Cha'Nara's Gift

Chapter 21

Chapter 21 The High Lonesome

Around the middle of April, Ben and I rode out , I thought of working our way wet towards what would later be called Berthoud Pass on US 40, but that was still years into the future, we quickly discovered why planning off modern maps wasn't so good, roads and places shown on them didn't exist yet. Instead, we stayed close to creek beds and gulches. From time to time we would find color, we even found traces of silver, I told Ben that the big Colorado silver boom would be starting this year, but since it wasn't worth a whole lot in 2012 I wasn't really interested, besides, most of that required actual mining.

We slowly worked our way south towards Mt. Evens, from time to time we would run across solitary miners or prospectors panning, or working crude sluice operations. About a week out after mediocre results we decided to call it quits, it was looking more and more like we would have to "jump" somewhere in Cha'Nara's craft. We had begun to find more silver, but that wasn't what I wanted. Around three in the afternoon, we came to a small fork of a nameless creek, downed trees and snags blocked our way, "f**k!" I shouted, "We're screwed; guess this is it, Damn!" "Look!" pointed Ben, a small game trail seemed to lead around the trees, "Let's at least check where this fork ends, sometimes you find color in places like this," he urged. "After you," I replied. The trail was so narrow, we walked the horses, it was very rough going, the trail even disappeared a couple times, but eventually we descended down into the creek bottom, I had to admit, if there was going to be gold it would be here, textbook washouts a nice fissure where hundreds of years of snow melt eroded the soil.

There must still have been a lot of snow left in the higher elevations above us the water level was still high and turbulent, we took the precaution of running safety lines along the creek where we decided to pan. By the time we set up camp there was only an hour's worth of light left, deep in the canyon as we were daylight came late and left early. "What the hell Ben, let's give it a shot, shall we?" Each finding little perch's to work from we worked our pans back and forth in the freezing water, Ben was the first to start showing color, and lots of it, in fact I guessed there had to be a major vein somewhere above us. Working quickly in the fading light, I started showing heavy color almost immediately. Because it was growing dark so fast, we were forced to return to camp. Ben and I were really revved, we talked well into the night, on the best way to recover this stuff, in the end we stuck with the panning. In the morning we ate the last of our MRE's, we built up our fire only because we needed a place to dry our clothes and warm up, working that icy water threatened hypothermia real quick. We found that although it took longer, it was safer to have one man pan while the other stood by to pull him out should he start to get too cold or fall in.

Ben and I worked steady until around 2:00 in the afternoon, we returned to camp to dry out, and add up what we had found. By our rough estimates we had panned close to ten troy ounces of gold with more still waiting, I wanted to explore the rocks above us for any sign of that vein; we decided to devote tomorrow to exploration and maybe some hunting, as we were about out of food. In the morning after a quick breakfast of the remaining crackers and fruit bars from the MRE's we started to climb, I brought along the AR not daring to leave it behind, Ben brought just the shotgun. About two hours later we came upon what I thought was probably the mouth of the vein, it was very slippery from the runoff but we were able to get situated, and dig around. Each of us had an army folding shovel to work with, in about fifteen minutes we found it, nuggets, flakes, BIG nuggets! All I could say was Emily's favorite phrase, "Outfuckingstanding!

Ben and I worked like madmen, we filled everything we had with treasure, Ben even wanted to take off his boots and fill them but I vetoed that idea. In the end, we made a crude pack with our shirts, some rope and even part of my bootlace, and then began the slow decent back to camp.

About halfway down Ben paused, "I heard something Deak, listen!" I thought I heard something too, it sounded like people talking.

Ben and I slowly moved to a level spot where we could look down towards our camp, we were still high enough that I didn't think we could be seen. I braced the M1A on a tree branch and scanned the area below us. Sure enough there were three men in the camp kicking our meager supplies around; we had hidden the gold already found under a cairn of rocks away from the camp, so they hadn't found that anyway. I had one man's head dead in my sights, but I thought I'd give them a chance first, "Get you f*****g asses out of our camp right f*****g NOW!" I hollered. They started looking for the source of the voice shouting at them, and must have spotted us because I saw puffs of smoke then the sounds of bullets thwacking the ground near us. "Ben, I'm sorry, son, they've given us no other choice," "Kill em" was all he said. I searched with the scope until I spotted one man crouched down next to a fallen tree, I carefully centered his head and squeezed the trigger, his head exploded pitching his body backwards. Because of that headshot, the other men must have thought we were closer than we were, because they started to move. I took the next man in the side; he fell backwards into the creek, the rushing water starting to drag his body away. The third man started yelling something but we couldn't hear what he was saying, I waited patiently until he got restless and tried to run, a round into his back stilled him forever.

Cautiously we descended, reaching camp as darkness settled in, I used my little LED light to round up our stuff, and inspect the bodies, we found a nice little bag of dust on the last man I shot, another nice Winchester, a crappy looking .45 Colt and the usual personal items on both bodies. This time we took Ben's idea and filled the men's boots with our gold, in fact we made more improvised packs and bags from their saddles. We kept one of their horses for a pack animal and shot the other two, it was hard enough walking that trail with just our animals not counting their nags. Before we left, I took azimuths of the site we then made the dangerous climb back out. Ben and I both wondered how these men found us, unless they were tracking us all along. Both of us stayed on alert weapons at the ready. We spotted the third man, who fell into the water hung up on a snag, but he was in an awkward spot, and we didn't feel like taking a chance going down there. Thinking there might be a companion or two waiting at the mouth of the fork, I kept scanning ahead with the scope, Ben watched with binoculars, but nobody was there.

