Ian Spooner inspects the stone walkway recently uncovered in the swamp and calls the angularity of the rocks suspicious. The walkway leads to a large conical boulder similar in size to those forming Nolan's Cross, which Fred Nolan discovered in 1981. Ian confirms the formation is human-made: four large stones sit in a deliberate line with a stone feature on one side and nothing on the other, and the material came from an excavation rather than a beach. Steve Guptill and Tom Nolan arrive, and Steve notes the grade elevation suggests a ramp. Billy then digs up a large tree stump from deep in the swamp. Dating it could help confirm whether the swamp was artificially created and when. A second stump appears the next day along with a visible change in soil, evidence that this area was once forested and a potential clue for Dr. Spooner.
At the Garden Shaft, Dumas has passed 92 feet on the way to the 95-foot target. Rick and Marty descend to help Paul Cote's crew clear the final layer of clay with jackhammers before the last wooden set is installed. Rick strikes something that feels different, probes it with a bar, and hits what he believes is rock or wood. After Dumas clears the material with the hammer grab, the team is notified that the tunnel has been reached. Rick and Scott suit up and descend while Craig watches on the monitor. Paul shows them a round log and other wood visible in the opening. Rick taps the bottom with a crowbar and reports it sounds hollow. The round timbers match those found in the Money Pit, suggesting a connection. The team agrees to extend the shaft another three feet.
At the Dawson Print Shop in Halifax, Doug and Scott bring the leather found in the swamp's southeast corner to Joe Landry, a leather expert. Joe identifies it as a hand-stitched gentleman's boot or light shoe of very fine quality, made from vegetable-tanned leather, one of the earliest forms of tannage. He dates it to the late 1600s to early 1700s and says it was probably made in Europe, with the workmanship appearing French. The boot would have belonged to an officer or someone who could afford quality footwear, and the group discusses whether the maker could have been Portuguese, French, British, or Spanish.
In the War Room, author and 32nd-degree Freemason Christopher Morford presents his analysis of Nolan's Cross, arguing the Templars built the alignment as a navigational guide to the treasure. He believes the original Temple Menorah was safeguarded on the island "to make way for the new Jerusalem and the new temple." Morford traces a sightline from Cone C, the only boulder visible from a ship, through Cone A and along drilled marker stones. Steve confirms a drilled stone on Lot 15 and one on the Nolan property. Rick adds that Fredrick Blair found a drilled stone in the Money Pit area in 1895, later moved but recorded on a Charles Roper survey in the 1930s. Fred Nolan documented the other two during his survey between the swamp and the Money Pit more than 30 years later. Rick, Steve, and Tom walk the alignment from Cone C to verify. Steve calculates that the drilled stones are spaced at exactly half the distance to the Money Pit, and the line terminates not on the Garden Shaft itself but directly on top of the tunnel.
