by Mark Donahue
“It was a fun ride, but blondes and Coors conjured up a bit more potential.”
“Their names are Rachel and Brenda, and we’ll see them tonight. But I want you to see other stuff first. “How about some lunch?” Tom asked.
“Think they have sloppy joes?”
“I think you need to move on.”
Sitting in a small side room of the restaurant, the men ate bacon cheeseburgers and chili and talked for three hours. It was as if they had never been apart. For the first time in months, both men laughed out loud at nothing special.
After their food-filled reunion and conversation that included Tom telling Jon their gold ingot was resting comfortably in a safe deposit box in a local bank, Tom placed his laptop on the table, pulled out a large map, and lay it next to the computer.
“What’s all this?” Jon asked.
While you’ve been washing dirty socks for six months, I was doing research on lost gold in the desert.”
“You really think there’s more gold out there?”
“There’s too much evidence from good witnesses to ignore the fact that huge amounts of gold have disappeared around here over the years for all of it to be bullshit.” Pointing to a specific spot on the map, Tom asked. “This look familiar?”
Jon stood and looked down at the map. “This is the place, huh? It does look familiar. Show me exactly where we left it.”
Tom pointed to where mile marker 19 had been and explained how he narrowed down the exact location. His voice was almost a whisper, “I think there are more.”
“Are you serious? I thought you were full of…”
“I’m very serious.” It was the assurance in Tom’s voice that caught Jon’s attention.
24. Jasper Mine—1943
“I thought it best to delay the delivery for twenty-four hours to ensure the security of the mine after today’s occurrences. Each driver has been contacted, and we have returned to your schedule, Colonel, although a day later than planned,” Becker informed Rolle.
“I concur with your decision, General.”
Rolle appeared calm and collected, but his mind raced as he tried to compute how all the changes that had taken place impacted his mental plan. Did he even have a plan anymore? His thought process was interrupted when Becker told him that food was in one of the trucks that had been pulled into the cavern and Rolle could help himself at any time. Becker also told Rolle that beds had been placed in some of the private offices, and Rolle should find one and get as much sleep as possible that evening. He said he wanted Rolle fresh the next day to oversee the delivery of the gold.
Rolle’s reaction to Becker’s suggestion of food and rest was that he would probably be poisoned or murdered in his sleep by one of Becker’s men. By 11:00 p.m. and despite his concerns, Rolle had forced down some bland food, lay on top of his assigned bed, and wondered what moves in this one-sided chess match he had left.
After he dozed off for an hour, Rolle was awakened by scratching on his locked door. Thinking it a rat or other animal, he tried to go back to badly needed sleep, but the sound persisted. Hearing voices in the background that indicated Becker’s men were still working on preparing the cavern, Rolle moved to the door and when the scratching began again he quickly opened it and found Lester, the fourth hobo, on the floor, using a piece of metal as his scratching tool.
“Come in quickly.” Rolle whispered as he looked into the cavern but saw no one near the office.
After he rose to his feet in the darkened room, Lester hissed through gritted teeth, “Those bastards killed my friends. They beat them near to death and then shot them in the heads like they was stuffed pigs.”
“I am aware. I saw their bodies.”
“What the hell is this all about, and who the hell are you, you goddamn kraut. You’re all krauts, ain’t you?”
“Yes, I am German, but I did not kill your friends. Those men outside did, and if I were to yell, they’d kill you too.”
“Not before I’d tell them you hired us to foul up whatever it is they’re tryin’ to do.”
Surprised by Lester’s immediate comeback, Rolle hesitated and said, “Believe me, at this point we need each other. I need to complete my task, and your help is needed to do that. As I said before there is a large amount of money at stake and you will be well compensated if...”
“I don’t care about the goddamn money, mister. Money ain’t worth getting’ cut up by those bastards.”
“Calm down, you are safe here. But if you go back out there it is likely we will both be caught. I have some food and wine, eat something, and tell me what happened.”
As he wolfed down bread, sausage, cheese and wine, Lester related what had occurred earlier. “I’d sent the boys down into the valley and told them to follow the creek bed around to the west until they could see the front of the mine. I went around to the other side where I knew some old shafts were that led into the back of the mine and, eventually, to the cavern.”
“How are you aware of such details?”
“When I was a kid, my old man used to work in this here mine. My brother and I came out here and carried water for the men in the summer. I used to roam all over this mine and learned every snake hole in the damn place. We’d play down in the creek bed, up on the top where the air vents and escape shafts were dug, and even down in the mine when it got real hot. I spent over eight years here with my old man until they closed the place down.”
“Go on.”
