GhostMiner Posted September 8, 2023 Author Share Posted September 8, 2023 July 6 2002 Part Six After a couple of minutes Jacob had one thug at a time climb out of the hole and I tied their hands behind their backs. As I finished tying the first one Jacob shoved him back into the pit with the muzzle of the Thompson sending him crashing into the gravel on his side. The thugs were trying to act tough but were starting to break down. Each one was treated in the same manner. He told them they all had tombstones in their eyes now. I kept looking over at him for a signal of some kind indicating he might be bluffing but there was none. After what must have seemed like an eternity to the goons Jacob ordered two of them out of the pit. He instructed me to take them over to camp and out of sight but not earshot and tie them to a tree. I stood there guarding them with my 9MM semi auto. They were shaking. Then I heard the unthinkable. Jacob was now talking to the guy in the pit in a loud voice. He said he was judge and jury here and their sentence was passed and about to be carried out. He told the man that he had threatened and disrupted our mining crew and had vandalized our equipment and cost us a fortune in lost gold. He said all three of them were now sentenced to death. Because they had not spoken up he said they would be shot to death because hanging was too much work for them. The men I was guarding were now crying and begging for mercy. They wanted me to intervene. I was frozen in place. I could hear the guy in the pit begging Jacob not to kill him. It got quiet for a moment. Then I heard the unmistakable burst of a number of rounds from the Thompson. TO BE CONTINUED ............... 6 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostMiner Posted September 12, 2023 Author Share Posted September 12, 2023 July 6 2002 Part Seven The silence seemed to last for an eternity. There were no more cries from the guy in the pit. Then Jacob began hollering out that he had gotten what was coming to him and there were two more hooligans to kill. He was talking wildly and out of control. He was yelling he would shoot each man one at a time. Then he hollered for me to come to the pit. I glanced at the two men tied to the tree. They were terrified. I slowly walked over to where Jacob was standing. He was staring down at the man who lay there face down and motionless. It was murder I was thinking to myself. Murder over gold. We had crossed the line and now I was an outlaw just like Jacob. My life would never be the same. What would I tell my wife? I could never go home again. We had sold our souls for gold. TO BE CONTINUED ................... 3 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Furness Posted September 13, 2023 Share Posted September 13, 2023 Jacob did the deed. You were not even in sight of the event. You were not a murderer ... an accessary to murder perhaps ... but not murder in the first degree. Jacob murdered in the first degree and if it goes to court ... well ... he is an old man at this point so life in prison or worse would not be terrible for him. You on the other hand depending on the length of the sentence if convicted may be behind bars for a very long time. I hope you are able to talk Jacob out of shooting the other two. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post GhostMiner Posted September 13, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 13, 2023 July 6 2002 Part Eight Night Of The Living Dead As I approached Jacob he turned and looked at me. He was now the Jacob I was used to and perfectly sane. He gave me a wink and put his index finger to his lips as a warning for me to keep my mouth shut. A gigantic wave of relief came over me all at once and I nearly passed out. He spoke to me in a very quiet level and his tone was mischievous. He had knocked the guy in the head with the butt of his Thompson and gagged him. He was tied and unconscious. It had all been a setup. Jacob explained that he could not risk me tipping his hand in any way and figured that with me not knowing any more than the crooks he would be able to pull off his devious plan. I was somewhat angry for not being in on this plan but the relief I felt was stronger than the anger. Jacob whispered that we now must pull off the rest of his scheme. He told me to untie one of the other goons from the tree and cover his head with a pillowcase he had brought out. Then he said to bring him to the pit. I did as instructed. The entire time the man was begging us not to shoot him. I told him it was out of my hands and that my partner was a crazed old man who would kill the rest of them and enjoy doing so. His legs were shaking when I pulled him along and we stopped where Jacob was standing with the Thompson. Jacob gave him the same spiel in a very loud and menacing voice telling him he was about to die like his friend. He asked him if he would like the hood on or off for his execution. By now the man was begging Jacob not to shoot him and he would tell him anything he wanted to know. Jacob gave me a grin and one of his winks. TO BE CONTINUED .................. 