AN:

I will NOT be updating Dictator's Diary until I finish this... tell your friends...

We ran into the store, Urban Outfitters. Wow. I bought most of my clothes at Target if I could. I wasn't the 'shopping' type. Not really normal, but oh well. We caught them as they were checking out.

"Hey!" said Riley

Ben looked relieved. "Riley, Lexy, did you get it?"

"Oh, we got it," I said nodding. "The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow…"

"Crosses in front of the house of Pass and Stow," Riley interrupted. "Now, Pass and Stow referring to…"

"The Liberty Bell!" Ben and Abigail said together.

Riley sighed. "Why do you have to do that?" he asked.

"Well, John Pass and John Stow cast the bell," explained Abigail.

"I have no idea how that answered Riley's question" I pointed out. Abigail glared at me. "Okay, so what's the rest of it mean then?"

"Wait a minute. The vision to see the treasured past must refer to a way to read the map." Ben mused.

"I thought the cipher was the map." Riley said.

"No, the cipher was a way to find the way to read the map."

"That clears things up," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "You know Ben; you're very good at confusing people."

"The way to read the map…comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the Liberty Bell!" Abigail realized.

"Crosses in front of the house of the Liberty Bell"

"Independence Hall!" Ben glared at me for interrupting him. Again. I grinned at him.

"So… Timely shadow… it's a specific time," said Abigail.

"Uh, What time?" my brother asked.

"What time?" Realization spread across the treasure hunter's face. Ben turned to Abigail and gestured at her. "You're going to love this," he said. "Excuse me, can I see one of those hundred dollar bills I paid you with?"

The cashier shook her head. "No…" she said. Surprise surprise. Ben blinked.

"Well… uh… I have this watch, this diver's watch. It's called a submariner. I dive with it." No duh. "It's really quite valuable; you can use it as collateral…" Ben offered.

She handed over a bill. "Whatever."

"On the back of a hundred dollar bill is an etching of Independence Hall, based on a painting done in the 1780's, and the artist was actually a friend of Benjamin Franklin. It's wonderful."

"Yeah fascinating," I muttered.

"Hold this." He handed Abigail the Declaration, ignoring me. Then at the last second, he hesitated.

"I'm not going anywhere," she promised, and Ben released the document.

"If we look at the clock tower, maybe we can find the specific time…"

"Wow, what easy clearly defined numbers," I said, squinting at the money.

Ben snatched a water bottle and used it to magnify the clock.

"It says… two…twenty two." Ben set the bottle back down. "What time is it now?" he demanded.

"Almost three," said the cashier boredly.

"We missed it?" I asked. Ben nodded in defeat.

"No we didn't." Everyone looked at Riley. "We didn't miss it because…" he paused. "Wait… you don't know this? I know something about history that you don't know?"

"I would be very excited to learn about it Riley," prompted Ben through gritted teeth.

"Hold on a second. Let me just… just, take in this moment." I groaned and rolled my eyes, which made Riley drag it out even longer. I'd never admit it, but secretly that's what I wanted. I was enjoying someone knowing more than Ben too.

"This is… cool," Riley marveled. "Is this how you feel all the time? Well… except for now, of course, but…"

"RILEY!" said Abigail

"I do think she's rather irritated at you," I observed. More glares. "Glaring at me is very popular today," I said, which made both the glarers -cough-BenandAbigail-cough- turn back toward Riley.

"Alright!" he said. "What I know, that you don't know," he faltered for a moment under Abigail's look, "is that daylight savings wasn't established until World War One. So if it's three pm now, okay, that means in 1776, it would be two pm."

"Riley, you're a genius!" praised Ben.

Abigail said "Let's go!"

"Yeah. Genius. Hey, do you guys know who the first person to suggest daylight savings was?"

"Benjamin Franklin!" we all said. Riley pouted and stomped his foot in defeat, and we headed for the house of the Liberty Bell.