“Anyways, I was working my way ’round to the other side of the mine when I see this guy with a rifle not fifty yards to my left. I slip down one of the escape shafts where I can keep an eye on this guy but he can’t see me. Pretty soon I heard this ruckus from down in the valley and I see the guy with the rifle start headin’ in that direction. After he leaves, I look down and see my boys being pushed up the hill by two more guys with rifles who took them into the cavern. So I move a little further to the west on top of the mine and find the vent shaft to mine Number 4 and start working my way down. I come out at the entrance of Mine Four, but off to the left, out of sight of anyone in the cavern. The guys with the rifles take my boys outta sight, but I can hear them askin’ them all these questions like, ‘Why are they here?’ and ‘Who sent them?’ And stuff like that. But my boys don’t say nothin’. They don’t want to lose the money you promised them.”
“Are you sure they said nothing?”
“Not at first. But pretty soon your friends started slappin’ them around and the money don’t seem all that important, and so they started tellin’ the truth that some guy they don’t know asked them to come to the mine and act as lookouts and all. But your friends think they’re makin’ up the story and don’t believe them. Then the krauts start gettin’ real rough and slappin’ them around even more. One of my boys gets mad and from what I heard, got loose and hit one of your friends smack in the mouth. Then all hell broke loose, I heard all this yelling and screamin’ and people being hit and then it’s quiet. Then there’s three gunshots real quick, bam, bam, bam. Then it’s quiet again. Next thing I see are the five guys with rifles comin’ out of that little office in front, all speakin’ German and laughin’.”
“Did your men describe me to the guards?”
“They tried but all they could remember was you were a tall guy from back east. But I knew you was German all along. You don’t have much of an accent, but I was in Germany in World War I and know a German accent when I hear one.”
“What other questions did the guards ask?”
“They asked lots of questions, but my boys didn’t know nothin’. I never really told them what you wanted us to do, and they’d been too drunk to remember anything about you to tell those guards.”
“The men who killed your friends are Nazis. They have been sent to this country to help in the overthrow of your government. I work for the U.S. government an
d was sent here to infiltrate this group so I can stop them. I needed you and your men to help me complete my job.”
Lester stared at Rolle for several moments with his head cocked as if not sure what he had just heard. “That’s bullshit, mister. There’s some kind of shipment coming in here in the next day or so. I know my German may be rusty, but I heard the word “gold” a bunch of times today.”
Rolle realized he had underestimated Lester. In the near darkness of his room, he smiled and said, “All right, you will know the truth.” Rolle then told Lester almost everything that had occurred to that point over the last four months.
When he was through, Lester observed, “No wonder you could pay me a bonus.”
“It seems you have many options, Lester. You can yell for the guards, and we will both be dead in minutes. You can escape back into the mine and make your way to safety. Or, you can help me with my task and become a very wealthy man.”
“What are you going to do if I was to make a run for it?”
“I will stay, my job is not complete.” What he did not say was that if Lester tried to run, Rolle would shoot him with the Luger he had taken from his bag earlier and hidden under his mattress, and which was only inches from his fingers. He would then go to the guards and say he was attacked by the hobo who must have been part of the group that had been shot earlier. Rolle could not risk him making good on his escape and going to local authorities. Rolle also failed to tell Lester that he would be killed even if he stayed to help him, for the same reason.
“Exactly how much would I make if I decided to help?”
“How much do you want?”
“A hundred thousand in gold.” There was no hesitation in Lester’s response.
“If we are successful, you will have one hundred thousand in gold. If we are not successful, we will both be dead.”
“Hell mister, I’ve been near dead so many times tryin’ for five dollars, that for that kind of money, I’ll do damn near anything.”
“Does ‘anything’ include killing the men who killed your friends?”
“I can’t say they was exactly my friends, but they didn’t deserve to die the way they did. It’s been pert near twenty-five years since I shot anybody, but if I got the chance I’d shoot those kraut bastards for what they did to those boys.”
“You will get your chance.”
Chapter 25
Arizona Desert—2014
After refills of Elsa’s famous raspberry iced tea, Tom asked, “You ever hear of the Old Dutchman or Superstition mines here in Arizona?”
“Don’t tell me you think that’s where our bar came from?”
“I didn’t say that. I just asked if you’d heard of those lost gold mines?”
“Sure, but what do they have to do with our bar?”
“Only that there’ve been dozens of legends over the last three hundred years about lost gold in the Arizona hills, starting with the Spanish back in the 1600s. There are well-documented stories of Indian tribes amassing gold in the hills to keep it from the white man and…”
“I still don’t get how these old wives’ tales are related to our bar.”
“They may not be. I admit some of the info I found is pretty far out, X-Files stuff, but some of it is intriguing. For instance, in 1887, a train loaded with over a million dollars in gold for military payroll was derailed not more than a hundred miles from here and the gold stolen. In 1895, a group of renegade U.S. Cavalry troops stole over two million dollars in gold from the Mexican government in a raid at a mint in Juarez. The gold was tracked from Texas to the New Mexico Territory, and into Arizona where the trail was lost. There were several stories, and even some eyewitness reports, of Germans bringing huge gold caches into the US for safe keeping during each world war.”
“Those stories sound interesting, but how do you explain ‘Property of Canadian Government’ on our bar?”
