Lucas sees the cabin

Lucas see's the cabin.

The next morning, Linc went back to the farm to get Lucas.
While Lucas was packing a bag, Linc gathered up some old newspapers,
got meat from the freezers, eggs, some jam and fruit from the cellar
and then told John and Trudy to follow them up to see the cabin.
Trudy went ahead and fixed a big picnic lunch and then they all went
up to the new cabin.
Linc called Axel when they were almost there, then Fannie put on a pot
of coffee, and Axel built a fire in the fireplace and opened the doors
to let the sunlight in through the storm doors. The smell of perked
coffee and wood smoke, made it seem just like old times.
As they drove in next to the cabin, Lucas gazed in awe. A log cabin
with a fireplace . Looks nice. He smiled broadly. Linc saw this and
remembered how hard the three of them had worked in the last couple of
days. While Fannie had arranged the furniture, put bulbs in the lams,
washed all the new dishes and put them away, arranged the pantry and
laid rugs, he and Axel had cleaned up the outside, finished the picnic
table, trunk, and put shelves in the out house for toilet paper and so
forth, hung a deodorizer, and installed a battery powered light. It
too had been painted an off white inside.

John and Trudy had driven in behind them.
They all went inside the cabin. It was very light in there with the
open storm doors, the window in the bunk room and the window in the
loft.
Lucas was smiling as he went around touching things, and shaking his
head. He went and stood in front to the fireplace and held out his
hands. When he turned around, there were tears flowing down his face.
Axel went to him and put his arms around him and patted him on the
back and said, " Linc did a fine job here, didn't he Papa"? Lucas
wiped his eyes on his forearm and said, "He sure did. Makes me
proud to be his Grandpa. I am so happy with the place. I'm glad I
trusted him to do it. I just couldn't face doing it again.". Linc and
Fannie went to them and they had a big hug around. John and Trudy
clapped their hands and told Linc the cabin looked very nice.
After checking the place out, and putting the food stuff away that
Linc had brought from the farm, they all went and sat in front of the
fire place with coffee cups in hand, and talked.
A couple of days later, Linc and Axel went to town and got the ATV. A
four seat, and a trailer, to be delivered the next day. They got two,
five gallon cans of gas as well.
The next day after the ATV was delivered, they went to the retreat with it.
At the retreat, Angel ran up and down the beach like a crazy dog. You
could see how happy she was to be here., in fact they all were a bit
glad to be here in the warm sunlight after the coolness at the cabin.
While Fannie fixed lunch, the guys sassed up the ATV and tried it out.
Later they moved things around in the office to make room for the roll
top desk, then went to the cave to get it. They got the desk onto
the trailer and took it up to the house where they put it in the
office. Then Linc hung the dueling pistols above it, on the wall.
He got the box with the enameled metal box and the plastic cases with
the diamonds in it and they went and sat at the patio table. Linc
took the enameled box out first and showed it to Axel and Fannie.
Then he took the plastic cases out and opened them up. Axels eyes
bugged out and he let out a long whistle. He said, "man when you
fall into it, you really fall into it. These things must be worth a
fortune, and not a small one either". So very beautiful even with the
poor cutting job, and each a different color. Fannie asked if he knew
just how many carets each one weighed. Linc told her that Uncle
Vernon had weighed them and all total they weighed they weighed close
to a hundred carets. He told her the caret weight of each of them was
on a tag on the bottom of the box they were in. Fannie turned the
box of the blue one she was holding and said, "Oh my God!….This one
alone is worth millions. I can hardly believe it. And I hope you are
going to let my office dispose of them"? Linc said, "as things stand
right now, you can dispose of the last of the French money, but I
think I will hold off selling the stones for a while. You might put
out some feelers though, about that one. They are safe to keep here
on the island since no one can come here". Fannie just shook her head
and looked at the bottom of each of the boxes. At the last and
largest stone, she squealed, and said, " makes me wonder if anyone
has this much money laying around. It's such a beauty even with those
two very tiny black specks at the rim. It would really need to be
re-cut, there is hardly any flash. You can see the old timers, cut for
weight, not beauty. These stones must be very, very old". Linc told
her that Uncle Vernon thought they may have come from Russia. Maybe
stolen by a Mongol from some old Tsar or other old leader, since
Roland Hankes had gotten them from a Mongol concubine. He told her he
didn't care where they come from, they were his now. Axel had to
joke and say, " I'm going to retire next year, maybe I should come
and follow you around. Maybe get in on one of these things too".
Fannie said, " oh no you don't. I don't retire til the year after,
then we will do it together. Might as well get Dad here in on it to
while we are at it". Linc had to smile at this. He said, " most of
the time it is just work. You would get bored real quick following me
around the hills and deserts looking for some kind of minerals someone
wants to file claims on or buy. I never know when I might stumble on
a portal to somewhere, and they are not always a great place to be. I
have had some real close calls on a few of them, and just got back
through the portal in time. I think I have told you about most of the
trips I have went on. One must have been a real bad place, because
Angel refused to go and she barked and barked at me when she thought I
might go into it. I think I trust her enough to know when something
smells bad". At hearing her name, Angels ears perked up, and she
looked at everyone.

