The folks see the cave.
While the kids took the wagon down to the other end of the island,
Linc took the folks to the cave.
Linc's Dad was fascinated with how the cave was made. He could see
that this was not an original cave to start with. Maybe an old lava
tube, but it had been refinished in some way, that had made the
walls, ceiling and floor as smooth as glass and a light grey color
instead of the black lava the mountain was made of. He was surprised
at how much light came through the glassed in front. Linc showed them
the grotto where the coffins of the first Hanks lay. They were
surprised at the different spelling of their name. Linc said he may
go ahead and seal up the grotto, now that they all had seen it. They
went through the kitchen- living room area. The large pantry, the
smaller bedroom. Both of his folks commented on the terrible
painting that hung over the couch.. His Mom thought it was gross. She
did like the beautiful kerosene lamp that hung over the kitchen table.
Then he took them to the master bedroom, and his Mom said how much
she liked the bedroom suite, but was surprised to see a stand with a
bowl and pitcher just like the ones they used in the old days.
"Didn't they have a bathroom here?" Linc told them how the bathroom
was in a smaller cave next to this one. His Mom commented again on
how beautiful the kerosene lamps were. He showed them the roll top
desk where he found the packet and the dueling pistols, that he
showed them the day before, and the trinket box that Lucas had found
the ring in, and then he pulled back the big chiffenrobe, to show them
the real secrets of the cave.
All the rooms were open because Vernon had been in them yesterday.
Linc and Vernon both had bright portable lights, so they could really
see into the rooms and see the main exhibits. Linc said he didn't
know what was in the crates and barrels yet, but they would open them
when they get then to Provo. Vernon was like a little kid, showing off
his favorite items. He had a lot of knowledge about some of the items
that had his Mom stumped. At the end of the hall, Tom went into the
room with the strange machines. In a bit, they saw lights come on in
that room and they saw that Tom had climbed up into the biggest
machine. He fiddled around at the dashboard and a few other lights
flickered. Then he turned off the lights and came out of the room.
He said. "I believe that these machines are lasers. The marks on
some of the knobs point to that. I don't know how they work, but they
seem to melt the lava in the cave and reform it somehow into walls
that separate each room and make the cave stable so it don't cave in
. The big machine did the cutting and then the smaller ones did the
forming. I don't know what they did with any leftover rock, unless
there is other parts to this cave where it could be someway". Wow,
Linc never even thought about that.
After they had looked at all the rooms, they went into the kitchen-
living room area. Lucas sat in the recliner and Angel climbed up into
his lap. Tom stepped his foot up and down, and said, " You know, I
think my leg has stopped hunting. I wonder if the minerals in the
lava in this mountain give off some unseen emission of healthful,
physical therapeutic emanations , that can eliminate pain"?
Being a doctor, his Mom said that it was a good possibility.

She went over to the side board and was looking at the silver service
that was placed there. She looked at the hallmarks on the bottom of
the coffee pot, but couldn't tell much from them. Vernon said, " I
don't think any of the furnishings, dishes and silverware in the cave
that was used by the family, was over a hundred years old. Quite
collectable by all means, but not like the museum pieces in the rooms.
They were probably just family heirlooms they used all the time while
they were living here in the cave. But you never know with these
folks, they may not be anything but old stuff, nowhere near as nice
as the furnishings and things they used at home in France".

They sat and talked about , the cave, the exhibits and the
furnishings, for a while before going back to the house.

