Winter Comes to Goldfield.

Winter comes to Goldfield.

A couple days later, John told Linc the butcher had called and said
the pork was ready to pick up. Did he or Lucas want anything from
town. Linc told him that he never did get that haircut he went after
the other day. He would take Gramps and go into town himself. He
could pick up the meat. John said good, because there were a few
other things he had to do before the snows came, and he would help
Trudy arrange the meat still in the freezers to make ready for this
years meat.
Linc wanted to go to town, because he had to go to the dump, then go
to the retreat, get the garbage, then on to town.
At the dump station, Linc pulled off to the side out of the way and
went to the retreat and got the two big bags of garbage and brought
them back. After putting them into a bin, they went on into town to
the barber shop.
The barber and Lucas were old friends, and he gave Lucas a bad time
for letting his hair grow so long. Lucas said, 'Maybe I'll just let
it grow out more and grow a beard as well". The barber agreed he
might look good with a beard, but he would have to braid his hair or
it would always be in his face. He told Lucas he was lucky to have
hair, when so many older men are bald or almost bald. After the
barber shop, they went on over to Annie's café, and got some lunch.
Gus came in and saw them and sat with them. They talked about the
Chinese mess, then Gus told him that the home office had been looking
at some property down south, almost at the border. He told Linc he
would know more about it later. They may even have him check it out
for them.
Lunch over, they went to the butcher shop to get the pork. The butcher
told Linc the main ranch had already came in and got their share.
Lucas always raised three pigs, two for the main ranch and one for the
farm. The main ranch always provided a young beef for them every
year. They would be having them butchered a bit later. They carried
the boxes of frozen meat out and put it in the truck and went back to
the farm.
After unloading the boxes, Linc went to the office and went on Google
to try and see what property down by the border that might interest
the head mine office. He knew there was good gold at an old ghost town
called Kawich, because Gramps said he and his old prospecting partner
went over there, but came back to Goldfield, because the state was
going to turn the area into a wilderness area.. He looked around
Coalburg and Beatty both. There could be gold in those areas, or
maybe silver even, Well who knows. The main office had heard
something to whet their curiosity.
The snow came and blanketed Goldfield. Real heavy in places. Linc
wondered if the cabin was doing okay. Since the metal roof did a good
job of shedding snow, it sometimes could pile up along the outside
walls all the way right to the edge of the roof. Gramps said he had
that happen the last winter he spent up there before he was married.
Well they would just have to wait til spring to find out.
Linc loved it up there in the mountains in the summertime. He even
had thoughts of building a larger more sturdy cabin up there. The
kids always wanted to come over and spend two weeks there in the
summer. It was still something he thought about. He still had the
French money and the diamonds, so he was not without any means of
funding things. He also wanted to enlarge the farm house here in
Goldfield.
After a couple of weeks the snow had melted some, so Linc drove into
town to pick up the beef that was all cut up and ready to put in the
freezer. He got everything on the long list Trudy had given him too.

Three months finally passed. Linc did take Lucas and Angel to the
retreat several times a month during the winter. This was easy to
do, because he would go to Lucas's room and go from there and spend
three or four days, before coming back to the farm. It sure did make
the winter more bearable and made it go much faster. Lucas said he
wished he could have done ths when Grandma was alive. She would have
loved it.
One day, Gus called and said the main office had decided to look into
some old mining claims on the desert not far from Death valley. He
wondered if Linc was interested in scouting the area out. The old
mines were mostly silver, but a man new to prospecting, had been going
through the old tailing piles and retrieving samples of ore that
contained sulfides that were heavy with gold in some areas. He had
brought the samples to an assayer to be assayed, who told a guy at
the main office. The prospector saw the sulfides and thought that it
was raw gold. He was not interested in opening an old mine to get a
tiny bit of gold from ore that had to be smelted. The main office
wanted to use a geologist who was not known in the area to check the
old mine tailings out a long with other areas that might contain
sulfides as well. Linc said he was willing to take on the job. Gus
said he would call him back in a couple of days and let him know if it
was a real go ahead.
Linc told the rest of them at supper that night, that he may have a
job lined up out of town pretty soon. He would know in a day or two.


