Chapter 173: Legends of Gold

Wednesday, June 23, 1971

On the other side of the large cavern sat an old horse-drawn wagon. One of the wagon wheels had collapsed, causing the wagon to sag, spilling its load. Several of the fallen containers had broken open and the light from our flashlights sparkled when it shone over the broken contents.

“Is that what I think it is?” Anna asked in disbelief.

“How should I know what you think it is?” I teased, but Anna was too preoccupied to get it. “C’mon. Let’s go check it out.”

We approached the wagon and its cargo carefully. Anna had holstered her sidearm when she started checking on the aliens, but drew it again as we got closer. Our flashlights were waving over the broken-down wagon and its cargo of scattered gold bars, causing a kaleidoscope of reflections on the caverns walls.

Picking up one of the bars, I studied it in the dim light of my flashlight. It’s shape resembled a brick, with rough edges and it had an imprint on one side. “Probably four hundred ounces,” I thought. Historically, that had been the most common size preferred for transporting gold bars, and still was, even today. The finish was rough and the edges ragged, not smooth like the glamorized versions you saw on TV, indicating it had probably been smelted where it was mined.

I turned the almost thirty-pound bar over in my hands and studied the mark that was engraved there, but I was not familiar with it. I quickly counted twenty-four cases, with four bars to each case. Ninety-six gold bars at close to thirty pounds each, that was well over a ton of gold that would have to be hauled out of the cavern through the narrow keyhole, across the narrow ledge, and back up the long tunnel. My back begin to hurt just thinking about it.

“If those really are four hundred ounces...” Anna started to say.

“Troy ounces. Gold is measured in troy ounces. They weigh a little more than a normal ounce,” I interrupted to tell her.

“Like I said, if they really are four hundred troy ounces, and if I remember correctly, gold is going for around forty dollars an ounce these days. That means that each of these...” Anna said, holding one up with both hands, “is worth over sixteen thousand dollars!”

“Sounds about right,” I replied with much less enthusiasm. I was still thinking of all those trips I’d have to make, carrying all that weight out of the cave. Not to mention the two aliens.

“And it looks like they were packed four to a crate, and there’s ... ah, twenty ... twenty-one ... twenty-two ... twenty-three ... maybe twenty-four crates. Although four of them are pretty much destroyed. That’s ninety-six bars, at ... let’s say, sixteen thousand dollars per bar ... that’s ... that’s...”

I had sat down on one of the cases to examine the gold while Anna finally made the calculation, so I wasn’t balanced very well when she flew at me, wrapping her hands around my neck, and screaming at the top of her lungs as she bowled me over onto the hard floor.

“A million and a half dollars, Michael! Over a million and a half dollars sitting here!” she kept repeating as she straddled me. “A MILLION!” she repeated as she kissed me. “And a half!” she kissed me again. “Dollars!” as she kissed me again, this time with all the excitement and passion that finding the gold had stirred in her tired body.

Even Dr. Anna Carter, with her three post graduate degrees, wasn’t immune to gold fever, I discovered. Still straddling my chest, she began to rattle off what it would mean to the ranch to have that much money in reserve. Then it was what it would mean to the twins that were, even now, growing in her womb. Then she began to ask if we should look around the cavern some more, “ ... there may be some more, somewhere,” she told me.

“Why? Isn’t a ton of gold bars enough?” I asked as I used my hands to gently lift her off of me. The cavern floor was dirty and not very comfortable. Besides, we still had our clothes on, so it wasn’t any fun either.

“Oh, Michael,” she sighed happily. “What are we going to do?”

“Well, that’s kind of up to you and Sandy and your folks,” I replied. “However, we first need to get the pair over there,” I said, nodding my head towards the still sleeping females, “to wherever they can be securely contained. Preferably not here at the ranch.”

“Daddy said that they were going to Area Fifty-One,” Anna said.

“Whatever. Tabita’s brother-in-law, Kemall, warned me I should kill her,” I told her. “He said that she would live a long time, and would always be searching for a way to kill me. He thought she wanted the rings. That’s why they made the trip in the first place.” I made a mental note to scan Tabita and her mom to see if they knew anything about the codex.

“He was probably right, you know,” Anna replied. It always amazed me how vicious the ‘gentler’ sex could be. Especially when it came to protecting their children or their mates. “And it’s not vicious, it’s practical,” she added in response to my thoughts.

We sat there discussing the treasure we had found. Mostly what it would mean to her parents and the continued prosperity of the ranch, but Anna also talked about the advantages of letting the world know that the treasure had been found, and the disadvantages as well. In the end, she agreed with me that it was probably too big of a discovery to keep secret for long.