--

We started with a tour group. Riley and I making fun of the tour guide's accent. ("An' these hear art-EE-facts…") It was laugh out loud funny. Which is exactly what we were doing. Ben tugged us away from the speech about 'Tha' Decle-ray-tion' and we ducked under the DO NOT ENTER sign. We climbed up into the bell tower.

"What bell is this?" asked Riley.

"The Centennial bell, replaced the Liberty Bell…"

"In 1876." Ben decided not to glare this time.

"Why?" he asked.

I grinned wickedly. "Well… 100 years is a century so…"

Ben rolled his eyes and checked his watch. He pointed out the shadow. "I'm going down there and you guys meet me in the signing room. Okay? Good."

"No, not okay, bad," I protested. "I want to go get it." I gave Ben my there-shall-be-no-arguing-from-you look. He backed down.

"Okay, okay."

As I left I heard Riley mutter "3:22. My idea."

Out on the roof of Independence Hall, I looked down on Philadelphia. It was incredible. I followed the shadow and found that it laid on a brick with one of those Templar thingies carved into it. I took the knife Ben had given me and cut it out. Nothing. The brick seemed really light though. I turned it upside down and shook out a pair of old colorful glasses. "Sweet," I said. I stuck them in my pocket, replaced the brick, and headed back to the signing room.

"What's you score?" asked Riley. I held out the glasses to Ben.

"Some kind of ocular device," He murmured.

"Glasses," I corrected.

"The vision to see the treasured past?" asked Riley. He took them from Ben, who took the Declaration case from Abigail.

Riley examined the glasses. "They're like early American X-ray specs!" he said.

"You know, Benjamin Franklin invented something like these," noted Abigail.

"Uh, I think he invented these," said Ben.

"Well what do we do with 'em?"

I raised an eyebrow at Riley. "Are you serious?"

"We look through them," informed Ben.

"Help me," ordered Abigail. Riley and I helped Mean Declaration Lady unroll the document.

Ben let out a small sigh of awe. "What?" I asked.

"It's just that, the last time this was here, it was being signed." We all held a short, respectfulish silence.

"Ben, there's another tour coming." Riley was right. Being caught now would suck.

Ben nodded. "Turn it over." We did. "Spectacles," he ordered. Gosh, couldn't he just call them glasses? Riley handed them over.

"What do you see?" asked Abigail and I together.

"Is it a treasure map?" asked Riley. His eyes lit up at the thought of the treasure.

"It says… 'Heere at the Wall,' spelled with two E's. Take a look." He handed the glasses to Riley, but Abigail and I both grabbed for them, and Abigail won.

"Wow," she marveled.

Riley groaned. "Why can't they say got to this place, here's the treasure, spend it wisely?"

"The same reason I always mess with your stuff. Just to annoy you," I explained. I was actually pretty annoyed too, but I didn't have to say that, now did I?

Ben looked up and saw out the window. "Oh no," he groaned.

Riley got a closer look, peering at Ian's men. "How'd they find us?"

"Well, Ian has nearly unlimited resources. And he's smart," Ben said.

Abigail shook her head. "I don't think we can get out of here without being spotted.

"Well, we don't want them to have the Declaration or the glasses, but we especially don't want them to have them both together," said Ben.

"So what do we do?" I asked, not wanting to get killed.

"We separate the lock from the key, we're splitting up."

"Good idea," agreed Abigail.

"Really?" asked Riley. He looked at us for a moment. He obviously thought Riley and I should stay together, but figured also he'd be in more danger and didn't want to carry it over to Abigail.

"Okay, you three stay together. I'll take this and those," he grabbed the empty case and glasses, "and you take that. Meet me at the car and call me if you have any problems."

"Like if we get caught and killed?" Riley asked.

Ben nodded. "Yeah, that'd be a big problem." He sighed. "Take care of her."

"I will," we all said. Riley looking at Abigail, her and me looking at the Declaration. Apparently I was on my own. Ah well. We took the document and left the room…

DOTS! OH THE SUSPENSE!! :P Review people!