CHAPTER NINE
Immediately the Prophet Ramon wonders how far the next site is from where they are at. It’s no surprise that he sees different landscapes then what he had pictured in his mind. The mental image that he had of this place before he had come over seas to get here were very different. The desert is more rugged and there are scattered mountains everywhere that look and appear like smaller mountain ranges. The trail looks scattered and broken up to him even though it is recognizable by Amigo who has apparently traveled this trail before and maybe he’s really not telling the whole entire story.
Nevertheless he feels that he should question Amigo’s authority once again to get a feel of how much more traveling they have to do. The Prophet Ramon decides to ask Amigo querying, “So how much farther do we have to go?”
By now, Amigo realizes that he never asked the Prophet Ramon if he had any accurate maps of the country, especially this area. He feels that his father probably took some things for granted when preparing him to come over as an immigrant to the American continent. Amigo answers his question exuberating, “We have a few more hundred miles to go. We are going to cross through Las Cruces which is only one of many ways of getting there. They had two trails that were used depending on the weather conditions and other factors. We could have taken another split off of the trail that went closer to Albuquerque but I like this way better because there are more minerals which are found around gold such as pyrite and manganese. Didn’t you ever by a map of Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona?”
The Prophet Ramon thinks about his map of the whole entire country that he has replying, “Yes, I have this map of the country I found back home!”
The Cherokee Indian thinks how that not good enough adding, “You need better territorial maps than that; you need a map of all three states to find your way around here!”
Then all of a sudden Amigo hands him a map that he takes out of one of his bags he has in front where he keeps things that he needs at a close reach. Amigo pulls his bridle back slowly down his horse to fade back and then he hands the map to the Prophet Ramon suggesting, “Maybe you should take a look at this while we ride along!”
The Prophet Ramon takes the map from Amigo while giving him a squinted eye like that of a confused gypsy who is looking for a way to sort out the confusion. Immediately Amigo pops up his bridle to pick up the pace keeping him in lead which in return keeps his charge over the journey. A few trots further and Amigo has picked up the pace while the Prophet Ramon decides to take a look at the map while they all ride along to their destination.
As he unfolds the map the Pawnee Indian pulls his horse’s bridle to the side so that he can merge closer to the Prophet Ramon in order to get a better glance at the map as well. Of course, the Pawnee Indian does this without making it too obvious by acting aloof and independent from the others.
The Prophet Ramon finally opens the map all of the way which looks like it is a map of the Texas and New Mexico Territories. He notices this because it is written in a dark black bold writing at the top. He even takes note that there are some other additions to the map because maybe something Amigo needed was missing. And he sees that it has to do with variations of the “Old Spanish Trail” with a very profound nature of being through the whole map and stretching beyond.
One of the lines follows through Las Cruces after Juarez and El Paso just like Amigo has informed him and then there’s another drawn line that goes further north straight over towards north Phoenix. He notices some other writings with the names of towns which have been added like they weren’t there when he had obtained the map. It seems like he just progressed his map instead of spending money on a new one or maybe some of these places are unknown by many. Whatever the case the Prophet Ramon sees the towns that he had mentioned when he was trapped by the flash flood and traveled south for a crossing and came to Black Canyon City and Rock Springs. He even takes note of Bumble Bee which is written on the map further north from the other towns down south. On the map next to Bumble Bee Amigo has “stagecoach stop and outpost” written next to it.
The Prophet Ramon decides to ask a question about the map asking, “This is a Texas and New Mexico Territory map with some additions made to it?”
With a quick pre-occupied short sentence, Amigo answers back telling him, “Yes and?”
“Well, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t show the state of Arizona and you have the “Old Spanish Trail” drawn in quill pen ink or something!”
By now Amigo feels like he has to level with him a bit with any questions the Prophet Ramon can conjure up at this time considering that he has pushed the map on him so to speak. Now Amigo feels like protecting his prize possession of a map that has been with him a while since he bought one to draw his last updates of research on. Trying to calm down the Prophet Ramon’s aspirations, “Amigo gives more details about the map expressing to him, “That’s because that was the only map I could afford at the time and I felt like redrawing it because the old one was getting wet all of the time and it ripped in some places. So I redid it you could say!”
Then the Prophet Ramon wonders about another heading he has over the town of Bumble bee asking, “And I noticed that you wrote “Ghost Town” over the town of Bumble Bee for some odd reason or other!”
Even so Amigo has to take a deep breath in order to give the Prophet Ramon the details without making him even more curious about the sites mentioned on the map. Otherwise he will spoil the entire fun of the journey which should be filled with surprise and an achieved fulfillment of finding the treasure. He doesn’t want to ruin and spoil the guessing which keeps the emotions flowing. Amigo soothes the Prophet Ramon’s need by informing him, “That place is an army depot which is slowly becoming abandoned and there are already many dwellings which are falling apart. It’s a town that isn’t really booming and it will eventually become a ghost town!”
The Cherokee Indian butts in to the conversation wondering, “Have you ever been there?”
Nonetheless Amigo staggers over his thoughts about it for a second before unveiling, “Yes, I stopped there once when I made my second attempt to come and try to look for something again. But I thought that there was nothing in that area and I was thinking of returning to the arrastras, though I figured that maybe everything was washed up maybe. So I gave up once again.”
