She put her weight into the mix, slight as it was. Seeming to have blanked for a moment, she nodded and grunted as she helped to push. Maybe her weight would be the answer to opening the door. She remained utterly and blissfully ignorant as to Gareth's thoughts, otherwise, he'd surely get a tongue lashing.

Honestly, both of them were correct Claire's help wouldn't make or break it if they just kept trying to break the rust. Still, her help hastened the process the extra weight against the door finally, after only a few more seconds of hauling with all their might, worked.

There was a might crack as the rust finally gave way and with an ear bleedingly sharp squeal the door finally opened for them. Quentin rolls his shoulders his arms burning from the effort as he takes the rope and once again sets up their little tether train.

"The cave was safe enough to go without but we don't know what might have happened in this passageway, so better safe than dead."

He explains cheerfully and once they are ready he leads the way back up toward the surface. As it transpired, there was nothing to worry about and they make it to the locked door without too much issue. On the other side was the familiar face of Fred who had a lantern, a little camp stool, and a book off to the side. The man grins when sees them.

"Quentin, good to see you still alive. We heard the big commotion, pa left me here to wait to see if you guys returned while he went to fetch help. You all, awright?"

He asks, he could see they were all on their feet still.

"That we are Fred, did you bring down anything that would help with the rust?"

Fred nods his head and pulls out a bottle of some substance, it proves to be oil, that he pours onto the hinges.

"Alright, so we simply need to break the lock. You have my on your side so if you could hand me that."

Fred does just that and then takes his own and the two big men work together popping the lock and the gate after a few moments of strained effort. It appeared as though they were going to make it out of this alive, proper caution and provisioning winning out over unexpected circumstances as they make their way back to the surface where the sun was beginning to set.

Gareth walked carefully. The promise of getting out lured him, but he did not want to ruin it by being thrown down some hole again. He was beginning to shiver. It had been cold down in the larger cave, with his wet clothes drawing heat from his body, but it had still been a few degrees warmer than above ground. Now that they were getting closer to the surface, he was beginning to feel uncomfortably cold.

When the door was open and he stepped out, he thanked the sailor, and pulled his wet jacket tighter around his body, shivering.

She too shivered with cold after they were out of the cave. "Thank you," she said to the sailor who let them out. Her smile was genuine, though her teeth clattered a good deal. Her jacket had been left on the ship because it was scorched. She was looking forward to sitting near the fire again, feeling exhausted by the adventure they had just shared. Treasure, a real treasure. It was almost surreal, to be truthful.

They crawl out from underneath the boulder and spend about an hour getting warm and dry by the fire before the older Mister Harbor returns. He has in tow the full anthropological team that Quentin had brought to study the pirate cove and catalogue any treasure once it was located. He was sure they would be thrilled to work to find out everything that happened within the cave over the coming months.

Of course, the treasure was among the first things brought up from the cave. Both Claire and Gareth invited to participate in the opening of the door. The crates and chests opened up and much as they'd predicted, some goods were no longer in good shape. But there was quite a lot of silver, gems, and yes even gold within those boxes. The estimated value of everything once it was all brought to the surface and properly cataloged came close to two hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

True to his word Quentin awarded some additional shares of the treasure, though he was sure to make sure that no one knew how much they got except for himself. Gareth was awarded five shares total. Which came out to about 12,500. (About a million and a half in modern terms.) Claire was awarded seven shares of treasure or around 17,500 pounds. (Coming in at over two million pounds modern.) Finally Quentin kept ten shares for himself and the and the remainder was a donation to the British National Museum.