Бесплатный фрагмент - Treasure of the tower

The book tells the story of the discovery of the hidden treasure of gold. The heroes of the book and the events outlined in the book are fictitious. The coincidences of historical facts are of an accidental character and do not bear responsibility for the reliability of the facts stated in the book. Coincidence is a coincidence.

Author’s note.

Chapter — 1.

Misha was ten years old, the age in which the world is seen as simple and welcoming as children perceive it without going deep into the essence of things. The boy was with a pretty, angelic face, which can be seen on the icons depicting holy angels in the temples. Large and sensual blue eyes, long eyelashes somehow in a special way created by nature and directed down and to the sides. Hair of ash color, favorably shaded and emphasized the heavenly beauty of blue eyes so that my mother sometimes compared it to a doll that was preserved in Mama’s memory from her childhood.

Misha lived with his mother in a five-story house at the very outskirts of Nevyansk. From the balcony of their apartment the fields in the blue haze with the blacking strips of forests traversing the distance were far away. But the most mysterious place Misha considered the visible from here ruins of an ancient castle, once fortified. The fortress wall is half-ruined and was clearly visible, because the castle was built on a hill and towered above the terrain, and was seen far away in the vicinity. The oak grove was approaching the ruins from all sides, where ancient century-old oaks met on a par with the young growth. The ruins of the castle attracted the attention of local boys with its surviving watchtower with a half-ruined dome adjoining the fortress wall. Misha often looked there in the direction of the tower, and boyish imagination painted pictures of fairy-tale battles of defenders with invaders.

One day, on a warm July afternoon, Sasha’s relative came to see Misha. Sasha was of the same age. When the mothers of the boys retired in the room and took up the patterns of the elegant dress, the friends began to play toys. They were tired of playing with toys, and Misha offered Sasha:

— Come with me, I’ll show you something interesting. — Intrigued Sasha looked curiously at his friend.

— Ah, what, you can not say what?

The boy mysteriously put his index finger to his lips, silently saying so that his parents would not hear, thus allowing even more mystery to Sasha. And the one on tiptoe stealthily followed his comrade. When they found themselves on the balcony, the boy pointed a hand to the distant ruins of the castle and conspiratorially said:

“Look out there, can you see the tower?”

Sasha narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction indicated by Misha. Then he authoritatively declared: “No, I do not see anything.” — He was cunning, because Sasha always wanted to be the first in everything, especially among the boys, and he pretended that he had not seen the tower and the ruined fortress wall. “There,” he tried to indicate the right direction for Misha, to look more closely. But Sashino’s curiosity prevailed over the feelings of leadership, and, not Having sustained this, he said:

— Yes, I see! Yes, what to watch? Let’s go tomorrow, when our mothers will still be sleeping, we’ll run away there and carefully see everything. — And added, for greater interest, dreamily stretching out the words: — Maybe we’ll find the treasure there?

And the boys, from these words of Sasha, and from the secret of the enterprise, so they wanted to run there, touch the stones and find the ancient treasure.

In the morning, when the sun had not yet risen, and the twilight was still clinging to the shadow of the bush, the boys slipped out of the apartment, taking a candle, matches and a flashlight, and rushed to the ruins. The guys on the overgrown grass, barely discernible stone road. Finally, they reached the moat that surrounded the ruins. The moat was filled with water and covered with reeds. Further the road went to the castle through an ancient wooden bridge. At the entrance to the bridge on the railing was posted a sign with the inscription “Passage and passage on the bridge is prohibited!” DANGER TO LIFE! “These words were written in red. The boys read the warning inscription, and Misha was the first to turn, intending to go back.

— No! Forward! — Sasha boldly said, — I go first, and you follow me, Mishka, follow me! — and set foot on the half-rotten bridge. Soon he waved his hand from the opposite side of the ditch.

— Yes, do not be afraid, hold on! — Sasha encouraged his friend. And Mishka suddenly became frightened, it seemed to him that he would collapse from the old masonry, right into the swamp that surrounded the ruins of the castle. The shame before the other was stronger than fear, and Misha boldly stepped onto the beam of the bridge. Reaching the middle, fear suddenly disappeared somewhere, seemed ridiculous, and Misha reached Sasha. Suddenly, the leg slipped and, feeling no support, collapsed, as it seemed to him directly from the debris of the rotten bundle down. When the first moments of fright passed, he felt that he was lying on the bridge, that one leg was hanging out without support in the air, and a good piece of wooden support floated far below in the water overgrown with thick duckweed. Pale and frightened boy, not hearing the screams of a friend, he stood on all fours and trembled everywhere, slowly crawled to Sasha.

— Ha-ha-ha! Well, you’re a coward! Sasha laughed at him. Misha was hurt. He said:

“I, I, am not a coward!” — blushing with the paint of embarrassment, Misha was acquitted. He suddenly wanted to give Sasha a good blow, but he restrained himself and soon forgot about it. Meanwhile, the friends approached the breach in the castle wall. A bunch of bricks, plaster and debris blocked their way. They climbed a pile of construction junk and descended to a wide, overgrown grass and bushes. The whole space inside is surrounded by a wall covered with a broken brick. Buildings are destroyed; everywhere there are weeds, nettles and bushes, as well as rare wood. Friends looked around. A half-ruined tower with partially damaged dome rushed into view. Stair steps led to the entrance to the circular wall. Sasha ran to the stairs, Misha behind him. They climbed the steps, covered with a thick layer of dust and a broken brick to the entrance. Inside the tower a round hall opened, the light fell, drawing rays of transparent rectangles in the dusty air, on the stone floor and captured the contours of the loopholes. The pigeons, frightened by the guests, suddenly flew high above the dome, and the dust drew the rays of the rays with clubs.

“Let’s get out of here.” — Pushing Sasha with the sleeve of his shirt, said Misha.

— Yes, wait, you! I think I found something interesting. And he headed for the darkened corner under the stage to approach the loopholes. Misha followed him. In the shade, where the least light came from the daylight, the friends saw a massive wooden door hanging on one still loose hinge and hiding the steps in the dungeon.

“This is the entrance to the powder cellar.” — Authoritatively noticed, with the manifestation of a connoisseur of antiquities, Sasha.

“Maybe there is a weapon?” Suggested Misha with a mysterious air.

“Then go ahead!” — Behind me! Now we will check. Sasha first descended the dusty steps.

“Bear, give me a flashlight.” — The entrance came out of the darkness.

— Now! — and he had no choice but to follow the other in the dampness and darkness of the dungeon. The beam of the flashlight snatched the green ring from the time, attached to the wall. “It’s for a torch,” Sasha said with knowledge of the facts of the story. They passed the first find, and soon found themselves in an empty, damp room with an earthen floor. Examining all the corners, and finding nothing but debris consisting of broken bricks, layers of dust and dirt mixed with rotten chips, they began to climb back to the top.

— And maybe there is a move? — Misha surmised, — Only was piled on the ground and no one found out who was climbing here before us.

“We’ll have to check!” — Sasha eagerly picked up. — To dig, search, bring a shovel.

“Then we went home,” suggested Misha, “we have.”

— Let’s go. — Sasha agreed. The beam of the flashlight slid again around the ring. Dima could not resist, he asked:

“Have you noticed anything?”

“Ah, what should I have noticed?” — Sasha answered the question with a question.

“Shine on the ring!”

Sasha sent the flashlight to the wall. Misha approached and yanked at the round green skin bagel. Suddenly there was an unpleasant metallic screech. Part of the wall suddenly went to the side, exposing the dark entrance. Friends of the surprise froze, frozen in place. The first to come to life was Sasha.

“Why did not anyone notice this entry before us?” He asked in perplexity.

“I read somewhere in my childhood,” Misha authoritatively remarked, suddenly imagining himself, a ten-year-old boy, in an adult’s joke, “that there is nothing more reliable than a hiding place, as in the most prominent place.” So it turns out that the ring for the torch is the very place.

— Wow! Exclaimed Sasha admiringly. “It’s just an underground secret passage.” Let’s go, we’ll check it out. — And entered the opening. Misha, not wanting to be alone, followed another.

The dungeon gasped in the face with the musty air of an unventilated cellar.

“Like our grandmother’s cellar,” Misha said. Meanwhile, Sasha was using a flashlight, trying to see in his ray a dark dungeon. Misha was scared. Shadows from the light of a flashlight frightened him. It seemed to the boy that the invisible ghosts inhabiting the fairy-tale castles are hiding behind these shadows and are waiting for a convenient moment to tighten in their cold embrace. Steps of the course led friends into a dead end, ending with a massive wooden door with the same exact copper ring. Sasha pulled the ring. The door succumbed with difficulty, opening a room to them. Sasha was shining into the darkness of space. Gray dry walls and a mossy floor snatched the beam of a flashlight out of the darkness and suddenly stopped on the grin of a human skull. Wild Scream:

— A! A! A-ah! — Dungeons rang out in the darkness. It screamed frightened Misha, he squealed so piercingly, and so unexpectedly that he frightened Sasha with his screech and he dropped the flashlight,

Not thinking about anything, started in the pitch darkness of the dungeon to the supposed exit. But flew into the “embrace” of the skeleton and fell along with a pile of bones showered with heavy rain on the boy. At that moment, Sasha thought that the skeleton had grabbed him by the collar and pounded his knuckles on his back. The boy fell silent, frightened to death, remaining lying on the ground of the cellar without moving and waiting for its end. But contrary to expectations nothing happened, only heard a kind of not expressive sound resembling the sounds that dogs howling at night in the rush of immense longing for the moon. Sasha at first thought that this skeleton rushed to Misha, but then he realized that Misha was whining with fear in the hope of finding a flashlight. And what about himself and Sasha? It seems to be all right. Fear gradually passes and suddenly all, disappeared somewhere, and recent fears seemed like a ridiculous adventure. And for the good spirits of the spirit, Sasha began to mentally say to himself that a miracle does not happen, that skeletons live only in fairy tales, that in life this does not happen and can not be, as there are no witches, devils, or goblins. That’s how Sasha thought, having convinced himself completely and irrevocably in this, he got up and stood on his feet. Bones from the skeleton fell from his back to the floor, hitting each other. From this knock Misha suddenly shouted even louder, and already lighting the way with a flashlight, forgetting about a friend, he started down the steps from the dungeon from this terrible place. Sasha, stumbling in the darkness on the steps, ran after Misha. “He’s after me!” Thought the terrified Misha. — “This monstrous cast has dealt with Sasha and his skeleton is chasing me now!”

From this thought Misha rushed upward even faster. The bright sunlight struck the eyes, for a moment, blinded the boy, but he continued to run chased by animal fear, stumbling over the stones. Rushing through a pile of debris in the breach of the fortress wall, he found himself behind the castle. Ahead of the bridge, Misha stopped listening at the bridge. Sasha’s steps were given distinctly and loudly, and Misha started even faster along the bridge away from this terrible place. On the opposite side of the bridge, he suddenly caught on something and fell, stretched out to the full height, finding himself in the thickets of nettle. The footsteps slammed quite near, and already unable to rise, the boy froze with a soul that had gone to his heels. Squeezed with fear, fearing, stir in the burning embrace of the stems of the nettle.

“Hey, brave man!” — he heard the mocking breath of Sasha’s breathless voice — “You ran as if Death were chasing you!”

“Ah-ah, you, what’s alive?!” — Misha stuttered in a voice trembling with fear.

“As you can see, ha-ha-ha!”

— Ha-ha-ha! — friends laughed for a long time.

Misha’s fear went away, but when Sasha invited him to go once more to the dungeon and examine the room and the underground passage, Misha flatly refused. Since then, Misha has never been afraid of the dark, and the memory of the terrible moments he has experienced has remained with him for life.

Chapter — 2.

The boys appeared in Misha’s house at 7 o’clock in the morning. The apartment was quiet. They crept into Misha’s room and listened.

“Yes, they’re still asleep,” Sasha began in the first whisper. “I know my mother; she likes to wince until eleven.” And then he’ll sit down in the kitchen and not get out from there until about one in the afternoon. He cooks there, drinks coffee.

— And mine gets up early. — Misha agreed, — Only on weekends he likes to sleep.

“They are daughters, then!” — Sasha authoritatively stated.

The boys were silent. Misha offered to sleep. They undressed and lay down in their beds. Soon they fell asleep. Misha’s mother woke them up.

— Sonya, well, get up, and wash! — Mom ordered. The boys jumped from their beds and rushed to the bathroom in a race. Soon there was heard the splash of water and the loud laughter of the children. After breakfast Misha said:

“Mom and Sasha and I go into the yard.”

“Go, take a walk, but do not forget that two arrive for dinner!” My aunt Masha and I go to the store. — And I began to wash the dishes.

The boys ran out of the kitchen to dress for a walk, when Misha ran past the bedroom, from where Aunt Misha’s sleepy voice came: “Anya, where are you?” — What did Masha Misha say from the kitchen? — I’ve been waiting for you for an hour! Come and have breakfast!

Swaying on the swing, Sasha said in a businesslike manner:

— A treasure is there.

— How do you know that? Misha asked in surprise.

— I feel. — The boy answered absently and added: — We need to visit there.

“Are you a fool?!” Yes, I will not return to this underworld for anything. Misha categorically declared.

“You’re a fool, Mishka.” You’re scared of someone who has not been around. And remember that miracles do not happen in this world. — As an adult began to talk Sasha. “And there’s sure to be a treasure!”

“Listen, I’ll tell you Sasha.” It was still when I slept in the cradle, my mother told me. I came here from Moscow with professors and academicians with all kinds of equipment. And let’s explore the castle. Everyone said that this was the last refuge of some rich breeder Demidov.

— Yah?! Sasha’s eyes flashed with curiosity. “But rather tell me what they were looking for.

“So, my mother told me that the basement of the castle was enlightened by radar there.”

— So what?!

“You do not have to interrupt!” So, it turned out that underground water-filled rooms were found underground. And that there locator highlighted a heap of submerged some tools.

— Well, and you Mishka refuse to go there. Since this breeder was richer than the tsar himself, he hid his treasure there as well.

“And you think that the scientists who conducted the search there were worse than us with you or what?”

“Well, do not be any worse, Mishka. Sasha answered evasively. “Did you find the treasure?”

— No, Sasha, you did not find it. Mamma said that they stayed there for six months. They were digging, drilling, looking for a shorter time, and they could not find a damn thing.

— Yes, we saw that there is a lot of garbage, whole heaps and ruins with a fresh breakage of the walls. — Sasha commented. “But after your story, God himself told me to go again.” But … “Sasha thought for a moment.

“What’s that?” — curiosity prevailed, and Misha began to look in Sashin’s mouth with interest, waiting for an answer.

“We just need to prepare thoroughly and so that our mothers do not suspect anything.” He looked at Misha curiously.

— You, Sasha, wait, what will I answer? If I refuse, then you’ll still go there alone, so?! If I say this to your mother, I’ll be a traitor, right?! — Misha reasoned, — I’ll have to agree.

— Yes, I saw on your face that you rejected the style. — Said Sasha.

“You will condemn me, I will completely refuse, I understand!” — Misha painted an insult on his face.

— Well, do not be angry, I’m so friendly. I will not call you any more mug, you are my best friend, comrade, and also a cousin.

— Well, of course, where to go, we’re brothers with you, even cousins. — Answered without offense Mishka.