A week later, Gus called and said that he had the office book him for
a weeks stay at a pet friendly motel in Beatty, all expenses paid and
gave him the co-ords for the area the head office was interested in.
That should give him plenty of time to check things out. The next
morning, he and Angel drove on down to Beatty and checked into the
motel They spent the rest of the day looking around Beatty to see all
of the amenities they had to offer.
Early the next morning they drove out to the first locations on the
list. After looking around for quite a while, Linc could not find
one thing that would even be an asset to a mine company, and went over
to another not far away. Driving out on the desert, he did see a few
tailing piles from old vertical digs. None of them very large but a
couple did have a few chunks of ore with some sulfides in them. They
could be explored more with some equipment to dig with, since these
were all hand dug holes. He marked the co-ords down, and place a
stake with striped flagging to mark them. Driving out farther onto
the desert, he came across an old stone cabin that had no roof, and
was partly fallen down in places. There was an old beat up jeep
parked by it. Now that's strange, he thought, because he could not
see anyone around. There was an old partly collapsed head frame by a
pile of tailings. Pile wasn't real large so the dig couldn't be
really deep he thought. He and Angel went over to it to check it out.
He tried to look in, but it was too dark down in it. Angel looked
down too, then barked. All at once Linc thought he heard someone. He
called out. Asked if there was someone in the hole. A man yelled
out. " Help me, help me. The ladder has broke and I can't get out of
here. I've been down here for two days. Help me". Linc asked him how
deep it was, and was told, about a hundred feet or so. Linc told him,
he had no ropes or anything but he would call for help to the search
and rescue outfit. Linc called them and gave them the co-ords and
general direction he came in to the area. They promised to get some
men out there with ropes as soon as they could get them together.
Might be an hour or so before they could get there. In the meantime,
Linc took a skein of para-cord , tied a bottle of water to it and
lowered it to the man in the hole.
About forty five minutes later a big van drove up and men jumped out,
bringing ropes with them. It didn't take them long to rig up a
harness to drop down the hole fro the man to get into so they could
pull him out. They set up a device with a pully, passed the rope over
it, dropped I into the hole and had the guy out in a matter of
minutes. The team leader then gave him a lecture about going into
vertical shafts alone, and with out safety devices. The man thanked
them profusely and promised never to be so stupid ever again. Linc
also thanked them for responding so quick to his call.
After the team left, Linc and the man sat down by the old cabin and
talked, The man claimed he had been prospecting this area for quite
some time. He had found the sulfide bearing ore, but thought it would
never provide enough gold to make it worthwhile mining. Linc agreed
with him about that. Linc knew that it would take a lot of ore, and
it would have to be high grade or it wouldn't pay out. He told the
guy he best look for silver instead since it looked like that was what
the older prospectors were looking for. The guy said he knew of an
area Down closer to death valley he had looked at years ago, but he
never got back down there. He said he did find silver ore, but was
more interested in finding gold. Linc wished him good luck, and went
back to Beatty.
The next day, Linc drove back out where the old rock cabin was. He
wanted to check out the tailings from the shaft where the old
prospector fell into. , He picked up a few of the rocks around the
pit and broke them open. There was a definite smell of sulfides, but
if there was enough to mine is another question. He took samples and
marked the cords in his records,and took pictures. If the mining
company was interested, they could do some test drilling to find out
just how much sulfides were in the vicinity.
Next he drove on across the desert to some low lying mounds he could
see off in the distance. He came to a ditch that was too deep for his
truck to cross so he took off on foot over to the largest mound. In
the ditch he found a large chunk of silver bearing ore. He broke it
open and there was a very strong smell of sulfides. He held the rock
down to Angel, and said, " smell this girl, this is what we are
looking for". She sniffed, then sneezed. Linc had to laugh at that.
So she thought this was something to sneeze about. Well we will see
he thought, as he walked on over to the mound.
Right away he could tell this was a small blow out. He picked around
in it and uncovered silver ore, along with some rusty quartz. Strong
sulfide smell here. Tool a lot of samples, then covered the hole he
had dug, flagged it good. Took more pictures of the area. This was
the best find he had made so far. There were a couple of other
places not too far away that he got samples, co-ords, and pictures of
when he flagged and reordered them. He felt pretty good about this
day. He had found three very likely places that the mining company
could be interested in, if they were looking for new territory to
expand into.
It was getting late afternoon when he decided to go on back to the
truck, and back to town.
It was almost dark when he got back to the motel. As he pulled into
his unit, he could see there was a new party moving in next to him
that was celebrating a recent wedding and they were very drunk and
noisy. He decided to take the tote, with the sample bags and notes,
into the unit with him. He was tired and didn't want to have to put
up with that bunch. Besides he was hungry as well. He took the tote,
his, notebook and stuff in the tote and he and Angle went to the
retreat. He wanted to just get away from it all right now.

