The Professors Gift

The Professors Gift

Clang, Clang, Clang!

Greg and Jeanette sit up in their bed with a sudden feeling of deep fright and their hearts pounding from a sudden rush of adrenaline. Both were startled from their deep sleep.

“What was that?” Jeanette asked Greg.

“I don’t know, but it sounds like something inside the house,” Greg responded, showing a dread even to get up and investigate the strange sound.

The house they lived in was an old Victorian-style house built around 1880. They had only purchased the place two years previous and had spent a lot fixing it up. This was the home Greg and Jeanette planned to spend the rest of their life in and start a family. Jeanette fell in love with the house the very day the realtor showed it to them. They were told the house was built by a brilliant scientist of his day who tinkered with strange inventions. Dr. Levenback worked primarily as a professor at the local college. The house eventually passed on to a new family around 1930 after the scientist died, leaving no family or relatives to inherit it. The previous owners kept the old house in as much of the original condition as possible.

Clang, Clang, Clang!

Greg and Jeanette glared at each other.

“Honey, you got to see where that noise is coming from,” Jeanette whispered as if afraid to talk any louder.

Greg glanced at the clock and saw it was slightly past midnight. He hesitantly slipped out from the warm, comfortable sheets, put on a robe, and slipped his feet into bedroom slippers.

“You’re not leaving me here alone,” Jeanette said as aforethought, as she also got up.

Greg proceeded to the bedroom door with a flashlight in one hand and a baseball bat in the other. Jeanette grabbed onto his robe and followed him into the hallway. They inspected each room on the upper floor where their bedroom was located but saw nothing out of the usual. They started down the steps to the main floor when they again heard, Clang, Clang, Clang! This time much louder and coming from the lower level.

“Have you noticed that the sound is coming exactly every two minutes?” Jeanette remarked.

They proceeded into the library room that the original owner had elegantly designed as a library and study. Bookcases lined all four sides of the room except for the window and door space.

Clang, Clang, Clang!

The sound was so loud both Greg and Jeanette were startled. Greg dropped the flashlight.

“The sound is coming from this room,” Greg said as he leaned down to pick up the flashlight.

They inspected every inch of the library but saw nothing that would be causing such a loud clanging noise. “Stand still for a few minutes,” Greg requested.

Clang, Clang, Clang!

“It’s coming from behind the bookcase here,” Jeanette pointed as Greg brought the flashlight onto that area. Jeanette ran to the light switch and turned the room lights on. They both started pulling books off the shelves until the back wall was exposed. There was nothing there that would cause such a noise. Greg began running his hands over the wall to see if there was any loose panel.

Clang, Clang, Clang!

“It’s coming from right here behind the wall,” Greg said as he placed his hand over the location. “We can’t let this keep going all night, or we won’t get any sleep. Stay here, and I will be right back.”

Greg left the room and soon returned with a hammer and chisel. He started removing the wood panel in the area of the noise. As soon as he had a small hole, the noise started loudly as metal hitting metal, Clang, Clang, Clang!

Jeanette grabbed Greg’s shoulder and pointed, “Look, it’s like a big mechanical clanker!”

The object in the wall was a metal-looking hammer striking and metal plate. These were attached to a series of gears and pulleys. As they stood there observing their find, they saw the pulley drop, the gears rotate, and again, Clang, Clang, Clang! Greg took his chisel and stuck it into the gear system preventing it from moving anymore.

“That will stop it from clanging anymore, but what the heck is it? And why put it here?” Greg remarked.

At about the two-minute interval, the pulley again dropped, but the gear was unable to move due to the chisel, thereby preventing the clanging noise. But a black notebook fell from the pulley system and was stopped by the metal hammer and plate from falling further behind the wall panel. Greg reached in and withdrew the black notebook. As he opened the book, Jeanette stood near behind. The first page had a notation; Personal diary of Dr. Charles Levenback, October 14, 1920. To the finder of this book in the year October 14, 2020. Greg and Jeanette looked at each other in astonishment. As of midnight, it was October 14, 2020. They continued to read the next page; Enclosed in this journal are years of notes covering all my research and inventions. I grant all rights to the finder of this notebook to my research and inventions if useful. The last page of this journal has a map of the basement in this house. A false wall is located there with many of my inventions behind it. Also, the X on the map will lead you to 20,000 dollars I hid.

“Let’s head downstairs to the basement and see if this is for real,” Greg said as he put the black notebook into his robe pocket and grabbed his hammer.

Greg and Jeanette proceeded down the old staircase into the basement level. The floor was laid with brick and was uneven. Wood beams were spaced out, supporting the house above. Greg pulled out the black notebook and looked at the map drawn by Professor Levenback. All four walls of the basement were of red brick.

“According to this map, this should be the false wall,” Greg said while pointing to one area. He began tapping the bricks in the center part of the wall with the hammer, and the first brick quickly fell inward to another space. He knocked out an area large enough for them to climb through to the other side. His flashlight showed another room of equal size to the other part of the basement. The room was filled with all kinds of mechanical gadgets, and each had its own personal black notebooks describing what each invention did.

“This is so marvelous,” Jeanette remarked.

“But probably worthless in our modern society,” Greg answered.

“Where is the X marked on your map?” Jeanette inquired.

” It should be in this room but against the far wall.”

They both maneuvered through the maze of inventions till they came to a small metal box on a table. “This is where the X is marked,” Greg said as he handed the flashlight to Jeanette.

The box was not locked. He opened the top, and as Jeanette shined the light into its interior, they were met by a golden glare. The 20,000 dollars was all in gold coins.

“This is amazing,” Greg said as he inspected the coins. “Twenty thousand dollars in 1907 Proof Saint-Gaudens Gold Double Eagle. Twenty thousand dollars in gold coins in the early 1900s is not the same as today. This is going to be a lot of money. Not only the value of the gold but also the value of that coin to collectors. This is going to pay for this house and much more probably.”

Jeanette grabbed and hugged her husband, “I was scared to death when that banging noise woke us up. But now I am so happy. It’s beyond amazing.”

“And this black notebook that Professor Levenback left gives us full rights to all of this,” Greg said while waving his hand around the room. “These inventions may not be any good in today’s world, but museums will clamber over each other to get them. They are worth a lot also.”

“This little black notebook has changed our world!”