Enough

John followed Tessa back out of the hotel and walked to where he was setting up his camp. He began tearing down the tent and to his surprise Tessa helped him. They loaded everything back into his truck and he drove up beside the old hotel. He pulled his generator from the truck and set it on the ground beside the building. He then took his camp stove (Well, a gas fired BBQ with a stove burner on it) and set it on the porch of the old hotel. He ran a power cord into the window and set up his small cooler beside the grill. He ran a light into his bedroom and was all set. The last thing he did was move his small amount of luggage inside.

Tessa looked at his preparations and sniffed. "Guess we'll have to listen to that smelly noisy thing while you're here huh? People sure seem to be getting soft nowadays. Go camping with a generator, a gas stove and a refrigerator. Seems like that takes all the fun outta things. Besides, its way too much stuff ta be haulin' around."

John didn't know what to say to her comment. When he was loading everything he thought it was too much but he knew he didn't want to be responsible for a forest fire. He was pretty sure he remembered a prohibition on open camp fires in the mountains. Besides, fresh meat and a cold drink really went well and he didn't want to have to run into town every couple of days for ice. He was part way to Colorado before he remembered how cold the stream was and that he could have used it to cool his meat, drinks and other perishables. Somehow though Tessa's remarks stung.

That night when he stripped for bed John encountered another of his grandfather's letters. This one was under the pillow and was very cryptic indeed. All it said was "Well boy I see ya got here. If you're interested in our secret explore your favorite place to play in the morning. Do some of the things ya used to do and think about what you find and see. Remember the power of the water."

John sat and thought about the message for a moment. He had enjoyed many places while he was here with his grandfather. He had always wanted to play around the mine but his grandfather would not let him do so unless he was with him. He had also roamed the town a lot poking into all the buildings. It was really a tossup in his mind what had been his favorite place. Finally he decided to begin looking around the small stream just below the mine where he had spent the balance of the afternoon. He had spent hours there with a pan swirling dirt and gravel panning for gold. He always found just enough to keep his interest. John smiled when he remembered how excited he got every time he showed a little color in a pan. His grandfather always carefully saved his treasure and at the end of the summer he gave him some money for his finds. John thought now however that he had probably been grossly overpaid for his gold. He had never found more than a flake or two in a pan. Many times there was no gold in the pan when he had finished working it. One time he had panned out a very small rough nugget.

The next morning John was up as the sun began peeking over the mountain east of his land. He quickly made a pot of coffee and sat where he could watch the country wake from another beautiful night. This was his favorite part of the day and he always tried to enjoy it with a good pot of coffee. John was on his second cup of coffee when Jake and Tessa came out of their cabin carrying coffee cups. They walked over to John and they visited for a short time. Tessa was dressed nicely in black trousers and a white blouse with black bow tie.

Tessa quickly finished her coffee and said, "I have to get going. I have the early shift today. I'm going to buy groceries before I come home this afternoon. Do you need anything John?"

"Naw. Think I'm good for a couple more days. Thanks though."

After Tessa left Jake asked what John was going to do that day. John said, "Mostly take it easy I think. Thought I might see if I remembered how to pan for gold. I spent a lot of time doing that when I came out with grandpa and had a lot of fun dreaming about hitting it big. If I didn't dream about finding gold I dreamed about all those Damsels in Distress grandpa used to tell me about. He sure had some great stories." He laughed and continued, "Guess I'll try my luck again and see if my fortune has washed down the stream yet."

Jake looked at John under his eyebrows and said, "Ya never can tell what you'll find in the right place. Nobody's touched things in that old stream far's I know since you and your grandpa was here last. Keep your eyes open and think about what ya see while you're out and about boy. Never can tell what ya might find if you think things out. Life is stranger than stories and dreams sometimes."

