new

What waits at the cabin?

Back from the retreat, Linc puts the tote with the packages, in the
truck, then goes in the cabin to help Lucas get it all cleaned up for
the winter. He put the chairs upside down on the table and the bucket
he put the dog food in, on the table too. He turned the wash basin
upside down over the soap dish as Lucas started to sweep the floor.
He took the dirty laundry out to the truck, shook the rugs and put
them in the truck as well. As he was going back to the cabin, he got
a phone call from Sherriff's office; They said a deputy was bringing
some one out to the cabin. Linc went out and opened the gate so they
could come in. He wondered just what this was all about.
Back in the cabin, he helped Lucas finish up with the cleaning.
A while later the deputy came in with another car with Nevada state
emblem on the side door. Linc picked up Angel as they came in. The
deputy came over to Linc and Lucas with two other men. One was an
oriental. The deputy said to Lucas, " sorry about this, Mr. Hanks, but
these gentlemen have a court order I am obliged to bring to you. He
handed it to Lucas. Lucas looked at it then handed it to Linc,
telling the deputy, " that's ok there Don, I no longer own the
property, Linc does."
Linc Put Angel down as he took the paper. She had to go and sniff at
the men. The oriental kicked her and she yelped. Linc fumed. At him.
" that was all uncalled for. You are here on her territory and she
has every right to check you out". "I don't care, just keep him away
from me because I hate dogs" said the man. Linc had picked Angel back
up, and now handed her to Lucas so he could read the paper. After
reading it he said to the man who seemed to be in charge, " This is
an order to give you access to safety check my mine. I don't have a
mine There is no longer a working mine on this property. The mining
claim was converted to a homestead over 50 years ago. So now there is
no longer a working mine." The deputy said, " the Sherriff already
explained this to them but they went and got the court order anyway"
By now Linc was truly ticked off. He glared at the men and said. " I
want to see your credentials. You turn up here with out any safety
equipment and demand to inspect a non existent mine, what am I
expected to do. Just calmly let you push me a round? Well it ain't
going to happen.". Then the head guy took out an ID card and handed
it to Linc who took it and said. This is not your safety inspector
ID, That's what I want to see." He handed it back to the man who told
him he don't carry that around with him.
They heard the oriental guy shout, " Hey boss look at this, It's
what I look for".. He was standing in the trench with some of the red
mud in his hands Linc yelled, " Oh my god. Put that stuff down
and get the hell out of there you damn fool. That stuff is loaded
with Arsenic, and you have it on your bare hands and your feet. Don't
track it all over, and contaminate my yard. just get back in your car
now."
The oriental rubbed his hands on his pants and climbed out of the
trench, screaming "water, water, I need water to wash it off." Linc
said, " we get our water from the creek, and if you go near the creek
to get arsenic in it, I will tromp you into the trench and cover it
up." The oriental ran for the car.
The head man said, " One phone call and I can have you shut down for
good. No more mining." "Go ahead. You can't close the tunnel any
more than the last earthquake did. It collapsed part of it so no one
could get in, anyway.
Deputy, get these phonies off my property". " With pleasure," he
said. And lead them off. Lucas roared with laughter as they pulled
out of the yard. " I bet that dude has wet pants about now. You
really laid it onto him about all the real bad arsenic in that stuff".
" Serves him right for kicking Angel. I hope he has night mares for a
long time. I am going to have John bring the front end loader up and
cover that trench up. You can bet that jackass will never forget that
rusty dirt now. They will be back, somehow, you can bet on it. " he
said as they went to get in the truck.