To be continued

Angel saves the day.

Angel couldn't keep up with the car, but when she got to the edge of
town she spotted the car at the B and B, motel. She sniffed the car
real good and tried to look in the window of the motel, but the drapes
were closed. She could smell that Linc had been taken in there. She
went down to the Sheriff's office, and waited by the door. When
someone came out, she darted inside. A woman deputy, called Lucy,
saw her, and took her into the Sheriff. Angel went over to him and
patted his leg. The Sheriff looked at her and asked, "where is Linc"?
She started for the door, then turned back and looked at him. Came
back over, then went back to the door and looked back again. The
Sheriff told the deputy that there is something wrong here. She
wouldn't be here with out Linc, and wanting me to follow her. Told the
deputy to take her out and follow her and see what she does. As they
went back out thru the outside office, one of the lawyers kicked at
her and said, " get that damn dog out of here.". Sheriff heard this
and said," Whoa! Whoa!, Whoa! Better knock that stuff off or I'll
have you tossed in the lock up with the rest of the scum.
Outside, Angel looked at the deputy as if to say, now what? The
deputy said, "Go find Linc", and Angel started off down the street at
a trot. Deputy almost had to run to keep up with her. Angel stopped
at the motel unit where Linc was and pawed at the door. The deputy
called her to her and they went to the managers office. The deputy
asked the manager who was in that unit and was told the two men were
part of the team to dig out the Chinese men from the cave in. Deputy
took Angel back to the Sheriff's office and went in the back door and
told the Sheriff that Angel seemed to think Linc was in a unit at the
B and B motel. The unit rented by more Chinese. They may have
kidnapped Linc. Sheriff started cussing a blue streak again. Just
then the door opened and six deputies from Tonopah's Sheriff's
office came in. The Sheriff had called them for some reinforcements,
and they had arrived just in time. The Sheriff told them all that had
happened and they were ready to do whatever they could. He told them
about the men at the motel that were a part of the team, but were not
arrested with the rest of them because they were at a different motel.
He wanted them arrested, and he thought they may have a person there
with them that they had kidnapped. They took off, Deputy Lucy and
Angel followed after them.
Two of the deputies went around to the back of the motel and then one
of them knocked at the door. It was a while before one of the men
opened the door and demanded to know why they were being disturbed.
He was told they were under arrest, and the deputies forced themselves
inside the room. They could only see one man there, and he was taken
outside to the squad car. At that time, Angel rushed into the room,
sniffed around then went to the bathroom door. A deputy went to the
door and knocked on it and told the man inside to come out…Now. When
he didn't come out, they threatened to kick the door in. They waited
a bit, then they heard the door open. A Chinese man came out holding
his arm around Linc's throat. He told the deputies to stand away
because he had a knife at Linc's back. The deputies couldn't see for
sure so they backed up. Angel didn't though. She jumped the man's
arm and sunk her teeth into it. He went down screaming, pulling Linc
down with him. Angel then went for the mans face. Deputy Lucy called
to Angel, No angel , No". and he let go of Linc mighty fast then. The
deputies arrested them for kidnapping.
Back at the sheriff's office, the Sheriff was still cussing. After the
men were locked up. He told the lawyers that all the Chinese were
having charges of aiding and abetting a kidnapping charge, added as
well. Pretty soon somebody better see to it that someone was held
accountable for planning all this mess, and he was going to get to
the bottom of it, no matter how many lawyers the Chinese embassy sent
to Goldfield.
Later he told the deputies that Goldfield didn't have a large enough
facility to handle this so he had requested that the prisoners be
transferred to the Capital. This was getting too hot to handle and he
wanted no part of it any more. Four of the deputies said they would
stick around just in case they might be needed until reinforcements
came from Carson City, to get the prisoners, and left to find a place
to stay for the time being, and the others went back to Tonopah.
Linc told the Sheriff and deputy Lucy that the men at the motel
phoned a lawyer they called Davis, that must not speak Chinese.
They talked with him on a speaker phone so they both could hear. The
men told him that they thought they had him at the store, but he just
