Robin Bolt
and the Secret of the Numbered Map
by
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I must have fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The next thing I remember, a noise had awakened me. At first, I could not make out what it was. I could hear muffled voices in the distance and someone sounded angry or excited. I sat up in bed just as there was a deadened thump. It sounded like a door shutting but much too close. It came from down the hall, in the bar. I looked at my watch. It was two AM. "What the heck?” I mumbled, and tried to wake up enough to think clearly. I slipped on my blue jeans, and in my bare feet, I went to investigate. "Nothing!” I muttered to myself. The bar appeared to be empty. Suddenly, there was a cold breeze on my bare feet and a piece of paper fluttered off the table and disappeared through a crack in the floor. Then it was gone, sucked through by an invisible force. Only the flickering light from the neon in the window and an oil lamp remained. At that moment, I noticed something strange about the carpet under my feet. The corner disappeared into the floor. There had to be a trap door under there. I had better wake Dad and Ernesto. This might be important. When I went to their rooms, they were gone. "Where is everyone? Wake up!” I shouted loudly, being a little bit alarmed. "Well I guess it's only me.” I whispered. “Someone has to know what is going on.” I lifted up the rug and sure enough, there appeared, a handle in the shape of a ring recessed into the floor. Nothing gained, nothing lost; I pulled up hard on the ring. The floor opened up like the gaping mouth of a hungry animal. In the darkness below, I could just make out a steep and deeply worn wooden staircase. I went back to my room and finished dressing, grabbed the oil lamp in the hall and put on my backpack. Slowly I started down the stairs. The lamp cast giant shadows on the red earthen walls. It was a wine cellar and there were shelves at one end filled with homemade preserves and something that looked like pickled hot peppers. Wine bottles covered in thick dust decorated the far wall. Everything was layered with filth and cobwebs. I could only see what the lamp allowed. I turned slowly, expecting to see a ghost, or a monster.
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About the Book
Adventure-Mystery This book is the story of a young 15 year old adventurer, Robin Bolt . A tale of mystery and adventure set in Central and South America. Travel across the jungles and plains in a quest to discover hidden treasures and solve the riddles of the numbered map. On what starts out as a routine family vacation, Robin and family follow a clue and are diverted to a search for lost worlds. Eventually they stumble onto a lost civilization and learn that the planet itself is in peril. It is up to them to save the Earth.
About the Author
R.H. McCurdy was born in Ontario, Canada growing up in a tiny Georgian Bay community, ‘Lion’s Head’. Living by the water and enjoying the beauty of a tourist region, he soon developed a keen interest in travel while watching movies and travel shows that depicted far away exotic places, and adventure. As he grew up, these things fueled a passion for the unusual. As a teenager, seeing ‘Dr No’, the first ‘Bond’ movie, which was set in 1963 Jamaica, inspired him to search out film sites like Dunn River Falls, featured in the movie. Over fifty countries later, he has been fortunate to travel to jungles and famous places around the world. Whether, Machu Picchu, the Amazon, Giza, Alps, or Andes, the journey continued whenever he could get time away from working as a computer technician. Volunteering to help rebuild homes along the Mississippi after the devastating floods of the 1990’s was one of his most satisfying accomplishments. However, his thoughts always returned to where to go next. Seldom wanting to return to the same destination but thirsty to see over the next hill.