I glanced at Flint, "I'm going to check the house and see it there's anything that will pass off as better feminine attire."
"Baby, you couldn't look more feminine right now if you tried!"
I smiled at the compliment and headed off toward the house at the end of the wharf.
I had been successful in gathering several more serviceable items of clothing. I sat now in the copilot's seat nervously, as Flint took the pontoon plane out into the open water and started opening her up to a higher velocity.
He could fly too apparently, at least that was what he had told me. He seemed to know what all the buttons were for anyway.
Oh I hoped he was telling me the truth! I clutched hard at the seat, as with a series of rough bumps, the little sea plane skipped into the air. After several minutes of flying in the air I focused on letting go of the seat and arm rests a finger at a time.
Flint looked over consolingly, "I'm sorry I can't kiss you through this one, my hands are tied so to speak."
I smiled wanly, as I scanned over our route, "So where are we heading now?"
"Mali." was his simple answer.
My eyebrows rose slightly. How much did he know?
"Well, am I getting warm?" He asked with a smile.
"I told you I'm not interested in seeing the treasure destroyed; you're on your own." I responded, with a mysterious smile of my own.
"Well, would you like to hear my theory anyway?" He asked with a hopeful tint to his voice.
I smiled more broadly, he never gave up. I liked that about him. "Sure, why not?? I'll listen to your theory, but I'm not giving you any helpful hints."
"Fair enough. Okay, so our story starts a long time ago, just after the great flood to be exact, when the descendants of Noah's sons started to move back into the greater world from the Middle East, from where they went their own separate ways. Ham's descendants settled prominently down into Africa. Several mighty kingdoms emerged early on, the most well known of which are the Egyptians, but much less known was another powerful kingdom further south and to the east, the kingdom of Kush, which is now modern day Ethiopia, Sudan and parts of some other countries. They were powerful and their warriors were renowned throughout the world. They were mostly left to their own, as few could challenge them. Now here is where it gets interesting. In the biblical days of Solomon he received gold from the land of Ophir, a lot of gold, and it was regarded as a steady source. Now, no one is quite sure where Ophir was. It was long theorized that it was in reference to the kingdom of Kush, but the problem with that is that while there is gold in that area, there's not the kind of gold in abundance mentioned in the Bible. Another interesting item of that time was the mysterious Queen of Sheba. She came from the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, aptly named the land of Ceba. She too had a lot of gold and other treasures, which she gave to Solomon in abundance, when she saw the truth of his wisdom for herself. More importantly, there is evidence of some connection between her land of Ceba and the kingdom of Kush. We know that they traded with each other across the Red Sea quite extensively. In fact, it's possible that they were of the same blood and that the land of Ceba was but a satellite outpost of the greater Kush Empire. Now, the Queen of Sheba and Solomon allegedly became lovers and had a son, whose name was Menaleck. The Queen did not stay with Solomon, but returned to her own land. There is some evidence that Solomon saw Menaleck at least once later on in his life. It's rumored that Menaleck's appearance was so similar to Solomon's father King David that Solomon had him renamed, with the name of David, after his father. Now Menaleck is rumored to have returned to Jerusalem near the end of Solomon's reign. On a side note, it's rumored that he took the Ark of the Covenant with him from Jerusalem, along with a contingent of Levite priests. Not overly important to the treasure I'm looking for, but what is significant about Menaleck taking the ark of God, is that he didn't return to Ceba, he went to Kush. Little else is known of Menaleck after that, but he was the son of one of the most notable kings ever to walk the earth, as well as the son of a likewise notable Queen. He was of royal birth, in spades, so to speak. I think he ruled Kush after that, but little is known to support that. Now Solomon dies and the sovereignty of Israel is split. Judah is alone with Benjamin in the south, while the ten northern tribes do their own thing. Time goes by and the northern tribes start getting hammered hard by their neighbors for their disobedience to God. The Assyrians complete the downfall of northern Israel and carry them all away into captivity, while Judah persists on for a while. During this time the kingdom of Kush hadn't gone away, they're still a powerful force to be reckoned with. Now we have to go back in time slightly again, before the ten northern tribes were taken captive, in particular the tribe of Dan. Dan was one of the largest of the tribes of Israel, but they weren't able to conquer their allotment of the promised land, and so, they were forced to settle northward from their originally chosen spot. They settled along the coast just below Tyre and Sidon, the main capitol cities of the Phoenician trade empire. There is strong Biblical evidence to suggest that the tribe of Dan picked up on seafaring from the Phoenicians and started settling elsewhere before the northern tribes were taken into captivity. They are said to have landed on Cyprus and modern day Turkey. The remnants of their landward people, that were taken into captivity by the Assyrians, are said to have eventually migrated northward with the remnants of several other tribes and eventually they made their way out over northern Europe. But Dan went somewhere else though too. Remnants of their tribe, along with the tribe of Naphtali and several others, fled south from the captivity or had already migrated earlier to the land of Kush."