seemed to disappear , and when they went to find him, the next thing
they knew he was driving away. They followed and figured they would
take him at home. They were flabbergasted when he stopped just out of
town and let the dog out. That's when they took me. The lawyer told
the kidnappers, that one of the men at the prospect this morning was
a brother of one of the men killed, and they were going to make him
the one to take the fall on the land mines. He said he would be over
shortly to get Linc. They were going to use him as a bargaining chip
to get the clam jumping charges dropped. As far as kidnapping goes,
they could claim Linc came with them freely. Just his word against
all of them. They had to prove he was kidnapped. Linc said he was
sure glad the deputies came when they did, but how did they know where
he was , and how did Angel get there as well. Deputy Lucy told him
how Angel showed up at the office and wanted to be followed. She
seemed to know where you had been taken. She's one very smart dog and
you should be very proud of her. "I am", said Linc. Angel seems to
have inherited the instincts of her mother. Her mother led me to a
little girl with a broken leg. She gave Angel to me as a puppy.
Deputy Lucy knelt down on the floor beside Angel and hugged her and
petted her. The Sheriff even gave her a few pats as well.
Linc thanked everyone for saving him from the kidnappers. He was glad
this was all over but now all he wanted, was to go home. He said his
truck was still parked beside the road outside of town and would
someone give him a lift to get it. Deputy Lucy said she would take
him out there. Linc and Angel followed her to a cruiser and got in.
On the way to the truck, Lucy asked Linc where he lived. She knew he
didn't live right there in town. When they reached Linc's truck, Lucy
said, ' now I know how Angel knew where you were. She must have
followed the car to the motel. Good dog, she said again".
Linc thanked Lucy for the lift, and drove on to the farm. He took the
tote with the stuff for Trudy into the house. He could smell
something good cooking. And that reminded him, he didn't eat any lunch
today. The pie and coffee was good but not filling. He was going to
grab an apple but decided his jaw was sore from having the gag on so
tight. He went into the living room just as John and Lucas came
home.
Later as they ate supper, Linc told them all that had happened that
day. They were all concerned about Angel and said how glad they were
that Linc had taken her with him. Linc said how glad he was too, but
he never did get a hair cut.
As they were sitting in the living room later watching the TV, the
national news came on with the story about the Chinese fiasco. They
had really started an incident that they were going to find very hard
to live down. This did not help relations with China.
That night he was about to get into bed, and saw that Angel was
licking the lads of her paws. Linc took a look at them and then he
hugged her and said how sorry he was that her poor paw pads were
swollen a bit and looked very sore. He knew he was too keyed up to
sleep so he picked Angel up and took her to the retreat. There was a
full moon and it was almost as bright as day. Linc put Angel on a
lounge and sat down beside her and petted her. He crooned to her
about ho much he loved her and how glad he was that she had helped
him. In a bit he went and got a blanket and covered her up, telling
her that she would feel much better in the morning. In fact they both
would. His jaw was sore from the gag. His hip and shoulder hurt from
the fall to the floor when Angel pulled the kidnapper down. Linc went
inside and got the coffee pot set up for morning, and made a big
thermal cup of hot cocoa and took it back out and sat by Angel. He
talked to her about everything he could think of, trying to make
himself sleepy, all the while petting her. After a while he could see
she was asleep, so he went into the house and went to bed. He finally
went to sleep, and was awakened in the late morning by Angel pawing at
him. He was surprised to see it was almost seven o-clock in the
morning. He got up, got a cup of coffee and had to heat ir up in the
micro wave. Then he and Angel went back out into the sunshine and sat
on a lounge in the sun.
Linc could see she was feeling better, and the swelling in her paw
pads had gone down. He felt that the soreness had gone out of his
jaw but his hip was still a bit sore. Well another day or so, they
would both be in better shape.
With the coffee gone, he went inside and fixed pancakes, bacon and
eggs for both of them. After clean up they went back out and lay in
the sun on the lounges. They spent that day just laying around and the
next night they went back to the farm.