The Sioux Indian starts to think that maybe he isn’t telling them everything. For some reason it seems as though something is missing and he just can’t simply put a finger on it. In fact, none of them can seem to put a tip to their finger on it. The Sioux Indian feels like probing further by contending, “Are you sure you’re not telling us everything because it seems as though you came up with nothing. There had to be some sort of sign or image even if it’s in the form of artwork or writing such as paperwork or text. I mean even the newspaper could have small leads of some kind!”
Nevertheless the Pawnee Indian is becoming even more curious to get some insight or something tangible to work with. He feels that there has to be something that he could have seen that maybe he never clicked on before. The Pawnee Indian decides to ask, “You didn’t see anything? Surely there has to be something you saw out there? Tell us something?”
Assuredly Amigo ponders some images over within his holding back mind of his. He has left out one or two things but they aren’t for sure, there only images that have provoked some good ideas along with some bad ideas maybe. Coming to his senses, Amigo goes back to his time at the arrastras before the flash flood stating, “Well, there’s one thing for sure that I didn’t want to say because it may have spoiled the fun and made some of you angry.”
The Pawnee Indian gets defensive right away off of the mark questioning, “And what’s that?”
Now Amigo has really done it and he will have to talk about what he has found and it may change everybody’s outlook on things just a little bit or maybe to a greater extent. While thinking about it, Amigo takes a deeper breath than before and exclaims, “Well, when I was at the arrastra it was raining so I tried to inspect one of the four stone monuments that were there which were piled up by someone to mark it as a mining claim at each corner. And after digging through one of them, I found a bottle with a piece of paper in it was corked and hidden for safe keepings to stake the claim. Inside there was the written line, “I J.C. Tenney claim this land within the four stone monuments as my own personal mining claim! And there was also a map which was hard to read and it didn’t make any sense at all. It was just a map indicating the mining claim location with a line leading to an “X” marking some spot down river somewhere. But it’s hard to even think where this spot might be and where to look!”
The Prophet Ramon can’t believe what he’s hearing. He feels like that really has put a damper in to things a little bit more than he had expected. And not to mention that there are more members to share the wealth with now which lowers his portion of the ante which may be nothing by the sound of things. The Prophet Ramon continues with this new information driveling, “Well, that puts a damper in things, huh?”
Then Amigo comes back with his other thoughts about the treasure proclaiming, “Well, not exactly. See because if the miner panned the arrastras and got a lot he may have stashed it somewhere along the river. That means that there are bags of gold waiting for us and all we have to do is find out where he stashed it and take it!”
The Sioux Indian gets sort of angry though he doesn’t really freak out. He quickly babbles asking, “You mean to tell me some other dude claimed up and took all of the gold?”
Definitely Amigo feels like he has really done it now because they are tending to get a little aroused about the idea. Amigo tries to push the conversation on by indicating, “Well, not exactly!”
At about this time the Cherokee Indian interrupts the conversation challenging his addition to the treasure with his map shrilling, “I thought the Indians had cleaned those arrastras out years ago after continuing some mining operations for a while there after?”
Still Amigo has doubts but no guarantees amplifying, “Probably but that’s only speculation!”
The Pawnee Indian starts to wonder who this miner is questioning, “And who is this miner anyway and what does he look like?”
Swiftly Amigo becomes extremely defensive quarreling, “How do I know it’s not like he left a drawing of himself or even a picture of some kind.”
The Prophet Ramon thinks about the name pronouncing, “And what kind of name is J.C. Tenny anyway? Sounds like a code name for someone’s initials. Maybe it stands for Jesus Christ Tenny or Jesus Christ T for the cross which is shaped like one?”
The Pawnee Indian begins to laugh really hard for a split second before pounding, “What kind of bull crap is that? What are you saying that Jesus Christ is some cowboy now?”
The Prophet feels the need to cool the Pawnee Indian’s nerves a little more than expected. Either way he really didn’t expect a great turnout on his exploit. In deed he figured that he would have never came this far in the first place without running in to Amigo, even though this all is appearing to be a total waste of time. Anyhow the Prophet Ramon mellows the scene out by simplifying his meaning by saying, “I’m just telling what it sounds like to me!”
Right away, Amigo interrupts the conversation once again by telling them all, “That’s not all either!”
Now the Sioux Indian starts to become a little bit unraveled by asking, “You mean there’s more? What else is there to convey to us?”
Thinking back to his time in Rock Springs, Amigo tries to picture an image in his mind from his last visit that is caught and stuck within his photographic memory. While trying to think how to say what he has to say to them all, Amigo explains, “When I was in Rock Springs I noticed someone wearing an old shirt that had a picture drawn on the back with a cowboy holding up a bag of gold saying, “Good Grub, supplies…. and a watering hole!”
The Prophet Ramon deciphers the writing as a treasure map advising, “Sounds like it’s a treasure map saying, “Good grab, safe place, what right in a hole! Maybe he mined the gold and stashed it somewhere nearby!”
The Pawnee Indian is again the first to show disbelief with his accusations claiming, “So what’s that supposed to mean?”
By now, Amigo has really done it. He has them all so unsure of this treasure hunt that they don’t know what to say at this point. They are basically baffled, dazed, and confused. Nevertheless he contends to their inquiring minds stating, “What that means is that we need to figure out whether or not it’s the same cowboy as the one on the bottle and where he or they may have put the bags of gold and whether there are one or two cowboys involved!”