I was able to shoot a mule deer so we had fresh meat for supper; we also wrapped all the gold inside the deer carcass, with the idea of discouraging interest, just two hunters out after game. With money we already had, and what we recovered from the bodies, we were able to buy a little food, from a small mining camp, but we didn't stick around, moving on quickly. Ben and I made decent time getting back home, never stopping long, talking to no one; it was dark when we rode into Deakstown tired dirty, and in need of baths. We went right to "Hanger 51" and unloaded the gold, I was going to stick it all in the vault tomorrow ,but for right now, this was the most secure place to store it. We left the horses at Ned's giving them a quick brushing then headed for the saloon, nobody recognized us at first, we must have really looked like s**t! Jenny was just about to call somebody to throw us out, when Rachel took a closer look and squealed, "Deak! Ben!" Emily came rushing up to us when everybody realized who we were, needless to say, we were rushed to the bath tubs and given scrub downs, by who I don't know, both of us fell asleep as soon as we hit the water.

I remember waking up in our bed, hearing someone banging away on the piano. I knew it had to be around evening, damn! How long was I asleep? I felt hungry, so I rolled out of bed, and found some clothes to put on. As I entered the small lobby of the hotel I looked towards the saloon area there was a decent crowd tonight so I made my way over to where Emily was sitting but was intercepted by Annie, "She's got a real good hand Deak, don't interrupt her, over this way please," Annie directed me to an empty table in the corner, both of us sat down. "How long was I asleep?" "You and Ben came in around 8:00 Wednesday night, this is Thursday, around 9:00," said Annie. I rubbed my head, "Damn, I was out that long?" "Apparently. Your wife cleaned you up, Cha'Nara took care of Ben, that tub water was black! Didja find anything?" "Yeah, nothing to write home about, but decent, found plenty of silver, I told young Ben that the Colorado silver boom is gonna kick off this year, back home, silver isn't worth s**t, so it doesn't interest me."

Around the end of April, we decided to take all the gold down to Georgetown to get it assayed and smelted down into six ounce billets. I thought maybe, we could get this done cheaper and with less hassle than taking all that unrefined gold back to 2013, plus if I only had billets to deal with, there might be more places to sell it, more people are willing to buy gold in billet or bar form than raw or in nuggets. Emily would be going this time, I needed another "professional"' with me, and besides Ben she was the only other one who knew how much we really had. I had Ned make up some special saddlebags, extra heavy leather, the ability to lock the flaps plus a couple other features I thought might save time.

I would be carrying one of the M4 shotguns, my M1A plus a .45 auto. Emily would have her Armalite 5.56 carbine her Sig, as well as mine. I was also bringing four "homemade" Claymore mines I intended for perimeter defense. I brought a couple cans of fiber glass resin from 2012 plus a bag of 00Buck. Ned made me a couple cases from sheet metal, and brass. I filled the brass trays with gunpowder, then a cover, and then the buckshot, and then I poured the resin over that and let it dry. They would be set off with blasting caps fired by a crude firing device using a flashlight, instead of the light coming on, Hell would come raining down on whoever tried to sneak up on us.

Emily put Annie in charge, dressed in her "new" Calamity Jane outfit, and the three of us rode south to Georgetown. We got there with no problems. When we got the gold assayed we drew a lot of attention, I had figured on this though, and had a couple bogus locations where we supposedly mined all this stuff.

The gold assayed out at around 83.4% a fairly decent figure. I was sure it would be more though, but everybody kept telling me that percentage was damn good. We had to stay for two days while they smelted it all down into billets and stamp it with a seal or percentage mark. We took one room like last time, and slept in shifts, at night, with no light in the room. Emily or I would stand back in the room and watch men watching us, using our night vision equipment. We spotted three, but figured on there being more.

The gold wasn't sufficiently cooled down until late in the afternoon of the second day, once we had everything, we promptly left town. One of Sarah's "clients" had told her about a little used trail that more or less paralleled the main trail. We took that, and maintained a steady speed. Just before it really got dark, we located a rock outcropping that offered a good defense, I placed one mine on each flank, and two in front, backed against small rocks, ran the wires to our position , hunkered down and waited. I had Ben build a small campfire down and to our right as a decoy, we ran a cold camp, ate rations and took turns watching. Around midnight, Ben woke us claiming he saw movement down near the trail. Emily and I took up our positions; I made a last minute check of the firing devices and started searching with my night scope. These guys must have been idiots or something, they simply spread out and started crawling towards us, when I saw a figure nearing my claymore on the left, I whispered in my comset, "Fire in the hole, left flank, watch your eyes," I pushed the flashlight button, A brilliant flash of light, a thunderous explosion and panic out in front, shouting and crashing around, Emily fired bringing a scream, I caught movement in my scope, tracked it and fired off two rounds, whoever I hit went right down, more shouting. Movement on the right front near one of the mines I warned everybody over their comset's "Watch your eyes people!' KaBoom! Hideous screaming, Emily opened fire as did I; We aimed low, and fired at any movement, Thawack! Slugs entering flesh, I saw movement start to run across my front towards our left, this time I simply yelled, "Eyes!" and pushed the button. Same story as before, the whole woods was thick with smoke by now, perfect cover, Ben was watching or back, I grabbed the other M4 and started scanning with my night vision device, two men were coming up fast behind us, "Ben! To your right!" Boom! Boom! Boom! Men screaming, sounds of crashing around crying, and moaning. We remained in position for the rest of the night, listening to screaming, sobbing and crying. Carson and Ned told me this was the thing they hated the most and haunted them for years afterwards, the sounds of men dying on the battlefield at night.