In town they went to the UPS and sent the packages off, then went to
the Tractor Supply store and got a collar. leash, more dog food and
food dishes for Angel. As they were pulling out of the store, the
Sherriff pulled up by them and said to Linc, " I want to talk to you.
Go on over to Annie's café. I'll buy lunch, Ok? " Linc gave him
thumbs up and drove on over there.
They had just ordered sandwiches when Buck, the manager from the
Mamouth mine came in. He spotted the Sherriff and came over, excused
himself to Linc and Lucas and sat down. He said to the Sherriff, " I
was just headed for your office when I spotted your cruiser here.
Some thing is going to have to be done with those con artists here in
town bugging the miners and disrupting operations at all the mines.
They are getting to be a damn nuisance around here." The Sherriff
said, " I think from what Linc and my deputy has told me about their
visit to his property, They will be leaving shortly, if they haven't
already gone. Linc tells me the oriental guy got into a trench he had
made to drain a seep of rusty water from the old tunnel, that had
stained the dirt very red. He had it all over his hands and feet.
Linc scared the crap out of him telling him it was highly contaminated
with arsenic. Any way, be a while before they come back, and I bet
they will. Linc here said they are looking for rusty stuff, and they
think they found it at his place. Going to have to watch out for
them". They all laughed, and Buck said, I hope that dude has Bad
dreams the rest of his life. I sure hope they have gone for good, but
like you, I doubt it. If you guys need any help there Linc, we will
back you up". Thanks said Linc. " I'd like to blow the tunnel shut,
but I'm afraid it would start the leak up again, now that it's
stopped. I'm going to have John bring the front end loader up and
cover the trench up, and pile some of the old tailings up against the
old adit". Hey Buck said, I can have one of the men run a bigger
machine over there tomorrow and really bury that old tunnel and
trench to where they will never find it in a million years". "Sounds
good to me, give me a call so I can be there to let him in".." Will
do, Buck said as he pushed back his chair and stood up. By the way
there Lucas, you are looking mighty good for an old codger who had a
stroke not too long ago." "Thanks, said Lucas. Linc here keeps me
active".

After Buck left, the Sherriff got up to leave and said, " Glad I
caught you guys and got some things cleared up. That main con guy
wanted you arrested for having a toxic pit in your yard, Said his
assistant had a hard time getting all the mud cleaned off him, and I
told him they were not there to play in the mud, and he got all out of
joint about it, but is nothing he can do about it. You can be sure
they won't let it rest. Let Buck's man do the job and make liar's
out of them.". " Plan to. And thanks for lunch", said Linc.

Back at the ranch, :inc unloaded all the stuff from the truck while
Lucas and Angel went to take a nap.

To be continued.

At the retreat.

At the retreat.

