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

[GhostMiner]

They recovered the car these guys were driving a few years ago. 

 

 

[Bedrocker]

I'm glad John didn't shoot them.

[GhostMiner]

   So are these 4 guys gangsters? Undercover cops pretending to be gangsters? Crooked cops working for the gangsters? Mining investors? Fan boys of the crew? Gold buyers? ???????????

[GhostMiner]

3 minutes ago, Bedrocker said:

I'm glad John didn't shoot them.

At least not yet.

[GhostMiner]

 

 

[GhostMiner]

   June 7   1937       Part Two

 

   I hit the brakes hard and the big car didn’t react and just sped on down the road leaving us in the dust. It was headed in the same direction as we were and that meant town. I brought the truck to a complete stop and asked John what he thought we should do. He said to keep with our plan and head into town. If we ran into that crew we’d deal with them. John said he could have taken them all out with the BAR and they were stupid for messing with us.

   When we pulled into town we headed for the general store to buy some supplies. I placed an ad on the board in the store stating we were looking for security guards and the pay would be good. It said to contact the store owner and leave your information with him and we would be in town to check from time to time. As we were finishing up one of the town deputies came over and read what I had posted. He was a young guy and told us he might be interested if the pay was right. I told him that we were looking for full time help, not part time. He just laughed and said he’d quit his job for a better one at the drop of a hat. He said it was a shit hole town with nothing but rif raf running everything and even the police were on the take. 

   I asked him what was his name and how old he was.  His name was Dan and he said he was twenty five years old. He said he was sick of working on the force and he didn’t get along too well with the other deputies except for one who was near his age and honest like him. That guy's name was Luther. I asked him when they could meet with us and he said he’d give Luther a call right then. When he hung up the phone he said Luther would be right over to meet with us. Dan told me that if they quit it would be best to do it on the spot and not give notice as they could be harassed. He said he’d seen it before with the Sheriff. So we all had a bottle of pop and waited for Luther. 

 

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

   June 7   1937     Part Three

 

   When Luther arrived we all went into the back office which was private. The store keep was a good guy and willing to help us because we spent so much money in there. I didn’t mention anything about the car and the drive into town. Dan said they all had heard lots of things about our mine and crew. He said it was a shame about my brother Jed. I told them that we were a tight crew and were like family. I said they would need to stand with us against hooligans if things got rough. The deputies said they didn’t have a problem dealing with troublemakers. There had been a number of them over the past few years that the police had beaten up or worse. Luther said that the town was in rough shape and some of the force was on the take from gangsters and such. He said they were both ready to get the hell out of there.

   I told them what I would pay them as well as the percentage of gold they would get and their eyes bugged out. I told them we would be working out on the mountain until we got froze out and after that they would be out of work until the following season. They told us that it would take them nearly two years working as deputies to make the kind of money I was offering for working the rest of the mining season. They said they’d turn in their badges that day and meet us out on the mine in the morning.

   John and I left the room for a minute and had a short meeting. We decided that we needed to talk with Will and Hudson before hiring them. Then we went back in the room and told them our crew would have a meeting and decide whether to make them part of our team. They said to just come into town and let the general store owner know what we decided. With that John and I headed back toward camp. As we were driving back we saw the Cadillac on our tail again. It had come up behind us out of nowhere.

 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   June 7   1937     Part Four

 

   There was absolutely no doubt now that we were being followed and they didn’t care if we knew it. The Big Cadillac came right up close to our back bumper. I slowed the truck down and they pushed up against the back of my truck. Then they backed off about twenty feet. John was getting madder than hell and told me to slow down to a crawl. When I did the car picked up speed and sped past us and out of sight around a curve up ahead. 

   I pulled my truck over on the side of the road. John said there might be an ambush so we should move ahead slowly. When we got to the bend he told me to pull over again. Then he grabbed the BAR and said he would cut through the woods and get a look at the other side of the curve in case the thugs were sitting there waiting for us. 

   I waited about two minutes and John came running back. He said they were parked up ahead and they had guns. They hadn’t spotted him and he figured we might be able to take them by surprise. I pulled the truck into the woods and got out with my Thompson. We cut through the trees to where they were parked. I figured they must have been wondering what had happened to us so we needed to move quickly. 

 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

[GhostMiner]

   June   1937     Part Five

 

   John and I crept up from the woods which overlooked the road. There were four thugs with handguns sitting in the Cadillac. They were parked on the side of the road and looking back towards the curve waiting for us if we came through. We leveled our weapons right at them and I hollered out to drop their guns or be cut down. They turned towards the woods in complete surprise and I fired a burst into the air from the Thompson. I told them we had heavy weapons and they were outgunned. John shouted for them to toss the handguns out the windows on our side of the road which they did. I took them into the woods at gunpoint while John pulled their car into the woods.

   They were dressed in cheap suits and were trying to look tough but it wasn’t working. We had dealt with their type before and knew how to handle them. I  asked them who they were and why they were following us. John had the BAR pointing right at them. The leader said they were with a group of jewelry buyers and were their security agents. He told us that we had stolen the buyer’s money in a strong armed deal at gunpoint and they were hired to protect their interests and get the money back. John laughed in his face and told him we had made a fair deal and weren’t giving anything back.

   The thug doing the talking told John he had no idea who he was dealing with. He said the group was made up of very powerful people from Europe and they would not hesitate to use force to achieve their goals. John walked over to the guy and calmly asked the thug what he meant by force. Then he asked if he meant something like this and rammed the butt of the BAR into the guy's stomach. The thug doubled over and John brought the butt end down on his head. The gangster was now laying on the ground groaning. John told his gang to get him on his feet which they did. We tied their hands behind their backs.

   I asked them who owned the car. He said it was the guys we had beaten up. There was a deep ravine just a bit further into the woods. John took the license plate off the car and drove it to the edge of a two hundred foot drop off. Then we got the gang to push the car over the edge by leaning into the back end of it with their shoulders. It went over the edge and we all watched it crash to the bottom of the canyon. We grabbed the hand guns and walked the group through the woods and over to my truck. We threw the handguns in the cab and tied up the thugs real tight and put them in the back of the truck and covered them with a big tarp. Then we drove onto a side road that went up the mountain to an abandoned logging camp. 

   TO BE CONTINUED .................