The Cherokee Indian has finally found a point to speak or make a comment implying, “What are you talking about “we” because none of us ever saw anything? What did you do with that miner’s bottle anyways?”
Amigo brings his thoughts to the problem at hand informing them all, “I put the bottle back after placing the rolled up piece of paper inside just in case he were to return and check his stone monuments to see if they were still there.”
The Cherokee Indian understands how that is a good idea if he were to return wising, “Well, that was smart thinking? Well, what do you make of the written message?”
There’s no way Amigo can get anything out of some drawing on the back of another cowboy’s shirt avowing, “I don’t know; it sounds like someone got lucky doing some camping and found a bag of gold that the other miner left or lost somewhere on his way to cash it all in when he arrived in Phoenix.”
The Pawnee Indian is really beginning to get angry now wondering, “What makes you think that the miner or miners would turn it all in for cash in Phoenix anyhow?”
Furthermore Amigo will have to relate the idea of how he did some research about the town before heading out and leaving there. He relates this by saying, “Well, I asked around the town about how the town was started and someone told me that one of the early Grandfathers of the Goddard family founded the town and there’s a chance that many have ravaged and searched through the Badger Springs site for any matter. And if the Indians did remove most of the gold to take the cave of spirits then maybe the Goddard cowboy started the town with the gold left over. Other than that I just left unsure of what to think!”
The Cherokee Indian doesn’t know what to say other than something passing off the moment with, “You pretty much have me confused about this whole entire mission and it seems like we may get nowhere.”
The Prophet Ramon is curious as to whether there was anything else mentioned in artwork or picture that he saw exclaiming, “Was there anything else written in the artwork that you saw?”
Being really careful trying to imagine the past, Amigo adds another bit of his recollection updating his thoughts speaking out, “Well, there was a sign that said “Phoenix 35 miles!”
The Prophet Ramon uses his wise cracking of figuring out stuff by saying, “Sounds like it means for the word Phoenix, “Put in hole next to an “X” and there were 35 mill sacks for the 35 miles!”
The Sioux Indian is curious as to what he means by a mill sack querying, “What is a mill sack!”
The Prophet Ramon describes what a mill sack is to them all describing, “A mill sack is a feed flour, grain, or corn sack that came from a wooden built mill!”
The Pawnee Indian tends to get the dollar signs rolling through his eyes as he asks, “And how much is one of those worth?”
The Prophet Ramon finally has the chance to use his expertise in this matter. Now he can figure out how much may have been made out with without even ever having to be out there and to think that he has never even ever laid eyes on this place in his lifetime. The Prophet Ramon tries to calculate about how much one mill sack of gold ore would be worth proclaiming, “A full mill sack that is just for flour would be worth…… let me see $20.00 a pound with about 20 to thirty pounds…… that would be about four hundred to six hundred dollars maybe a little more if it weighs more, I guess!”
The Cherokee Indian seems to repeat what Amigo may have said earlier by jousting, “That’s enough to build some buildings and start a town!”
Amigo agrees with him completely realizing, “That’s what I was figuring earlier!”
Then the Pawnee Indian comes in with an idea pondering over how much gold are we talking about on all ends meaning everything cracking, “So how much gold are we talking about; do you think he only panned out one bag to cash in and stashed the rest for a later time?”
The Sioux Indian is sort of confused with which one boasting, “Which cowboy are you talking about the one on the bottle or the one the back of some shirt that he saw?”
The Pawnee Indian makes his point very clear swaggering, “Both of them or just one of them depending on whether or not they are separate individuals.” The Pawnee Indian takes a deep breath while thinking continuing, “Maybe the cowboy on the shirt went out there and left the bottle to throw off anyone else who might come out there and sift through the pile of rocks you’re talking about. Then if they see the claim paper they wouldn’t know who it was and where to go except move on!”
The Cherokee Indian brings his senses to the matter trying to shed light bashing, “Well, in that case there would only be one of them!”
Now they are entering areas where there are staggered mountains all over which seem like small canyons protruding to the sky. Many of them are of red sandstones creating an array of cliff valleys with patches of green landscaping on top which is spread at interval levels on the upper ranges. Indian Lace is watching them from a further away distance which isn’t too hard because they are a little east as well from them. She sees a mountain range ahead where it is easy to ride up which doesn’t have too many cliffs all of the way around. She pulls her horse’s bridle that way commanding Indian Skies, “Let’s go this way and ride up that mountain to get a higher up glance down from above.”
Indian Skies wonders if they will be able to get back down on the other side flinching, “Are you sure we will be able to get down on the other side?”
Indian Lace has obviously been this way before long ago when doing her research trying to get to know some of the areas expressing to Indian Skies, “Sure; I have been out this way some time long before when I came to survey the area a bit!”
Back with the herd of treasure hunters that aren’t at the best of their luck, The Pawnee Indian wants to get to know what they are going to have to do when they arrive there considering that panning the three arrastras may be a complete waste of time. To bring out more intuitive knowledge, the Pawnee Indian shrugs his shoulders and blurts, “So where would the cowboy or cowboys, considering we aren’t sure how many of them there are out there, stash the bags or extra mill sacks of gold if they panned more than one?”
Amigo isn’t so sure, though he bets that he would have stashed the gold relatively far away where nobody could possibly find it and take it for their own away from them. He figures it could be anywhere attempting an unsure line, “I’m not sure; it could be anywhere?”
