Chapter 48

There were snow flurries blowing in the wind, with a light blanket already covering the ground when the Bucks started out the next morning after saying their goodbyes to the family. They were dressed in their buckskins with their union suits underneath and heavy boiler overalls over their buckskins. Each had a leather fur-lined cap pulled down over their head and ears. They wore wool scarves backed with flannel over their faces, leaving only a slit with their eyes exposed as they rode out.

They wore their rabbit fur-lined moccasins that laced up to their knees. Cadalee and Nadalee had made them for each of the men to wear in the cold, freezing weather.

Using hot whale oil and beeswax, the women at the leather shop had water-proofed and dried the leather before they began cutting and sewing. They dipped them in the mixture again afterward to seal the seams tight against water, melting snow, and ice. The women had also made each of the men fur-lined leather mittens to wear in the cold of winter.

They wore long, woolen overcoats buttoned from their straddles where they sat in the saddle, to up under their chins. They started out warm, as they rode north into the bitter cold winds of the approaching winter storm.

They took three pack mules with them, planning to kill their share of deer to have fresh venison and jerky for their families, the hired hands and their wives. Two of the mules were loaded with hay and feed for the animals. the third carried all their camp supplies and heavy canvas tents.

Though the days were short and skies dreary, they made good time as they traveled part of four days to reach the valley Eli had spoken of. They arrived before mid-day on the fourth day, planning to camp near the west bank of the Arkansas where a small creek emptied into it.

As they hurried to set up camp and get a fire going before dark closed in, two of them raked the six inches of snow cover back and pitched the three tents on a knoll. Two more gathered driftwood and fallen tree limbs for their fire. The other two set their rabbit snares and traps after tending their horses and mules.

Working as a team, they quickly had their base camp set up and ready for nightfall.

“We only have a few of hours of daylight left with these heavy skies. Let’s split up in twos and scout for sign before we settle in,” Eli told them as they huddled by the fire warming their hands.

“Dad said we needed to try and find us a tree we can easily climb and look down on the trails where the deer pass back and forth to the river,” Pike told them as they took their Winchesters out of their lace-up cases.

Each of them had scopes mounted on their .44-40 Winchesters. They had sighted them in until they knew they could hit a target the size of a hickory nut as far as they could see it through the scope.

They were eager to start the hunt! Each of them more than eager to kill their first deer!

Micah and Caleb split off and headed upriver, Pike and Ezra went upcreek from the mouth of the creek, with Eli and Isaac pairing up and crossing the creek on a log to head over toward a tall rock bluff they could barely make out through the falling snow and the snow covered, barren willow limbs.

“Look at the hundreds of tracks in the snow along this creek, Ezra,” Pike said softly as they slipped quietly through the tangle of fallen willow limbs.

“I see them. We need to get back away from the creek a ways, as soon as we find an opening where we can still see this trail. I got a feeling they’ll cross through here again tonight and tomorrow, as many tracks as they’ve made since it first started snowing,” Ezra said as they veered away from the creek to the south.

“There’s two big sycamores over there about a hundred feet apart, maybe we can find a place to climb up and keep hidden,” Pike said, pointing through the falling snow to the trees outlined ahead.

The snow was coming down heavier as the air became colder.

Nightfall was coming at them fast.

They checked the two trees out, each picking a tree to climb the next day to wait for a deer to pass by.

Ezra had to be helped up to the first big limb in the tree he picked. Pike was able to climb a smaller tree next to the large tree he’d chosen ... then reach a lower limb of the bigger sycamore to climb higher.

They were satisfied with this and could even make out each other at times when the snow let up a little. With a wave at each other, they made their way to the ground and met where they’d propped their rifles.

Marking the tree bark with their hatchets as they walked the trail back to camp, they were satisfied they could find their big trees again, even if the snow completely covered the trail during the night.

“Caleb, I see two huge white oaks over there across the river. Reckon we can find a way to cross? Looks like the water isn’t that deep right through here,” Micah said, pointing through the snow and dreary sky to the trees across the river.

“I see a beaver dam up there a little further, let’s see if it crosses the water all the way,” Caleb told him, pointing upriver.

The top of a fallen cottonwood came to within six feet of the near bank from the beaver dam. Each of them propped their rifles on a nearby tree and started pulling limbs over to hold them up as they walked out on them to the tree trunk.

Working quickly, they soon had over a dozen tree limbs lying across the gap at the water’s edge. Caleb grabbed his rifle and stepped gingerly across to the tree trunk, holding onto the upright limbs as he made his way to the far side, followed closely by Micah.

There stood two majestic white oaks with acorns half the size of walnuts lying all over the ground underneath. They saw literally thousands of deer tracks all around under the trees where deer had come to feast on the large acorns.

Propping their rifles against the two trees, they each climbed one to find an open place in the limbs where they could watch upriver and downriver with a good view of the far side of the river as well.

“Eli, those trees over there look like persimmon. Are they?” Isaac said as they neared the rock bluff and a small creek that ran nearby.

“Yep, there’s still some persimmons stuck on this tree. I got to try one,” Eli said as he pulled the wrinkled, cold persimmon from a lower branch and sucked it into his mouth, spitting out the slippery seed as he ate the sweet pulp.

“These are really sweet to be this late in winter, must be because the tree has plenty of water nearby,” he said and reached for another one.

Isaac pulled two persimmons off and put one in his mouth.

