Worth the Candle

The events in the book take place in the present, but are based upon a genuine historical event of some 140 years ago, when a set of ciphers, largely unbroken to this day, were formulated. The cryptograms are absolutely authentic. They were authored by one Thomas Jefferson Beale, who, with others, while buffalo hunting near Santa Fe, find a mother lode of alluvial gold. Several trips are made back to West Virginia, hauling their bounty. On the last trip West, Beale leaves three ciphers with a trusted individual, indicating that these provide details of the treasure, where it can be found, and the names of the next of kin who should each get a share (including one for the trusted individual). Beale was to send him the keys for the ciphers sometime later, but was never heard from again. Years later, having long since forgotten the incident, the individual, who was an inn keeper, discovers them, and entrusts a bright school teacher to attempt to decipher them. He finds that one of them used an unsanitized version of the Declaration of Independence as the key, and deciphers one of them: the one that describes the treasure, which is immense. Unfortunately, he never found the other keys.

Three graduate students at a Midwestern University decide to tackle the cryptograms as a hot summer’s diversion. Using an extraordinarily powerful computer available to them, they labor mightily, in the face of many obstacles, to solve them, with eventual partial success. The clues that were uncovered are such that a trip to the area in Virginia appears to be necessary to fill in the blanks.

The three students include a brilliant but socially maladjusted young man, and an irascible, self- proclaimed “Stud.” The third student, the only one married, is fairly well adjusted, and his wife becomes a significant and influential member of the group.

Upon arriving in Virginia, they find a kindly local minister they had contacted via email who had been tortured and murdered, and the group finds that there are others (whom they dub the “Crew”) who are after the treasure. Approaching the ostensible treasure location in a remote forested area atop a significant hill, they are taken captive by one of the other treasure seekers and come close to death, but are saved by a 140 year old mechanism.

Unearthing the treasure, they are pursued, and survive only by the clever and heroic efforts of the married student’s wife. The treasure ends up in three locations, including the bottom of an (authentic) man-made lake in Virginia. The students end up with virtually nothing for their trouble, but resolve to try again.

They flee back to the Midwest, feeling safe from pursuit. They lick their wounds and plot a return to Virginia.

Some eight months later, they receive threats from the Crew, who have tracked them down, and decide to hie back to Virginia, where the Crew would least expect them to go.

They obtain equipment to search underwater at the lake for the bulk of the gold, and make several stealthily attempts to recover it, but are apprehended by the Crew and face death once again.

A flurry of remarkable events leads to an unexpected ending.