Here is where the Prophet uses his hunches to ask the right question while looking at the map Amigo gave him querying, “How far is the Agua Fria River from the Rock Springs Town anyways. According to your map it is really close running right beside it?”
Discerning about how close it is to the town Amigo unveils, “Yes, it runs right in to Black Canyon City and Rock Springs!”
The Prophet Ramon is pretty sure that it sounds like the gold may be stashed somewhere along the river’s edge stating, “It sounds like the gold may be stashed somewhere between there and Black Canyon or the town of Rock Springs. It’s easy we just travel downriver from there and search every little hole within every nook and cranny and look for signs of an “X” marking the spot or some hidden mill sacks of gold ore!”
The Cherokee Indian is curious as to whether Amigo has heard or learned anything else of that context asking, “Are there any other stories or rumors that you have heard about that you can think of at this time?”
Right away, Amigo remembers another story he heard but didn’t seem to think much of it saying, “Well, I heard a story about two men named Brown and Davies who were in a general store down in Phoenix. They saw an Indian who paid for his stuff in gold nuggets. Then they asked the store owner where he lived and they were told he was a Yavapai Apache Indian who lived about fifty miles to the north which would be north of the Rock Springs and Black Canyon City area perhaps. They followed him entering in to bad country or badlands. According to the story the three crossed Skunk Creek, New River, and the Agua Fria River. Then quickly the Indian vanished in to a side canyon without any trace, and then when the men looked for him the found a nearby arroyo, which was a smaller tributary to the Agua Fria River. And in that arroyo they found gold nuggets and lots of it. They worked around the clock gathering $80, 000 in gold until a band of Indians attacked them killing Davies right away. The other hid until they left and took off west with the gold waiting to come back at a later time, although no one knows where the lost mine lays. The legend says there is an old pick marking the spot and that’s why it is called the “Lost Pick” which could be one of the richest mines!”
The Cherokee Indian thinks about his map of the hidden secret cave that the Indians guard with their spirits exclaiming, “That doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with the place we are going or even the Indian Cave. In fact, the Indian on the back of a cowboy shirt in the drawing sounds like someone other than Davies who ran west with the $80,000 in gold! They sound like two different distinct stories. In fact, it could be the Goddard guy you mentioned. Maybe he went out there after the Davies individual went west and they found out about the incident. It sounds like there’s only one cowboy to worry about and that’s the J.C. name on the piece of paper in the bottle!”
Agreeing completely like someone at least can make some more sense out of the whole thing, Amigo answers, “you’re probably right!”
The Prophet Ramon figures that those were some mean Indians he ran in to decreeing, “Those Indians they ran in to sound like some mean renegades or something? I’m surprised they didn’t get all of them along with the J. C. Tenney guy and the Rock Springs miner as well.”
The Sioux Indian agrees saying, “They were just trying to protect their rich mine that was in their bad country or badlands territory I would intend.”
The Cherokee Indian tries to soothe the Prophet Ramon’s nerves by deliberating, “Don’t worry about any bands of bad Indians; you’re with our band of Indians!”
Then spontaneously like, Amigo just happens to see some buttons of peyote growing on the side of the trail about ten or twelve feet away as he points, “Hey look! There’s some peyote buttons. We can use them tonight to help with our seeing visions of the future with our treasure hunt!”
Fast like he can’t wait to add the peyote to his collection and arsenal, Amigo pulls his horse’s bridle to a complete stop and gets off of his horse. He walks over to the peyote buttons while pulling out his knife so that he can scoop them up with it. He cuts about four large peyote buttons and a couple of tiny ones. He cups them in his hand while carrying them over to one of his satchels he has fastened to his saddle bags.
As he places them in his bag for making some peyote tea for later, the Prophet Ramon becomes snoopy like asking, “What is peyote?”
Amigo wants him to enjoy the fruits of his labor to pilgrimage for such a cactus plant used for medicinal purposes. Immediately he gets back on his horse describing, “Peyote is a low-lined cacti plant button that is a member of the mescaline group that give some hallucinations. It will help us later by making a tea from it so we can see our vision quest and reach the world in a more touchable way. Obviously you believe in reincarnation with the bottle being the initials of Jesus Christ and that he may have reincarnated and come this way in search of treasure. So the peyote will help bring our past lives to light, huh?”
The Prophet Ramon can’t argue with the fact that he was indicating a case of reincarnation where individuals use clues or Religious Icons and maybe even dream techniques to remember their past lives. Ghastly he replies back to Amigo’s question saying, “Sure it sounds like a case of reincarnation to me!”
Now Amigo adds some more momentums to the board of their friendship indicating, “It’s just our voyage down the Peyote Road of brotherly love which will be our private meeting!”
The Prophet Ramon wonders about this peyote drinking they are talking about speaking out, “So what peyote like when you take it?”
The Pawnee Indian decides to describe it in his own words telling him, “Don’t worry; you’ll be on top of the world in a way!”
The Sioux Indian brings an image to his mind saying, “It will be like flowing up the river of souls to help find clues to what you need which will help our travels. We will all be divinely guided in a way.”
Then the Prophet Ramon thinks about being on top of the world while looking over towards the east noticing some people riding up on top of the mountain range. He brings this to their attention revealing, “Hey look! There are some people riding up above that cliff on that mountain!”
