CHAPTER 137

CHAPTER 137

ENGINEER TIMOTHY O'Connel watched the three little black dots glide across the ice towards the Queen's Ranges. Each sleigh was pulled by a team of eight animals, trained for that function; in addition to two occupants, it carried provisions and basic safety equipment. He had insisted that Nicole remain aboard the Nebraska, but no argument was enough for that headstrong girl to give up her dangerous adventure. He followed her now, at one of those faraway spots.

As he looked, O'Connell wondered what wonderful secret this mountain range must be hiding.

GREGORY EXAMINED THE MAP.

— That's Mount Kirkpatrick, the highest in the Queen's Ranges.

— And also the closest — exclaimed the Senator.

— It brings you good memories, Greg.

— Unfortunately not... you know that.

The two laughed.

THE GROUP QUICKLY CROSSED that vast region, hitherto untouched by man, under the bombardment of billions of snowflakes that began to fall at that moment. At an unfathomable distance, the sun reflected its rays on those small crystals, making it possible to see a rainbow in the distance.

Nicole looked up and marveled at the array of colors stretching across the sky.

— Look at the rainbow!

Gregory Evans raised his head and was dazzled to see the rainbow stretching into infinity.

— I've never seen anything as beautiful as this!

— It is possible that it suffers the impact of Earth's magnetism, and like the aurora borealis, has its colors intensified — explained the Senator.

— It's really beautiful — concluded Greg — but we can't just sit here, otherwise we'll freeze to death, and besides, we have a mission ahead of us.

— If I died now, I'd be satisfied — Nicole exclaimed, looking up at the sky once more. — That vision is much more precious than if I were offered the pot of gold that the leprechaun hides at the end of the rainbow.

Greg suddenly stopped, and then everyone turned to him.

Nicole broke the silence:

— What was there?

He, however, continued to stand still, his bright eyes remained fixed on the rainbow.

— That's it! A pot of gold!

— What?... pot of gold? What have...

— I discovered!...

The detective was beaming. Then he turned to the other members of the expedition.

— I know the exact location of the Tree of Life!

— Where? — Asked Senator Hofma incredulously.

Greg was staring at one of the hills that made up the mountain range, it was on this hill that the rainbow ended.

— There! — He said, pointing with his arm towards the mountain — there we will find the Tree of Life!

— But how can you be sure? — Hofma asked.

Smiling, Greg contemplated the disbelief of his expedition companions.

— In fact, it was Nicole who provided the answer when she said that the sight of a rainbow was worth more to her than a pot of gold.

— Did Nicole give you the answer? Gold pot? — Asked the Senator, curious.

— Remember an old popular belief that said that at the end of the rainbow there would be an elf guarding a pot of gold?

— Yes, replied the senator, but what does that have to do with the Tree of Life?

— Everything, James, just everything! See: where do you think the legend that there is an elf garnishing a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow originated? He knows that elves, gnomes, witches and others are the result of pagan tradition and imagination prior to the appearance of Christianity. Well then, it is quite possible that to escape the persecution promoted by the popes, the possessors of ancient knowledge, mysteries, magic and revelations made by fallen angels, used these popular fables, apparently innocent, to hide their most ancient revelations.

— The people would see a naive fable — Nicole said — but the true initiates would find in these innocent stories the ancient revelations of astral beings. This would be a very intelligent way of keeping their knowledge secret, hidden from the people, from the Church and from curious people, who would not understand its scope and its real meaning!

James Hofma was baffled.

— But what about the pot of gold?

— You see — continued Greg — we know that Lucifer always tried to get men confused with the things that God simply created, am I not right?

— Yes — Nicole Hulmann replied, trying to catch up with the detective's reasoning.

Greg then took the small Bible he carried with him and opened it to the book of Genesis:

— Look here, in the book of Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 22:

"And when he had driven the man out, he set a cherub at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword that went round about, to guard the way to the tree of life!"

Let's imagine that the goblin at the end of the rainbow is not a goblin, but a form of Lucifer mocking the angels who remained faithful to the Creator...

— That means then... — Fernando Dante was enthusiastic, that the pot of gold of the fable, in fact, is not a pot of gold, but a much more fabulous treasure than that.

— The life tree! Nicole exclaimed triumphantly as she pointed once more to the ice-covered mountain range that covered the rainbow, and that's where we'll find her!