The guys conferred for a long time on what to take with them, how to dress and when to make a sortie to the old castle. From the side it was evident that the two boys on the playground were amused by the fact that they were riding on a swing, climbing on sports equipment scattered here and there on the site, and running after each other in catch-ups. When it was time for dinner, Misha’s mother called them to dinner from the balcony…

Friends agreed on the next day, when their mothers will still sleep, go to the old ruins. With this and ran into the kitchen, trying in everything to be obedient. Sasha without a reminder that to sit at the dinner table you have to wash your hands took a towel hanging from my mother’s bed and under the surprised mother’s looks went into the bathroom where Misha’s hands were washed. Friends with carefully washed hands sat down at the dinner table.

“You would have stayed with my sister; otherwise my bored one is here.” — Lovingly looking at her son, Misha’s mother said.

— Yes, no, Olga! “Sasha’s mother flatly declared.” Yesterday, when our skittles disappeared, I thought that I would die of grief if something happened to him.”

“Well, as you know, Natasha.” We see so little, you know! Olga sighed sadly. Then she took the uncorked bottle of wine and filled the glasses.

— Well, Natasha, let’s at least drink on the path. — Sisters clinked glasses of crystal, and drank to the bottom.

Sasha looked inquiringly at his mother:

— We, Mom that we are leaving? His gray eyes widened with sudden curiosity.

“Yes, son, tonight by train”. I bought tickets in advance, so as not to hang around in queues. Thank you, that during the reign of Peter the Great the local breeder Demidov laid a railway there. — And this tower, sideways on its side is it, too? Sasha with wide eyes looked at his mother and tried to cheat, seizing the moment when my mother began to talk about the historical events of Nevyansk, he asked pitifully:

— Mom, leave me with Aunt Olya, now it’s a vacation, you do not need to do any lessons. Immediately I like at home, you yourself said, when we got here, that you’ll leave me for a whole month already?

— No! You know my word. I almost died of fear for you, for your yesterday’s trick.

The categorical tone of Natasha’s aunt, finally persuaded Misha that Aunt Natasha would take Sasha away and that he would be left without a friend for the rest of the holidays, cast down in despair. In the evening, Sasha and Aunt Natasha left on a passenger train in the direction of Yekaterinburg…

Misha did not like these departures of my mother’s sister, on those rare days when she came, and then after the departure of Aunt Natasha, her mother went for a long time, sullen and evil. Often, Misha got slapped for any little things that, as it seemed to his mother, prank and disobedience. And now, especially when Misha suddenly lost his crony friend, it’s twice as bad for her to stay with her mother, who is not in a mood. And he decided to go himself on the planned route, without worrying about maternal experiences and fears.

In the morning my mother woke Misha:

— I am urgently recalled from leave to work, I will come late. Eating in the fridge, warm it up on the stove. Look here, that there was an order, you almost adult already get used to independence. — She got dressed, and, taking the business folder, with some papers, left the apartment.

From the unexpected luck that he is now left to himself and can go where he wants. As soon as the mother closed the door, Misha jumped out of bed and began to gather for sally. Having packed everything into the school backpack, which he considered necessary, and, having dressed in a tracksuit, with a backpack behind him, he slammed the door of the apartment. And then he remembered that he had forgotten his mobile phone. He hurriedly opened the door with the key, returned, at that moment his Smartphone rang.

— Yes mom. — The mother’s anxious voice asked what he ate, which Misha answered: — I’ve eaten, Mom, now I’ll take the book and read it according to the set program. — He lied. At the second end of the “wire”, already calmer, the mother replied, “Okay, son, I’ll call you back.

The conversation on this was interrupted and with a sigh of relief, Misha, closed the apartment door with a key…

It was scary to go to the castle. The farther he left the house along the deserted weeds, which was abundantly growing everywhere, the more insistently the images of the suddenly “revived” human skeleton chained to the basement wall in the castle arose. Mishka in every possible way chased away these eerie memories, but memory inexorably aroused fears. What was left for them to do, how could they not turn and rush home from home? However, the shame for his cowardice and cowardice will then pursue him all his life, and Mishka involuntarily cringed from the chill, which suddenly penetrated with fear for the sports jacket. No, since he decided to go he will overcome himself and these worthless fears of a nonexistent danger and, most importantly, before himself he will overcome. With encouraging thoughts, he was already more confidently stepping forward…

Chapter — 3.

Through the ruined bridge he moved and already stood at the castle, still not daring to take the most important step into the breach of the fortress wall and move on to the goal.

After hesitating for a minute, he finally made up his mind and entered through a breach into the courtyard of the castle, overgrown with grass and bush. The surviving space was gaping with the blackness of the rectangular hole in the entrance to the round, half-ruined watchtower. Misha walked with a firm gait. From the outside, if you watch him at these moments, it was clear that the boy is familiar with these places, as he moved confidently and vigorously, without any circumspection, peculiar to people entering the unexplored for the first time…

The morning sun penetrated into the round room, illuminating the steps leading down to the gaping entrance to the basement, which the guys opened the last time. Misha looked with fear in the blackness of the door, where the bones of the scattered skeleton were. Imagining this picture, which recently brought Misha into a heart-rending fear, he again hesitantly froze at the steps of the entrance to the cellar. As he did not have enough Sasha in those moments, of course, Sashka would not fail to laugh heartily from him. The imaginary picture of Sasha’s ridicule encouraged the boy, and with a sinking heart he began to descend. With every step that brought him closer to the entrance to the basement, fear grew. At the very entrance, he took out their side pocket of a backpack Smartphone, turned on the flashlight bulb. A bright light pierced the blackness of the entrance, snatching out the white splinters of firewood on the stone floor. Oh, it’s not firewood, it’s the bones of the skeleton, scattered here and there. At first, the fear stopper tied the boy, he stood, as if stumped, not daring to move from his place. But gradually fear let go of him, numbness passed and, daring, he decided to shoot on the video of the Smartphone this picture with human bones on the floor in the dust of the cellar. During this occupation, suddenly, his Smartphone made a bell sound, frightened by an unexpected call.

Misha hesitated for a while to answer. Then a moment later he looked at the call screen. Sasha called. Masha accepted the call and saw Sasha’s laughing face on the screen.

— Oh, hi! — he said, — Why can not I see you? You, what’s in the castle, or something, in the basement with a skeleton, or what’s so dark, you can not be seen?

“How do you know where I am?”

— Yes, I’m joking. What do you think, I did not see how you put in your pants when you draped from the basement, eh? Sasha’s mocking laugh rang out.

“See for yourself what I’ll show you!” — Misha became a flashlight Smartphone to illuminate the remains of the skeleton, passing the image to Sasha. The friend was silent, without making a sound…

Sasha’s Smartphone lay on the kitchen table, behind which he sat, waiting for Mom to fill the plate with soup and put it on the table. When the bowl of soup set in front of Sasha, at this very time Misha began to broadcast the shooting of the basement remains of the skeleton of the castle. Sasha’s mom, seeing human bones on the image, grabbed the Smartphone in horror, and heard:

— Well, which of us is a coward, and Sashka?! — Misha’s voice shook Sasha’s mother to the depth of consciousness.

Misha continued to shoot a terrible picture, and, marveling at the silence of his friend, said:

— What, you there the boy, it is not terrible, and?!

“No, Misha, Sasha is not scared,” Natasha’s aunt’s voice drove Misha into a stop. He turned off the smart phone, and resolutely rushed to the exit from this eerie place. Misha knew for sure that Aunt Natasha would immediately call her mother, and Mom would immediately rush home, forget about work, and forget about everything and only to make sure that nothing happened to him. Misha, in the blink of an eye, found himself near the doorway of the tower, when suddenly a warning thought flashed through the depths of the subconscious: “We must close the basement so that there are no unnecessary questions.” And he ran down to the green ring, which had turned green from the old times, to install the torch. He grabbed the ring and struggled as best as he could, yanked. The cellar door creaked wildly with a wild screech. But Misha did not see this anymore, the terrible creaking and grinding of the sliding door, drove the boy away without looking back. A few minutes later, when Misha ran through the wasteland home, Mom called the Smartphone.

— Yes mom!

— You, what do you allow yourself, ah?! My sister calls me and says that you are now in the former prison for convicts, who were kept there for construction work, when Demidov rebuilt and started his plant. And if the wall collapsed?! A brick on his head would have fallen?! And in the basement would be overwhelmed? What do you think, woe is you mine?! — The mother’s voice rang in the phone.

— Mom, I’m already approaching the house, nothing happened to me.

— Wait for it! I’ll get home!

From these words, Misha was not so offended as for Sasha’s betrayal. Sasha passed it to his mother and now the friendship is over. A new call rang. A call from Sasha is indicated on the screen. Misha, with vexation, dialed several buttons, removing Sasha’s phone from the Smartphone database. Now he has neither a friend nor a cousin of a traitor. I did not want to go home, but pity for my mother took over and unwillingly, overcoming the inevitability of punishment, he wandered the weeds of the wasteland home…

Half an hour later, from the moment Misha entered the apartment, my mother came. The woman did not have a face. She, without taking off her shoes, rushed to her son:

“You know,” she turned to her son, breathless, “if it was not for Sasha, I would have poured you over the very outset.”

— And what did he tell you? Misha asked insinuatingly, putting off the textbook on Russian literature.

— He said that you promised him to show a horror movie that you could download from the Internet. And that you did not go anywhere. Natasha, too, then I apologized. Sashka said that in this horror film shootings were conducted in places similar to our ruins jail and that you walked looked at the similarity, when Sasha and his mother came to us.

From these words, Misha eased from the heart, and the mother in the meantime continued: “I did not believe a single word of it until I came home. You really did not go anywhere?!

— Of course not, Mom! — Misha answered smugly and confidently. About Sashka, he thought that what a cunning, how cleverly held our sisters, will go far right. And I thought about my sneakers that I was lying in the bathroom. Mother just washed there and, finding dirty shoes, left the bathroom, holding sneakers in her hand.

— And what’s that?! — looking with alarm at his son’s eyes, she asked anxiously, feeling that she was being led by the nose.

— There’s dirt since last time. — Without losing, coolness and, lazily, as if the evidence here is nothing to do with, in the mother’s investigative file on the concealed son with all her strength to sally…

“Is there fresh mud here?” — Mother did not give up.

— Well, I went out into the yard. — Lied Misha. — He hit the ball a couple of times, then returned, only the shoes got dirty. And when you called me, I was just approaching the house from the playground; I told you that I’m coming to the house.

“I have to cleanse myself; otherwise I will not be able to buy such expensive shoes so often.”

Having said this, she disappeared into the bathroom with sneakers. Misha felt more heartbroken again, and the treacherous thought that lying, nevertheless, is unpleasant, and how simple and easy it is to always tell the truth, sat in his brain, a thorny splinter. He decided that he would always tell the truth and never say an unpleasant lie. Mom washed the sneakers and carefully put them in the hallway to dry…

Chapter — 4.

From the worries experienced by the reaction of Misha’s mother, Misha concealed his secret of visiting abandoned ruins. And in this he helped Sasha. Now associated with one secret brothers tried not to mention this adventure at their rare meetings. They played football, watched video films, competed in computer video games, and, in general, tried hard to be obedient sons of their mothers.

Unexpectedly not fortune-telling mom Sasha married. Sasha had a stepfather who dragged the boy to a sports club, ran with him in the morning and became his stepfather and friend. Sasha finally forgot his cousin, every time Misha called him, inviting him to visit, he found thousands of reasons to refuse, referring to his employment. Misha’s mother began to envy the sister’s marriage, often set an example for Sasha, admiring his behavior, while rebuking Misha in disobedience, or for minor leprosy. Then, you’re doing bad lessons, then again moved to the top three, then for the teacher’s teacher called and asked to hold her son…

How it all got to Misha. Sometimes he could not even hear that he had such an ideal cousin. Nevertheless, time passed. Misha studied at an ordinary school in Nevyansk. Sasha attended a paid college with in-depth study of English and in the ninth grade he could speak fluent English. Misha, while studying at an ordinary school, received three in English lessons and was glad of it. Sacha paid his studies at a paid college for his stepfather. Sasha dressed in all the canons of fashion, like a teenager from a rich family. Misha went about what ordinary boys from not wealthy families go to. Mama Misha had something to envy her sister, who did just that, with rare meetings, that brought a bunch of photos and bragged about another overseas resort and tropical sunburn. After such meetings, Misha’s mother locked herself in her room, and Misha heard the muffled sobs of his mother through the locked door. Once he could not stand it, and when Mom came out with tear-stained eyes to the kitchen, where he liked to do his homework, he said:

— Did Aunt Natasha show you photos from the sauna, where Sasha and her stepfather were bathing with naked schoolgirls from Sasha’s college? — Mom froze in place, not knowing what to say. Misha meanwhile continued, — Sashka threw me pictures on my Smartphone, I can show you, you want?!

Mother, like a stung roe, jumped to her son and slapped Misha over the whole flight.

Misha suddenly had sparkles in his eyes closed eyes, and in his right ear rang, and his cheek burned like fire. Misha, to be a man, courageously suffered a biting slap in the face. Mother sniffing, and not looking at her son, put on the stove to brew coffee in a Turk.

— Mom, forgive me, but I hate your sister, who torments you with her wealth, but on the very fact that she does not need her husband. I sometimes even feel sorry for her. It is a pity, not as a relative, but as an unhappy man. Still, you, like sisters, look like her, even though you and she are from different husbands of our grandmother. You are from the first marriage, and she from the second. Grandfather Anton loved you as well as his daughter, you told me that yourself, remember?

Mother, suddenly turned sharply, approached Misha, embraced and pressed her head to her breast. Misha heard the mother’s whisper through her sobs:

“You’re already quite grown up, my boy.” Thank you. And forgive me.

On the stove, hissed, spilling, coffee, filling the kitchen with its spicy smell of good and fragrant Arabica variety. Mother rushed to the stove, turned off the hotplate, extinguished with a splashed drink. I removed the Turk from the stove with the boiled coffee boiled off at half…

Misha finished the ninth grade and, having passed the exams, was successfully transferred to the tenth. He had two years left before the graduation school ball. Ahead of the holidays. With his cousin Sasha, Misha had friendly relations. And on occasion, Sasha often invited Misha to stay with him for the winter holidays. And two friends had fun these days, hanging out on closed youth clubs, having fun there, and often happened so that they appeared in the morning. Aunt Natasha scolded her son for these nocturnal festivities, to which Sasha replied: “Mom is not the time that you had with Aunt Olya.”

— You look, what clever men have grown. Hurry up, this vacation is over. I’m worried about you.

— Aunt Natasha, yes we are almost adults and we are not in some kind of gateway, but in a serious, and even closed club, where Uncle Sergei bought us two tickets.

— You know, Misha, your mom called me yesterday. And she said that now she will not let you on her summer vacation on a trip to Spain with Sasha and Uncle Sergey, but will be glad that Sasha came to you and lived with you.

— Listen to Misha, and it’s cool. Come to you in the summer.

“Aunt Natasha, is this true?” I’m all for it! Exclaimed Misha enthusiastically.

And here’s the vacation. Aunt Natasha and Sasha arrived on the morning train. Masha Misha was left to cook dinner, to meet Sasha and her mother sent her son…

The train arrived on schedule. From the car Sasha ran first. — Hi brother! — Joyfully, he ran to Misha. The brothers embraced, patting each other on the back. Aunt Natasha pulled out a heavy suitcase into the car’s vestibule and shouted to both boys: “Hey, you loafers!” Quickly to me! Take and take to the platform!

The guys quickly picked up a heavy suitcase stuffed with something and put it on the trolley of a rushed porter.

— Please, to the parking lot of the taxi, there is already waiting for the motor. — Misha commanded. The porter obediently dragged the cart in the direction indicated to the waiting car.