Forthwith Amigo turns his head and looks. Then everyone does the same thing as they all notice two entities riding up atop the mountain of red sandstones and huge cliff like rises that stretch their way beneath. As fast as he can, Amigo pulls out his telescope and takes another look at the mountain range with his naked eye. He puts the telescope to his right eye and gleams at the image of two girls whose image is faintly visible even with the telescope. Confused about the view of strangers, Amigo speaks out, “Looks like two Indian girls riding in a dangerous place!”
The Sioux Indian looks with his naked eye noticing their faint image up above a large high standing red sandstone cliff just riding along the brush the layers the side of the mountain top about midways up. The Sioux Indian even notices that there’s an even pathway leading to the west end of the mountain where they can ride down and back onto the plains down below. The Sioux Indian stares for a moment before making a remark, “I wonder what brings them to this neck of the desert?”
The Prophet Ramon can only think how this whole entire journey has brought nothing more than more stragglers he can even fathom about splitting anything with. In fact, there’s more riding on the treasure hunt than he had first expected. The Prophet Ramon wonders where they came from all of a sudden asking, “Where did they come from all of a sudden? Do you think they have been following us perhaps?”
It’s hard to say to Amigo whether they have been following them or not. He can’t really see them too clearly to make out a description of who they are and whether they are from here or somewhere else. Getting the point across as he takes another look, Amigo says, “I don’t know; it’s hard to get a close enough look. They are pretty far away up there!”
While riding along, Indian Lace can tell that they are looking and that they have noticed there position in relativity to where they are all at. Quickly she continues looking ahead without glancing over down below commenting, “Don’t look over, just keep looking ahead like they aren’t there because they have noticed us. So we will have to come down on the other side a little ways to keep far away from them. Just look out of the corner of your eyes making sure that they down come this way.”
Hopefully they won’t come this way after them and they will just continue along the path until they camp somewhere for the night. But just in case they do Indian Skies decides to reply, “And what if they do?”
Indian Lace wants to head out even faster if they do telling Indian Skies, “If they do happen to turn our way and they start heading over hear riding really fast. We will take off as fast as we can and be ready for a confrontation maybe!”
Back with the others the Cherokee Indian doesn’t really want to waste his time with any cowgirl stragglers mentioning, “Let’s not waste our time with them, they are probably just some local girls perhaps!”
By now Amigo figures that they should just keep moving on until it’s time to camp for the night. It will be a while before they reach the next site to sift through for any rewarding finds for that matter. Bringing this to their attention and agreeing with what the Cherokee Indian wants to abide by doing, Amigo announces, “Let’s just move along then and we will camp ahead just past the next mountain next to a ravine I know fairly near the trail a few hundred feet or so.”
The Prophet Ramon wonders if there is anything from their past that may be following along such as girlfriends or other female entities that they know of asking, “Are you all sure there are no ex-girlfriends or wives from your past that could be following you to see if you’re cheating or something?”
The Pawnee Indian starts to chuckle a bit mocking, “Girlfriends or wives following us, where have you been?”
The Sioux Indian laughs a little bit too describing, “He’s obviously been in Spain too long and left his girlfriend who can’t swim to follow him!”
The Cherokee Indian agrees remotely saying, “Isn’t that a fact?”
Then Amigo changes the subject considering he’s not sure of who anyone else out there is anyhow probing the Prophet Ramon, “So do you believe in the past and reincarnation and such other aspects of life Ramon?”
The Prophet Ramon has to think about that one for a moment while he digs up the right answer to give them. With a little thought about it, the Prophet Ramon shrills, “Sure, I do and that’s why I said what I did about J.C. Tenney’s name, and how it was an image to Jesus Christ and his initials. I figured it must be connected to the past somehow!”
Fastly like, Amigo realizes that they are heading in the right direction with trying to get to know one another gawking; “Now we are going in the right direction with things!”
The Cherokee Indian thinks that’s cool that he agrees with their beliefs in reincarnation as well. Now he wants to see how smart he is by querying, “Then who do you think I was in the past?”
The Prophet Ramon isn’t so sure because he only expected to find out his past on his own, but anyways he just throws something out there insinuating, “An Indian from one of the sights maybe who wants to relive the excitement maybe!”
The Cherokee Indian doesn’t want to give too much away right now considering they have more in store for the Prophet Ramon saying, “Maybe, I guess!”
Then the Sioux Indian tries to change the subject to throw the Prophet Ramon off by scrambling up, “So who do you think the Davies in the story was in the past; Davy Crocket!”
Amigo, the Pawnee Indian, and the Cherokee Indian start to snicker a little bit. Then a moment later finally the Prophet Ramon replies back, “No, I doubt it, probably not!”
It’s not too much longer and they start to approach the next mountain range where Amigo wants to camp early for the night so that he can make some of his hallucinogenic peyote tea for his ceremonial rites to initiate the Prophet Ramon in to their reincarnated group completely for the initiation they have planned for later. Amigo mentions this by describing how they are close to the turn off stating, “Up ahead is the turn and we’ll camp early for the night in the ravine so we can have a ceremonial rite before we head out the tomorrow!”
Soon they all reach the turn and ride in to camp so they can set up for another night’s stay out on the mountainous range. The females Indian Lace and Indian Skies begin to enter the lower basin and start to follow once again although this time they see them fade out from the trail. To Indian Lace it appears as though they are going to camp for the night and wait another day before traveling along again. Indian Lace turns to Indian Skies informing her, “It looks like they are turning in to the ravine to camp for the night. We should do the same on the opposite side. Let’s just get a little closer and make sure their tracks have turned in that way while staying completely out of sight!”