To be continued.

The Next Day.

The Next day

Linc was still tired, even with a nap which he seldom did. He had
trouble getting to sleep. He wondered about the Chinese, The dead
ones and the live ones who are snooping around in Colorado. He
wondered how they found out about the claims. They must still have
Lewis and his Mom under surveillance. He wondered if they would ever
give up.
He tossed and turned, and finally got up, and told Angel, " let's go
to the retreat. I always sleep good there"
At the retreat he wandered around the house. The place really needed
to be cleaned up after everyone had been here. He had told his Mom to
leave things as they were, he would do the laundry and the clean up.
He tore the bedding off the bed he usually slept in and replaced it
with clean bedding. He also took the bedding from Gramps bed, and put
it all in the washer, set up the coffee maker, then he went to bed,
and slept like a log.
He woke up about five the next morning, just as the coffee maker came
on. He went out with Angel and sat in the early morning sunshine.
After a bit, he went in, put on some clothes, got a cup of coffee and
went back out in the sunshine. He did feel a bit guilty because he
didn't bring Gramps with him, but he was fast asleep back at the farm.
He relished this time alone, after all the hustle and bustle of the
Christmas holiday with the family.
He spent the next two days working. He cleaned the house and the
cave. Got all the laundry done. He and Angel went on long walks and
he worked with her with and without a leash. She was a very smart dog
and minded very well. He was proud of her. And she was turning in to
quite a beautiful dog as well. If Jenny could see her now…Wow.
Linc made two lists. One for things to get right away and one of
things he would have to get later in the year. That evening he went
back to the farm, and got into bed. He slept good through the night
this time.
The next morning John told him that he was going over to the big ranch
and help round up some cattle that were hiding out up in the woods.
They had to get them out before the heavy snow fell. Lucas said he
was going over with John to visit with a couple of old timers that
still lived on the ranch,
Later Linc asked Trudy if she needed anything from town because he was
going in to get a few things and to get a haircut. She had a short
list of stuff. He took the list, and Angel and left for town.
As he was driving past the road that led up to the old prospect where
the Chinese died in the cave in, he saw Gus opening the gate to drive
in. He stopped to see what was up. Gus told him to jump in and go
with him up to the place. He and Angel did. On the way, he told Linc
that the team had the bodies out , and the man he had up there
watching them called him a while ago and said they flew two bodies out
that morning and had to come back for the last one. In the meantime
he said a couple of guys on the team were digging a hole in the clay
and rusty quartz area. He said he told them to stop it but the said
they needed some pieces of the type of rocks the fell on the men and
killed them. His man thought that was stupid because there were
rocks all over the place that they tossed off the bodies. He thought
that was crazy so he called Gus and told him what was going on. Gus
said he grabbed a few of his larger sample bags and headed up there
before they took any material out. He told Linc he would appreciate
It if he was there to make sure they didn't dig into the vein, that
he got the gold samples from.
When they got there, they could see the two guys had some of the ore
rocks piled up, waiting for the copter to return for the last body and
bring something to put the rocks and ore in. Gus went up to them and
told them to get the hell out of the area and wait across the wash for
the copter, They did not have any permission to take anything off the
property except the bodies. Linc told Gus that the Chinese had dug
right where he had got the samples he had given him. He and Linc
gathered up the rocks and put everything into the sample bags. Gus
told his man, thanks for calling him and letting him know what was
going on. Gus had called the sheriff just before he left the mine, and
he could hear the sheriff's copter coming now. The copter for the
last body was not far behind.
The sheriff landed, he told the Chinese to take the last body and get
out of his jurisdiction before he had them arrested for claim jumping,
by digging a hole that wasn't to uncover the dead men. The Chinese
were not a bit pleased that they didn't get away with the rocks and
ore. The man that Gus had there told Gus that the Chinese were
already there that morning when he got there. He said they had all
three bodies out and were taking them across the wash . He said they
must have got there almost before the sun came up, and he thought that