When they got to the retreat, Linc unloaded the totes and put things
away. He fixed some lunch, and cleaned up after. Lucas and Angel
went for a nap on the terrace, and Linc took the packaging material
down to the cave to get the boxes ready to ship when they got back
from retreat.
Linc packed the rocks from Colorado in two different boxes. He
carefully wrapped the specimen with the crystals, and the jar with the
rusty sludge in bubble wrap and put them in separate boxes.
Since the rocks were radioactive, he decided to leave them in the
cave until they were ready to leave the island.
He went in the bedroom and took the packet of papers, the dueling
pistols and the ring. He decided to take them back up to the house
and put them in the office up there. He wanted to bring his folks and
the kids here to the island at Christmas time. You never know if Todd
might try and show the stuff to the other kids before he could show
them to his parents. Better to be safe than sorry. He just hoped
Uncle Vernon got the old ZCMI building. Fannie seemed to think he had
a real good chance.
Back up at the house, Linc put the stuff he brought from the cave in
the desk in the office. Then he sat down at the computer to make some
shipping labels for the boxes in the cave. All at once he heard Lucas
yelling," no Angel come back, come back. Linc, Linc, help, help. Stop
her." Linc jumped up and ran outside in time to see Lucas running
down the beach and into the water. He looked and saw Angel bobbing in
the water not far from shore. Lucas ran into the water after Angel
but fell when the water was up to his knees and was struggling to get
up as Linc raced past him to get to Angel. She slipped beneath the
surface and Linc dove under the water to find her. He reached out and
pulled her out of the water, and shook her and blew into her face.
She started to cough, gag and sputter. She whimpered and quivered as
he carried her up to the house. He hugged her and crooned to her a bit
before sitting her on the ground. Angel just lay there quivering
instead of standing and shaking the water off her. Linc felt so sorry
for her. He picked her up and took her with him to the shower by the
patio.
Lucas had already stripped off his wet clothes and was under the
shower, when he got there. Lucas got out of the shower and got some
towels out of a tote that Fannie had put out on the patio. He wrapped
one around him as Linc put Angel down and stripped off his own wet
clothes. Angel still just lay on the ground and shivered. Linc
picked her up as he stepped to the shower. He held her up and washed
the sand and sea water from her belly, then held her up to his chest
as he stepped under the shower. Angel put her head on his shoulder
and her paws around his neck. As the water poured down over them,
Angel licked Linc on his cheek. As Linc stood there holding her
quivering little puppy body close to him, he knew without a doubt , he
really had a dog now.
Linc wrapped Angel in a towel and took her to a lounge chair on the
terrace. He rubbed her and then told her to lay there in the sunshine
and get warm and dry, while he dried himself off. When she finally
quit shivering and just lay in the sun, he went in and got into some
dry clothes.
When he came back out he saw that Lucas had picked up the wet clothes,
wrung them out, and draped them over the chair backs to dry a bit
before taking them in to the laundry. He came up to Linc with such a
hang dog look on his face that Linc almost started to laugh, and then
Lucas almost cried as he told Linc how he was playing toss the ball
with Angel when the ball got away from her and rolled down the beach
to the water. He was so sorry, so sorry. He would never do that
again. Linc hugged him and said, " I bet Angel will never follow a
ball into the water ever again either, she was so scared".
Lucas said, " I bet she will hate me now". He went over to the lounge
and sat by Angel, and she promptly crawled over onto his lap. " well
that answers that, now don't it"? Linc said as he looked at Lucas,
who was grinning broadly. Lucas held her like you would a baby and
told her how sorry he was, and called her Angel Face. He set her on
his lap and she wagged her tail so hard, her butt wagged too. They
both laughed at her.
Lucas put her on the ground and got up, saying he wanted to go for a
walk. They walked down the side of the island opposite the cave.
Angel running ahead, then back to them. She had to stop and sniff at
some piece of driftwood now and then. At one piece she sniffed then
pawed it. A tiny crab scuttled out from under it and went to the
water. Angel was right behind it sniffing and pawing just until she
saw the water, then she ran back up and cowered by Linc's legs. "
See, I told you she wouldn't follow anything into the water again",
Linc said to Lucas., who reached down and petted Angel and told her
what a good girl she was.
When they came to the small cave where they found the children's
toys, the first time they walked this way, Angel went in and came out
with a teddy bear. She shook it over and over again, then went back
in the cave and brought out a purple dino. She put it on the ground
and sniffed at it. Back in the cave she went and started sniffing
and digging. Linc and Lucas stopped to see what she was up to. She
dug out a yellow rhino and a small enameled, metal box. She took the
rhino out and shook it, while Linc reached in and picked up the box.
He opened it and found it held 4 of the largest diamonds he had ever
seen in person. "Holy Cow! . Wonder where these came from, and why
are they here? " he exclaimed. Lucas said, " are they real'. Linc
replied , " looks to me like they are, but I can't be sure". Linc
wondered, how in the world did a child get a hold of them, and when
and where, did he do it. How old was he when he did it. Where did they
come from in the first place? Are they part of one of the time masters
plunder? This is something he never in the world would have
expected. Now what? Sure the island was his but, but… The box was
small, yet too big to fit in his pocket, so he would have to carry it.
Lucas knelt down and started digging in the small cave looking to see
if anything else was in there. He pulled all the loose sand out of the
place and came up with two tiny toy wooden trucks., and a wooden spin
top. That was all. Lucas tossed all the toys back in the cave, all
but the teddy bear. Angel was already taking it up the beach. Lucas
said, "well I guess you can have that, I don't think anyone here will
mind". They walked a ways farther up the beach to where it became
really rocky then turned back to the house.