John started his panning where the water fell back into the stream after it had washed the mined ore years ago. His first few pans had nothing in them that he could see. He moved upstream a few feet and remembered to move large rocks to get at the gravel and mud under them. He remembered gold was heavy and sank rapidly unless moved by strong current.

His first pan of muck this time had two small golden flakes in it. He carefully picked them up with a pair of tweezers and put them into a small bottle he had brought for that purpose. John felt the excitement build in his chest once more as he relived his younger days and his dreams of finding a vast amount of gold.

John didn't work himself to death that day but then again he was unaccustomed to that type exercise so his muscles hurt by the time he decided to quit. He had moved upstream almost three hundred feet from where he had started that morning. To his surprise he had found several small flecks of gold during the day.

That evening John poured his gold out on a piece of paper to look at it once more. It was amazing what a few little flecks of metal could do to a person's respiration. He didn't have the gold fever but he was close. All he could think about until he finally drifted off to sleep that night was finding more gold and what he would do if he did.

By noon the next day John was far up the stream and out of sight of his little town. He was panning for his gold where a dry wash emptied into the stream at the very edge of his land. He was closely watching the dirty water in his pan while he swirled it letting a little slop out occasionally as he did so. All at once he saw a large spot of bright yellow through the dirty water. He felt his heart lurch and he carefully tilted the pan to let more water out. John looked once more. There was almost a BB sized chunk of yellow on the bottom of his pan. He moved it with his fingers. It had rough edges.

John knew that movement wore rough edges off things as they rolled down the streams. Just look at all the round rocks in mountain streams and you can tell that. Now a rough edged piece of gold had either just broken off a larger piece of stone or it had not travelled far from where it had spent eons. John felt his excitement surging at the possibilities.

John moved over under some trees and sat where he could see the dry wash and where he had been panning. He thought about what he had found. Truthfully there had not been much gold in the stream. He barely had the bottom of his inch diameter plastic bottle covered with the flakes he had picked up the last three days. His little nugget was heavier than all the other gold he had found combined.

John rose and moved back to the stream for more work. This time he chose a spot about ten feet above where the dry wash emptied into the stream. After panning ten pans of muck in a period of almost an hour John had not found a spot of gold. He moved once more to the bank and sat contemplating things while he let his body rest and muscles relax from the strain. He sat staring at the wash then he smiled widely.

John stood and walked back into the wash several feet. Near a large boulder he knelt down and dug into the dirt, rocks and sand at its base. He filled his pan and walked back to the stream to clean what he had picked up. He carefully poured what he had collected out on a large piece of tarp he always carried. He then put a small amount back into his pan and swirled. By the time he had cleaned the whole pan full of material John had found several more flakes of gold. He moved back up the wash farther and collected more then cleaned it. This collection had another small nugget in it.

John walked back into the wash and followed it for several minutes. The going was very rough. After he had gone almost a quarter mile John stopped and stared. If he had not been looking for it he might not have found what he saw. Very faintly etched into a rock about twenty feet inside a small cut was a 'J'. John stood looking all around excitedly. Just up from the cut was another 'J' etched into a rock faintly with a circle and line drawn through it.

John walked up the little draw slowly watching as he went. Just around a bend he saw several broken and chipped rocks. There was a lot of brush growing around everywhere. Just past the brush was another 'J' with the circle and line through it. John stopped and looked around carefully. All he could see was rock and brush. He walked toward the heaviest growth. There was a lot of chipped rock around.

John dropped to his knees and moved into the brush slowly. He sure didn't want to run into a snake or anything else dangerous. About ten feet into the undergrowth John found a crevice in the rock face of the cliff. There were no small rocks in front of the crevice. There were some barely noticeable scrapes on both sides of the rock. John moved toward then into the crevice. It was just barely wide enough for him to move. About ten feet into the crevice it turned to the right. John made the turn and stopped. The crevice widened out to about four feet. What made him stop was the large pile of rock and quartz he faced. It was almost as tall as he was. He crawled up over it and saw a cave in the side of the hill. There were scrapes and marks that indicated this was not a natural formation.