— Misha, you waved so much in the winter, you do not even know. — Aunt was surprised, — And I’ve brought you a whole suitcase of gifts, my mother will be interested to see what’s there. — Aunt Natasha was mysterious. Misha thought that she herself would also showcase the suitcase to her mother. Again, like last time, they’ll talk all night and fall asleep in the morning, wake up for dinner, he thought.

All together followed the porter. Sasha paid the amount of money, thanking the porter, who put the suitcase in the trunk of the “Volga” and the taxi moved from the place, gently bringing passengers to the house…

When all three climbed into the apartment where Misha and Mama lived, the hallway was filled with tasty smelling food, and a table was set in Mama’s room. But the sisters had not seen each other since the wedding of Aunt Natasha and did not hurry to appear at the table, examining the suitcase there. Their voices were enthusiastically heard from there. Masha Misha especially loudly exclaimed to each gift of her sister, both laughed, as in childhood, that Misha even muttered in displeasure, looking at Sasha: — Well, a kindergarten, we do not seem to be.

— Mishka, let me show you my girlfriend. — Said Sasha, pulling out of the jeans of the latest model Smartphone.

“Wow, this is Apple, right?” Misha said in surprise.

“You know, my stepfather gave it to me for my birthday in honor of majority.” Sixteen all the same knocked. And exactly the same thing that was bought last year, well, of course, a new one, improved, and the latest model. And I brought yours to you. — With these words, Sasha jumped up and ran into the kitchen.

The picture, which presented itself to him, was surprisingly similar to two little girls who moved here to the kitchen a sandbox from the playground with all the toys there. Only with the difference that the girls were portrayed by two adult aunts, and by toys, there were things scattered all over the kitchen from the suitcase. Seeing Sasha suddenly burst into their fascinating “game,” the women quieted, staring at the boy with their naive, childish eyes, still not realizing who was in front of them, until Sasha, in apologetic tone, asked:

— Mom, I put a Smartphone in the suitcase, a gift to Misha, where did you put it?

The eyes of Misha’s mom, and Sasha’s mom, suddenly became adults, and worried wrinkles appeared on the forehead. They scattered to look around, making efforts to look for Sasha’s gift, but the boy saw a box under the kitchen table in which the Smartphone was packed.

“There he is!” — Sasha exclaimed, — I’ll get it myself, Mom! — He exclaimed when Sasha’s mother made an attempt to crawl under the table behind the box. From this scene, Misha’s mother came to herself, remembering that the table had been laid for a long time already, and that it was time to treat guests hungry from the road.

— So, Natasha. Our mother has not been with us for a long time, so listen here! — Laughing and clapping, as the teacher in the kindergarten once clapped her hands, where their mother led the sisters, summoning the children to the dining room. — Now we throw everything as is, then we’ll clean up, go to my bedroom, there is a table, everything was cooked, you will estimate. Come on.

The guest did not say another word, rose from the floor and together they left the kitchen.

Sasha, delivering a box with a gift, rushed off to Misha’s room. There, the boys began to consider the heaped and stuffed Smartphone programs. — Of course, the one that I do not have such a modern one. Thank you, brother, that you can watch and shoot movies and movies, everything is possible.

“Yes, without any problems, you can even take home video,” Sasha complimented his gift with satisfaction, “look…” He did not finish, as Misha’s mother came into the room to the boys, saying: “Guys, Anna went to our table…

Chapter — 5.

Guests sat up until 23:00, and to send the guys to sleep their moms planned to stay to remove the dishes from the table, and of course still sit in the kitchen.

— Sasha, I made you bed in the Room, where you’ll sleep on the cot. — Mama Misha said, letting her know that the festive feast has come to an end, it’s time and honor to know.

“Thank you, Aunt Olya.” — Sasha answered. — First I run to the shower, and then I can go to bed.

— Yes, my friend, there is a pink towel is yours, Mission red.

— Good. — Sasha went into the bathroom. Misha, silently, got up from the table, and went to his room. He decided to wait for his cousin in his room. He was pleased that his brother had not forgotten him, and he wholeheartedly made an expensive gift from his heart. He was looking at the slim body of his Apple Smartphone when Sasha entered the room.

— Do you like? He said from the threshold, entering.

— Yes, now everything will be enforced in the school, especially Katya.

— Ah, this is the girl that you met while in kindergarten.

“Oh, the father is the director of the plant, and my daughter gave it to a regular school.” True, she draws a gold medal.

— Well, you know, in our time, a gold medal is also for money. “Not at all embarrassed,” said Sasha.

— I would not say that, clever is strong. A memory, oh what. I remember, asked “Eugene Onegin”, just read and tell in your own words. And, it must be the teacher of literature that causes her, like you tell her in your own words, what is it about? And Katka replies that I’m going to tell Pushkin better than that. In the classroom, everyone was quiet, like what would happen next. Katya also began to read as a souvenir. Teacher looks at her so maliciously, checks it according to the textbook, and she’s all that asked her everything by heart and laid it out.

— What, all Eugene Onegin? — Sasha was surprised.

“That’s right, Your Excellency, and never lost.” That’s it, Katya. — Misha, dreamily staring, somewhere in space, forgot that next to his cousin.

— Yes, you are a brother, in no way in love with her? — He said. Misha returned from the space and replied: “Not really. She is red and cauliflower, besides; she does not particularly like it. So, a good man.

— Misha, here’s my girlfriend from college in my phone, look. — Sasha sat down on the bed with Misha, began to show photos of a beautiful girl with a snow-white smile and plump lips. “Here we are at the seaside with the whole college.” There is my Lusya with her friends, the one to her right, Lucy, her friend.

Lucy’s friend was a thin, long-legged brunette with sky-blue sensual eyes and a sweet smile. She had a big forehead and intelligent eyes.

— Lusya said that she always wrote everything off from Sofia, and mathematics and dictation, but not English. My Lucien, a polyglot phenomenon, studied Spanish and Italian in parallel with learning English, fluent in three languages, however, like Sofia.

— You know, but it seems to me that Sophia has something like that. Well, something mysterious, which I do not see in Lucy. What do you think?

“Let me go to my bed.” Skin to you on your mobile phone all your pictures, and from there I’ll talk with you. There you have a battery loaded, and a sim card you stuck in there from your mobile? — Misha nodded his head that everything is fine, that you can throw off.

— Yes, Sasha, all OK! — Misha began to consider photos of girls, and especially he liked Sofia. He suddenly thought, what if we invite them to us with a tent and go for a couple of days, wherever you are with an overnight stay.

“Listen, Sashka, and you can invite Lusya and Sophia here.” We go for a couple of days with an overnight stay, we have great places here.

“Listen, this is an idea. The girls will be interested and, something tells me it’s nice to escape after a disgusted college on nature. I’ll dial Lucien right now.

Misha rested his elbow on the pillow, looked with curiosity at Sasha. He put a Smartphone covering the floor of his face, to his ear: — Lusya, hello, it’s me. No, I can not come, I’m not in Yekaterinburg now, I’m on a reconnaissance expedition. In short, I want to offer you and Sophia a sortie here to us. — There was a pause, Sasha began to listen to what Lusya was saying. From the Smartphone, music was heard, voices from this noise and a din with fashionable rhythms could be understood that Lusya was entertaining in a nightclub. She answered Sasha loudly, so that she could shout over this cacophony. Her voice became different, it interested Misha.

— And Sofia, hello! — Sasha started talking with Lucy’s friend. — Where, in Nevyansk. My brother lives here with his mother. “There was a pause again, Sasha began to listen carefully to what Sophia was saying.

— Sophia, this is my cousin, well, my mother’s sisters, and Mishka, like two drops of water, looks like me. — Again a pause, — What more do you need to describe? We were born at different times, but he looks like I am very young.

“Sasha, what are you modeling about me, huh?” — Outraged in jest Misha.

Sasha, covering the microphone of the Smartphone with his hand, said: “It’s a bore, he’s asking all of you about what to tell her?”

— Tell me that I was retired for a long time because of my wound in the Second World War, and I look like when I was at war, just like my brother Sashka. Both laughed.

— We are the same age. — Sasha answered

He conferred with the girls for a long time, who took turns taking the phone until they agreed when they would come. Sasha asked the girls to stock up sleeping bags for spending the night, and they do not bother with food, Misha will have everything you need…

The girls arrived by train a week after the talks. All this time was preparing for a picnic. Everything necessary was obtained, which was not enough for a romantic trip with an overnight stay, especially since such an independent outing for young tourists was for the first time in life, without accompanying elders. The whole company decided to spend the night in Misha’s room. Girls for this in advance chose a free space of the room on the parquet floor, having spread out their sleeping bags.

Sasha, however, could not resist so as not pinching Lusya: — Tell me, girl, and when you like to wake up, eh? — Sasha knew that Lusya often complained to him that he always gets up with difficulty in the morning and never gets enough sleep. On this account, Lusya always knew what to answer, and she never climbed the words into her pocket: “Do not worry, young man, when I have to, I always wake up.

In the evening they put equipment in two backpacks, and settled in the room for the night. At work, the day flashed by unnoticed, and already on the watch was at half past twelve in the morning, when Misha knocked on the door of his room: “Girls, can I come in?” Asked Sasha. The guys stood under the door in their shorts waiting for their turn. When the voice of Lucy answered that it was possible, the guys were not surprised at the jokes. Lusya settled on Sasha’s cot, and Sofia on Misha’s bed.

“Er, that’s how to understand?” Stammered, and trying to keep the presence of the spirit, Sasha asked.

— As you want, understand. — Lusya answered him. — And the sleeping bags on the floor, go there. We girls need a good and comfortable sleep. — Sofia from under the blanket watched the confused guys, and smiled with all her heart, amused by the scene of the confused guys. Sasha He said nothing more, but obediently wandered to Lucy’s sleeping bag, Misha got into Sophia’s sleeping bag…

In the morning, at nine o’clock, Misha woke up first, finding himself in a sleeping bag, which brought him back to reality. He got out of his sleeping bag. In the room the measured sniffs of sleeping friends were heard. He cautiously left the room, closing the door behind him, and ran into his mother in the corridor.

“Well, are you asleep?” She asked worriedly.

“They sleep like after hard labor.” — Misha joked.

“Nothing is their first trip, let them sleep, do not wake.” My aunt and Natasha will go to the bazaar, we’ll have to bribe the products for the evening. You go, and we, what to do, and sit together. Natasha and I have something to remember, and not all of us have visited it yet. After all, half of our class lives here.

“All right, Mom, you’re the best mom in the world.” — said Misha and ran to the bathroom. Mother from these words of emotion brushed aside a tear running down. And she went to her room, where her sister, Aunt Misha, had already woken up. When eleven women left with bags for the bazaar, Lyusya woke up first. She went out to sleep in the kitchen to drink some water, there was already Misha. He wore jeans and a green T-shirt, and he was busy with coffee near the gas stove with the Turk.

— Misha, hello, — appeared at the door of the kitchen, the girl said hello. “Make me a coffee.”

— Hi Lucy. Tell me, does Sofia drink coffee?

— And Sasha, Sophie, and I, we all drink coffee in the morning.

“Okay, I’ll give it all up.” There’s still a cake. You wake up there all and to the table. It’s time for us to go camping.

— Only after coffee. — Categorically with a pleasant smile said Lusya, waving to the top with his indexed finger?

By twelve o’clock in the afternoon, everyone in the kitchen had gathered for coffee and a Prague cake. Misha did not say that yesterday there was a contract to wake up at six in the morning and go out into the hilly country outside the city, where there are cozy backwaters on the river and there it would be possible to organize parking, a shish kebab, and it’s wonderful to mark the beginning of school holidays. Lusya spoke first: “Misha, you, of course, excuse me, but you have such wonderful air and so much comfort that you did not want to wake up. We had a wonderful night’s sleep and hunt out of the house.

“Listen, Lusya,” Sophia interrupted, “if you say so, and then speak for yourself.” For example, I want to go camping, with an overnight stay in a tent, to sit down at the crack of a fire, it’s so romantic and mysterious. And what shish kebabs with a smoke and how nice to get into the sleeping bag.

“Sofia, you say that as if you were already on a march.” — Said Sasha.

— You will believe, never.

— And I do not want to get out of Sasha’s bed and here again. Lucia said in a deep voice.

“So what’s the matter,” interposed Misha, we might not go that far. Here we are not far away, only through the wasteland to cross, and you will get to the abandoned half-ruined prison, where convicts who worked at the construction of the Demidov factories were kept.

— This is where we are skeleton, chained to the wall, found in the dungeon, yes?! Exclaimed Sasha. The girls were quiet. Their eyes lit up and shone with a mysterious story.

“Guys, why did not you say anything and you did not say a word to Sashka about this?” — Suddenly excitedly spoke to Lucy. — I want to go there. Will you show this place? Demanded Lusya.

The guys began to think what to say to these two chatterboxes, who, of course, will start bragging to everyone in a row, and a lot of people will pour in here.

— We need to confer. Suddenly Sasha jumped up from his seat and dragged Misha along with him. The guys went out into the corridor, tightly closing the kitchen door behind them.

“What are we going to do, Mishka?” What the girls will see — will hear the whole get-together of Yekaterinburg?

— Yes, it is true. I think that we can not escape this, so girls can not be taken there, and even more so they can show them everything there. Let’s apologize and explain this, which we played it out so that the girls are completely awake, and they wanted to go with us to nature.

“It’s settled!” Let’s go to! — Sasha, having said this, first entered the kitchen, where the girls were smoking a cigarette, dropping the ashes into a faceted glass.

— Well, what did you think up there? Asked Luce.

“Excuse us girls, we’ve made it all up.” In short, played you, so it was more interesting. — Sasha said first who entered.

— Yes, we understood it immediately. “Said Lusya”. Is Sofia true?”

— Of course. — Confirmed the girl, — We, when we were going to you to go, carefully studied the space map of Nevyansk and its environs. And except for the sagging tower on the shores of an artificial lake, which was built during the time of Demidov, there are no remains of jails nearby.

— And looked at the enlarged view, and in detail. — Lusya added.

The guys relaxed from the heart. It seemed that it was concealed after the Moscow expedition to the ruins of the prison. The space map of Nevyansk and its environs was carefully retouched, removing even a hint of the very existence of these ruins themselves. This instilled in the boys even greater interest in organizing a search expedition, but, of course, without girls, because how, no matter how it is, it’s still a man’s business…

Chapter — 6.

The whole company left the house at two o’clock in the afternoon. Guys under the weight of heavy backpacks with inventory for a picnic, girls with hand luggage. Transport was not worth using, since Misha’s house stood on the very outskirts of the city, and to the hilly countryside overgrown with grass and bushes was a stone’s throw away. It was necessary to cross the bridge across the river to the right bank. Then, with a winding path, it will go deep into the desert area, take care of the place and break up two tents. It was decided to put one more tent for the girls for the guys. The boys immediately set to work. Sasha with a hatchet went to the bushes to cut the peg for the stretchers of the tent, and Misha began to install a metal brazier and lay out charcoal in it. The girls, meanwhile, spread a blue oilcloth blanket and began to string pieces of pickled meat with tomatoes and onions on skewers. When Misha approached the girls to check how they were doing, Lusya and Sofia stared at him in surprise.

— You, th, girls? — Misha cringed, trying to understand what was wrong.

The first could not stand Lusya. Her contagious and sonorous laughter made Sofia laugh to tears. Misha finally understood, and he began to wipe his face vigorously, smearing coal dust even harder over his face. These manipulations caused hysterical laughter of girlfriends. Misha felt awkward and insulted, he was already going to leave, twisting his unhappy face, but Sofia ran up to him with a laugh. She had a handkerchief moistened with drinking water.