Back at the house, Linc put the box on the patio table and went into
the house to get a magnifying glass. He wanted to get a closer look
at the box. When he came back out, he saw that Lucas had taken the
diamonds out of the box and laid them out on a napkin. He was looking
closely at the largest stone that was about the size of a quarter,
but more oval. He said, " looks like a poor cutting job, they must be
native cut. This one is pretty clear but has some tiny black specks
near the girdle. I think they are real. All four of them are a
different pale color. If real, they must be worth a Kings ransom, even
as badly cut as they are. Where in the world did they come from"?
Linc had picked up the box and was examining it closely. " The
enameled figures and scenes on the box looks almost Oriental to me.
Not really Chinese nor Japanese. Maybe Tibetan? Hard for me to tell
and I can't decipher any of the marking on the bottom of the box.
Going to have to leave this mystery up to Uncle Vernon to figure out.
This is more up his line".
They sat there for a while, talking. They tossed ideas of where the
box came from, who had it in the first place and why it was buried in
the small cave and why. Why was it still there if Roland put it
there. Did he forget it, or was he deliberately hiding it there
forever?
Linc put the stones back in the box and took it inside to put in the
desk in the office, and start fixing some dinner. He made a bowl of
gazpacho, peeled and sliced an avocado and started to make some
burger patties. He called out to Lucas who was playing toss the teddy
with Angel, to fire up the BBQ.

Lucas lit the BBQ then set the table on the patio. Angel was tired
from all the running around and had taken the teddy and went to lay in
the shade.

As they sat there eating, Angel sat by Linc and begged. He gave her a
bit of bun with avocado on it. She gobbled it right down. Then he
gave her a piece of cucumber and she did the same thing. He tossed her
a piece of onion and when she grabbed it, she chomped once, then spit
it out and shook her head. She looked up at Linc, who pointed to the
piece of onion. Angel picked it up and took it out in the sand and
buried it. Came back, took her teddy and went and laid in the shade.
Linc and Lucas both roared with laughter. Linc said, "I bet she will
never gobble another thing with out smelling it again".

After clean up, Linc took the labels down to the cave and put them on
the boxes.
They spent the next few days, just hanging out, playing pool, napping
and walking. Then Linc got the boxes and they went back to the cabin.

To be continued

At the farm.

Back to the farm.

As Linc pulled out of the driveway, Angel sat there on the seat and
looked up at him. Linc looked over at her and said, "if you pee on
my seat, I will boot your bottom, ya hear?' Angel looked up at him
and raised a paw. Linc touched her paw and laughed. She came over
close to him and laid down by his thigh and went to sleep.
Driving down the road, he remembered when he had a dog. She was a
golden retriever puppy his Dad got for him on his third birthday. He
called her Missy. She went every where with him. When he was about
sis years old, he and Uncle Vernon were out camping. They had just
finished eating breakfast when a bear came into camp. Uncle Vernon
told him to run for the truck, and they ran for it. The bear started
to come after them instead of raiding the camp. Just as they reached
the truck, Missy tried to distract the bear and had it going around in
circles while they got in the truck. The bear swatted Missy and sent
her flying. Uncle Vernon grabbed his gun out of the back window and
got out of the truck just as the bears grabbed Missy and bit her. He
shot the bear, but Missy was already dead. She died saving their
lives. That really ruined camping for Linc for a while. He choked a
sob even as he remembered at this late time since she was gone. He
could never get another dog after that.
Angel squirmed and let out a whimper. Linc petted her and thought to
himself, well Linc old boy, you let yourself in for this, but he just
figured it would make Jenny un-happy if he refused to take Angel.
Any way, she will be good to give Gramps company.
As he pulled into the farm yard, he could see Lucas had his jacket on,
sitting on the porch getting some fresh air. He picked up Angel, got
out of the truck and put her on the ground. It didn't take her long
to find the right spot to pee. She went over to the steps but couldn't
begin to get up them. Linc picked her up and set her on the porch and
she promptly went over to Lucas. As he walked back to the truck to
get his bag, he heard Lucas say, "well, well, what have we got
here, as he picked up Angel. If you ain't a cutie."
Linc got his bag and went back to the house. When he got up on the
porch, he found Angel snuggling up to Lucas who was laughing at her.
Linc said,
" I have to go into town and get some packing materials and puppy
chow, so I'm thinking I will tell Trudy we are going up to the cabin
for a couple of days to close things up for the winter and will get
what we need in town, so she don't need to fix things for us to take.
What I really need to do is go to the retreat first. If you want to
come that is"? " You're durn tootin I want to go, Don't we Angel",
Lucas said as he held Angel up and wiggled her.
Just about then, the door opened and John looked out to tell Lucas,
that supper was ready. He leaned back and called to Trudy to put on
another plate because Linc had just got back. They went inside and
Lucas put Angel down and they went to the sink to wash their hands..
Trudy suspected that Linc would be back and had made a big pot of beef
stew. They all wanted to know about Angel, and Linc told the whole
bit. He put some veggies and a bit of bread in a dish and gave it to
Angel, remembering that his Father had told him not to give a small
puppy meat because it would give them the runs, and he didn't need
that right now for sure.
Trudy got up and got a bowl and put water in it for Angel, who sat and
waited for it. Trudy said as she put the bowl down, " If you pee on
my clean floors, I'll spank, ya hear". Angel raised a paw and Trudy
touched it laughing," it's a deal". She and all the others laughed as
she sat back down and Angle drank.
Linc told Trudy and John about going up to the cabin in the morning,
for a couple of days to close things up. They would get what they
needed in town.