6 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostMiner Posted September 15, 2023 Author Share Posted September 15, 2023 So I finally am back on the website. For some reason starting yesterday I lost the site & got http error 500. I tried everything I knew to get back on with no luck. So just now I called my son in law & asked him to try pulling up the forum which he did right away. Then he sent me a link from his phone & it allowed me to get back on. I also googled a link from my computer & got back on which it wouldn't allow before. Wierd. It was like I was frozen out for some reason. More journal tomorrow. Cheers. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedrocker Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 37 minutes ago, GhostMiner said: So I finally am back on the website. For some reason starting yesterday I lost the site & got http error 500. I tried everything I knew to get back on with no luck. So just now I called my son in law & asked him to try pulling up the forum which he did right away. Then he sent me a link from his phone & it allowed me to get back on. I also googled a link from my computer & got back on which it wouldn't allow before. Wierd. It was like I was frozen out for some reason. More journal tomorrow. Cheers. Same happened to me. Kept getting 505 error. Just now tried again. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostMiner Posted September 16, 2023 Author Share Posted September 16, 2023 July 7 2002 We ended up turning the three thugs over to the law. Jacob wanted to handle things his own way but I was able to convince him to do the right thing. We took today off and got some much needed rest. Some good food for supper and a cup of whisky together by the fire before turning in. It is quite a relief having those guys behind bars. Now we can turn our attention back to full time mining. We are thinking that as long as we keep things quiet out here we can end the season on a high note with plenty of gold in our jars. We will see how it goes. I have kept all of this from my wife who would have been sick about all the trouble. Also, we have not heard a peep from Jim or Vern. Jacob said they are no longer welcome out here and I think I agree. They deserted us when we needed them most. TO BE CONTINUED ................... 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dig4gold Posted September 17, 2023 Share Posted September 17, 2023 I think you are being a bit hard on Jim & Vern. They made the decision that they didn't want to risk being killed any more & moved on with their lives. They had already dodged potential death many times in the cause of protecting what you had. The gold isn't every thing. D4G 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostMiner Posted September 18, 2023 Author Share Posted September 18, 2023 July 8 2002 Jacob and I had breakfast this morning and talked about getting back to work. Around 8:00 AM I got water flowing down to the trommel. Jacob loved to run the excavator and began digging up a nice pay pile while I fed the beast with the skid steer. We figured to run a nice steady pace around 20 yards an hour. It was a little slow but we didn't want any breakdowns and figured to just ease back into a routine. Then after a few days we would bump up production. By 2:00 PM we had washed close to 120 yards and the temperature was 115 degrees. We pushed through until 5:00 PM without a single break. We decided to shut down for the day. We had fed 185 yards into the hopper. Jacob and I talked it over and we were now going to do cleanups every other day. So we shut everything down and walked down to camp. I pulled off my sweat soaked shirt and boots. Then I jumped straight into a nice little hole in the creek where the water pooled up to waste high. Jacob was hosing himself down with a pump and some hose we had placed in the creek. Man, that water was cool compared to the air temperature and felt good. Eventually I climbed out of the creek and pulled a cool beer from a six pack, I handed one to Jacob as well. I drained mine in about a minute and grabbed another. We cooked up hot dogs and beans. I never tasted better food. We were finally mining again and I was working with a legend. Jacob brought out the whisky and we had a couple of shots and I chased mine with more beer. My partner rolled a smoke as the sun was setting on the mine. What a life we had out here in the Sierra Nevada. I now considered myself an outlaw. We were free from the rules of society and pretty much did as we pleased. I am beginning to understand what it must have been like back in the old days with Jed’s and then Jacob’s crew. I watched the sun set and the stars come out of the black sky. How could I ever explain the feeling of complete freedom out here? Would anyone understand? TO BE CONTINUED .................. 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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