— Mishka, let me wash you a little. — Carefully said the girl. Began to wipe his nose, cheeks, smeared with coal cheekbones, pressing closer to the guy closer and closer. Misha suddenly grabbed the girl in his arms, pressed her to him and they began to kiss, having frozen from mutual pleasure and sympathy.

“E-e, what are you doing there, ah?!” Called Lusya. Sofia suddenly pushed Misha away and ran off to her.

“What did I tell you?” No harassment, — she began, as a teacher in the school of noble maidens. “And you told me what you promised, eh?” What kind of not filed, that you like him when you see his photo.

— Listen, Lusya, leave me alone, ah! — Frowning, and blushing, Sophia said. The girls still continued to string meat when Sasha came up to them with an armful of pegs.

— Well, how are you, girls. The Serpent did not go around here, did he? — Looking to Misha, the guy asked.

“We can stand up for ourselves.” — Said Lucia, Sofia again blushed.

Of course, Sasha saw everything and already guessed that the flushed Sophie fell in love with his brother’s ears. But it’s better to leave this topic, and he said: “I’m going to set up tents with Mishka.” There he already melted the brazier. Shish kebabs will be fried when more heat is generated. Approximately by this time, the tents will already stand, and we will cast lots, where will be, whose will be determined by the draw. Is there a girl?!

— About! Lord of tents, you, as always right! — Lusya answered with a smile. Sofia at that time stuck in a three-liter jar with pickled meat, the brush took another piece, brushing the brine in a jar, strung it over the skewer.

— Go, look, maybe there is already enough heat, and it’s time to fry shish kebab? Prompted Lusya. Sofia, silently, rose, went to the side of the smoking Mangal, then went to the guys and began to help them set up the tent. With the remaining meat, Lucia managed and also joined them…

The guys brought with them two folding chairs, which they installed for the girls. From the brazier came the fragrant scent of shish kebabs, near which Misha was conjuring. And in the meantime Sasha took out four glasses and a bottle of vodka “SMIRNOFF” in volume of 1 liter. And in a voluptuous voice, he said:

— This is for kebab. — Putting a bottle on a blue plaid, which already began to serve as a “Tablecloth Scrap” What there, just was not. And the mushrooms in the marinade, Misha, when he was gathering the snacks, said: “My mother and I found these mushrooms; there are good mushroom places here.” And chicken hams, and sausage sliced and two liters of “Coca-Cola”, grape juice, and much that usually take with them on a picnic. Seeing the vodka, the girls protested, one voice:

— We will not! We will not drink vodka!

To which Sasha, as a fakir took out a bottle of pink champagne from his backpack, put out with the words: — From the cellars of my stepfather. He has vineyards near Sochi and a cellar in the same place. I bought it in the stormy nineties. — Sasha’s stepfather bragged about his wealth. And he added: — I have a couple in my backpack for a girl. — He finished speaking and immediately uncorked the champagne, poured it into the plastic glasses for the drink “Coca-Cola”, Misha and himself poured two glasses of vodka.

— Let’s drink to the beginning of our adults already school holidays! — Lucia’s toast proclaimed, adding, — So toasts say, when they drink champagne. All clinked glasses and drank. Suddenly Sophia, with eyes full of tender moisture, said, looking at Misha:

— You, have a snack; quickly get drunk on the atoms.

— Oh no. We were on my birthday, which was a month ago, so it turned out that I could not come to myself for two days.

— And me, at least that! — Sasha boasted.

“And I thought out what happened to you when my mother told me that you were sick.” — Said Lucy, Sasha blushed at the same time.

“You see, Misha, how can you trust your secrets with her?” — turning to his brother, Sasha said.

Everyone laughed together.

“Ah, you know, Lusya but let me take you in my arms and we’ll fit together on a chair, coming?” — Winking at Misha, Sasha suggested.

“And I want Misha to take me in his arms.” Sophia said suddenly. Misha blushed, but answered: “Sophia, I’d love to.” — And coming to Sophia, who immediately got up from her seat and sat down in the arms of Misha. And so having settled down, Sofia began to break off pieces of meat from a chicken smoked ham and feed Misha. He chewed the pieces from Sophia’s hands with pleasure…

When the guys drank half a bottle of vodka, and Sasha opened another bottle of champagne for the girls, Sofia suddenly whispered to Misha in her ear: “I want to go to the bushes, do you?”

— Yes! “Misha said nervously, rising from his seat.” We’re not far”. — Said Sasha, and went after Sophia. They were gone for a long time. Lusya began to fidget restlessly on Sasha’s lap, and he asked: “Do you want it, too?”

— And for a long time already and strongly!

— So could not say, so they went faster. “They ran the other way.” They did not show for a long time, while Misha and Sophia returned, drinking champagne from a glass of Sofia. At last Sasha and Lusya appeared and immediately Lucy announced:

— Sasha and I decided to sleep in one tent.

— And we, how? Sophia asked in surprise.

— You know, friend, you go to your sleeping bag, and Misha let him lie down in your own and in one tent you will be warm and safe together.

“All right, Lucien, I persuaded Misha and I will sleep in our tent too…”

From drunk after the vodka of champagne, Misha immediately became drunk, so much so, that in the morning, he awoke with a terrible headache. Having looked around with a not remembering glance around, he pondered for a long time where he was, until the rolled nausea to his throat forced him to jump out into the pre-dawn dawn. The fountain poured from it yesterday, soaking up the combustible mixture, it became much easier. Hearing comrade, Sasha poked his head out from the tent:

“Che, are you bad?” On, — holding out the bottle with the unfinished vodka at the bottom, — take it, straight from the throat. “Shaking the bottle,” his brother said. Misha looked at the vodka, and immediately the nasty fellow fled out of his throat, like a sparrow from a birdhouse.

“You, what do you want me to do?” — He mumbled in his heart.

— Here is a fool. I want to help you. Understand, you will immediately become a man. Drink a couple of sips, as a hand removes. You’ll see. “Sasha jumped out into the morning cold and slipped a bottle into Misha’s hand. Misha made an effort, typing the full lungs of air, took two sips, to the horror of the opposite drink now. A warm cat swept the esophagus into the stomach and spread out there, bringing all the terrible chaos of the burning body into calmness and, oh, a miracle, into a normal state. Misha, with red eyes, gave a grateful look to his brother, who with a smile was watching him from the tent already…

The whole company came to Misha after dinner. Happy merry and cheerful. After a couple of hours, Misha and Sasha conducted the girls Lusya and Sofia to the train. And the girls went to Yekaterinburg. The guys returned to Misha, discussing the night and the picnic impressions…

Chapter — 7.

The boys returned from the station to Misha. It was already 18 hours. Their mothers were not yet at home, and Misha called the mother on the Smartphone.

“Mom, where are you?”

— Hello, son, we are with Aunt Nastya, our classmate. We’ll be late. So rest, you guys are adults. Till. — And my mother disconnected from the connection.

— There they meet cheerfully with classmates, so that everything is OK. — said Misha.

“All right,” Sasha replied. “Let’s think over that we’ll take you to the ruins of an abandoned castle.” There must be something there, even if this object is deleted from the space map.

— It seems to me that with the name of Demigov’s places, where he had some business, there are many secrets and mysteries. — Said Misha cleverly.

“Yes, it’s okay for you, brother, to be so abstruse.” You’re not an academician of the Academy of Sciences. Until we see with our own eyes, nothing will be clear.

— I am alarmed by the fact that the Moscow expedition from the Academy of Sciences did not find this entrance to the dungeon. Are they all such fuckers that they could not see such a simple detail?

— Look, Misha, it seems to me that they noticed, but did not dare to continue the research, but simply froze this object, having deleted it from existence.

“So it’s of some value.” — Misha has cleverly expressed.

This concludes the conversation. The guys took out the products bought on the way from the station and Misha started frying potatoes, and Sasha opened a couple of cans and went to work

Cooking salad. Two bottles of beer appeared on the table. And the guys began to supper, discussing tomorrow’s sally into the abandoned ruins.

The collection of the necessary inventory for the study of the ruins took a fair amount of time. And having collected in backpacks all that could be needed there, the guys at exactly 23 hours went to bed, in advance they did not forget to make an alarm clock. Their spree mothers were not yet. Alarm clock thundered exactly at six zero-zero. Misha jumped first as the alarm clock stood on the bedside table next to his bed.

“Che, is it time?” Sasha asked sleepily.

— Yes, sleep again; I’m first in the bathroom, then you. — With these words, Misha went out into the corridor and saw on the hung clothes that their mothers were asleep at home.

After the bath, the guys quietly made their way to the kitchen brewed their coffee more tightly and after a light breakfast with sandwiches, quietly slipped out of the house.

“Praise God, we did not have to report to our parents about where we were going, and what we had there for such matters. — Wrote Misha.

— You, Misha, so worried, here is my stepfather, by the way, he from the first days, as he married his mother, forbade him to call him, there is a father or father, but only, to use his name as an equal to himself.

— Wow, as an equal? — Surprised Misha, — And, the fact that he is Russia’s champion in kick-side-sung, the famous Sergei Avramenko, is this how?

— He has been a businessman for a long time and does not appear. Now on business I went to Sochi to my winery. It is necessary to check how there is a vineyard, and how to farm, and so on. And in August we all go to Spain with our whole family, and we’ll come to the tenth, in short, I’ll start going to college on the eleventh of September.

— What do you do in your Consul on Saturday?

“It’s Sophie telling you how our college’s called, huh?” Well, from Monday, of course.

— And, what’s hard to guess? She still said that you are such a bore, and that does not understand how in such a turkey all the girls in your class are in love? Misha said with a laugh.

“Well, she’ll get me for a bore.” I’ll come, I’ll sort it out.

— The girls have to forgive, the atoms, which of us will grow, what any kind of all the same you are a man.

— Yes, Mishka. That’s for sure, let them weave on them and tongues without bones.

— One thing is good, about our secret affairs, state, we can say, secrets, we almost blurted it out. — With a smile, said Misha.

— That’s what it means to stop in time. — Sasha added approvingly.

So after the conversations the guys did not notice how the wasteland passed, nesting on the jeans of last year’s rapiers. Near the dubious bridge, they stopped. They ripped from their trouser legs and began to confer.

— Let’s carefully examine this bridge for a hundred years, an atom and more. Look, all the beams rotted, and one support, so above this moat with water already in a hanging position. — Sasha began to talk.

— Yes, I still remember, this support stood in the water on a thin barrel-like trunk. — Added Misha.

— Do you remember, the inscription, well, a sign with the inscription that it is dangerous to walk on the bridge.

— Yes, here she, lying around in the last year’s grass, fell off for a long time. — said Misha.

— Look, how everything is overgrown, soon behind these thickets and consider anything no one can. — Sasha said, examining the dilapidated wall through the young foliage growing almost to the trees of bushes on the opposite side of the moat.

— All the same it is necessary to pass. If I fail, consider it a communist, I’m going. — And Misha first bravely stepped onto the bridge. Shaky designs bent under the feet, but the guy cautiously and slowly moved forward. He ripped off his backpack in advance and held it in his hand just in case. Little by little, I crossed to the opposite side of the moat. His example was followed by Sasha. Moving, they, as if yesterday were here, confidently walked in the familiar direction to the watchtower, to what was left of it.

The boys were disappointed with the picture. The entrance to the dungeon was littered with the ruined dome-shaped ceiling of the watchtower, which from time to time collapsed and closed the entrance with a dense layer of debris from the ceiling, the burnt clay masonry…

Author’s note:

“Even in the distant 1979, the scientists of the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute, according to the instructions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, modern geophysical methods investigated these ruins, but there was no dungeon with melting furnaces, but an underground passage was found that led to the basement of the Demidov Tower and the plant.”

Chapter — 8.

In 1697, on a hot August day, Peter I arrived in Amsterdam to study shipbuilding at the East India Shipyard. Its main goal was to learn how to build ships to create a navy fleet. At the same time, his goal was also to find craftsmen and masters for the smelting of metal ores for military purposes. But with the second task, the problem was not the desire, neither the Dutch nor the British to send their masters to raise the iron-ore industry of Russia and at the same time create this and the military power of Russia. And with the first problem, not everything was smooth, since the Dutch shipbuilders built their ships on a whim without drawings, which prevented Peter from building his fleet in Russia.

In the evenings sitting in his apartment in Amsterdam, he wrote in his heart: “It was very disgusting for him that he perceived such a long way for this, but did not reach the desired end.” He ordered an order to Moscow to subordinate the Dutch masters at the Voronezh shipyard to the Venetian and Danish masters. Further from Moscow came a letter from a merchant and breeder, of Dutch origin, Andrei Denisovich Vinius:

“… It is better than that ore to be not possible and in the whole world, there is so rich that out of a hundred pounds of ore comes forty pounds of cast iron.” Please, please, undermine the ambassadors to find iron masters of good, able to do steel … “Vinius also reported that a magnetic The ore in the Urals was discovered by blacksmiths master Nikita Demidovich Demidov.

Demidov Nikita became known to Peter I in that he repaired the German pistol to the vice chancellor of Petro’s associate Peter Baron Pyotr Pavlovich Shafirov’s, who was on the Tsar’s affairs at the arms factory in Tula. And not only repaired, but made an exact copy of such weapons of improved design. On the recommendation of Shafirov’s, Peter I made an order in 1696 to Demidov Nikita to make 200 rifles on a German model, which was completed in a month. Peter, before making this order, arrived in Tula and at a meeting with the master, said Nikita:

“You’ll make two hundred guns in a month’s time; I’ll allocate a subsidy from the treasury for the construction of an arms factory.” (Russian archive, 1878 — Book 2-No.5-P.119—124 // Traditions about Demidov and Demidov factories).

Demidov carried out the order and in a month gave the tsar instead of the ordered 200, 300 guns, and exact copies from the foreign model provided by Peter I. The tsar lent from the Treasury Nikita Demidov the construction of an arms factory, which was built on a site designated for this construction. Thus, Nikita Demidov became the main supplier of weapons for the tsarist army of Peter’s times.

Failures with the hiring of iron making masters abroad pushed Peter I to the necessity of training his Russian masters of metallurgy. And Shafirov’s gun, and a shotgun pattern on which Demidov made 300 rifles, were produced in the arms factories of Saxony. In 1698, Tsar Peter I. visited Saxony and also got acquainted with the organization of mining in Freiberg. Here the son of Demidov Nikita, Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov, was sent to Saxony with other children. Before leaving Akinfiya abroad, the son had a long conversation with his father:

“Write it all down, as I told you.” There, silver is melted from the ore, as it is done you must know. And remember that with the copper smelting enriched by smelting; the still not purified red copper comes out. There can be contained in a hundred pounds of red copper to five pounds of gold and silver. Remember that your main task is not to give out why you are recovering there. In addition, that you will learn copper smelting; learn in great detail, from red copper, how to get silver and gold. Saxons have poor copper ore and do not contain enough of these compounds. But the methods should be described in their textbooks. Try to buy these books, well, find out how it’s done, sort of for the general development. “I spoke instructively to my 19-year-old son Nikita.

— Yes, I understood, my father understood. I will be more attentive than ever. — The tone that Akinfiy answered, not really liked Nikita. My son studied with his father and, it seems, was what. His metallurgy was very interested. He himself aspired to what Demidov the Elder had told him, and if they say the same thing several times in a row, he did not like Akinfiy. But the trip abroad attracted an inquisitive young man and also the learning process. But Nikita hoped that his son, at least, would learn something about the process of extracting precious metals from the ores, as a side effect in the process of smelting the base metal. On this, they decided that Demidov the Younger would write down in detail the processes that contribute to the basic melting. Demidov the Younger answered his father:

— There, in the books, everything is described in detail. “Trying to distract my father from the conversation,” said Akinfius.