“These are good. There are deer tracks all over under here too. Reckon we can find a place up there on those rocks where we can get out of the weather and still see the trails that lead to and from this place?” Isaac said, pointing up ahead to the bluff as they began to scout the place out good.

“Over here, Eli. I see where we can climb over these lower rocks and get up on that ledge near the top,” Isaac said as he propped his rifle on a rock and began climbing.

Eli had walked around on the opposite side of the small bluff from Isaac, already climbing the smaller rocks to a place where it looked as if dry tree limbs and brush had been blown or piled against an overhang in the small bluff.

Eli started pulling the brush back and discovered a small opening in the face of the rock wall.

“Over here, Isaac. I think I may have found the perfect place,” Eli called out softly.

He stooped and propped his rifle against the tall rock where the dried limbs were piled. He looked into the darkness and realized it was in fact a cave.

Just as Isaac climbed over the last big rock to meet him, he caught a glimpse of Eli disappearing into a dark opening that looked like a small cave entrance in the bluff.

“Eli?” Isaac called, peering into the dark hole in the rock wall when Eli didn’t come right back out.

“Come on in, it’s a lot warmer in here and there’s lots of wood piled up in here too,” Eli said as he struck his second match, holding it up to look around. He spotted a three foot stick of wood that appeared to have been wrapped in dried grass for a torch at one time in the past. Striking another match, he lit the grass and saw that it actually was a torch someone had left here some time before, possibly even years ago from the looks of it.

“Shit! Eli, look over here!” Isaac said as he walked further into the cave when the torch lit the area around them.

“What is that? Is that a skull?”

“Yep and it looks like a bullet hole in it too, just above the right eye,” Isaac said as Eli walked closer with the torch.

“Eli, I’d bet money this was an old hideout for outlaws in the early years of the Territory. Remember our dads telling us about the caves and the hideouts they came upon out here?” Isaac said as they looked down at the skull and scattered skeletal bones nearby.

“You may be right. Let’s look back there where those rocks are piled like a pyramid. They look out of place, piled high to a point in this cave that way,” Eli said, walking over with his torch held high above the dirt floor of the cave.

“Be careful of rattlesnakes, they would surely hibernate in a place like this!” Isaac said as he crept along behind Eli.

“I do see an old snakeskin, but it’s not a recent shed. Damn, Isaac, look at this!”

“What is that?” Isaac asked as he bent forward to see Eli holding a smooth board half buried in the dry soil.

“This is a board and it has a piece of metal nailed on one side and a lock hasp on the other. This may be part of a wooden trunk!”

“Do you reckon we really have stumbled upon some outlaw gang’s stolen cache?” Isaac said, laughing at the possibility.

“Could be. I’m going to use this board to dig down and see.”

Eli took the long narrow board and made three swipes through the sandy soil of the cave floor.

“I hit something, help me uncover this, it’s just underneath the loose dirt.”

“Damn, Isaac. Would you just look at this?” Eli said as they quickly pulled the dirt back with their open hands to uncover two large canvas bags that were just partially decayed. Inside each of the canvas bags were two, hard leather pouches.

“Those are saddlebags, Eli. Shit! You really did find some outlaw treasure. What would you do if there’s thousands of dollars there?” Isaac asked, laughing as they continued to uncover the saddlebags to keep from ripping the dried and cracked leather, spilling whatever they contained.

“Isaac! This one really is full of money!” Eli said as he opened it carefully.

“This one is too, Eli. I mean bundles and bundles of hundred dollar bills too.”

“Same over here. I wonder if this is all that’s buried here and who is the man who was shot?”

“Do you see a date on one of those bills? Wonder how long this has been here?” Isaac asked.

“Here’s one with a date of 1878 on it.”

“That’s not that old really. No wonder the canvas bags and the leather saddlebags aren’t decayed more than they are.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Wonder where that board came from? It sure looked like it belonged to a trunk or at least a big wooden strongbox,” Eli said as they looked around for anything that looked out of place here in the cave.

“This old torch is about to burn down to nothing, we need to find something we can use to make more light,” Eli said as they turned back toward the opening.

There in the dim light of the gray, snowy sky, they saw a shadow move across the small cave entrance.

“Get down, Isaac!” Eli whispered, grabbing Isaac’s arm as they crouched with their guns pulled.

“ELI! You and Isaac in there?” Ezra called to them and they both had to laugh in relief.

“Yeah, come on in,” Eli called back and stepped away from the entrance to let his brothers enter.

“Hey! You’ve found a great place out of the weather for our camp,” Caleb said as he stooped to enter behind Ezra.

“Yeah, this is great, Eli. We tracked you and Isaac up here when we didn’t see you back at camp,” Micah told them.

“That’s not all either! Eli found some money buried in here and there’s a skull back there with what looks like a bullet hole in it,” Isaac told them as all six of the Young Bucks stood in the dim light near the entrance.

“Let’s move our base camp up here in the cave before it gets too dark, we can put our horses back against this bluff and cut some willow poles for a small corral,” Eli told them as he bent over to walk out of the small cave.

“We found a lot of deer tracks out near the riverbank. We found some good trees we can climb to get a good look down at the trails too,” Micah told them as they made their way down the rocks to the ground.

“Yeah, there’s plenty of big acorns all over there where we looked too and deer tracks all around under the oak trees,” Pike told them.