A seaplane arrived at the Virginia coastline under the cover of night. The plane landed on the water and pulled up near a shallow cove in the edge of a cliff. The pilot Brick Weston stepped into the surf with a rope and pack on his shoulder. He looked at the rocks. During the 18th century pirates sealed caves with explosives to hide their ships and crawled out another passage with the stolen treasure. Once a pirate ship disappeared off this coast after robbing a Spanish galleon laden with gold. Reports about the crew were so ruthless the treasure seeker guessed that if they had to hide long they might have killed each other inside this stone vault.

At the cliff-top the traveler drove a stake into the ground near a narrow groove in the rocks, tied the rope to it and disappeared into the hole. The vertical tunnel descended 6 meters, then the pipe widened and the treasure hunter saw stalactites near his head. He was in a large cavern. The rocks and minerals inside the chamber shimmered with moonlight reflected off an underground lake. The man dropped onto the stones below and positioned himself at the opposite end of the cavern from the opening above. He crouched down and filled a small glass jar with water. After dropping a tablet into the jar the traveler believed what he came for would be along shortly.

As Brick waited he looked at the water and remembered the lake where he fished when he was young. Some years when the conditions were right, algae in the lake grew until it formed a shell on the bottom that would break loose and float to the top. All the fish choked and popped out on top of the algae. Farmers there said the lake turned over. The treasure hunter anticipated this underground lake was also about to turn over.