— In books, then in books, but everywhere there are secrets, which the masters are not in a hurry to share with anyone. And I myself know that what comes by skill and skill is not recorded, but is passed from father to son and stored under seven locks inside the family. Therefore, share a sincere acquaintance with the master, that owns the art of mining precious metal and take over the experience, remember everything, maybe without writing down, so that no one knows that we will be smelting here…

Peter I was still at the shipyards of Amsterdam, when Andrei Denisovich went to Germany with ten young men to train them from foreign craftsmen of the arts. Vinius wrote to Peter in detail about his request to send young men to study in Saxony, including the 19-year-old Akinfiya, the son of the weapons business of Master Nikita Demidov. In total, 50 children from families of boyars, wealthy merchants and industrialists were selected to study crafts abroad…

— Damn! — Sasha exclaimed in his heart. — Everything is lost. Probably overloaded, here and a brigade of loaders can not do. — Inspecting the dam, commented Sasha.

“Look, the whole ceiling with the dome crashed.” Wow! — Looking up, Misha said up.

“Ah, it’s fixed with him, what can not be, that will not pass.” — Sasha remarked philosophically. To which Misha replied:

— Yes it does not sound like that; which have not be avoided! That’s how it should be! They both laughed together.

“Come on, let’s have our beer with our ladies in the kitchen.” — Sasha ordered, referring to his mother and Mishin.

Guys sneaked home. When they arrived, it was already 10 am. Their mothers sat in the kitchen and talked about how to warn Sasha about it.

“My scabby left a note so they would not wait for them for dinner”. — Said Misha’s mother.

— All I’m calling my champion. “She answered her sister in unison.

— Mama! — Sasha shouted. — I’ve already come; I do not need to call. — He ran into the kitchen, without removing the sneakers, and traces of dirty shoes imprinted on the parquet floor of the corridor.

— Sergei Avramenko suddenly flew home and demands me to return. So decide, I can leave you here, and I can take Misha with me. — Said Aunt Natasha.

— No, I will not let him go anywhere. — Misha’s mother objected.

“Well, no, it’s not,” said Sasha’s mother.

— Ladies, but at least someone asked us? — Sasha got into conversation with adults.

Everyone fell silent, looking inquiringly at Sasha. He blushed, remained silent, and remained standing with his mouth open. The silence was broken by Aunt Natasha:

“In short, son, we’re going to the house by the evening train.” Our lord demands us.

The woman, silently, went into the bedroom and began to pack things in the suitcase. Misha from the refrigerator took out a jar of oil; Misha remembered how they collected mushrooms at the end of last summer and amicably preserved them with their mother.

“Take Natasha, this is our family dish.” We had a drink there; we almost ate all of them, the last jar, especially cared for you.

Sasha left with his mother on an evening train to Yekaterinburg home…

Chapter — 9.

In the morning Misha woke up at five in the morning from an incomprehensible anxiety. He began to recall Sophia and Lusya. I got a Smartphone from Sasha and opened the photos, where Sasha and his stepfather Sergei Avramenko are hovering in the bathhouse with the naked girls of Luce and Sophia. Both sat on a bench of steam room wrapped in sheets, and the girls in various frozen poses depicted a naked striptease. Of course, Sasha explained to Misha that the girls then hit the head of seducing men, seeing them in this institution. And they turned on their Smartphone, installing it on the stand to make this shot, which they managed, except for temptation. Sergei spanked both dancers in the ass and pushed them out of the steam room into the adjacent female department. Misha liked Sofia. He mentally began to recall their sortie with tents outside the city. Overnight, his hike in the bushes with Sofia, no, there was nothing like this, there was not in the tent, except passionate kisses and all. But the hike into the bushes, how many quivering minutes of waiting for something that a woman can give, and was not. There they parted in the bushes, and each one did his own business, making room for picnic sweets. Suddenly, a grassy gap in the ground arose in memory. Misha did not attach any importance to this, whether a little animal dug a hole for itself and abandoned its shelter. But for some reason Aunt Natasha said that when they were with his mom, an entire expedition of scientists visited the area and the ruins of the prison and said that they found only an underground passage that had been immured there, which led to the plant.

Or maybe this is the same underground passage? Misha thought, the hand slowly reached for the Smartphone, I wanted to share the conjecture with Sasha. No, it will not be serious. We need to examine the place to make sure that it is an underground passage, but only then, if it turns out so, then, and only then, it will be possible to tell Sasha. Gradually, Misha dozed off and fell asleep again.

In the morning he was awakened by his mother:

— They call me back to the factory in the office of the plant management. We must pack up and run.

“Mom,” Misha said in a sleepy voice, “I’m not a little one, I’ll manage it.” I know where the food is, I know what’s for dinner and where the clothes are. — He looked at his mother with a smile on the filly and good-naturedly.

“You, son, for me always and for the rest of your life will remain a small and not a smart kid.” So do not be bored. — She was already dressed in her strict suit, where she went to work. On the move she threw: — The director said that he would pay as for two working days. — Cotton closed the apartment door, confirmed that Mom was gone.

On his alarm clock, which was ticking on the bedside table next to the bed, the arrows showed exactly 9—00. He jumped out of bed and looked out the window. At the bottom of his mother came to the factory “Volga”. The driver stood near the cabin, smoking, and waiting for her. When the woman came closer, carefully opened the front seat door, giving the opportunity to get into the car. Misha watched as the car left the yard, and slowly went to the bathroom with a towel on his shoulder.

After bathing procedures and coffee in the kitchen, he finally completely woke up and realized that he was left to himself. What a whole day at his disposal and that the backpack with the inventory, which they collected with Sasha for sally into the basement of the ruins, has not yet been dismantled. There in the backpack Untouched cooked things, which he and Sasha considered, it was necessary to take with them.

“So what am I waiting for?” — Misha said aloud, asking himself a question, — Michael, forward to the unexplored expanses of the region!

He put on his jeans, on top, on a T-shirt, a green T-shirt and got into the sneakers, putting on his backpack, he left the apartment, carefully locking the door behind him. In these factory five-story houses there were no elevators, and Misha quickly ran down the stairs, downstairs found himself on the street. The wilderness through which they went with Sasha to the ruins was in front of their house, and the hilly terrain aside from the wasteland, it was necessary to walk five hundred meters along the highway and then turn right to the path leading to the hilly terrain. This area was not built up, as under a thin layer of earth rock was discovered, which prevented the laying of foundations for the construction of housing. The city did not move in this direction, and the terrain was untouched, until better times, the city authorities of Nevyansk decided.

He quickly discovered the place where they had a picnic. This place once again reminded Misha of Sofia, her burning kisses, as if his lips were being burned again, further memories plunged the guy into despondency. He wanted to see the girl again, and he reached for the Smartphone to dial her phone number. Then, having thought, decided not to stir up memories that were even stronger, he began to drive away the image of Sophia, trying to concentrate on the goal of his coming here.

So they went with her in this direction, Sasha and Lusya left the opposite. Misha remembered that the bushes, where they were moving with Sophia, those that were already in thick foliage, went to them. There is a failure in the earth. Here the ascent to the hill began. Misha’s heart beat faster. He saw that it was not a hole dug by a fox or a badger, but a failure. He knelt down, dug a hole in his hand, came upon the brickwork. He did not believe in his luck. The hand did not feel obstacles and penetrated farther and farther along the shoulder itself. He probed the edges of the dip and realized that the overgrown bush with roots had destroyed the masonry, and some of the bricks fell down. Misha realized that this is an underground passage, there was no doubt about it. The bush covered this gap with overgrown branchy vegetation and foliage, so this failure was not discovered by tourists, that they visited picnics here. Misha decided to illuminate the flashlight inside the underground passage, to see what’s inside. Taking out a flashlight from the backpack and a sapper blade, widened the passage and pulled out several bricks. The bricks were yellow and sturdy and only two of the interlacing of the roots of the bush fell out. Misha unearthed a little masonry, took a hammer from the backpack and knocked on the edges, struck, widening the passage more. Then he shined the inside of the stroke. In one and the second direction, the underground passage led to the side of the city and to the other side of one of the hills. Misha jumped to his feet and, sensing that he had discovered something important, walked away from the gap and looked around. It became clear to him that this place can be disguised as natural vegetation. He chose the grass thicker and cut off a piece of ground with grass with a demolition shovel to cover the entrance. I took this land with grass and put it to the entrance. It turned out a good layer of green grass, closing the entrance to the dungeon. Then he took it off the entrance, put it next to it and climbed into the break. The feet touched the bottom. He stood in the underground passage to his feet so that only his head was sticking out from the break. Misha turned on the flashlight, put it down and covered the ground with grass input. Then he cursed himself for his mistake, because he forgot to take his pack with him. Again it was necessary to push aside a layer of the ground with a grass, falling asleep lavishly for a collar of a T-shirt of earth crumbs. When this was all over, and the backpack landed on Misha’s shoulders, he felt that the dungeon was pretty cool. Again he took off his backpack, shone a flashlight, taking out his windbreaker. He put on his hood and pulled on his hood, feeling that now it would be more comfortable and warmer, having mounted the backpack on his back, decided to pass by an underground passage to the side, as it seemed to him, of a hilly terrain…

Lighting his way with a flashlight, he moved in a narrow underground passage forward. The walls of this turn were lined with yellow brick; the ceiling is made of a semicircular shape made of the same brick. The floor was earthy. Misha was surprised by the design of the move. Why so neat to lay out a brick, to mock the walls of the course leading to nowhere. After twenty meters, he suddenly found a void ahead. Going another ten meters, I got into a spacious room with shelves arranged along four walls of the room. Misha guessed that the room was hollowed out in the rock of one of the hills that he was observing at the top of the hilly terrain where the guys were having their picnic. Along the walls on the shelves lay a lot of neat rectangular tiles, exactly the ones of which were laid out the facade of the house.

— Nahren needed so many tiles, and even hides on shelves? He said excitedly to himself. To satisfy his pure curiosity, Misha came closer to the regiments and took a tile. Wow, yes it’s heavy. No, this is not a tile for the facade. After lighting closer, Misha rubbed his eyes in surprise.

— Can not be? — broke out from him. He again shone on the brick. Brushed off the dust, and gold gave the surface with the inscription: — “PROBA 999. ВЕСЪ = 1. l b”. Above the inscription is a round image of a snake devouring its tail? Misha suddenly became frightened of this embossing. Crowded bad thoughts about some kind of witchcraft, about treasures guarding snakes with deadly stings. From these thoughts with the “tile” of gold in his hands, he slowly sat on the floor. I waited. But nothing happened. He felt great, even more cheerful. And from this feeling, weight measures began to appear in memory. What does "1.lb" mean, Misha remembered that this pound is so designated and equal to close to 500 grams. Or, to be precise, the pound is approximately 453 grams. Misha carefully examined the shelves and what they were made of. Shelves were made of black metal with no signs of rust. Gold tiles are neatly folded. For the exact number of pieces on the shelf, the ability to correctly count the amount of gold stored here.

— “Exactly the metal shelves, like the mounts on the Demidov Tower”. — He thought. And embossing on an ingot” a snake devouring its tail, “what is it? Misha recalled a school excursion to the” slanting “tower where he learned that Demidov Akinfiy Nikitich had been studying abroad at the European Metallurgy Center, which then was Germany, Seems to be in Saxony, and there he learned how to extract silver from gold as well, and used the same method for gold mining and copper smelting from copper ore, which is exactly what his gold is hidden here. “Misha thought again. He began feverishly counting the neatly laid ingots on the shelves that had been installed to the very ceiling of the low, with his room’s growth. Counting five hundred, or six hundred pieces, lost count. Then he happily spat, counting that the number of ingots on each shelf is the same. And, counting the number of pieces on the shelf, you can easily estimate how many such gold bars are counted here, multiplying by the number of shelves. Which he did. Counting the number of shelves, there were 12 of them. Each shelf has 100 pieces of ingots, the total number of ingots was 1200 pieces, it turned out that there were 522 kilograms of gold hidden there.

— “What to do, what to do?!” — thoughts ran around Demigov’s treasure, trying to drive the boy crazy from suddenly fallen wealth, from the joyful feeling of being involved in the discovery of this amazing treasure. He decided to take himself in hand and introduced himself to the place of Akinfiy, who lived in the midst of the poorest sections of the population and yet managed to hide the treasure under his nose from all sorts of royal auditors and scammers. They also brilliantly calculated the place of shelter here in a useless area for construction work. And Misha decided to find out, but where the next move leads. And he did not hesitate for a long time, taking an ingot of gold with himself, moved back, penetrating the underground passage in the opposite direction. After passing an underground tunnel a hundred meters, he found that the course goes under a downward slope. And if we assume that there is a river, then it passes under it and evidently closes under the Nevyan Tower. After fifty more steps, he saw that the course goes under the water. Everything became clear, the second part of the course was flooded. Because of the long time under the water tightened with mud and hidden by algae for centuries. That’s why in this desert area nobody ever looked for Demigov’s treasures. With this, Misha returned to his hole and got out. After looking around, carefully disguised his hole with the grass growing on it, trampled on it, figured out that to detect to outsiders this The place is unlikely to wander into someone’s head, he went home with an easy heart. And only near the house I found out that his smartphone was showing time of 16—00. Mom was not at work yet. He quickly entered the bathroom, looked around. He looked like a miner mining coal in the face after the change. He quickly took off his clothes, climbed into the bathroom and took a shower. Already wiping himself with a towel, I heard that my mother had come.

— Misha! Misha, are you at home? — began to call his son. Misha came out of the bathroom and showed his mother. Mother said that she would be at home tomorrow and that she no longer needed to work, she could continue her vacation…

Oh, how Misha wanted to tell Mom that now she would not have to go to work, that now they are very rich and that with this gold he can afford much that was not available to him. He wants to buy a car, the latest brand, or a villa abroad. Wherever you are in Italy or the Bahamas. He can travel all his life, or study at a prestigious university abroad, forgetting that he can get the best education in his homeland. In general, his thoughts were carried away to the pink distance, where the milk rivers flow with the July banks and the evergreen gardens bloom, giving tasty and satisfying fruits. When he realized that reality is not as rosy as he would like, he came to himself and began to think about his find more comprehensively. The mind told him that it was impossible to talk about the treasure to anyone, and this at the very time when I wanted to share the find with whom and to discuss the appropriate actions to preserve the treasure. On the other hand, he read somewhere that the appropriation of treasures is considered to be an illegal act, and that all government institutions that accept or buy gold are required to report to the authorities on large offerings of gold by the owners. So Misha and his discovery had serious sales problems. So far, he had one way — to inform the competent authorities about the gold found, then he could receive 25% of the total value of the treasure, on a legal basis, without hiding the source of income from the tax services, and what now? Misha racked his brains, not knowing what to do and what to do in this case. Among other things, his friends, with whom he was on a picnic, could also claim part of the treasure. Since without a picnic, he would never have found Demigov’s gold.

Yes, Misha was over, than to think. And the joy of the find was overshadowed every minute. And again the thought came to mind when you do not know how to solve the problem, and you are completely confused — go to bed. He remembered that he remembered something like this, the saying of the Chinese sage and philosopher Confucius sounds. The clock already showed 22 hours. He undressed and went to bed. Mom glanced into the room. “What’s so early?” You’re not sick, son? She asked worriedly.

“No, Mom, I’m all right.” I just want to go to bed early, that’s all.