CHAPTER TEN
Hours go by as the band of treasure hunters all sit by the camp fire that they have built for another night. At this time Amigo is preparing some of his peyote tea concoction which is made and heated with his own special recipe of using mesquite to bring out the flavor for his soothing. The Prophet Ramon is watching his as Amigo holds his little kettle pot in the fire just enough to make it very warm enough to still drink. The hotter the better is his motto as the Prophet Ramon looks at the kettle pot as he spins it around and round trying to make ready and just right for the drinking.
The Prophet Ramon wonders what the feeling of a hallucinogen is like by shrugging, “So what’s it like taking peyote, is it comparable to alcohol?”
Here’s where Amigo uses his psychology of persuasion to ease the mood in so that the Prophet Ramon becomes a partaker even though he isn’t no member of any native religion. Amigo passes the question off by using his comment to his advantage by grimacing, “After a sip of this you’ll feel like you had three beers and you will feel like you are on top of the world!”
By now Amigo feels the kettle pot is nearly finished and complete while the Prophet Ramon answers back to him, “I could handle that feeling like I had a few beers!”
The Cherokee Indian buts in to the conversation adding, “Three or four sips and you’ll feel like you drank some moonshine!”
A moment later Amigo pulls out the kettle pot and puts it up to his mouth for a quick little sip. For some reason he didn’t seem to put that much peyote in the kettle pot anyhow. He had only placed a little so that they don’t get sick afterwards. One to two small sips is okay but any more than that and most people end up vomiting. Once Amigo takes a small sip, he hands the kettle pot to the Prophet Ramon though he tends to keep his hand on it so that he doesn’t take too much considering that he has never tried before in his life.
The Prophet Ramon looks at it and goes to take a sip while Amigo holds it firmly saying, “Just a small tiny sip now. There’s enough for two rounds and that’s it!”
The Prophet Ramon takes his little sip as Amigo lets go so that he can pass it to the Pawnee Indian who is sitting next to him on his left only feet away. Naturally Amigo lets go as he passes it to the Pawnee Indian, although he is cautious by exclaiming, “Just a little one and then pass it along!”
The Pawnee Indian takes a quick little sip and then he passes it to the Cherokee Indian who is sitting next to him on his left a few feet away. The Cherokee Indian takes and smells it first because the mesquite has such an aroma coming off from inside the kettle pot. At that moment the Cherokee Indian proceeds with a small sip which seems to catch a little bit of a facial expression from him unlike even the Prophet Ramon or the Pawnee Indian.
Next the kettle pot of peyote tea is handed to the Sioux Indian who is sitting on the Cherokee Indian’s left who holds saying, “Yes, it’s my turn to sip!”
Hurriedly he takes a small sip before handing the kettle pot to his left back to Amigo who is about ready to take the first sip of the second round. Before Amigo does, he says, “This is the second and final round!”
Amigo finally takes a second sip as the effects of the first begin to catch him a little bit of a euphoric feeling, though it hasn’t completely kicked in as of yet. Then he passes the kettle pot to the Prophet Ramon who is able to take it on his own accord this time without Amigo holding it for him like a baby this time around.
The Prophet Ramon puts to the kettle pot to his mouth about the time Amigo jousts, “Just a sip and pass it again!”
The Prophet Ramon takes a sip and then passes the kettle pot to the Pawnee Indian while replying, “I know!”
The Pawnee Indian looks around the camp fire laughing with a little chuckle before putting the kettle pot to his mouth. Once he takes another sip he passes the kettle pot to the Cherokee Indian who looks and asks, “What’s so funny?”
The Cherokee Indian takes another sip while the Pawnee Indian answers back saying, “Nothing just thinking of something from long ago!”
The Cherokee Indian then hands the kettle pot to the Sioux Indian who takes the last sip by tipping the kettle pot all the way up trying to get every last drop. Next the Sioux Indian gives the kettle pot back to Amigo who now exclaims, “And that’s it!”
Naturally the effects of the peyote don’t really take affect right away. It takes a little while for the effects to completely settle in creating some hallucinogenic feelings to everyone there. Nonetheless the Prophet Ramon doesn’t really know what to expect from the ceremonial ritual, although the Indian band has something in store him eventually down the road. And this is the only way they can bring out any visions of the past for his recollection.
Amigo stands up after setting the pot down like he was starting to see something going on around him. It’s almost like he can see in to another world or realm like someone looking in rather than out of a window. As the Prophet Ramon looks up to him he notices the fire light from the camp fire glaring back from his eyes and there is a weird stare about him all of a sudden.
The others just sit there watching the fire with a look that seems like they are opening up to something other than the reality of where they are in the physical world. Yet Amigo has become focused on some fixed object like he had seen a ghost or maybe it is something from the supernatural world like an evil entity he is conjuring up to do his abiding. Still his actions aren’t that of trying to drive out the evil which prevails over such diseases or ailments caused by sorcery or witchcraft.