a bit strange, because they were usually late and never got there
until after he got there. Angel went into the drift that had been
uncovered when they took the bodies out, and start sniffing around.
Linc thought it was because she smelled where the men had been buried.
She started digging. Linc called to her but she kept at it, so he
went back in to see what fascinated her so much. He could see
something metal, and brushed away the dirt. He called the sheriff
over and told him to take a look at what she had uncovered. The
sheriff said , damned if this isn't a land mine. Whoa doggie! He
called the office and told the Deputies to go to the hotel and arrest
the whole blasted works of those Chinese. Told them to make sure they
got all cell phones, and not to let them make any calls.. He said if
they want to know why they are under arrest, tell them, Attempted
murder. He told the Chinese still waiting for the copter to take them
out, and told them they were under arrest too. He told Linc, he
didn't think the claim of attempted murder would stick, but he knew
'reckless endangerment' would.
Linc told Angel to find any thing else. She wandered around sniffing,
and found three more land mines. The Chinese had planned that any
work on that prospect would blow the equipment and men to smithereens.
How did they think they could get away with that, except maybe if the
Tru Blu Mine didn't plan on doing any mining on the property for a
while, they could claim they had nothing to do with it and it would be
hard to prove it if all the land mines exploded and killed men and
destroyed the mines and mining equipment. Only trouble is, they could
now see that they were of Chinese make. Sheriff was madder that a wet
hen, because he figured this would cause a international incident. He
was cussing a blue streak. Blasted damn Chinese had to come to
Goldfield of all places and create such a blasted mess. He patted
Angel and told her what a good dog she was. Linc told the sheriff,
she was good at finding metal things.
Sheriff called in his bomb squad to get the land mines, and more
deputies to take the Chinese in to the Sheriff's office. .
Gus and Linc loaded up the bags and made to go. The sheriff told Gus
to stop at the office after a bit to sign papers on the Chinese.
Gus told his man to report to the mine office after everyone had
cleared the property, then he and Linc headed back to town.
On the way back out to the main road, Linc told Gus about the claims
in Colorado and how the Chinese were hassling Jane and Lewis. They
seem to be relentless in trying to find out about the ore there and
it's uses.
When they got back to town, they went on over to Annie's Café. Gus
told his wife Annie, what had happened up at the prospect and now
they had to wait til the Sheriff got back to town. They sat and had
some coffee and a piece of pie while they waited. Linc called Trudy
and told her about the incident and not to expect him back for a
while.
After a bit, the dispatcher at the Sheriff's office called Gus and
told him that the Sheriff was back, and for them to come on over.
At the Sheriff's office, they found the Sheriff still cussing the
Chinese. The place was full of people from the local news office, and
a news crew from California. There were a couple of lawyers from
California as well. Place was crowded, but a deputy took them into a
private room and soon the Sheriff came in with some papers for them
to sign. There were affidavits about the claim jumping act, and the
land mines with the Chinese markings that Angel found, and to verify
that they both witnessed the finding and saw all of them after they
were found. After signing them, a deputy let them out a back door so
they could avoid the press people. Gus told Linc to keep in touch,
and left. Linc drove on over to the store to get the things he and
Trudy wanted.
He got everything on both lists and took them out to the truck. He
put the things in the totes he had for them, got Angel and took the
things for the retreat, and went there. He put the stuff away and
went back to the truck.
He called Axel and told him what had happened. Axel told him he would
alert the people in Colorado who were keeping an eye on things there.
He also told Linc to keep him informed of everything with the Chinese
incident. That was going to be a real mess. Linc called Jane and
clued her in on what was going on and repeated the reason for all of
them to take care. He also called his folks and told them before
they heard it on the news.
Linc no more got out of town when Angel indicated she had to go. He
pulled off the road to take her out. She ran off the highway to do
her thing when a car stopped and two men got out and grabbed Link and
threw him into the car, and sped off leaving Angel behind. They
turned around and headed back to town, with Angel running behind.