Mother calmed down and left. From the kitchen, there was a knock of dishes — Mama washed soap and cups, but Misha did not hear that…

Chapter — 10.

Misha was still asleep when, a call came from his new Smartphone. It was already 9am. The alarm clock on the bedside table gently ticked, the Smartphone was torn from an insistent call. Misha lazily stretched, took the phone:

“Hello,” Katya called.

— Hi!

— You, how, eh?

— Ah, what? — Misha answered sleepily with a question.

— Yes, well, not Che. What are you doing today? The classmate asked. Misha felt that Katka was tormented by something.

— Yes, I do not do this.

— Maybe we’ll go, wherever? Katherine asked persistently.

— “Here’s another trailer,” thought Misha, then he asked aloud: “Where shall we go?”

— Well I do not know. — The girl answered puzzled, then said, — Wherever we come up with.

— Listen to Korobkova, but it’s true that when you were ill, well, then in the winter, did you teach the teacher in memory of Eugene Onegin? They told me about you, huh?

— Ah, what?

— Well, is it true?

— Well yes. A h here is? I have a memory, you know what, oh the, what. I once read that no-one, I can literally retell at once from memory. In, how!

— Well, let’s go anywhere. About! Let’s go on an excursion to the slanting tower.

— Yes, I’ve been there a hundred times. We went to the movies better.

— What do you want to kiss? — could not stand Misha, so as not to pin up the girl.

— Ugh, you fool! — Katya dropped the receiver.

Misha smiled. Slowly put the Smartphone on the nightstand. Then he got out of bed, pulled on his sports pants and went into the kitchen. There was already a mother, drinking coffee and reading Nevyansk news in the local newspaper.

— Good morning. Misha said sleepily.

— Good morning, Misha. You, that did not wash yet and immediately from the bed to the kitchen. Wash your hands, then come.

Misha turned, went out into the corridor and heard again, called the Smartphone.

“Yes, it’s you, Korobkov.”

— Listen, bear, do not call me Korobkova, I have a name.

“Katherine, are we going to the tower?”

“Ah, you agree.” So I’m already dressing.

“Katya, wait, the excursions there begin at eleven.” And I have not even washed myself yet.

— All right, sleepyhead, let me come to you, and let’s go, it’s not far from you.

— Come on. Let’s go and get acquainted with this amazing attraction.

— We go back for the tenth time. Katya hung up the phone. An hour later, she already called Misha’s apartment door. She was discovered by Misha’s mother:

— And, Katya is passing, pass, And I thought, who is Mishka waiting for? — the woman smiled affably, let the girl into the corridor.

— Hello, Aunt Olya! I’m just going to Misha. — Said Korobkova, and entered the apartment.

Misha came out of the kitchen, wiping his lips with his handkerchief from his drunk coffee. He wore black trousers and new black shoes. Snow white T-shirt.

“Katya, here I can go already.” — He came closer and kissed the girl in a plump cheek. Katya blushed to the ears, she thought: “That’s bad luck; it turned red like a tomato.” It’s good that my aunt Olya did not see.”

“Mom, we’re gone!” — Misha shouted and pushed the girl ahead of her from the apartment to the landing. They, laughing, ran down the stairs to the exit from the house.

The famous tower could be seen from a distance, and the battle of the chimes with a wonderful bell-tinged melody reported that it was already 11 o’clock.

— So far we will go, the museum will already receive tourists. — Misha informed.

“I hope so.” — The girl’s cunning eyes looked at the guy and smiled.

— You, Katka, somehow look at me strangely? — Asked Misha. “Do you have something to say to me?” — Inquiringly, looking at the girl, he asked.

— I was told that you were with your brother on an overnight stay, with you there were two city whores from his college. It’s true?

— Yes, not whores, and his classmates. Normal girls. — Misha refused.

— Yes, normal girls? And they slept, of course, separately, yes? — Katherine did not stop.

“Are you that the Korobkov prosecutor is on interrogation?” Misha asked in displeasure.

“Ah, what’s your business, what do you say?” — With tears in her eyes, almost sobbing, suddenly asked the girl.

“Katya,” he stopped, like Misha, “are you jealous of me for Sophia?”

— And, so her also called Sophia? — Two pigtails with woven bows at the ends jumped on the girl’s red head when she stopped impetuously, in front of the guy.

— Korobkova, can I kiss you? — looking into the green eyes of the girl, asked Misha, coming closer to her. Katya rushed violently with her right hand on the boy’s left cheek. A lashing blow reflected a rippling slap in the face. Misha, not feeling the pain from the blow, grabbed Katya by the shoulders, pulled him to him, and started kissing her on the lips. Having issued a swan rumbling, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against him, trembling like an aspen leaf in the wind. When quite a long time had passed, and the girl, taking breath, tore herself away from Misha’s lips, whispered in his ear, resting his chin on the shoulder of the guy:

“I love you, you fool!” — Gently, looking into his brown eyes, again eagerly clung to his lips.

Misha’s cheek flushed, the girl’s fist reflected on her, but he paid no attention to it. They climbed the steps of the tower, climbing up behind the tourists, scattered listening to the guide. Then the tour descended to the basement of the tower. There were mannequins chained to the chains of serf masters from the smelter, who according to legend minted Demidov gold and silver coins. Misha carefully examined the walls of the cellar, trying to find the entrance to the dungeon. But the whitewashed walls were smooth and even without hints on the underground passages. Misha could not restrain himself and asked the guide out loud:

“Tell me, where is the entrance to the underground passage?” — Katya, standing next to, grabbed Misha’s hand and began to yank.

— You, what are you asking such nonsense? — But the guide, accustomed to various issues, answered with a smile.

— There are many myths and legends associated with the Nevyan Tower, but no one can yet say for sure why Akinfiy Demidov built it with a slope. And even this caused the people to believe that when he specially flooded the basement of the tower with water, to drown the masters who minted coins to him, then the ground beneath the foundation sagged and the tower gave a roll. — The guide never answered Misha, is there an entrance from the basement of the tower in the dungeon or not? Misha did not ask anymore.

When two hours later they returned home, Misha accompanied Katya to her private house, where she lived, she suddenly said:

— Dad offered me a ticket to Switzerland in August, in a hotel in Zurich. A package for two, do you want to come with me?

Misha almost lost the gift of speech from such an offer. It seemed that the very conduct led him to the Swiss banks, where many different treasures are stored. He looked at the girl with a dumb smile, then asked:

— And, what is needed for this?

— Nothing special. It’s a tour package; Dad said that I can invite anyone from friends. So I decided that the best friend, than you does not have, so decided.

— Of course, I agree.

“Then, we’ll come to you now, and you’ll give me your passport, you need to issue a visa.”

— Well and without any problems…

The trip abroad was scheduled for the tenth of August. Up to this date there was still a month and a half.

Chapter — 11.

For the time remaining until the tour, Misha decided to find out how to legalize the treasure with the greatest benefit. He rummaged on the Internet, looking for possible options for opening an account with Swiss banks, but it was all in vain. Citizens of the Russian Federation had no opportunity to open accounts abroad, except for offshore companies. But to sell or sell gold, without any problems, only the precious metal had to be delivered to the place of delivery. No one at the tourist will ask about the origin of the metal, if only there was a sample on it and the sample corresponded to the content. Of course, they watched who surrenders and what gold is for surrender, since the possibility of suppressing theft was always, and exists to this day, so the world is organized. He puzzled over how to transport the ingot so that no one was able to reveal that he has a half kilogram of the purest gold of the highest quality. In the evenings, he was engaged in drawing a special belt and decided to hold the ingot, fixing it on his back. From a dense denim material, he began to make out a wide belt with a pocket in the middle where he decided to put the metal and then fasten the belt on the buttons at his waist, so that the pocket with the ingot found him in the region of the waist. After the patterns and marking, Misha installed my mother’s hand sewing machine, which was stored in his room, which was still left by my grandmother when she was sewing sisters to mom and Aunt Natasha when they were children. And began to scribble the material. Mom at this time fiddling in the kitchen with cooking, heard the knock of a working machine, looked into the room.

“You decided to take up handicrafts with your son, did not you?”

— Mom, I read in one magazine that when you pull your back when playing football, you have to blame such a belt.

Mother came closer: — And, what helps? She asked concernedly.

“You know, Mom, I have not tried it yet, but when I try, I’ll tell you.”

“Wait, what is this pocket in the middle?”

— It’s in the bag you pour the rock salt heated on the pan, then stuff it into this pocket and put on the belt. And you can go to bed. In the morning you wake up perfectly well, without any pain in your back.

— Interesting. When you try, you tell me whether it helped or not. Yes, I almost forgot, and for a long time you had a backache?

— No, it was told to me by the girls, we went with them to a picnic, how to treat back pain. Do you remember, you had reticulated, you did not know what to do about it? And for a long time, even then, I read in the journal “Health” about this belt.

— Well, okay, line, machine gunner. — Having said this, Mama left, closing the door of Misha’s room.

When the belt was ready, Misha tried it on, fitting it up, sewn on the buttons. Then he took the ingot into his belt pocket and put it on. Then he put the suit jacket on top. Turned around the mirror. The pocket with the ingot protruded like a bulge on the back. No, that’s not right, he should think that it is still possible to take steps to exclude a noticeable allocation of contraband on his back.

— “And, that if you attach a couple more pockets on the sides, next to the center.” Thought and attached two more pockets.

At the end of July, my mother ended her vacation, and she began to go to work. Now Misha could go for bars and already three ingots were placed in the pockets of the belt. He fixed the belt with six buttons, put on his jacket and, turning in front of the mirror, realized that smuggling was not visible. I sat down a couple of times, jumped; the belt held the load tightly and reliably sat in my pockets on my back. He hid the ingots in winter shoes, and before leaving for a tourist trip, he would put on a belt with ingots for a vest, then a shirt and a jacket.

If you pass this gold abroad, you can get fifteen thousand dollars, Misha estimated. Now they have a good relationship with Katya. Misha did not like the girl very much, but Katya was in love with Misha, as people say without memory. Almost every day she came for him, and together they went to the beach on hot days, and in cloudy weather they went to the cinema to be alone, to feel already grown-up. In the travel agency, the manager who handed them the documents with the vouchers, said:

— In Zurich you will be met by our guide and will settle your entire group in the hotel. And from Nevyansk you go by train to Moscow to Sheremetyevo, there you will be joined by tourists at the airport, and you will pass all together, customs control and border guard, so as not to take gold things with you, remember that the metal can not be hidden, it must be declared. The system of frames reveals any metal, as it is not hidden, still tingle.

— And, how are the suitcases, they do not go through the framework? Misha suddenly asked.

“Ah, that you carry a lot of gold with you?” — Looking into the eyes, asked the manager.

— Kilogram and a half in ingots. — Without batting an eyelid, Misha answered densely, blushing.

— Ha, ha, ha! You, young man, with a good sense of humor.

Misha and Katya laughed heartily, and then, when they left the travel agency, remembering this reply to the manager, they laughed gaily and for a long time.

At home, Misha began to think about how to bring the gold. On the back in this belt of course will not work. It is necessary to undertake something else. He suddenly decided to hide the ingots in cans of beer. Four cans of beer, one prolapsed, “Zhigulevskoe” were bought in a kiosk, and when Mom went to work, Misha set to work. At the bottom of the can, he cuts, bent the edges when the beer leaked into the sink, pushed the ingot through the bottom into the jar. Then the voids between the ingot and the walls of the jar filled with cotton so that the sound of gold against the wall could not be heard. And the bends of metal, he leaned back in place. After that, I held the jar in my hands, “chatted”. By weight of the can with an ingot corresponded to the weight of a half-liter volume of a can of beer. In the second hand took a full jar of beer and chatted with both banks in their hands. What turned out to be that the beer in the bank is squished inside the volume, and the bank with the ingot “is silent?” It will be suspicious for the customs officer to inspect the contents of the suitcase, what good will he also look at the warped bottom in the bank. Thus, the banks of beer looked intact, if viewed from above and did not distinguish at all. But to make sure that the sound of sloshing liquid was heard, then such a bank of beer would not cause suspicion, not from one inspecting thing of an official. And that if you put a bag of water in a plastic bag in the upper part of the ingot, then the squishing sound of the beer would be audible. Misha immediately got down to business. He built a bag with scissors from a polyethylene bag, gluing the edge of the iron to the desired size with an iron. Filled with water, and dried from the water edges of the bag glued iron. It turned out an excellent squelching sound that in a jar with an ingot, as in a clogged jar of beer. So, he will take these three cans of “beer” in a suitcase with things and put them in the luggage. Banks will ring, and it will be normal. And what about the banks with the bottom? And suddenly the eye of an official falls to the bottom, and everything is gone, and that’s already… but Misha did not want to think about such an outcome. He decided to correct the situation. In the kitchen in the kitchen cupboard I found a foil for baking, began to think how to attach to the bottom, so as not to distinguish the foil from the silvery stainless material of the can. The concave surface of the foil was made using a darning fungus for darning socks, gently smoothing the surface so as not to damage the foil material. Then, cutting out a neat circle of prepared foil, tried on the bottom of the jar, then with glue, gluing various materials, stuck the hemisphere to the bottom of the jar. When the glue caught the foil, it was gently pushed to the concave surface, closing the traces of the bottom cuts. It turned out an ideal color match. And the bottom of the can with the ingot now was no different from the bottom with a clogged can of beer. So Misha decided to take three bars of gold in a tourist trip to Switzerland in banks of beer Zhigulevskoe.

Chapter -12.

Katya was overjoyed. With her beloved boy, she seemed to be uncomfortable. The day was a joyful sunny happiness. The girl thought that everyone around her smiled at her and rejoiced with her and this sunny day, and the summer and youth. A wonderful and carefree time when you are still a schoolgirl and there are no worries.

They with Misha, left the train at the railway station in Moscow, and immediately moved in a taxi. In Sheremetyevo, without any difficulty, they found a group of tourists who traveled to Zurich on tour agency permits, which had branches in Russian cities. Misha struggled to hide his excitement, and he managed to do it, he also succeeded because he did not know at all what punishment the hidden gold bullion was supposed to offer and what would possibly happen in case of detection of smuggling on a particularly large scale. He held himself solidly and confidently, and Katya was proud of the fact that next to her, Misha was holding on like an adult man, although he did not even have bristles on his face, but only a harsh fuzz, the prototype of the future vegetation on his face.

When the guide who meets the tourists at the airport and is in charge of boarding them on the plane that commits a charter flight to Zurich, noted in the list, warning:

— Follow the check-in forms for the flight. It is necessary to fill in the declarations and hand over the suitcases to the luggage.

— Here are our tickets and tickets. — said Misha, filing permits and passports.

The woman checked the names with her list, checked the Swiss tourist visas, and, collecting a whole pile of passports, carried to the counter, behind which two stewardesses had already registered, registering seats and taking their luggage. Misha and Katya took the line and moved closer and closer to the reception desk. Misha was worried more and more, but decided to stick to the end. Katya noticed his red face, asked anxiously:

“You’re not ill, by any chance?”

— No, it’s just my first trip abroad and I’m worried.

— Yes, do not worry so, while my dad is the director of the iron works, we will often be with you on vacation outside the borders. — She specifically said, using the original words, for courage, distracting Misha from stiffness.

Misha, of course, was not worried because of this, but because of another, especially when he put the suitcase on the acceptance transporter and tied the boarding pass to the handle, and the suitcase slowly went to other things of the passengers, through the access control device. But the suitcase passed without any problems and, having received tickets, Katya and Misha went to the border control room. Suddenly Misha saw his suitcase on the shelf of customs inspection. The official approached them.