Nevertheless he is one medicine man who can use his herbal remedies to cure even though the cures aren’t for sickness and in health. His cures are spiritual and they will only cure your soul which in return may bring health but that’s not what he’s after. What he wants to accomplish is to bring the true images to reality about the Prophet Ramon. He needs to fulfill those visions and refresh them now that he is here in flesh and blood and he feels it is time to make them clear,
The Prophet Ramon looks around for a moment as he starts to feel a euphoric feeling that is new and foreign to him. He feels as though his mind is being manipulated by something else or maybe even someone else. There are some thoughts and feelings starting to attract to him like they were becoming the center of his universe. All of a sudden he has transformed in to this irresistible magnet that can attract the mental pictures which he entertains and radiates. In other words the aura which is around him is changing as he involves himself more with the band of Indians he has come to know slightly.
Though when he looks around at them he feels that many things have been left out and that these realities will flow in and through him like a receiving unit that picks up vibes from a sending unit which could be the entities sitting around the camp fire. And for some reason the mood tends to swing and he feels different about being with them. It’s almost like this whole journey has become nothing more than one desecrated treasure hunt which is coming to surface as a search which has been trampled over long before he even ever got here.
As he gleams at them with a keener eye that is glazed over with thoughts of a past life beginning to surface and emerge, the Prophet Ramon begins to feel like this whole journey has become sort of what tends to be more eerie as every second pours on by him. And for some reason he feels like he isn’t even with any members of the human race any more. The Prophet Ramon senses that he may be with some creatures that aren’t of a marsupial race. As he looks to Amigo, he can tell that there is something different about him. It’s almost as though he has some type of shield over his eyes like that of a reptilian that can see in to another world or realm other than the reality of where he is living. He even feels like they may have become cold blooded and that the warmth of his blood has been cut off for some melancholy of a time.
The Cherokee Indian looks to him wondering if he feels different already asking, “Do you feel anything yet Prophet Ramon?”
The Prophet Ramon has to think about it for a second considering that a whim of intuition has shown its way to his brain. After thinking about it for another moment, the Prophet Ramon answers, “Yes, I feel a little hazy and everything is fiery looking like there’s a haze to the air or something.”
The Sioux Indian makes a comment about the experience expressing, “That’s the effects kicking in!”
The Pawnee Indian wonders if the Prophet Ramon has ever had anything that was mind altering before asking, “Prophet Ramon have you ever had anything that makes you going like that?”
The Prophet Ramon is curious as to what he means, though he has had quite an experience once in his life with some of his father’s friends who let him try something. Bringing this experience forth, the prophet Ramon shrieks back, “Yes, once my father’s friends gave me some aphrodisiacs?”
Right off the mark Amigo becomes very nosy about what he is saying to them all. He quickly speaks for all of the inquiring minds questioning, “What kind of aphrodisiacs did they give you?”
The Prophet Ramon can only imagine everyone’s hair seeming like they were on fire or something of that nature. He tells them the best way that he possibly can by mustering, “
The kind that makes you see afro like hairstyles!”
The Pawnee Indian has no idea what in the heck he is talking about batting an eye querying, “What in the heck is that supposed to mean?”
The Prophet Ramon can only think about how colored people have poufy hairdos impressing them all, “What I mean is that everything seems more intense to look at with this like strange aura manifesting in and through it! The only difference is that this feels a little more intense!”
Amigo explains the process a little bit to the Prophet Ramon wising, “That’s peyote for you. This stuff is more powerful and it doesn’t mess around. It’s to bring forth your visions of the past and future!”
The Prophet Ramon decides to change the subject right away by balking, “Hey, I just had a vision!”
The Pawnee Indian is the first to respond by responding, “And what is that may I ask?”
The Prophet Ramon thinks back to when Amigo was talking about the bottle he found with the name J. C. Tenney written on it with a drawing of a slight treasure map as well. Immediately the Prophet Ramon goes in to details expressing, “I had a vision about the bottle that Amigo found with the name J.C. Tenney written on it with the drawing of a treasure map. It could be a code name using numerology perhaps.”
Hurriedly Amigo becomes even more curious wondering what he means with an inquisition, “And how is that so using this so called numerology?”
The Prophet Ramon now has the chance to use his own knowledge informing them all, “Well, numerology is defining every letter unto a number. For instance you write numbers one through nine on a piece of paper and then you start the alphabet underneath by first writing the letter a under number one and the letter b under the number two and the letter c under number three and so on.”
By now Amigo has caught on by adding, “And a letter d for the number four, and the letter e for number five, and the letter f for number six and so on, right”
The Prophet Ramon then continues on by accumulating, “Then the letter g for number seven, and the letter h for number eight, and the letter i for number nine. Then you drop back down at the number one for the letter j, and so on and so on. And when you get to all the letters under the number six you will see that the number of the beast is fox!”
The Cherokee Indian has been following along and he feels that it is confusing when he mentions the bottle having something to do with it asking, “So and what does this have to do with the bottle left by the miner?”
The Prophet Ramon gives the whole idea a little thought by suggesting, “Well, the letter J in his name could be a substitution for the letter one and the letter c in his name could be for the number three, while the letter t is the number two and so on. And this could be the numbers to a geographical location and when you figure what that is you’ll know where the place on the map is located!”
The Sioux Indian has an idea about what the Prophet Ramon is speaking about. He figures it may have to do with a specific location hidden in a secret code. The Sioux Indian thinks about this while asking, “Are you talking about specific coordinates to a hiding spot hidden in a undisclosed message such as his name that only he can know about because he uses his own letters of his name for a secret code?”
