Since old King Tut

Tromping through the arid lava and kiawe -- same stuff as what they called mesquite back in Texas -- Barge Huntley felt in his bones that he was close now to what he considered the ultimate prize.

Somewhere very close by was the final resting place of Kamehameha the Great. To find the site, to claim not just the bones that had been hidden since that moonless November night in 1819 but also the artifacts that always went with Hawaiian royalty into death ... well, it would be the greatest find since old King Tut popped up in Egypt.

And as the sun dipped toward the horizon and the sky turned pink, Barge thought back to that day during his junior year at Moo High in Texas when he'd found what turned out to be the burial ground of the historic Battle of Rattlesnake Run. Nearly 50 Indian and Caucasian skulls had been stacked, and scattered all around them were arrowheads, bullet slugs, bits of pottery, an Army belt buckle, even an old Colt .45.

Thanks to introductions provided by his buddy's Uncle Shake Toulouse, Barge -- still just 17 -- negotiated with various collectors and ended up making half a million dollars just off that site.

He was hooked, and gave up his senior year of football to devote himself to the study of the shadowy world of artifacts.

Barge remembered a day during his senior year when Uncle Shake proudly showed him a Hawaiian skull he'd just procured.

"'Sposed to be some kinda chief," Uncle Shake said. "Royalty like. 'Sposed to have some kinda magic to Hawaiians. Call it maw-naw."

Barge enrolled at UT-Austin, studied geology, history, anthropology, archaeology, languages, never bothered earning a degree, just took courses that he thought would help in his pursuit. On a world map, he placed pins to mark the sites he considered likely to reveal artifacts -- battlegrounds, migrant land routes, old cities and old ballparks.

Indian battlegrounds had been profitable, as had ancient lands of the Australian aborigines. But what really put him on the map was finding bones of Donner Party members who were cannibalized that winter in the high Sierra Nevada.

As the Internet developed, his reputation and profits grew.

And now he was on the verge of ... well, it would be like finding the Titanic.

From a padded backpack, Barge pulled the skull of the Hawaiian chief he received from Uncle Shake just before he passed. Standing on the rocky shore facing out to sea, he held the skull in front of him, the eyes facing out.

"OK, old chief, where is he? Where is this one you call Kamehameha the Great? Lead me to him, and I will leave you there with him, back home again."

He was lying through his teeth, but Barge could have swore he felt the skull start to vibrate, then tilt to the left.