** Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine ** A Miners Journal **

[GhostMiner]

10 hours ago, Cascade Steven said:

fm:  I'm trying to run serious competition with you but you appear to be winning. 😉

What do you mean?

[maxxkatt]

Jed would have never made it alone working his claims. He would have been shot.

Love this cliff hanger. Reminds me of the Saturday movies cowboy or space serials they showed before the main feature. Not a kid in our small town every missed the Saturday movies at our local movie theater unless they were sick, being punished or out of town with their parents. 

[GhostMiner]

 JULY 28   1936

   Once again last night passed without event. Sarge said he wanted to head up to his post and I decided to go up with him and then come back down if all was clear up there. The crew weighed up the gold just before we left camp and we had half an ounce. I told Jacob and Will to start digging and I’d get back to help as soon as I could.

   When we got near the dam we could hear shovels striking gravels and rock and men talking loudly. The co operative boys were rebuilding the dam and had a good start on it. They must have started working hours before dawn. There looked to be 10 men. Most were working but a couple of them were standing guard but hadn’t seen us. Sarge said we should circle up on high ground to their east  where his post was. When we got up there we split apart and I went up just a little further to the north and waited.

   I heard Sarge yell to get the hell away from the creek or be cut down. Then he opened up with the BAR firing into the ground around them. The workers ran up the mountain and the two armed guards looked confused and were laying flat behind the dam which was about half way built back up. I fired rounds over their heads and there wasn’t enough height in the dam to protect them. Sarge let loose with another burst and the gravel flew all around them. He told them to drop their guns and come out with hands in the air or be cut apart. They threw their rifles out in the open and came out from behind the wall of rock and dirt. He told them to come over near us and get down on their knees which they did. Then he threw two grenades into the dam and took it out. I stayed put and covered him as he walked over to the two guards. 

   Sarge told them they had been warned but didn’t listen. He worked them over but good. When he was finished they were sprawled out on the ground and one was unconscious. He told the other one to take a message back to the co operative. He was used to war and the site of blood didn’t bother him. The next time he caught anyone diverting the creek he would cut them apart. He said we would not tolerate any more activity concerning our claims or the creek. Sarge told me to go ahead and head back to work and he would set up a watch post. So I headed back down the mountain and met Jacob halfway back to camp. He had heard the gun fire and was headed up to help. I told him what happened as we went back down and then we went to work.

   We dug the rest of the day and didn’t hear any more gun shots. I tried to keep my mind on digging but it was hard not to think of what was going on. With three of us working we got 244 buckets which was a pretty good day.

   That night at camp we were all talking about the co operative. We agreed that we had to get rid of them by whatever means needed. Sarge and Ben were only going to be here for a couple of weeks. I rolled a Burley and poured a cup of whiskey and started to think of a plan.

  TO BE CONTINUED ....................

[Cascade Steven]

GM:  Just a bit of humor about the most number of views of your very interesting thread.

[Cascade Steven]

GM:  I would like to dig a little deeper into this story, into the back story so to speak.  Do you have any idea why Jed kept this diary?  Maybe you mentioned this and I just missed it.  Just curious.🙂

[GhostMiner]

6 minutes ago, Cascade Steven said:

GM:  I would like to dig a little deeper into this story, into the back story so to speak.  Do you have any idea why Jed kept this diary?  Maybe you mentioned this and I just missed it.  Just curious.🙂

   I suppose he wanted to keep a record of his experiences. The people that had it didn't know anything about him. I have tried to research further but have had no luck. Know any good detectives that work for free?

[GhostMiner]

   JULY 29   1936

   Part One

   Sarge and Ben were wanting a quick conference this morning so I asked them to hold on until we weighed up the gold which came to 2 ounces. We all sat around the morning campfire and drank coffee and discussed our options. Sarge suggested confronting the problem head on rather than constantly having to deal with the harassment caused by the thugs. We all agreed that part of the crew would go to the co operative headquarters which was a few miles away in a remote location. They had an office building set up on a little side road back in the woods way off the main road. There was nothing around for miles. It was decided that Sarge, Ben, John, and me would drive over there in Sarge’s truck. Jacob and Will would guard the camp. When we were finished at their headquarters we would head up the mountain and deal with the camp of hooligans. 

   We armed ourselves and rode over to the headquarters. Upon driving down the side road we saw two trucks parked just outside the office shack. There was no one outside. Sarge pulled his truck crossways on the narrow driveway so as to block it and we got out. We were about 100 feet from the shack. Ben set up the light machine gun off to the side in the woods in good cover while the three of us surrounded the shack. John circled around the back. Sarge was on the other side of the driveway in the woods across from Ben. I stayed behind the truck with my rifle at the ready.

   Sarge hollered out that we had the office surrounded and we were equipped with heavy weapons. He told them to come out and talk with us and no one would be hurt. If they didn’t come out he said we would open fire on them. After a pause with no response from them he told them they had 30 seconds to come out unarmed and it was the last warning they were going to get. After about 10 seconds they started to come out. There were two of them. I recognised one of them as the man who had come to the mine and threatened us. They looked scared as hell and asked what we wanted. Sarge asked who the main boss was and the older one said he was. Sarge told him their days of terrorizing miners was over and their illegal co operative was finished. The boss said we couldn’t do that and they had every right to organize a co operative of miners and protect them from thieves. Sarge said the only thieves were them. He looked over at where Ben was and gave him a signal. He opened up with the machine gun and riddled one of the trucks. When he stopped the tires were flat and there wasn’t much left of the cab. The two gangsters were lying flat in the dirt and hollering don’t shoot. Sarge walked past them into the doorway of the shack and opened up with the BAR destroying the contents of their office. John went in and removed most of their paperwork and put the contents in the truck. Then Sarge fired another burst into the shack. 

   One of the guys started pleading for us not to shoot them. He said he’d had enough and was finished. Sarge said it was too late for that now. He asked him how many men were at their camp on the mountain. He said there were 14 men working for them up there. John and Ben tied the two thugs up good and threw them in the back of the White and sat back there with them. When we got back to the parking area by the creek below our camp Sarge stopped the truck and got out. He told John and me to head up to camp and wait for them. Then he and Ben drove off with their prisoners. They came back about three hours later. Sarge said the co operative goons were on their way to San Francisco and we wouldn’t be seeing them again. It was the first time I’d seen him laugh. He never said another word to us about what happened to the gangsters and we didn’t ask. The next job was to head up to their camp and clean them out. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..........................

[beatup]

Sarge got it right this time around

[Cascade Steven]

The suspense is "about to kill me".😂  What a wonderful story.

[rvpopeye]

"From a place you can't see comes a sound you will never hear."  

2 down and 14 to go , or get going for the lucky ones.......

I wonder what they're up to at this point ?

A( Running 

B(A counter attack

C(Just sitting there pissing their pants 

D(?