St Francis Xavier Cathedral

Rattled by your narrow escape from Percy, you cross Victoria Square, dodging trams and cars, heading for the majestic St Francis Xavier Cathedral. It’s a magnificent building, all gothic towers and stained glass windows, and you’re convinced that you’ve followed the right path when you find an old stone from 1923, covered in Latin.

“This was laid by the archbishop,” Rhonda says. She tries very carefully to remove the stone without chipping the edges. Soon, a Catholic priest appears, and quietly asks what you are doing.

“Looking for Colonel Light’s treasure,” you say. “Please, we need to hurry.”

The priest looks you over, and he must sense your panic and fear. His anger at your vandalism fades. Still, he gently pushes your pick away from where you are trying to dig, and shakes his head.

“I can save you some time,” the priest says. “There was a time capsule under this stone. We moved it over to this newer dedication stone in 1996, when we added an extension to the Cathedral. I’m so sorry, but we didn’t find anything about Colonel Light here.”

“We need to look again,” you say. “Maybe there’s something you missed?”

You show him the clues you have collected on your journey, and resting a set of reading glasses across his nose, he carefully reads the strange poems.

“It is unlikely Light’s Secret Society ever came here,” he finally says. “Light was far from a Catholic. If I remember the history, he lived in sin with his mistress. While he was still married to another woman.”

The priest lets you poke around the grounds and waits politely while you examine the exteriors of the Cathedral. It’s an excellent example of the stone mason’s craft, and there is nothing to show that the building has been tampered with. You are just about to give up when you notice something strange about the ventilation holes set near the base of the building’s floor. Each one is capped with a steel grate, an ornate circle, but you notice that one of the grates by the corner is slightly broken, and sitting loose in the hole.

“This is it!” you cry out, and pry the grate loose. Before Rhonda can say anything, you roll up your sleeve and reach deep into the hole, scrabbling around for the secret you are sure is hidden within. Just at the tip of your fingers you can feel something, a hard shape with a straight edge. The treasure!

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rhonda says, and you’re about to give a smart reply when you feel a pinch around your elbow. You’ve reached so far into the hole that your arm is wedged tight.

You’re stuck!

The priest and Rhonda try to free you, but in the end they have to call in the fire-brigade. It takes hours for a team with brick-cutters to remove the stones around the ventilation hole, and with one stupid move you’ve caused a lot of damage to a historical building.

There is one thing you find when you are finally loose. Still clutched in your fingers is…a rusty old mousetrap. You’re clutching the mousetrap as the police arrive to take you away. At the edge of the gathering crowd is the smiling moustachioed face of Percy…

~THE END~

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