'Thank you, Arthur.'
'We can't answer that yet,' said Jack, sitting apart from them.
'He hasn't attempted to ransom them, we know that much,' said Presto.
'Perhaps he's searching them for... mystical information,' said Stern.
'Hidden secrets,' said Doyle. 'Like the Kabbalah supposedly contains.'
'Like that bit about how to build a golem,' said Innes.
'Possibly,' said Doyle.
'Stay away from that sort of speculation,' said Jack sharply.
Silence again.
'Do we know where your brother is now?' asked Walks Alone.
'We know a telegraph line ran out of their office,' said Presto. 'Presumably that was their method of communication.'
'Any way to trace the line?' said Doyle.
'Not now,' said Jack.
'They would have used some sort of code,' said Doyle. 'And by now whatever link existed between them has surely been destroyed.'
'The tower,' said Walks Alone, with a flash of clarity. 'That's where he is.'
The thought startled everyone in the room, but no one quite grasped her point yet.
'The man in the dream, the one who looks like you,' said Walks Alone to Jack. 'Your brother; he was in Chicago; he saw the Water Tower, just as your father did before he made that drawing,' she said to Stern.
'Good God,' said Stern. 'Maybe they met each other here; my father and Alexander; they could have, couldn't they?'
'Possibly. Go on,' said Doyle.
'What if your brother is building this tower?' Walks Alone asked. 'Patterned in some way on the one he saw here.'
'Schwarzkirk, the Black Church,' said Presto. 'It falls together.'
'Somewhere out west,' said Walks Alone. 'In the desert we have seen in the dream.'
'Maybe that's where my father's gone,' said Stern, excitement rising.
'You're suggesting this black tower you've all seen is an
'Yes,' said Walks Alone.
'Why couldn't it be?' asked Presto, excited by the idea.
'I don't know; I suppose it could,' Doyle admitted.
'And if it is, how hard could it be to find a building of such size and singular design?' asked Presto.
'Not hard at all,' said Doyle. 'We'll wire rock quarries and masonries in every western city.'
'He'd need a huge number of skilled workers,' said Presto.
'And an enormous pile of money,' said Stern.
'Supply houses, construction outfitters ...' added Presto.
'And newspapers; there'd be stories about such an unusual project,' said Doyle. 'Innes, make a list; we'll go to the telegraph office and start sending inquiries.'
Innes took a sheet of stationery from the desk and began writing.
Doyle glanced over at Jack, sitting alone, staring at the floor, the only one not participating. 'Can any of you remember more details from the dream that might tell us where the tower is?'
Jack did not acknowledge the question.
'Mary, you seem to have had the most revealed to you,' said Presto.
Walks Alone nodded, closed her eyes, and directed her mind back into the world of the dream.
'Six people gather in a room under the ground,' she said slowly.
'The temple; yes, I think I've seen that, too,' said Presto.
'Each time the Black Crow Man rises from the earth, into the sky, out of the fire.'
'Like the phoenix,' said Doyle.
'Phoenix,' said Stern.
His eyes met Doyle's as the thought struck them simultaneously.
'Phoenix, Arizona,' said Doyle. 'Send the first telegrams there—my God. I've just had a thought.'
Doyle rummaged quickly through his notebook to find his sketch of the design they had found on the wall of Rupert Selig's cabin and the brand on the arms of the thieves. 'We've been assuming all along that this design is an insignia of this league of thieves.'
'What of it?' asked Presto.
'Perhaps we've been looking at it the wrong way,' said Doyle. 'Perhaps that's not what it is at all.'
'What else could it be?' asked Innes.
Doyle turned the drawing on its side and pointed to it. 'What does this look like now? These broken lines?'
'Dots and dashes?' said Presto.
'Morse code,' said Innes.
'Exactly,' said Doyle, laying it down flat, taking Innes's pencil. 'Does anyone know what this translates into?'
Jack had moved across the room without anyone noticing. He stood directly over Doyle, looking down at the paper.
'The letter 'R' and a series of numbers,' said Jack. 'Thirteen and eleven on the middle line. Thirteen and eighteen on the last.'
'It's not a date, then,' said Doyle.
'Perhaps a geographical location, longitude and latitude,' said Innes.
Jack shook his head. 'Middle of the Atlantic Ocean.'
'Maybe a biblical reference,' said Stern. 'Chapter and verse.'
'Innes, there's a Bible in the drawer beside my bed,' said Doyle, as Innes bolted for the door. 'Don't wake the Major.'
'How do we know which book of the Bible?' asked Presto, as Innes returned with a Gideon Bible and handed it to Doyle.
'One that begins with the letter 'R,' I suppose,' said Doyle.
'Only three begin with 'R,' ' said Innes from memory. 'Ruth, Romans, and the Revelation.'
'Ruth has only four chapters,' said Doyle, quickly flipping to that section of the book. 'And Romans only fourteen verses.'
'What is the Revelation?' asked Walks Alone. 'The last book,' said Stern. 'A series of visions experienced by the Apostle John.'
'A prophecy,' said Jack, 'of the Apocalypse.' 'Here it is,' said Doyle, finding the page. 'Revelation, thirteen, eleven: 'Then I saw another Beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns and spoke like a dragon.'
'And thirteen, eighteen: 'Here is wisdom: Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.' '
chapter 12
THE FIRST CHECKPOINT WAS FIVE MILES OUT FROM THE center of the town. Late afternoon by the time the Players' wagons reached it, desert all around, flat and desolate, sun hammering down like a blacksmith. Eileen was grateful for the extra canteens Jacob had filled before they left Skull Canyon; Kanazuchi
