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Two children walked up the stairs into a dark attic, a boy and a girl. The girl was slightly younger than the boy, an attribute that was proven by how much shorter she was. They both had brown hair and green eyes. The boy took a flashlight from his pocket and turned it on, shining it around everything in the attic. The little girl clung to him, because she was afraid of the dark room, even though it was lit up by the lightening from the storm outside the windows of the house.

"We're not a'sposed to be up here." The little girl whispered to him.

"Shh, Letty!" The boy hissed, "You wanna find out, or don't you?" The little girl nodded and followed her brother through the attic, the floor creaking slightly under their feet. When one creak got a little too loud, they stopped, frozen, switching off the flashlight. When nothing happened, the boy turned the flashlight back on and they kept walking through the attic until they came to a shelf. The boy grabbed a stepladder and placed it in front of the shelf, climbing up. The little girl held the ladder still as he reached up to the top shelf, grabbing a large, thick book. He shined his flashlight on the intricate, gilded cover of it. He started climbing down the ladder, and as he was on the last step, he turned around, and the two children gasped at the sight of an aged, mustachioed man standing before them.

"Grandpa!" They exclaimed at the same time.

"You're not supposed to be up here." Their grandfather said, an amused smile on his wrinkled face. He nodded to the book in the boy's hands, "Where'd you get that?"

"We just wanted to know…" The little girl said, a small, scared whimper in her voice. The grandfather looked down at the two, his smile still there.

"Yeah… Well, I suppose you're both old enough, I suppose." He said, the two kids smiled up at him, "You should know the story." They followed him over to another part of the attic, the little girl sitting in his lap while the boy sat opposite him. "Okay, here we go." The grandfather took a deep breath before he began, "It was 1832, on a night much like this. Charles Carroll was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also a member of a secret society known as the Masons… and he knew he was dying. He woke up his stable boy in the middle of the night, and ordered him to take him to the white house to see Andrew Jackson. Because it was urgent that he speak to the president."

"Did he talk to him?" The boy asked.

Their grandfather shook his head, "No, he never got the chance." He said, "The president wasn't there that night. But Charles Carroll had a secret. So he took into his confidence the one person he could. My grandfather's grandfather, Thomas Gates."

"What was the secret?" The boy asked. The grandfather smiled and leaned in.

"A treasure," He whispered, getting the two children excited, "A treasure beyond all imagining. A treasure that had been fought over for centuries by tyrants, pharaohs, emperors, warlords! And every time it changed hands, it grew larger! Then, suddenly," He snapped his fingers, "It vanished." The two kids eyes widened, completely engrossed in the story, "It didn't reappear for more than a thousand years, when knights from the first crusade discovered vaults beneath the Temple of Solomon. You see, the knights who found the vault believed that the treasure was too great for any one man. Not even a king. They brought the treasure back to Europe, where they took the name the Knights Templar. Over the next century, they smuggled it out of Europe, and they formed a new brotherhood called the Free Masons, in honor of the builders of the great temple. War followed, by the time of the American Revolution, the treasure had been hidden again, by then, the Masons included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Paul Revere! They knew they had to make sure the treasure would never fall into the hands of the British. So they devised a series of clues, and maps to its location. Over time, the clues were lost, or forgotten, until only one remained, and that was the secret that Charles Carroll entrusted to young Thomas Gates." The grandfather opened the book to the front page, showing them an aged, wrinkled up paper that read in lovely calligraphy The secret lies with Charlotte. "The secret lies with Charlotte."

"Who's Charlotte, Grampa?" The little girl asked from his lap.

"Oh, not even Mister Carroll knew that." The grandfather said, he picked her up off his lap and sat her down beside the boy so he could reach into his pocket for something, "Now, look here, you two. The Free Masons, among our founding fathers, left us clues," He pulled out a one dollar bill, "Like these. The unfinished pyramid, the all-seeing eye," He pointed to the different clues on the bill, "Symbols of the Knights Templar: Guardians of the treasure." The two children gazed at the dollar bill intently, "They're speaking to us… through these."

"You mean laughing at us." A voice said from behind them, the two children looked up to see their father coming into the attic, "You know what that dollar represents?" He walked up behind their grandfather, "The entire Gates family fortune." The grandfather folded up the dollar bill, sticking it back in his pocket with a disappointed look on his face, "Six generations of fools… Chasing after fool's gold." The grandfather stood up.

"It's not about the money, Patrick!" He said, "It's never been about the money!"

"Come on, kids," The father said, "Time to go. You can… say your goodbyes." He turned around and walked back down the stairs out of the attic. The grandfather shook his head disappointedly at his son.

"Grandpa?" The boy asked, looking up at him.

"Hmm?" He turned around to see the two kids.

"Are we knights?" He asked. The grandfather let out an amused chuckle.

"You wanna be?" He asked him, the two nodded, excited grins on their faces. "Alright! Um… kneel." The two kids kneeled down, side-by-side, the boy holding the book in his arms. The grandfather picked up a coat and draped it over his shoulders, and he picked up a blanket to drape over the girl's shoulders. He stood back and smiled at them, "Benjamin Franklin Gates, and Letitia Tyler Gates. You take upon yourselves the duty of the Templars, the Free Masons, and the family Gates. Do you so swear?" The two siblings glanced at each other, then looked back at their grandfather.

At the same time, they both said, "I so swear." The grandfather smiled at them.