LITMIR.BIZ

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the cache?” I asked.

      The GPS led us to the corner of the tower. We looked up through the springed steel to the room above.

      “Up we go?” I asked.

      “Unless it’s right here, but I don’t think so. There’s no way to hide a regular sized container right here.”

      “Yes, there is, if these boards are loose.”

      We tested the boards but they were all too tight.

      “Does it say anything about it being magnetic?” I asked.

      “It’s too big to be magnetic. They posted a picture of the original cache and it is an ammo can full of fake jewels. At least it was when it was new. It’s probably got regular swag in it now.”

      “Why would it be full of fake jewels, other than the fact that they would make okay swag?”

      “Did you see the original Pink Panther movie?”

      “That came out before I was born.”

      “Me, too, but my dad likes old movies. The Pink Panther in the movie was a jewel.”

      “So it’s named the Pink Panther Cache because of the contents?”

      “I think so.”

      “So now it should be called the cheap swag cache?”

      “I don’t know. We need to find it and see.”

      There was a gate across the metal stairs but it wasn’t locked and there were no signs warning us to stay out. As we climbed up we watched the wall beside us for nooks and crannies where a cache could be hidden out of sight. It didn’t take us long to reach the top of the stairs and our way was blocked by a metal grate. It was heavy, because it had to be built sturdy enough for a person to walk on. It appeared to be built so that the ranger on duty would come up the stairs, lift the hatch and then close it behind him so once he was in the tower he could walk all the way around the room watching for smoke or flames. Twiggy lifted the grate and I snuck through, then I held it up while he climbed through the gap.

      “Wow! I can see for miles!” I said as I gazed out over the forest. “How far can you see?” I asked Twiggy.

      “I can see for miles, too,” he pointed out with a hint of humor in his voice.

      The door to the lookout had the glass broken out of it but the door knob still worked. I turned the doorknob and pushed but the door didn’t move.

      “Try pulling. They would want a ranger to be able to push his way out.”

      Glass and broken boards littered the floor of the room at the top.

      “Why do people have to tear up a place just because it’s been left alone a while?” I asked.

      “I don’t know. If it wasn’t such a long hike we could clean it up a bit but that’s a long way to carry some of this stuff.”

      “Where does the GPS say to look?”

      “It won’t work very well through the roof. I say we just look around.”

      There were plenty of places to hide a geocache. There was about thirty feet of cupboards with a workbench top to them. Some of the doors were broken off and many swung crookedly. I looked in each one. There was one curious cupboard that was tall and narrow. The shelves had slats. Some of the shelves were missing and the bottom one had a chunk out of one corner.

      “Do you know what that is?” Twiggy asked.

      “No. I was trying to guess. If it didn’t have these weird shelves I’d think it was a broom closet.”

      “It’s the refrigerator.”

      “The… na uh! It can’t be. There’s nothing in there to cool stuff.”

      “The shelves have gaps so the air will flow. Look up. I bet it’s got a chimney sort of thing. And if you look down I bet it is a shaft that goes all the way to the ground. They put blocks of ice in the bottom and the air flow brought the cool air up through the shelves. I am beginning to see why this is the Pink Panther Cache though. After I thought about all the doors opening in different directions it is just like the opening of the cartoon show.”

      This was especially true when we lifted the bottom shelf of the old refrigerator and realized the cache was at the bottom of the shaft where the ice would be placed. I mentally went through all the doors and which direction they opened. The gate was left, the hatch up, the door in the refrigerator right, the shelf up. We had to go to the bottom and see what opened at the bottom to make an ice block shaped opening. So… push the door out, lift the grate up, descend the stairs, push the gate out, yes this was beginning to feel more and more like a Pink Panther cartoon. We searched the bottom of the lookout tower until we found a metal door, but it was locked.

      “Shoot,” I said. “Now what?”

      “Never fear,” Twiggy said. “There’s usually a combination in the hint or description.”

      He brought up the hint and it said “elevator.”

      “Well, I think we have the right idea,” he said. “We thought it was in a shaft. But what about a combination?”

      He switched to the description. We found a story about hiding the cache and being confronted by a cranky…

      “Uh, Twiggy? What’s that?” I asked.

      Lumbering up the side of the mountain was a big, brown form. It was slow and it wasn’t coming our direction so we only got glimpses of it.

      “I don’t know. Let me read the description. Let me know if it gets closer.”

      He squinted at the screen.

      “Want me to try?” I asked.

      “If you want. It says they got up early in the morning to take a hike and they got to the tower. Then they got chased up by a…”

      “Bear,” I said.

      “Yeah and they had never seen a bear before so they were very excited about seeing a bear…”

      “No, Twiggy, I mean that thing over there is a bear.”

      “It is? Oh fuck. Sorry.”

      “Maybe we can get to the cache from above? Or maybe the bear isn’t interested.”

      “You read the description, while I watch the bear.” He handed me the GPS and I read the story on the little screen. “Quick, read quick,” Twiggy said a little nervously.

      “I did. There is no combination. But… here’s something we can try. The story does have numbers,” I pointed out. “We just have to figure out how they apply to our situation.” I read, “‘It was the crack of dawn and the clock blinked six o’clock.’ So where is six o’clock on the combination lock? It’ll be straight down from the zero.” He twirled the spinner a few times to clear it, then found the number opposite the zero. “Then it goes into all the problems they had reaching the parking spot. Wow, a flat tire and …”

      “Gabby, just find the next number so we can get out of here.”

      “So they didn’t reach the tower until nine. What number is at nine o’clock?”

      “I don’t know it could be one of three of four. The lines are so close together. So find the last one while I experiment.”

      “Their little boy tripped and broke his finger. Aww, poor kid.”

      “Gabby, the bear is getting closer.”

      “Then there was a bear that chased them up the stairs and hung around for an hour. So I wonder if an hour represents the one o’clock position? But it does say they didn’t get home from hiding the cache until eight o’clock that night. That must include a trip to urgent care… Maybe they hid more than…”

      “Uh, Gabby,

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