To be continued.

Back in Goldfield.

They had an un-eventful trip back to the farm. The passes had some
snow, but were ice free and they made good time getting back to the
farm.
He called his folks alrt them know they made it home okay..
Linc had Christmas gifts for John and Trudy.
They were late for lunch, but Trudy made them some sandwiches and hot
cocoa. They sat in the living room eating while watching TV. Angel
lay down in front of the fireplace and went to sleep.
Linc was tired. The hassle with the exhibits, the. long drive and the
tension of not knowing if the passes would be safe. He was glad to
be home where he could relax, and relax he did. He took off his shoes
and lay down on the couch to watch TV. He looked over at Lucas and
saw he had reclined his chair and was almost asleep. Not long, Linc
closed his eyes for a minute, and he was fast asleep. Trudy came in
and saw them, took the dishes out and brought in blankets and covered
them up.
A couple hours later, Linc woke up to the smell of coffee. Trudy had
brought it in and poured out a couple of cups. She was going to wake
them, but they woke up to the smell. Linc thanked her for the
blankets and the coffee, glad she did wake them up now. instead of
letting them sleep too long at this time of day.
While they were sitting there drinking coffee and watching TV, Lewis
called. He was excited. He said, " Guess what, I have got two
offers to sell the claims. They were impressed with my calling the
mineral, Lewisite." Linc told him to tell everyone the claims were
not for sale. I have to talk to your Mom. My Dad has an idea of what
you Dad found out about the mineral.
You be very careful who you talk to about the mineral and also be
careful of what goes on around you. We don't need you kidnapped or
worse. Lewis said he would take care. Linc hung up and called Jane.
He told her what Lewis had said and that he told him to say no sale
for the claims. He told her, after his Father looked at the USB chips
she gave him, his Dad thinks her husband had found a new energy source
with the rocks, and destroyed the evidence before the Chinese knew
what he found out. Maybe because he knew they would use the energy
for destructive purposes. Jane said, "oh my God. I think you are
right. I heard a small explosion just before he started destroying
things. I also remember him saying, "No Way" too, just before the
man yelled for him to stop and for the guards to stop him. It all
adds up now that you have brought it to my attention. If the Chinese
expect that we know, we will have to be very careful now". Linc said,
" You are right in thinking that. I already told Lewis to take care.
You and your Brother need to pay special attention to what is going on
around you. I wall call my Uncle Axel and let him know what has
happened. He can put a bug in the right ears with the FBI, in your
area as to what has happened. He called Uncle Axel and told him what
had happened in Colorado.
He told Linc thanks for the Christmas gifts, and Linc told him the
same thing. They talked about the folks and what they all did at the
Island, and the new museum. Axel said to hold on because Fannie
wanted to talk to him.
A minute later, Fannie said< " Hey there Linc, after you called me
from Provo and told me the box was made in Mongolia, I was reading in
Estelle's journal about a time when she was very sick, and Roland was
about four years old. Claude and Marchand took him with them to
Mongolia to get some sword and things that may have belonged to
Genghis Kahn. They went to see a man who claimed to be a relative of
the famous ruler. He had a very impressive house and several
concubines. His first concubine was there with them and she took a
liking to Roland, said the outfit he wore was not very warm looking so
she took him to another room where she put a little fur snowsuit on
him gave him a huge white fox, fur muff. She said they used to