John moved forward once more carefully crawling over the detritus. He moved into the opening of the cave. It was low enough he could not stand. After he was inside he saw it opened out slightly. There were a couple of broken picks and an old rusty shovel laying beside a small wooden box with a kerosene lamp setting on it. John shook the lamp and saw it still had something in it. He shrugged and lit it.

As the light glowed it pushed the darkness away. John could not see the back of the cave. He picked up the lamp and moved forward until he came to the end. He saw several flecks of yellow glaring back at him from the wall he faced. He felt his heart start to race.

John quickly moved back to the entrance and picked up one of the broken picks. He returned to the end of the tunnel and began picking at the face of the rock. He broke off several pieces of the yellow metal and put them in his small plastic tarp. When he was turning to leave with his find he saw an old ammunition can mostly hidden near the entrance to the mine.

John stopped and picked up the can to carry it out with him. He opened it and found a small rock hammer and a chisel. There was also a Ziploc bag inside with an envelope inside it. The envelope had "John" written on the outside.

With shaking hands John opened the envelope. He began reading the short note it contained. "John (At least I hope it is John that finds this) you have found my secret. As you can see there is some color here in this old mountain. I don't know how rich this find is and never wanted to find out. I have taken several ounces of gold out over the years and so far it doesn't seem to be playing out. I never take much at a time for obvious reasons. The last thing we want to do is draw attention to ourselves. Besides, after you have enough to be comfortable and live well why do you need more?

Another reason you are the one I hope found this John is because we always seemed to think alike about possessions and flashy living. You were like me in so many ways. Neither of us seemed to need "things" to be happy. I was always happy with my old comfortable house and furnishings and my old truck. As you grew up I noticed you didn't seem to want or need all the modern folderol other people just had to have. If you are careful you can pull enough gold from this mine to live comfortably and support your family all your life just like I did. You will have the farm to supplement your income and our other mine to hide what you take from here. If you are worthy you will have Chaos for your excitement. When you get back where you found your second hint look under where I used to sleep son."

John carefully folded the letter and replaced it and the envelope inside the bag. He put the bag in his pocket, took the small rock hammer and moved to the pile of broken rock to carefully clean his ore somewhat. After his ore was cleaner he decided he had two or three ounces of gold. He carefully placed it in the envelope with his letter and moved back into the cave for more. After two more sessions chipping quartz from the cave then cleaning the gold from the quartz John decided he had enough. Besides, he was tired, very tired, and it was getting late. He carefully replaced the rock hammer and ammo case where he had found them and tried to leave no sign he had been through the brush as he retraced his steps toward his home.

It was almost dark when John returned to his old town. When he turned the bend in the stream above the old town he saw old Jake sitting on the hotel porch watching him. When John stepped onto the porch Jake looked him up and down then gave a slight nod. "You look like you're worn out today John. Man wants to be real careful crawling around back in the hills ya know. Never can tell when a rock might fall on him or something. I always worried about your grandpa when he took off into the hills. Had to track him down one time. He was back in a cut in the cliff wall and broke his leg. Had a heck of a time getting him out and back home here. I'm too old to do something like that for you son."

John smiled and said, "Yeah. I understand. I was in a couple of tight places today. Had an exciting time back there though. I think I'll probably be going back from time to time though just like grandpa did."

"Well you be careful boy. Lotsa things could happen to a man back in there. Need to think about where you are when you take off there too. You have a lot of land here but a feller needs to know where his property is so he can rest easy about what he's doing."

John sat and nodded at Jake. 'I wonder what he's saying there. Hell I know where my property is. I'm sitting on it right now. OH! I bet I wasn't on my land when I went into grandpa's mine. I better check that out. If that is someone else's land... WOW I need to think about this.'