— Excuse me, are you Mikhail Sitnikov? — He turned to Misha.

— Yes, and what’s the matter? The guy asked worriedly. Katya began to look inquiringly at the customs officer, then at Misha.

— Nothing special, go to your things and open the suitcase. We have selective control.

— I’m with him, can I go through? — In a tone that does not tolerate objections, Katya asked. The customs officer nodded his head in agreement. When all three came to the checkpoint, the customs official said, open it. Misha opened the suitcase. The customs officer pointed to the banks with the “beer”, said:

— Next time, a young man, beer is not recommended to take without plastic packaging, since in flight the bank can explode from a pressure drop and spoil things.

“I have a polyethylene bag,” Katya began to say quickly, pulling a bag out of her purse.

— Well, if the girl cares about you, then hide the jars in the bag and you can fly. — Having said this, the customs officer went to the next suspicious suitcase. Misha, with trembling hands put the jars in a bag, tightly tied it and put it back in its place. Katya at the same time, smiling cunningly, said:

“Come and have a beer!” Her cheerful smile shone with sincerity and good-naturalness. Misha looked into her green eyes, full of love, and suddenly realized that this girl was better than this girl. He suddenly felt ashamed of the fact that he was kissing Sophia, and for a moment introduced her. The beauty of Sophia arose in his memory, putting a quivering feeling that prompted him that now he fell in love with both Katya and Sofia, and what to do with it, he did not know and did not understand that in life such things are possible. Katya looked at him, imagining him now forever for her boyfriend and that now and surely no one will give it to him, so that it does not happen. She suddenly fell into the zealous feelings that arose from the fact that Misha certainly slept with Sophia in one tent. She suddenly looked sternly at Misha and asked:

— Misha, just tell the truth? — She concentrated, looking at him with serious eyes, waiting for an answer.

— What are you talking about? — Building guesses, he suddenly said.

“Did you sleep with that girl when you went to a picnic with your brother?” Sitnikov, tell me, just tell the truth?

“Where did you get that, Katya?” I told you a thousand times that I did not!

The girl suddenly hugged him by the neck and kissed her on the lips.

— She, young people, where are your tickets? — The stewardess, standing at the gangway, asked kissing.

The girl pulled away from Misha’s lips, turned to the stewardess and slipped her tickets.

— Take your boarding passes. There are your places listed, they may not coincide with those in the ticket, but still you are sitting next to each other.

— Well, thank you. — Answered Misha. He took coupons from the stewardess, and they climbed into the passenger cabin of the Boeing…

Their plane landed at the international airport Kloten, Zurich. Having received his baggage without any problems, Misha was beside himself with joy. Now you can take the ingots into the pawnshop in the very Mecca of financial Europe, and get your 32000 Swiss marks per kilogram of gold.

He suddenly remembered that he had a little more gold than one kilogram, and after calculating in his mind, 1305 grams were issued, which would be 41760 Swiss marks, or more than 15 thousand dollars in recalculation on US dollars. Wow, and if you sell all the gold, then you can calmly become a respected person involved in business here. Class, he dreamed that he heard the words of Katya, only when he received a good kick from the girl’s fist in his right side:

— You, again think of a picnic with a whore?! The girl suddenly cried out.

“Well, what else do you want?” I’m not lying to you, I always tell the truth, especially you, Katarina Korobkova. And you, girl, do not like it? — Misha said in his heart.

“Why, when I tell you not to lag behind our group and break me, you did not raise an eyebrow?” Katya said shrewdly.

“Katya, my dear, forgive me.” I was dreaming about how good I am with you and that this has never happened to me. And that I, I think, is in love with you. — Misha’s last words were said by some kind of gentle voice that is not peculiar to the boy and very quiet.

— And you are mine! I like it when you say that. — Katya again embraced him, and they froze, kissing in the middle of the street on the pedestrian zebra. And only a piercing signal, passing by the car, returned the lovers to reality.

— And, where is the group?! Cried Katya. Misha at this time grabbed the girl’s hand, and they rushed to the waiting for them two minibus. In the small cabin of the subcompact there were only 10 people. Tourists are a wealthy pair of pensioners, with welcoming smiles greeted by late lovers. Obviously, it was that each of these couples recalled their young years and sympathized with the young people, it was immediately evident to Misha, who, embarrassed, tried not to raise his eyes, sitting down, at the free two seats for him and Katya. The guide, who was sitting in the front side seat near the doors, with a command voice, announced:

— Well, it seems everything is in place! — And, looking at the driver, ordered, — Petro Ivanovich, let’s drive to Lindbergh Plats 1. The ride around the city was accompanied by the guide’s story about the sights of Zurich, which prompted the passengers to turn their heads in one direction or another, where the object was sailing past the windows.

The travel agency formed groups of ten people, this average number of tourists provided uninterrupted work of the agency and brought the necessary profit. Under this number of tourists and hired transport for the maximum convenience of tourists. In the Lindbergh Plats street 1, there is a 4-star hotel Zurich Messe Airport. There, after small formalities, to each pair of tourists, the tour guide accompanying them gave out the keys to the rooms and, telling them in which tomorrow they would have breakfast in the restaurant, asked not to be late.

When Misha and Katya came into their room, both were shocked by the spacious room and the maximum amenities. A huge kitchen with a refrigerator stuffed with all sorts of strong drinks, kitchen furniture with a set of services, with which you can lay a table for five, atoms and more people.

— Where so much? Misha said in surprise.

— Come quickly here! — Katya called him, examining an open bedroom door. Misha went to the girl and looked at the huge double bed, Katya pointed to that bed.

— Wow, — to his surprise there was no limit, — a whole football field. “Hugging the girl,” he said.

“I will be terrified of sleeping in such luxury.”

“Do not worry, I’ll be right there on that rug next to the bed.”

Katya pushed him into the shoulder with a swan sound, and laughing, she began to take her things out of her travel bag, laying out and hanging it in her closet.

Misha did the same. Katya suddenly noticed the cans of beer in Misha’s suitcase.

“Oh, sir, you promised me a beer.” — She said.

— Yes, of course, in the refrigerator I saw German beer; there is a whole green packaging. Now decompose things and go, let’s try.

— And I want our “Zhiguli”. — Insisted the girl.

— I want German beer.

— You will drink the German I Zhigulevskoe, is it?

“Yes, commander!” — Misha thought how well that he bought, then in the kiosk four banks and took one with a beer. He put a jar of beer on the parquet floor from the suitcase, and hid it back in a suitcase.

— Ah, The is not in the refrigerator? — Katya asked with curiosity.

— Yes, I will not drink it. You first try German beer, and then compare with our beer. Our “Zhigulevskoe” is bitter and is not stored for a long time, especially in banks. And German, here it is a real pleasant taste and an absolute absence of bitterness…

Chapter — 13.

In the Lindbergh Plats street 1, there is a 4-star hotel Zurich Messe Airport. There, after small formalities, to each pair of tourists, the tour guide accompanying them gave out the keys to the rooms and, telling them in which tomorrow they would have breakfast in the restaurant, asked not to be late.

“Are not we going to dinner?” — considering the contents of the refrigerator, said Katya, referring to Misha.

“I do not know, you do as you wish.” — Neutral replied the guy.

— We must go, there will be read out the program of our excursions for tomorrow. “Taking out a bottle of German beer from the refrigerator,” Korobkova said.

“This will be at breakfast, too.” — Trying to persuade Katya not to go anywhere, he put a jar of “Zhiguli” beer on the table, which he brought with him. — Here, you asked, try.

“Ah, you German.” — Katya put a bottle of cold beer on the table, and opened the lid, taking off the key. The cork, having issued the inherent cotton, fell to the floor and rolled under the table. Misha bent down to take the lid and throw it into the trash can, to which Katya said:

— They cleaned every day, and you can not throw out, among other things, there are garbage chutes right here, you can trash, and throw empty containers, directly flies into the container below.

“Wow, there are plenty of snacks here”. — Here is a slicing sausage. — He took out of the refrigerator sliced smoked sausage and cheese.

“And there’s bread in the cupboard.” I’ll take it with cheese powder, I like it terribly. — Kate applauded enthusiastically, putting bread and rolls on the table with a ruddy powder of cheese.

Misha, meanwhile, uncorked a can of beer and put it in a saucer, because foam was pouring out of the neck, the beer flowed along the wall of the jar on the saucer. High beer glasses appeared in Katy’s hands, and Misha poured the foamy liquid of Zhigulevsky beer from the can into the glass. Then I began to do this operation with German beer. The aroma of the drinks began to fill the spacious room of the kitchen, mixing and exciting the presence of the holiday for the lovers.

— Well, now I’ll try with your glass. — Katya gave Misha half a glass with a beer “Zhiguli”, took and sipped a glass of Mishin.

“No, it’s German, I do not like it, it’s tasteless.” — I concluded.

— Do you know why? — Misha asked seriously, looking at her.

— And why?

“Because you’re a redhead!” — That’s why! — Misha barely managed to dodge, from the slap Katya, who had hit the head. Both began to chase each other, for a friend issuing wild screams of laughter. They were well together…

Misha could not fall asleep because of the smuggled gold. Katya fell asleep with a strong, carefree dream of a happy girl in love. It was two in the morning. Carefully freeing himself from Katya’s embrace, the guy got off the bed, silently pushed aside the sliding door of the wardrobe and carefully, so as not to create unnecessary noise, he opened the suitcase. From the suitcase I took out a belt that I sewed for ingots, hoping to hold gold in it. And pressing his right hand three banks with the inscription “Zhigulevskoe”, tiptoed to the toilet. After carefully closing the door, he sat down on the toilet and placed the banks in front of him on the tiled marble of the floor. Knife began to bend the cuts in the bottom of the cans, removing ingots of gold from one and two other cans. Then he put the belts in his pockets. Dense and tight pockets held the ingot firmly. He wagged his belt, the ingots held tightly in their pockets. Hanging the belt on his shoulder, he took three cans and went into the kitchen. Then he folded the empty jars into the garbage black bag, tied the bag and, so as not to create noise, threw it into the garbage chute. Sneaking into the bedroom, he carefully hung the belt on the hanger where his suit hung, under his trousers so that the belt was not visible, making sure of that, he ducked under the blanket to Katya.

— Where did you go? — The girl asked in a dream.

“I ran to the toilet.”

“I, too, want to, I can not wake up,” said Katya, turning to her right side with her back to Misha.

In the morning, Katya woke up first, as she slept serenely, and she had nothing to worry about. Misha was still asleep when she entered the bedroom with the bathroom.

“Hey, sleepyhead, get up.” — Unceremoniously, pushing the sleeping Misha began to kiss on the lips.

— And, what? — Not yet realizing that and where he is, finally the guy woke up.

— We go for breakfast; there will be announced tours and schedules.

Hearing this, Misha, said:

“Katya, I’ll ask you, go yourself, then you’ll tell me.” I have not gone to the bathroom yet and have not cleaned myself up and besides, I do not feel like eating breakfast. When you come with the dining room you will tell us where we are rushing to the group today.

— Well, all right, sleepyhead. But, that was ready. I went. — The girl quickly left the bedroom and already heard the lockable key of the room.

Misha instantly jumped out of bed. In the bathroom, washed with water, my eyes returned to the bedroom. On the tank top he put on a belt with ingots and climbed into his trousers and put on a white shirt. He turned in front of the mirror. The belt with ingots is not visible through the fabric of the shirt, which calmed him, unless, of course, look closely. Wearing a jacket on top, now even with the inspection to the touch it was impossible to detect a contraband belt under the shirt. Finally calmed down, he decided not to wait for Katya in the room, but to go down to the dining room. But Katya has already appeared, and from the threshold she began to call him:

— Misha go faster — seeing that he is already dressed, — and I thought you were still in bed, sleepyhead. We go all together to the Zurich Museum of Art, or what’s it called? We are already waiting.

— Kunsthaus, called. On the street Heimplatz 1. — Refined Misha.

Young people quickly escaped from the second floor to the minibus waiting for them, assigned to this tourist group. Sitting in the cabin of the bus, Katya said, turning to Misha:

— After the museum, we all have free time. Who will scatter. Some older couples agreed to be taken to a hotel. They will leave on this bus, and we’ll take a walk again. You’re glad, really, great! The girl said enthusiastically. Misha nodded her head approvingly in agreement…

The Kunsthaus Museum represented paintings by famous artists and photographs of famous Swiss photographers, representing landscape and architectural views, portrait compositions. After wandering around the museum, Misha said:

— Katya, I want to go to the toilet, just do not find a place.

“Why did not you go to the hotel, fool, eh?” — Said Katya restlessly.

— You, so quickly ran, that I did not have time, forgot to go. — Justified Misha.

— Well, run. Oh, you do not know where this place is?

Misha, pretending to run to the toilet, turned to her, and said:

“Katya, I’ll find out from the museum attendant.” Here it is not a problem. While you take my Smartphone, I’m afraid, no matter how I fall into the toilet from the back pocket.

— Yes, put it in the jacket pocket, breastplate. — Katya advised.

— I’m used to having the phone in the back right, it’s so convenient for me. Take it.

— Come on. — Katya took the Smartphone.

This trick with the Smartphone Misha specially came up, so as not to find himself and you can refer to the fact that he did not have a phone, and he could not determine where he is.

“If anything, I’ll be waiting for you at the bus.”

— Yes, go already, talker.

Misha walked quickly to the office of the museum and asked to tell where the toilet was. The woman explained to him in German, so that Misha had enough school verbal stock of German for this, and he rushed to the first floor. Now the only problem left was to pass unnoticed past the bus driver. But their assigned bus was standing on a specially designated parking lot, and this was not a problem. Misha, looking around, determined the direction of the movement to the bank, which he had found on the Internet in Nevyansk and had chosen to withdraw bullion and issue a credit card to the bearer. Back in Nevyansk, I studied the route to “HSBC Private Bank” on the map and walked to the side of the street where the bank was located…

In the reception window of the Russian section of “HSBC Private Bank”, a pretty girl sat and smiled, with a slight accent asked:

— Do you apply to the bank, on what issue?

“First of all, hello.” Secondly, our family received a legacy from my great-grandfather, when in Russia there was a king. And all this time, gold was lying at our house. We were afraid to implement it, for known historical reasons. So I brought the bullion here.

“You have proof that the gold bars belong to you, and do not belong to the ingots of other countries or ingots to the Soviet or post-revolutionary period.”

— Oh yeah. On the ingots there is an old brand that can not be forged for a simple reason, only by casting into a mold with this abbreviation; it is possible to get such a stigma on an ingot.

“Well, if that’s the case, then I’ll invite an expert on gold, he will receive you.” Wait at the reception. — The girl got up from her seat and left the reception room.

Misha sat down on a free armchair in the lobby of the bank, waited.

“Marina, you have not visited the laboratory for a long time. — Looking up from the microscope, an expert came up to meet the girl who entered the room in a white dressing gown.

“Mark, a young man came to me with a proposal of gold bars.” He said that this gold was given to his family from his great-grandfather, and that he has no proof to this except for the old stamp on the ingot itself.

“Ah, what does he want?”

“Well, if he’s in the bank, then he wants to surrender this gold.”

— For money, or exchange for copper coins?

“Mark, go to hell!”

“Marina, where is he?”

— Sits in the foyer, in the armchair.

“Ah, yes, I see.” Do you want to see it?

“Well, no, Mark. Come here, invite me here and then figure out what is there for the ingots. If he is telling the truth, we will take the ingot at the set price and issue him a bank card with our Swiss francs to bearer. If this gold has the brand of famous manufacturers after the revolutionary period in Russia, then the police will deal with it further. Marina turned and proudly left the laboratory.