belong to her little boy, who was now grown up. She showed him a
secret pocket inside the muff, and gave him three very fancy marbles
to put into it. She also gave him the pretty enameled box as well.
She took him back to the room with his Dad was and left when the old
man told her to get out and go join the women.
Later there was an uproar because the old man couldn't find something
and promised to cut the hands off who ever took it. All his furor and
yelling upset Roland, so Claude and Marchand decided it was time to
leave and go back to France post haste. Estelle writes that Roland
always liked to keep the fur muff as a pillow. She said when they
were at the retreat one time she had the men set up a tent up on the
sunny end of the island because she loved to stay up there where she
could rest in the sunshine. It made her feel less sick and she felt
better up there. Roland stayed up there with her. She wrote that he
had the fur muff out on the beach and got some of the black sand on
it. She shook it out, and heard the rattling inside of it. She
looked at it but Roland had to show her the secret pocket inside. She
pulled the stuff out and said what pretty 'baubles' they were. She
asked Roland if his Papa knew about them, and Roland said his Papa
would take them away from him. She told Roland then they would not
tell his Papa about them then. Fannie said the tent must have been
set up somewhere there close to the little cave. Roland must have
buried the box in the cave and forgot all about it, since he had no
idea how valuable the 'baubles' were". Linc said, " Holy cow! Now
what? Here I sit with some very valuable diamonds that may have once
belonged to Genghis Khan, who may have stole them from some Russian
Tzar. and now what do I do? I lay claim to them…. But? He said
thanks a bunch Fannie. I think I need a good lawyer about now.".
Fannie told him that she and Axel both say they belonged to him to do
with as he pleased.
Limc told her thanks for reading the journal for him, but for now he
was just going to leave the diamonds on the island. They were safe
ther.
Linc said that he wanted to make some changes on the island now that
the artifacts were in the museum. Fannie told him how proud they were
of him to have donated them to the museum in Provo. She said she was
glad she could help with that. Linc told her that he wanted to take
them back to the Island in the spring sometime. He wanted an ATV, and
some more solar panels for the cave area. He was thinking about
putting lights in the rooms and fixing them up for rooms for the kids
when they get to the island.
Fannie had given the phone back to Axel and he told Linc any time he
was ready, they would make to to go to the retreat and help him. Linc
said fine, he would let them know a bit in advance, and said goodbye.
After supper, Linc went to the office where he called Gus at home. He
wanted to find out if there was anything new about the cave in. Gus
told hime that the Chinese Embassy had contacted him about recovering
the bodies. He told them no, but if they wanted to send a team of
people to dig them out, it was fine with him, but he would have no
mechanized equipment digging in the area. He didn't want the mineral
deposits disturbed. He said there was a team of men freezing their
buts off trying to move the rocks and dirt with shovels. Said he
didn't feel sorry for them because if they had kept their nose out of
his business, and kept the jerks out of Goldfield, they would still be
alive. Linc told him what he was thinking about before he went to
Provo, about going to the Gregory ranch to get access to the lower
parts of the desert area south of the cave in. He would try it later
after the Chinese were gone. Might be spring before he could get in
to the area. Gus said fine, just keep him informed.
Linc didn't feel sorry for the Chinese either because of the grief
they had caused the people in the area.

To be continued