Temple: A New Journey Begins
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The three men followed the other two being careful not to make a sound, allowing the two to disappear and letting the light ahead fade until the three were once again in total darkness. The three stopped to make certain the voices of the two could no longer be heard, and they were the only ones in the cave.
Kwai Chang Caine, Sam Lowery, and Vance Cavanaugh made their way through the tunnel once they were certain it was clear. All three noticed that it gradually sloped downward. Other tunnels could be seen branching off to the right and left. The one that they were in obviously was the main tunnel due to its size. It wasn't long before they reached the entrance. Sam's flashlight revealed where the tunnel emerged.
"This is the lake at the base of the cliff," Caine commented. "My father told me he would come down here with the other children of the temple to swim."
"There's a path leading this way," Sam indicated with his flashlight.
"Caine, how much of this area did the monks own?" Vance queried.
"I do not know."
"It puzzles me that no one has tried to rebuild the temple since it was burned down. You'd think they would have rebuilt. Sam, does your computer have an internet connection?"
"My computer went down last month and I haven't been able to get it fixed since this whole ordeal began."
"Kermit can help us," Caine added. "He can find what you are searching for."
"Does this path lead back to the temple?" Vance asked Caine.
"I do not know. I have never explored this area. My father would have known for certain."
"Well there's got to be a path that leads down here. Let's at least follow this one. We've got to get back to the farm and inform your friend. Looks like my suspicions were correct, my grandfather and father, not to mention a few others have been ripping off the Shaolin for years and covering it up. A lot of the folks are going to be furious over this. It's bad enough that some persecute another group and the rest turn a blind eye. It's down right criminal to be stealing from that group as well."
The three men returned to the farm in silence, each in their own thoughts. They found Kermit sitting in the living room having a cup of tea with Rebecca.
"Mom, what are you doing up so late?"
"What do you mean it's late, it's early Sam. It's nearly five in the morning. The sun will be up soon. Kermit and I have been sharing stories. Well, I better get some breakfast on the table. I am certain you are all hungry from your long trek. The monks will be rising early."
The three men waited until they were alone before they told their companion what had transpired up at the temple and the finding of the tunnels. Vance pulled from his pocket a piece of ore that he picked up.
"Is this what I think it is?" Kermit examined the gleaming stone.
"It certainly looks like it," Vance stated.
"And you said there's a whole network of tunnels under the temple."
"Yes," Sam replied. "It looks like they've been digging under the tunnel for years."
"I wonder when it started."
"For all we know, they've been doing it for at least 50 years."
"They couldn't have been doing it every day. Someone would have noticed."
"Perhaps this might give you a clue." Caine handed Kermit the letter that Vance had given him. "It is from my father."
"You're right, this does shed some light. Good old Peter Caine, you can take the boy away from the precinct, but you can't take the precinct out of the boy."
"I do not understand."
"You don't know this KC, but your father was a cop before he was a priest. We worked together. He discovered some things here that I'm certain no one wanted him finding out. That's why he disappeared. These sheets of paper will blow this whole thing wide open."
"What is it?"
"It's a deed, a very old deed. According to this, the land had been given to Mr. Kwai Chang Caine and his descendants by a Margit McLean-Caine. The date on this . . . it's a little hard to make out. It looks like 1895. The deed describes the size of the property; which includes a lake and several acres of forested land surrounding a large hill. The land was to be set aside for him and his descendents for whatever use they deemed worthy. How long has the temple been on top of the hill?"
"I believe the temple had been built during some time in the late 1950's early 1960," Sam replied "I heard it had been the first temple of its kind in America. There were no Shaolin temples except for those in China, and a lot of them were destroyed by the communists."
"No one ever mentioned a deed?" Kermit asked.
Caine took the will from Kermit to read its contents, his eyes growing wide. His father had never mentioned there had been a will. Why would it surface now? As he read through the papers, the conversation between the other three men continued.
"No. My grandfather said something a long time ago, but I was just a kid," Vance stated. "He made it sound like the monks had no right to the land, that they just moved in without so much as a notice. If they had that deed, there would have been no disputing it."
"Well, it looks like someone's been getting rich off of land that doesn't even belong to them."
"I know who's at least partially responsible," Vance spat with anger. "And he's going to get an earful from me."
Continues with Part 28
Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2004.
This story cannot be reprinted or sold in any other form without strict permission from
the author. It is being distributed here solely for your enjoyment.
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