John and Jake sat and visited for several more minutes then Tessa came onto their porch and called Jake to supper. John sat and had a beer then began preparing his meal while he thought about the day's discoveries and Jake's talk. After he finished his meal John went into his bedroom. John crawled under the bed and used his flashlight to inspect the old bed frame. He didn't see anything there. He even turned the mattress over and looked for something in it. He was stumped. What had his grandfather meant when he said 'look under where I used to sleep'? Surely he didn't mean back home in Missouri? No, he had said where I found the second hint and that's here.'

John lay on the bed with his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling thinking. Wait, the old hotel was built on a slight incline. The back here was facing west and was about four feet off the ground. Could there be something hidden under this room in the crawl space?

John jumped from the bed and grabbed his flashlight. He rushed out the door and around behind the building. He walked underneath and began casting around on the ground looking for a place something might have been buried. He couldn't see any obvious place to bury something. He turned the light upward and looked at the underside of the floor and the huge logs used for floor joists. They were supported every so often with an old rock pier. One of the piers was almost exactly underneath the old bed in the Manager's room. John shone the light carefully on the old pier. One of the rocks facing the inside of the building seemed to be discolored on one edge and the mortar looked more like mud than the old style masonry mortar. He began rubbing the mortar around the edge of the rock. It was mud! When he dug the mud out near the discolored part of the stone he put his fingers into the depression and gently pulled on the rock. It shifted position slightly. He pulled harder and it gave way.

John carefully set the rock down and shined his light into the hole. The space hidden by the rock was about five inches deep and a foot long by maybe eight inches wide. On the bottom of the opening was a bare rock. There was nothing inside. John reached in with his hand to rub the floor of the opening to be sure he hadn't missed anything. The bottom rock moved!

John poked and prodded. He tried to get his fingers into the crack between the bottom rock and the side of the pillar. No luck. John looked around for something to pry with. There! Hanging on a nail on the first floor joist was an old "church key" bottle opener. He quickly moved to it and went back to the hidden space with it. He placed the sharp end in the crack and gently lifted while he put pressure on the rock. It moved. He dropped it two times before he got it high enough to get his fingers under it. He tilted it up and shined his light into the hole. It appeared to be another six or seven inches deep. There was a small metal box inside. When John picked up the box it was heavy and something inside rattled as he moved it. John lifted the box out and opened it.

Inside the box on the very top was a hand drawn map showing the town, stream and John's property lines. It also showed the wash he had gone up. Written on the bottom of the map was another note. "John I'm not positive I have this figured right but if I do by now the mine you have found has extended onto forest service land. I think the dry wash is on your land and the entrance to the mine is also but it is just barely on your land. Do what you want son but I decided not to make waves and try to get legal access to the gold. You know all the red tape we would have to go through to do that and then there is no guarantee we would be successful.

I decided to only take a little at a time and pretend it came from my old mine if I was ever questioned. I've always thought the way the draw bends back around the mountain that maybe our mine is on the other end to the one you just found. I always did a little digging in my old mine when I worked the other one and once in a while I did still find a small nugget. Don't know if the law would buy that idea if I tried to give it to them but that is what I decided to do. You do what you think you have to do boy. Either do like I did and take just enough to make things easier or don't take any at all or even report the find and see what happens. I really advise you to just let things go as they are but it's your land now and your decision. Use what else you found in this old box as you see fit too boy. I always put my extra nuggets in here if I thought I had enough without them. I found the double eagles buried over in the old blacksmith shop one time after a hard rain had washed under the corner of the building. They were in an old rotten leather pouch. I sold a couple of them a time or two when I needed money but saved these for a rainy day. Grandpa"

John looked into the box once more and saw eleven old gold double eagles and some gold nuggets laying on top of a piece of yellowed paper. The newest date on them was 1893. The paper had two addresses on it. Beside one address was written coins. Beside the other address was written ore. John was still looking at his find when he heard rocks rattling and saw two slender legs coming down the slope toward the rear of the building.