Back up at the house, they had lunch and finished the clean-up when
the kids came back from the other end of the island. They had a wagon
load of stuff they found and had gathered. Coconuts, mangos,
avocados, kiwis, pomegranates and even a couple of melons as well as
pecans and walnuts. The folks were so surprised at the different kinds
of fruit there was. Tom said, " where are the bananas, oranges and
lemons? Just kidding, looks like there is plenty of other fruit to
feed an army".
Linc said, " if there is anything left when we get through this stay,
you can always take it home. In fact, The kids need to take another
trip for fruit just before we go back to Provo. Saves on the food
bill, with this kind of fruit being spendy back in Provo".
Linc and his Mom took the fruit into the kitchen Linc washed the
fruit while his mother got the biggest bowl she could find, Linc
peeled the fruit while his Mom diced it up for a big fruit salad.
Linc already had bananas. They figured with the baked spuds and the
steaks Linc had in a marinade, it would make a veritable feast for
supper.
Later after supper, the kids watched movies and the rest of them sat
drinking coffee on the patio. Tom asked Linc to tell them more about
the time masters and what they wanted him to do. Linc explained how
the time masters had somehow lost the power to travel back in time.
Without that power, they could not go through a portal, to get or to
take anything. They said they had sent other people to find the loss,
but as yet no one had, and some never returned. He had been through a
lot of portals but had yet to find anything that really pointed to the
reason for the loss. He said he did wonder if it had anything to do
with the missing time master, because the Chinese were really
interested in the missing man and the portal he had made. The Chinese
thought the time master had used the arch for teleportation, because
he had went to the moon and back and they wanted the secret. Then he
disappeared. They knew he had talked about his experiments to
Kenneth Hanks. He and his wife were both scientists, so they
kidnapped the family, and took them to an old abandoned lumber camp in
Colorado. They didn't keep a watch on the boy, Lewis because thee
knew he wouldn't go very far away. He liked to collect rocks, and
have his father identify them for him. They kidnapped them because
they wanted to have them duplicate she time masters experiment, they
witnessed before he disappeared".
Looking back, Linc began to think from what they had them doing, and
what they thought happened when Lewis brought the rock in to his Dad.
It wasn't what they thought had happened. The rock was anti-
magnetic, and flung across the room when it came into the attraction
of strong magnets the Hanks were using in their experiment to make
things teleport. The Chinese thought the Hanks made the rock
teleport. They had no idea the rock was anti-magnetic. They thought
the Hanks had really discovered the way to teleport a rock, but were
very unhappy when they couldn't duplicate it.
Tom asked Linc if this was one of the specimens that his old professor
at the college science department had asked him about, but he had to
tell him he didn't know about the specimens Linc had sent him to be
identified. Linc then told him about the clay at the Tru Blu mine, the
anti-magnetic rocks, and the unusually bright red rusty water from
Gramps mine. It was strange, when he mailed the samples, the
Professor said they were stuck so tight together that he had to pry
them apart. The anti-magnetic rock lost that ability but clung to the
clay like it was a magnet in itself. He needed more samples. That's
when he had to go to Denver to find the old mine that Lewis had found
and he had gotten the couple of rocks from, that he sent the
Professor.
Linc told his Dad about the trip to Denver and what had happened,
after he found the old mine and got a load of samples and took them to
the retreat, before going to find Lewis and his Mom., and everything
that had happened after that. He told him about going to Axel with
the memory chips and then taking Axle and Fannie to the retreat. He
told about the help they had given him too. He told how he had got
more samples of the clay, and a larger sample of the rusty water, and
packaged them separately and sent them to the Professor, who talked
with other mineralogists and scientists about the samples, and shared
them with others to check out. He told His Dad the rocks from Colorado
were radioactive, and were completely an unknown mineral and told Linc
to name it so he told the professor to call it Lewisite after the guy
who found it. Well some of the other professors did some experiments
with the samples and wrote in papers about them and the news got back
to the Chinese. That's when they came back into the picture, about
the harassment they pulled on the miners and Linc.. Everything that
had happened that led up to the cave in they heard about on the way to
Provo.
Tom said, " I wonder about that anti-magnetic rock being radioactive.
Could it be possible that maybe it could be used in some sort of
energy producing way? Something that would benefit mankind instead of
being used to manufacture bombs or something to kill people off with.
If you don't mind, I think I will have another talk with your old
professor and see what he thinks about it if he hasn't already thought
about it himself"
Linc said, "you know, I never would have thought about it, so go ahead
and see what you can find out. If it is feasible, that would be a big
boon the Lewis and his Mom".

Linc and the family had a very restful and happy four days. They kids
got another load of fruit and nuts, and they all went back to Provo.

To be continued.