Mark took off his robe, put on his uniform jacket on a white shirt, straightened his tie and went out into the foyer of the reception hall of HSBC Private Bank.

— Guten Tag! Ich bin ein Experte, mein Name ist Mark! Komm mit mir, werden wir Sie Gold nehmen. – “Good afternoon, I’m an expert, my name is Mark! Come with me, we’ll take your gold.”

— Mein Name ist Michael.

— Ich frage Michael! — “Please, Michael!” — Mark gestured to Misha, opening the door to him, and led him to the bank’s laboratory.

Misha was surprised to see a lot of different equipment and a large electron microscope, in which you can see even the atoms of metal. A monitor with a screen on which the reception foyer could be seen, a table lined with chemicals and a hood over the table.

Mark invited Misha to sit in a chair by the table, then sat down himself and, looking at him, said:

“Well, young man, give your gold.”

“I have to take it off myself.”

— You are welcome. — Courtesy of Mark.

Misha took off his jacket, unbuttoned a few buttons on his shirt and took off his belt. Then, one after another, he took three ingots out of the pockets of his belt. Mark’s eyes lit up at the sight of gold. The face became serious; he immediately on the computer began to rummage in the database, looking for the abbreviation of the stamps of ingots. After a while, he said:

— There is no such mark within the foreseeable three hundred years before our time with you. It seems that these ingots were made even then and they belong to your family. — Mark began to carefully examine the surface under a microscope.

— Yes, this is ancient gold and contains the highest sample. Judging by the casting, it differs in weight not significantly. In those days, when ingots were cast, the weight could withstand these limits. We will accept your gold. — With these words, Mark dialed Marina on the internal phone and invited her to the laboratory. Soon Marina invited Misha to go with her, to receive and evaluate the gold bars. Thirty minutes later, Misha left the bank with a credit card issued by HSBC Private Bank. On his card, issued by the bank to the bearer, the amount of 41,760 Swiss francs was credited. He arrived at the hotel at two o’clock in the afternoon. In his room, he saw tear-stained Katya, who rushed to his neck. She began to kiss, sobbing, and smearing his cheeks with mascara.

“Where did you wander, you fool?” I no longer knew what to think.

— I’m lost. Now I will never give away my Smartphone. In this museum the devil’s head will break, so many rooms, a labyrinth of some kind. “Misha was happy in double. Gold has him Accepted, and now how to transfer the rest of the amount, already here in Switzerland he racked his brains and built all kinds of plans…

Chapter — 14.

Orth, looked at the chronicle of the reign of Cleopatra in the Shambhala repository, and did not cease to be surprised at how much the unfortunate woman had to maneuver in order to retain power and not give Egypt to Rome, falling under the full rule of the Roman Republic as an ordinary province. He thanked the fate that the real Cleopatra remained alive and that it did not have to be replaced by Onisia. With every information he read from the pages of the reign of the queen, he sighed with relief and rejoiced at the fact that Onisia was waiting for him in the Paradise, which he was already accustomed to calling his own name. Unexpectedly, Orth received a telepathic challenge:

“Greetings, Captain, this is Theo.”

— “I, all attention, your supremacy!”

“You are on duty, for you a new task.” For instructions, I ask you to visit my residence in Eden!

— “Yes, your supremacy!” — Orth finished telepathic communication with the curator. Folding the scrolls of manuscripts with the Sanskrit script of symbols, he thought that after all the curator reminded him of his duties, stressing that he was in the service. Hence, something serious has happened that requires the intervention of his experience and preparation. Having combined the scrolls of biographers, the last pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra VII, he left the repository of original manuscripts.

On the grass, neatly trimmed robots gardeners, he was already waiting for the flying disk. The robot turned on the navigation of the traffic when Ort sat in the chair. The disk flew noiselessly, and in an instant melted in the blue haze of the inner atmosphere of the planet.

The two-story mansion of Theo’s residence stood surrounded by pine trees interspersed with evergreen tropical vegetation, which somehow does not belong to the surface vegetation of forests that grow on the outside of the land. From this around stood a fragrance, infused with all kinds of smells, invigorating the whole being of the captain. And at that moment there was a feeling of flight. It seemed that all the muscles of the body harmoniously harmonized with the upbeat mood of youth and strength.

On the steps of the porch he ran up with a springy gait, entered the corridor, where two elevators blinked with traffic lights. Ort waited for the elevator to come up and a robot came out of the opening doors, kindly inviting me to enter. Orth did not cease to marvel at these robots, so similar to people. There on the Phaeton, in those distant times when his planet was flourishing, there were no such robots. And those many millions of years that kept his intellect sharpened in a memory chip, were forever erased from being. And for these times, the progress and progress of human genius has progressed, so that it became possible to build the car so reliably, an exact copy of a man deprived of all the human intelligence, capable only of executing the commands put into the command block of memory. Meanwhile, the elevator stopped on the thirtieth floor deep below the ground. Orth stepped out into the pink-glowed space that emanated from the corridor walls. Soft light was everywhere; it was difficult to make out where it came from, and what illuminates the space around.

“These are the all-pervasive pink photons generated by the walls, they create a glow, similar to that which displays the northern lights that penetrate the surface of the earth from our world.” Theo said, reading Orth’s thoughts. In turn, Orth thought: “This is the answer to why our world can not have wars and envy that sizzles all life, only because all ideas of this kind are read as a transparent book.”

“Yes, captain, you are right when everyone knows about everyone and reads each other’s thoughts, what kind of war can there be?”

At the door, shining gold, with a sparkling inscription: “HER SURFACE CURATOR SOLAR SYSTEM,” Orth stopped. The doors of the wide doors parted, and The captain went into the study. At the table, Theo was sitting with long gray locks of hair reaching down to his shoulders, covered in a white tunic with an unmistakable fastening brooch. A huge round brilliant sparkled in the middle of the golden star of the brooch, to the right at the chest level. Orta knew the purpose of this teleportation diamond. Large and attentive gray eyes looked inquiringly at Orta.

— Your supremacy, according to your order has arrived! Orth said militarily.

“Come in, Captain, sit down.” Theo pointed to the chair on his desk.

— On the surface of the earth in Russia appeared a very active and young king. He needs help.

— What is required of me, your supremacy? The captain asked readily.

“Listen to me first.” Then you will express your views.

The captain prepared to listen attentively to the curator of the Solar System.

— The preservation and development of society, which is led by Peter the Great, directly depends on military power. And he got the kingdom dark and weak. He now went with the great embassy in Europe to gain experience in the construction of ships and weapons. For the power of the army, which he creates, they need their master’s gunsmiths and factories for smelting metal for these purposes. In the Urals, rich mines were found, and in the same city, mastermind Nikita Demidov works in one of the cities. Peter the First personally orders him the manufacture of guns and pistols. The master of this high class in his work for his time, but his children can not cope with the training in weapons. Nikita sends her son Akinfiya by royal decree to Saxony to gain knowledge of the smelting of metals and skills from German masters of ore smelting. This industry is of paramount importance for the tsar, because the viability of the state and its survival depend on it. Your task now is to take custody of the young Akinfiy Davydov, on which the development of the metallurgical industry of the Russian state will depend.

— But, I, not a metallurgist, I’m not a gunsmith. Protested Ort. Theo smiled and said:

— Yes, here you will help him, guarding against accidents. Well, reading thoughts and instant grasp of material on the wisdoms of metallurgy will help Akinfiya and you, Ort. It may be necessary and replace it, posing as Akinfiya Davydova, for the preservation of the state it is extremely important. I want to wish you, Orth, success in this matter.

— I am not capable of such a kind of activity, to eliminate people.

— You, I misunderstood, it’s not our methods of work. — Theo parried. — I mean give him something in return in order that he does not go back to his homeland, and instead you will return. And you will live under his name and surname, having organized the metallurgical industry of the Urals. Theo probed his searching eye in Orth’s black eyes. The captain realized that he had been downcast by a proposal, from which he could not refuse. And he answered with firm confidence:

“I will try to help Davydov get knowledge for the development of the iron-making industry in his homeland, or I will arrange his life in Saxony, and I’ll go to Russia instead of him, posing as Akinfiya Davydov Nikitich.”

“Both of them will suit me, especially since you are very similar with him.” It will be an ideal option. And he will arrange me. Said Theo. — Your flying machine will always be with you in the invisible dimension of space. At any time, you can easily return, abandoning this venture. But something tells me that you, Orth your mission will like it. Moreover, you will get carried away. And you will, with great pleasure, carry out the duties assigned to you.

— Oh, your supremacy, you are, as always, right. But I’m more satisfied with the option that will allow Akinfiya to gain knowledge and then go to Russia than I am instead.

— For this you have, Ort has an aircraft and a knowledge store here in Shambhala. Yes, and technology of investing knowledge in the student, developed over billions of years by the developed civilizations of the Milky Way Galaxy. Go, go for it. I’ll let you know when to fly to Task, and Kshatr will conduct preliminary consultations with you and prepare you for the fulfillment of the mission…

Chapter — 15.

Peter I was still at the shipyards of Amsterdam, when Andrei Denisovich Vinius went to Germany with ten young men to train them from foreign craftsmen. Vinius wrote to Peter in detail about his request to send young men to study in Saxony, including the 20-year-old Akinfiya, the son of the weapons business of Master Nikita Demidov, whom he brought to Freiberg in the spring of 1698. Akinfiya Vinius attributed to Wolf, Martin Zimmerman, the famous smelting master who worked in the field of copper and silver smelting.

And the first Russian students will be sent to Freiberg in 1706, when the Mining Academy was established. The main specializations are mineralogy, geology, metallurgy, materials study…

When Vinius led to Zimmerman Demidov, he, having learned the purpose of his arrival, replied:

“Your Excellency, Andrei Denisovich, Peter the First, the tsar of All Russia, has decided on the construction of smelting plants in the Urals for making iron from the local magnetic ores. Local masters do it wrong and burn the ore. I will have to go to Russia in 1701, as you told me, that an envoy from your tsar will come for me. “Zimmerman’s words were skipped past his ears, Vinius said:

“You, Mr. Wolff, prepare this young man, the son of the famous armoire Nikita Demidov.” During these two years that he will comprehend the skill of mining and smelting, you will be paid from the royal treasury. I personally will see to it that the money arrives on time. The ambassador in Saxony from the Russian Empire will pay you a fee for training this young man. And yet take it for yourself to stay, provide food and lodging.

— Of course, if this is so important for Tsar Peter the Great, then I am ready to teach the young man and transfer the skill of melting not only iron but also copper ore. In our places, good copper ore, we also melted precious metals. I will teach him all this. And here we have a cabinet of minerals, where a rich collection of stones and kinds of various ores are collected. On occasion, he can there comprehend the external differences of iron and copper ores and learn a lot of interesting things.

“Well, that’s good, Mr. Zimmermann.” Allow me to bow out. Goodbye and you, Akinfiy, wish you a successful study in acquiring knowledge of ore and smelting.

Vinius approached Akinfiy, hugged him, and patted his shoulders.

“Thank you, Your Excellency, I will justify the king’s highest confidence and learn how to make iron for the Russian Empire.” — Highly answered the guy. Vinius gave him his hand to shake. Demidov squeezed the narrow hand of Andrei Denisovich, leaving an indelible impression of the iron grip of the blacksmith’s son’s handshake from childhood, accustomed to the blacksmith’s craft of his father Nikita Demidov. Vinius rubbed his right palm involuntarily with his left hand, softening the bruised fingers of his hand. Then he climbed onto the soft seat of the droshky, harnessed by two German stallions, and drove to Dresden to other young men to distribute them to the masterful manufactories of Saxony…

Wolf Martin looked thoughtfully at this tall and broad-shouldered guy, not in the age of an adult with a beard and strong hands that had not yet grown, without knowing how and with which to begin learning this delicate craft of smelting, which he managed to master in perfection only by the age of 40. Yes, and where to settle in his house. The grown-up daughter has a separate room, and he lives in his own. Again, take the daughter to her, move her bed, and put the student in the room Gretchen. Yes, there is no other way out. No, it was when my wife died, and the girl was still small. This, of course, is an inconvenience, but judging by the money that the king promised for studying this Russian guy, you can live with it. Zimmermann So he decided, let it be better to live with me in one room. And now, when the smelting of silver is not yet ripe, he must finish the work already, and then take him to his home. While the silver smelting furnace was warming up from the charcoal, Zimmerman always dined at that lunchtime. A beautiful and slender girl came up to him with a knot in the basket and, untying the white cloth, began to take lunch from the basket. Zimmermann motioned Akinfiya to him and said something to the student. But the guy did not understand, because he did not know the German language. The girl smiled with a snow-white smile Akinfiya and gestures began to invite him to join the meal.

“This is my daughter, Gretchen.” — Zimmerman said in German. Akinfiy only understood the name “Gretchen” and politely introduced himself:

— Demidov Akinfiy. — At the same time he blushed profusely, making the master’s daughter laugh. The girl with a smile also introduced herself:

“Gretchen!” — making a small curtsey, and gave the guy a hand for shaking. Akinfius made an inept movement, raised his hand to his lips and touched the smooth skin of his hand. This caused a laugh and a quick turn to the table. She began to take out of the basket and place dishes with food on the dining table, which stood in the workshop away from the oven.

When the appliances with food were placed, Akinfiy was surprised to find out how carefully the dining table was laid. In this dirty shop room, with sooty black soot walls on a wooden table, a snow-white tablecloth with clay plates and cups appeared. In the center of the table is a pot of hot soup on a separate place near the soup chopped slices of white bread, two spoons and two glasses for wine. Akinfiy thought at first that his daughter was going to dine with his father, but then he realized that Vinius had called Zimmerman at his request to his home to warn his daughter that he had an overseas pupil and dinner should be laid for two. Gretchen filled two soup bowls with soup, laid silver spoons beside them, and began inviting men to dinner with gestures. The girl had a long dress with a white apron, which she wore when she laid the table. Such neatness was not characteristic of Russian blacksmiths, who were accustomed to the smelly blacksmith’s shop, where all the workers scooped their soup during lunch from one vessel, sitting around an anvil, where they put a pot of cabbage soup during lunch. For the appetite drank a curtain of vodka, used to scoop the whole band of blacksmiths in the shop with one spoon in turn, like vodka, they drank from one mug. Surprise Akinfiy there was no limit to what was delicious food and wine. But about the wine he could still argue, the red Russian wine tasted better than the German, but the food and these smoked chicken legs and German sausages were so delicious that they did not satiate, but on the contrary it seemed that they aroused the appetite even more, because they wanted to eat and eat. Akinfiy was embarrassed by this technique and cleanliness, completely embarrassed by this exquisite German attention, tried to keep him in hand and not give out his feelings. Only Gretchen smiled cunningly at him. As if her huge gray eyes spoke: — “What, do you, in Russia, eat not so delicious?” About! If Akinfiy knew what Gretchen Zimmerman was thinking at that moment, which was already 19 years old, of course, about him, about the new pupil of her father? The girl never ceased to marvel at such a stately figure of this guy, who at once enchanted her with her appearance, manner of behavior and the most touching, childish shyness that the German guys who wove around the well-to-do Zimmermann family did not impress her, neither figure, nor touching Look, or this primitive shyness. And when she found out that Akinfiy would live in their house, she was delighted with that first quivering expectation of something unexplored and sensual that girls at her age expect from the guys they liked. So, two young people fell in love with each other at first sight, what will happen in their life, and how the events will unfold, that’s what most young men and women who have just turned 19—20 are interested in, of course, love…