Chapter 13

That evening I called a meeting. By this time I had come to the conclusion that I could trust all of my companions, we had become as close as family. As everyone settled down around the fire, I outlined my plans.

“Those of you who don’t already know what I’m after need to be let in on my plans. I know the location of a large, a very large, amount of gold. I intend for us to get that gold and use it to set us all up in a big ranching and farming operation in the Verde River Valley. In a few years the railroads will connect us with the east and with California. That will make our operations very profitable. Until then, we will have gold enough to live well and expand our operations.”

“Enough gold to last until the railroads come through, you’re sure?” asked Cal.

“Unless it takes them more than two hundred years,” I responded.

After everyone had stopped laughing, I spread out the map that I had been given by Fred. It appeared that we would be able to take the three wagons up into the mountains for about one more day, and then the going would be too rough for anything but mules. So I outlined my plan of operation.

“We’ll take the wagons up the trail to the next water source, then fort up. We’re in an area claimed by both the Yavapai and the Tonto Apache, neither of which have any reason to like whites. Just the opposite as a matter of fact, they have plenty of reasons to hate us, so we best be very careful. While the rest of you secure the wagons and animals, I’ll take one mule, follow the map, locate the cave and verify that the gold is there. Once that is done I’ll return and we’ll figure out how to get the gold out and then get ourselves out as well.”

“I’m not happy with the idea of you going on alone,” Tara interjected, “I’d feel better if one or two of the other men went with you.”

“Nope,” I replied, “one man and one mule will move faster and be less noticeable than a group, and I’m the best qualified to be that one man.”

After some more discussion, no one could come up with a better plan, so it was reluctantly agreed that I would carry out my plan.

As we traveled the next day the dogs and the mules acted uneasy. We couldn’t see any signs that we were being followed, but we all agreed that we probably were. That afternoon we stopped early at a defensible location that had a small spring, not the best location, but it would do. We spent several hours fortifying the position and securing the animals. Once that was done, we came up with a plan to get me out of camp undetected. We built up a big fire, much larger than needed to cook on, and everyone moved about a lot and made a lot of noise. The intent was to keep any observers busy watching the stupid whites, and to destroy their night vision with the big fire.

While that was happening, I led Mutt away from the mule line with blankets wrapped around his feet to muffle the sound of his shoes on the rocks. I tied some brush to Mutt’s pack so that it would drag behind us during the night in order to erase our tracks as we quietly moved up the trail. Four hours later, we were miles away in a gully, well hidden from view. There we settled down for the remainder of the night. The plan was to stay under cover the next day and then move out again the following night. That should give me the separation that I needed from our followers.

When the sun set the following day, Mutt and I set out again. According to the map, when the trail made a sharp turn to the right, with a sheer drop off to the left from which I could see the Salt River, I would have reached the point at which I would need daylight to progress any further. After about four hours of slow going I reached that sharp turn and decided to settle in for the rest of the night and to proceed the next morning. I watered and grained Mutt from the water bags and grain sack he carried, ate some dried mutton and hard as a rock twice baked bread, and got what rest I could.

Up at dawn the next morning, I looked over the map once more. It indicated that once the trail turned right, I would see a single rock formation to my left front that stood out from the surrounding rocks like a needle. To my right front I should see four peaks in a row, all about the same height. I looked up from the map, and sure enough, saw the needle and the four peaks exactly as the map indicated. According to the directions, I needed to follow a shallow gully that went almost exactly between the needle and the leftmost of the peaks. I set out down the gully.