“Yeah, you’re right. I just wish we knew how it got here. It would be so much better for the ranch if we had the story,” Anna sighed.

“The other thing you might want to consider is how we’re going to get it out of here,” I told her.

“That’s no problem. That’s what the com unit’s for,” she said, delighted that she already had that part worked out. “And all those strong backs in their jungle fatigues that have been traipsing all over my ranch.”

We decided that I would stay with the aliens while Anna went back to the surface to radio for backup. While it wasn’t that cold in the cavern, my flashlight was growing dim, so I decided to start a fire. After gathering up some of the wood from the busted cases, I discovered that I didn’t have a match.

“Oh, well,” I thought as I turned out the flashlight. “I guess I’ll just wait in the dark until she gets back.”

I don’t care who you are, the total blackness of an underground cavern is an eerie experience. Your eyes never adjust, simply because there is no light to adjust to. Outside, even on the darkest of nights, there is always some ambient light. But here, forty or fifty feet below the surface, there was none.

At first, I had to keep resisting the impulse to turn my flashlight back on, wanting to conserve the batteries in case Anna’s return was prolonged. It wasn’t long before my mind had finished identifying and inventorying all the various sounds in the cavern. I could hear the faint trickle of water, somewhere in the distance. And the occasional flutter of wings I decided were bats. I could also hear both of the female aliens breathing, but I couldn’t tell which one was which without turning on my light.

After a while, I became bored with cataloging all the sounds, so I tried to connect with Catherine, intending to update her on what was happening. But I couldn’t make the connection. It wasn’t like I was being blocked, but more like my powers were being drained away. I had no trouble sensing the two alien women inside the cave, but even Anna was tough to feel, and I knew she was not that far away.

I was still occupied with trying to connect with any of the girls outside the cavern when I heard a small noise. Standing up immediately in the darkness, I drew my sword. Then holding it above my head, ready to strike, I tried to still my suddenly labored breathing as I strained my ears to hear whatever had intruded upon my silence.

To be honest, I didn’t even notice it at first. But after going through my mental checklist of everything that could have caused the noise, and chalking it up to some kind of rodent, I became aware that my ring and my sword seemed to be vibrating with a much more animation than usual. It was as if they were excited about something.

For the second time today, I relaxed and allowed the sword and the ring’s energy to flow through me. As I did, the cavern’s story began to unfold before my eyes.

I saw the torches first. Two men, each holding a burning torch, were coming down a long ramp into the cavern. The one in front carried an old rifle, poised to shoot as he looked over the cave. The other led a team of four large mules pulling an old wagon. Oddly enough, the mules appeared to be blindfolded, with strips of cloth wrapped around their heads, covering their eyes.

I watched as the first man left the cave, to return a short while later loaded down with firewood. Then he set about lighting a fire. He would eventually make several more trips, piling the wood just inside the ramp’s entrance into the cavern, before calling it quits. I could see he was exhausted.

Meanwhile, the other man had set about unharnessing and attending the mules. He worked quickly, with the air of a man who knew what he was doing, but I could tell, he too, was exhausted.

When the mules had been tended to and hobbled in a far corner of the cavern, the man pulled a burlap bag out of the wagon and went to where his partner had started the fire. Then removing an old coffee pot and some other items, they set about fixing their meager meal.

It was after they ate, as they discussed their next step, that I heard their tale.

Throughout the 1700s, both France and Spain had laid claim to a large section of mostly unexplored wilderness of what would later become the central part of America. Initially controlled by the French for much of the century, Spain finally gained control in 1762 as a result of France’s loss to Britain in the Seven Years War.

In 1800, as a result of the Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain ceded control back to France. However, the treaty was kept secret for another three years as Napoleon negotiated with Thomas Jefferson on selling the large tract to the relatively new American colonies for sixty-eight million francs in cash and cancelled debts. (Approximately fifteen million US dollars or less than three cents per acre.)

In order to convince his countrymen to make the deal, Napoleon knew that he first had to demonstrate that the rumors of gold in the territory were just that, rumors. So in 1800, on the heels of the secret treaty, Napoleon sent two hundred men to the port city of New Orleans. There, they started up the Mississippi River, ostensibly to map the territory for the Spanish government. Branching towards the west, they followed the Arkansas River to its headwaters, then over the rugged passes toward the west. After crossing Monarch Pass into the Gunnison Country, they were stopped by the impassable Black Canyon, forcing them to follow the Gunnison River as they headed southwest.