“I can’t, but I’m working on it.”
“So with all this information where do we go from here?”
“Let’s take a ride.”
In Tom’s van, the men headed north from Elsa’s parking lot. With the map spread over Jon’s lap, Tom had a question. “What do you see on the map?”
Jon scanned the map again. “All I see is some land owned by some Indian tribes, a couple silver mines, some railroad lines, and the rest looks like state-owned land.”
“There is also limited access to all the locations you’re looking at. This road we’re on now, which is also the one we oiled, is the only road for thirty miles in any direction that could possibly lead to where we found the bar.”
“True, but we found the bar in a creek bed, which means the bar could’ve been washed down from miles away, and if so, this road could be irrelevant as it relates to the gold.”
“You might be right, but if you look at the map again, you’ll see those two old silver mines we saw from the chopper today both abut the creek even though one is two miles north of the other.”
“But why would a silver mine spit out a chunk of refined gold that size? Are you thinking they could have been mining gold too?”
“I doubt it, but I guess anything is possible. All I know is if your theory is right that the bar washed down the creek bed, it could have come from one of those mines. And again the road we’re on leads eventually to both mines. I think the mines are where we should start.”
“Start what?”
“Start looking for the gold—what do you think?”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course I’m serious. I know this is all new, and I’m dumping a lot on you all at once, but there may be something to this, and I think it’s worth a few weeks’ work to see what we can find. Besides, what else are you going to do?”
“Well, I can tell you there are a few things that have been on my mind for eight years that I’d like to...”
“I want to show you something. The Jasper’s just six miles up the road. I’ve been up there a few times but just peeked inside.”
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark?
“Wait till you see this place.”
----------------------
Negotiating a tight left turn off the road, Tom steered the van down a dirt road starting three hundred feet above the desert floor. “Damn, hope you’ve been practicing driving,” Jon said as he looked over the road’s edge.
“Nice view, huh?”
“Yeah, if you like views a million feet in the air.”
Pulling the van twenty feet from the cavern opening that was not visible from the dirt road Jon noted, “Damn, that appeared out of nowhere.”
As they walked toward the mine, the men could only see forty feet inside the Jasper.
“So what’s in there?” Jon asked, not sure going into a huge dark mine even in the middle of the day was such a great idea.
“What’s the matter, afraid of the dark?” Tom asked.
Tom tossed one of two HD flashlights to Jon, and the men entered the mine.
Looking up, the men saw a domelike roof that appeared at least two hundred feet high. The men lowered their flashlights and directed their beams to the back of the mine; despite the power of the lights, they could not see where the mine ended.
“Holy shit. You could fit a few Yankee Stadiums in this joint.” Jon said, his voice in awe.
“Told ya.”
The men began a slow walk from the cavern’s opening toward the back of the mine. They saw iron rails on the floor and what looked like electric wires dangling from the ceiling. Further into the mine they saw empty beer cans, pizza boxes, used condoms, newspapers, pieces of lumber, broken glass, the remains of a dead coyote, and more used condoms. After walking another one hundred feet, Tom said, “Turn off your light.”
After both men had done so, they were in almost total darkness.
Even the large opening at the front on the cavern did not throw light back to where the men stood. They also noticed a strong breeze that rose and fell but never completely abated.
After they turned their lights back on, the men continued their stroll into the darkness and noticed the floor had a downward slope of two to three to degrees.
“I read up on this place at the local library. It was a productive silver mine for years, but then closed back in the early 1900s once the silver dried up. Since then the state tried to keep the place closed, but kids kept knocking down fences and have used it as a party spot for about ninety years. Back in the forties a South American mining company took out an option with the idea of reopening it, but nothing came of it.”
After another two hundred feet, the men came to a warning line in the floor and an overhead banner that said “Danger: Open Pit One Hundred Feet Ahead.”
“What the hell is this?” Jon asked.
“Looks like there’s an open pit a hundred feet ahead,” Tom helpfully informed Jon.
“I got that part, smartass. Did you see it before?”
“Didn’t get this far. But from what I read, there’s a huge hole in the rock back there. The miners used to dump trash in it, and there’s all kinds of stories of men falling in and never being found.”
“Let’s go look.”
As the men continued their stroll into the darkness, they could feel the angle of the floor descend at an ever steeper slope. They also heard, and felt, a stronger swirling wind that moved from being a tailwind to a headwind and back again within twenty feet. The sound that accompanied the wind would transition from a baritone to a soprano with levels of alto in between.
“Feel that?”
“Yeah,” Tom said. “The floor’s angle just dropped a bunch.”
“You said kids partied in here?”
“Yep.”
“That’s a partying group I can respect,” Jon said with admiration in his voice.
Ten feet ahead of them, the men saw another yellow warning painted on the floor of the mine, this time alerting of an open pit fifty feet ahead. Someone had stuck a small handmade sign in the ground with “They aren’t kidding about that fucking pit!” written on it in red.