The next day they took the ATV down to the other end of the island.
The fruit trees were loaded, but still green The coconuts were still
too small to see just how many there were. They did find some berries
that looked and tasted a lot like raspberries. Axel and Linc decided
to take a swim in the pool, so Fannie and Lucas picked a bunch of
berries.
They really enjoyed themselves for a week, then went back to the cabin.
After a couple more days there, Axel said they were going to head back
to Vegas. The law office had called. Seems no one could find
anything. Axel said he was glad he was going to retire. The stress
of the last couple of years had been wicked. He told Linc that the
time spent at the retreat did wonders for him. Fannies said she could
second that too. Axel said he would like to come back in the fall when
the family came and all of them go to the retreat, since he and Linc
got the solar panels up and the cave all wired up, the crypt and last
room in the hall boarded up , the bunks made for the rooms in the
cave, and now there was room for everyone, to have a place to sleep.
It would be great to have the whole family together at one time.
The next day after Axel and Fannie left, Lucas decided he would get up
early, put on a pot of coffee, then build a fire in the fireplace.
When Linc got up, he joined Lucas in front of the fire. Lucas was
smiling. He looked at Linc and said, "see, haven't lost the touch.
I wanted to see if it was any harder than before, and find now I don't
have to go down to the creek to get water, it's a lot nicer. I think
I can get used to this. In fact I really like what you have done. I
know I could spend time alone here even now. This fireplace seems to
warm the place up faster the old stove did". . Linc said, I didn't
tell you before, but the Chinese jerks had set a dynamite charge in
the old stove and blew it bits. They put one in the trunk too, but
the sharp edge on the lid cut the fuse and it didn't go off. Axel,
completely refinished the old thing, oiled the rollers, and I got a
pad for the top so it can be used for extra seating. He did a great
job on it too". Lucas said, I noticed that it looked like a new one, I
didn't know it was the old one. Now I really glad it was saved. Sure
used it a lot to store the bedding and stuff it to keep it dry and to
keep the mice and rats out of it". Linc told him that it still is
used for extra bedding, and now the other stuff is put into drawers,
and no mice can get in here now.
As they sat in front of the fire, drinking coffee, the sun came up and
Linc opened the door to let the warm sunlight come in through the
storm door.. He asked Lucas if he was going to make breakfast too?
Lucas said he wasn't going to go that far this morning, he was getting
used to being waited on hand and foot.
After breakfast and cleanup, they were sitting by the fire when Gus
called. He told Linc that the home office had done some testing on
the last desert site he had flagged, They like it and have their
legal team working on a claim. None of the other desert finds were
good enough after testing, to do anything with, but the place below
the mine at the bottom of the mountain, was. They have filed on it.
The mine itself turned out to be a fantastic find. The legal team was
able to buy it outright for back taxes. The company is very pleased
with what they found in it. Head office said you wanted stock in it,
and they have granted you ten shares. Gus said he would send out the
paperwork on it right away. Linc smiled broadly, raised his fist and
yelped, yes!, yes!, I knew it. Gus told him they were so pleased
with his work, they were thinking of sending him down to Arizona to
check out some other links they have heard about. Linc said to tell
them thanks, and let him know where and when.
After he hung up, he told Lucas what the call was about.
Back at the farm, Linc went with John to get four little pigs to
raise. The next day they gathered up all the old layer hen and took
them to the butcher and picked up feed for the pigs and the new
chickens that had started to lay. They still had a few old layers
The young cow was giving a lot of milk and the older cow was about to
have a calf.
Linc told John if he and Trudy wanted to spend a few days at the
cabin, to go ahead and do it because he had time to do chores now
before the mine sent him ti Arizona, so they went the next morning.
Linc and Lucas had no trouble taking care of things until they got back.
The next morning they had a new calf. The old cow was now ten years
old,. Good thing the new calf was a female. Going to have to turn the
old cow into meat for the freezer. John said he was going to fatten
her up after one more year. Later that day, Gus called about Arizona.
To be continued.