It was then that the explorers stumbled onto one of the most productive gold fields in Colorado’s history. Being the first explorers to look for gold, there were a lot of nuggets and placer gold right on top the ground, making it relatively easy to recover. They set to work and amassed a good amount of gold in their first season. But with the warm weather coming to an end, the decision was made to go on to Taos, New Mexico for supplies and to wait out the winter, planning to come back next year for one more summer.

That winter, when reports of the French expedition reached the Spanish governor, he became suspicious and sent spies to follow the Frenchmen. In due course, the Spanish spies discovered the true intent of the expedition. The governor, deciding to make sure that the Frenchmen didn’t return to New Orleans, made a bargain with the local Apache and Comanche nations to take care of the French problem.

The next summer, the French expedition was back in full gold recovery mode. They mined and smelted a lot of ore. The refining process of that time included the use of mercury. Many of the expedition’s members got sick and several died from exposure to mercuric oxides. Others fell victim to attacks by bears, mountain lions, and wolves. Starvation and exposure to the generally harsh conditions claimed more of the expedition.

And of course, the Indians. They started by stealing the Frenchmen’s mules and horses and what supplies they could raid. Then the raids became even larger and more fierce, but the Frenchmen were a hard lot, defending themselves as best they could. Finally, with less than half the original force remaining, the Frenchmen decided to abandon the mine and to take what they could of the gold and head back towards the Arkansas River.

But before they could get their return expedition organized, the Indians attacked again. It was during this last siege that the few surviving members loaded what gold they had already smelted and under the cover of darkness headed back towards the Arkansas River and New Orleans.

It was a bloody and devastating retreat as the Indians followed the Frenchmen for five days and nights, picking off the men one by one, until on the sixth day, there were only two men remaining. Deciding that they couldn’t make the journey encumbered with the gold, they sought a place to hide it until they could return with a much better armed party to retain it.

Their hopes were that the French government would send troops to help recover the gold. But by the time the two men, who were cousins, made it back to New Orleans, Napoleon had sold the Louisiana Purchase to Thomas Jefferson. And though they finally were able to mount an expedition of their own, they were never able to find the hidden cave.

The vision continued and I watched as the following morning, the Cornet cousins packed two of the remaining mules with their few possessions and their supplies. Then removing two of the gold bricks from the cargo, they left the cave with the four mules. A few minutes later, a small explosion caused the opening of the cave to disappear.

As the echoes from the explosion faded, I opened my eyes to discover that I could see all around the cavern now. The vision, as the cavern had surrendered its story, had seemed so real that I almost thought I could have followed them up the ramp to exit the cave.

It took me a moment to realize that the light was coming from the sword. Just as it had in the battle with the aliens, the blade was now bathed in a florescent-like blue light. It was casting enough light that I could see, now that I knew what to look for, the old ramp that led to the original entrance to the cave.

I forgot about the story as I marveled at the light from the sword.

I stopped at the foot of the ramp the cousins had used in my vision, staring into the darkness. It was as if my sword were pulling at my feet as I took those first careful steps up the slight incline. I’m no expert on caves, and I’d need to examine it a little closer with better lighting, but I had the feeling that the passage, if not totally man-made, had at least been influenced by the hand of man.

The passage was wide, at least twenty paces, and even with my sword, I could not reach the top of the tunnel. Every ten steps, the smooth floor under my feet leveled for a short distance before continuing on its upward incline. At each level section, there was a shallow indentation in the smooth walls of the tunnel on both sides, like an alcove you’d see in a museum or a fancy home.

Each alcove started about my knee level and rose to a height out of my reach. The top of each inset was smoothly arched with a small circular opening in the underside of the arch. The thought crossed my mind that it looked like the ideal place for recessed lighting to show off whatever was displayed in the niche.

Something was nagging at the back of my mind, but at that moment, I heard Anna returning. Choosing to ignore her, I shielded my mind and went back to thinking about the tunnel. “Why do my sword and ring seem so excited?” I asked myself. It was right there, but I just couldn’t seem to get it.

Without following the tunnel any further, I turned and began to retrace my steps towards the cavern. “This would make a grand entrance to someone’s...” I started to think, when it came to me. That’s what this was! It was the entry to a home!

As the feeling of excitement shot through me, I noticed that the light of the sword’s blade blazed brighter than before. And it was at that moment I stepped back into the cavern. On the other side of the cavern, Anna was just entering, leading a group of men wearing standard Army fatigues and carrying some equipment.