees and shrubs, but he managed to keep a good track of his progress, advancing in one direction and keeping count while the other was blocked.

When he finally stopped, he found himself at the base of a tree. Then it dawned upon him what the first of the last two digits meant: it would take him to a tree. This was no ordinary tree---it was one of the really old ones that had lived through the Civil War era, so it was a monster with a crown so large it provided near impenetrable cover. That left the ``6'' as the last undeciphered digit.

A strange nagging feeling came over him. Did the ``6'' meant the number of feet downwards?

That led to him to return the next day with a shovel to dig at the spot. And when his shovel struck something hard, he quickly dusted away everything and looked at what he had found.

It was a freshly buried casket, its glossy surface still intact.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 30-Mar-2014 10:12:19)