After breakfast the next morning, Linc and Lucas took what they needed
for a couple of days and went to town where Linc got, packing
materials, dog food, a couple of totes and replenished the items he
had on his grocery list, which was substantial since Axel and Fannie
had been up at the retreat with him.

Back at the cabin, linc wanted to collect another peanut butter jar
full of the rusty material to send his teacher. He told Lucas to keep
Angel inside the cabin so she wouldn't fall in the trench or the
creek. He got an empty jar and an old broken wooden spoon and went
out, leaving Lucas to clean up the cabin and put all the dirty bedding
in a bag to take back to the farm.
He filled the jar and stuck the old wooden spoon in the dirt beside
the hole. He left the jar there beside the trench and went into the
mine to see how the seep was doing. He used a small flash instead of
lighting the lamp. He saw the seep had still stopped seeping and
turned to leave the mine. And saw a blue glow. Oh darn he said to
himself, now what?
He stepped into the portal and found himself in a very narrow area
which looked like it was between two walls. The walls were unfinished
so he assumed he was in a passage way inside the walls.
How strange he thought as he made his way between them. He came to a
corner an went down the passage way farther. He wondered where in the
heck he was. He came to what looked like the end of the passage and
saw two holes in the wall, that was letting light through. He went up
to the holes and looked through them. He could see he was looking
into a room filled with vintage furniture. Where is this place he
thought as he looked around. He started to turn around and as he had
to step back to do it, he stepped into a big spider web, face high.
He flailed his arms and bumped into the wall. Holy cow! He said to
himself as the wall opened into the room. He stepped out and looked
back , he saw that he had come out from behind a bookcase. Next to it
was a large portrait of Abe Lincoln. Linc looked closer at it and saw
the two holes he had looked through were the eyes on the painting.
Now what the devil was all this about, and where am I.
All of a sudden he heard a bunch of people , and then, there they were
standing out side of a red fuzzy rope across a large doorway. There
was a guide who was talking, and then looked and saw Linc. She
yelled, what are you doing in there. Guard's, guard's, and started to
climb over the rope. Linc hurriedly stepped back into the opening
behind the bookcase and pulled it shut behind him. He hurried as fast
as he could to get back to the portal before they caught him. As he
stepped through the portal back into the mine, he had a hard time
trying to figure out where he went and why that portal was open to
him. It was a good thing they didn't catch him before he reached the
portal. Who knows what would have happened then. Crazy, is all he
could figure. No need telling Gramps about it though.
Linc took the lock from the shelf just inside the adit and put in on
the adit door. He picked up the jar with the rusty ooze and put it in
one of the totes with the stuff he wanted to take to the retreat.
Filled the other with foodstuffs to take also.
Inside the cabin, he found Lucas had most of the other stuff to take
with them ready. They took it all outside to where the totes were and
went to the retreat.

To be continued.