The Prophet Ramon agrees with his correct answer telling the Sioux Indian, “Precisely!”
Quickly Amigo jumps in to the conversation examining, “And what code is there to break with those letters. It could be anything and there’s nothing to come up with as an example of this?”
Nonetheless the Cherokee Indian has just come up with a hunch as to what code he may be using, though they don’t know the way the land was split up according to the United States Land Survey. Still he mentions this by declaring, “Unless he is using coordinates such as the way the Land Survey has divided up the land within the states!”
By now Amigo has no idea what in the heck he is talking about gibbering, “What are you getting at?”
The Cherokee Indian tries to put this in to words that he has learned through his reading of a local paper back home contending, “Maybe, his name represents the location through Township, Section, and Range somehow!”
Amigo thinks that almost sounds so ridiculous that some miner would use his or a name to conceal some location based on divisions based beyond meridians within a state which used to be part of a larger territory. Therefore Amigo questions his authority on this fact by babbling, “What gives you that idea?”
The Cherokee Indian feels that this is the only thing that seems to make sense implying, “It’s the only thing that makes any sense!”
The Prophet Ramon breaks in right away noting, “No, he’s on to something. The location could be at Township 1, Section 3, and Range 2!”
Then the Cherokee Indian corrects him by collaborating, “Actually it would be Township 1, Section 3, and Range 2 East!”
The Pawnee Indian freaks out almost immediately like who has any idea of where this particular place could be out there. It could be anywhere. A moment later he relents his thoughts to everyone as they all bring their visions forth clearing up, “And where in the hell might that be; for instance we don’t have any accurate maps with townships and ranges anyhow, do we?”
Right away, everybody turns to Amigo who stops and looks back as he looks around at them. Then he blinks his eyes a few times like he’s trying to focus on to the matter at hand before exhilarating, “No, I don’t have a Township and Range map on hand, although I did stop at an Interior General Land Office and a Grazing Office where I looked up the geographical location of the site and of course I took a few notes at both places!”
The Sioux Indian gets extremely excited like he was high on life, catechizing, “And what notes did you get?”
It’s a little confusing for Amigo to even talk without his notes in his hand; still he tries to bring out the right words reporting, “Well, I know that the location we are going to is Township 16 North, Range 2 East, Section 25, and Lot 1.”
The Prophet Ramon has no idea how close that is to Township 1, although he figures that it must be really far away. Nevertheless the Prophet Ramon has to ask how far away it is anyhow bickering, “So, how far away is Township 1 from Township 16 North; it must be pretty far away it sounds like?”
Now Amigo feels he should correct the picture in the Prophet Ramon’s mind by telling him how far away it really is saying, “Actually Township 1 is in the opposite direction of where I would think the miner would stash the gold. Township 16 is directly 3 townships west from township 13 which is directly south of Township 12. And Township 12 is directly south of Township 1, although Township 12 could be a representation of the “x” house which is located in the southwest corner of the southeast section. But I really think he went south away from there and picked his own location for an “x” house with a predetermined bearing he could relocate later.”
The Pawnee Indian begins to think negatively about it expressing, “You have us confused!”
Then Amigo relates to the effects of the drub signifying, “That’s alright; it must be the peyote. Anyhow I belive his bearing may have been somewhere along the Agua Fria River which has a similar bearing rearing eastward past the site and then the river bears a south west flow until west of Phoenix.”
The Sioux Indian is glad that Amigo has done his homework and that he has narrowed down some of the search. However he feels that there is still a lot of territory along the Agua Fria River to search as far as every little nook and cranny is concerned. Moreover the Sioux Indian decides to question the situation theoretically asking Amigo, “So we are going to have to travel the Agua Fria River downstream and look through every little crack we can see for some marking displaying the hiding spot?”
Then Amigo agrees that that may be the only way to discover anything considering they really have no idea what happened there before they will arrive at the site. Anything is possible when it comes to others who have ventured their way across these meridian basins and ranges. Furthermore Amigo agrees with him by answering, “Yes, that would be the best way to make sure that we have covered every aspect of the search without leaving out any traces. And it seems like the best choice as far as the gathering of information I could find over the years!”
The Pawnee Indian can only use his negative comments and sarcasm to ponder of the task of it all by jousting, “That sounds like another wild goose chase to me. That’s a lot of ground to be covering and looking over to find some hidden mill sacks of gold that could be hidden anywhere out there along the river. Are you sure that they may be somewhere in close proximity to the town of Black Canyon City or Rock Springs or do you think he could have taken the gold further closer towards Phoenix?”
Of course Amigo isn’t positively sure of everything when it comes to predicting the actions of some miner that is only from recent years and there could be a chance of him still being around somewhere. But then on the other hand he chooses to conclude, “It’s hard to say! But I don’t think we would stash it anywhere except for where there are cliffs with hiding spots. I doubt he would bury it near the towns where there too many places like there are in-between!”
The Cherokee Indian thinks positively about it conjuring, “Don’t worry; we’ll find it all somehow. We have all of the time in the world. We are in the world of the supernatural now and we can draw our own future and draw upon the ideas of the past!”
Amigo butts in right away, telling them all, “Let’s just worry about when we get there!”
Then the Pawnee Indian changes the subject by starting, “Yes, let’s just wait and worry about everything when we get there. We have it all covered, no problem! I’m pretty high now anyhow. So Prophet Ramon you said you believe in the past and that the bottle could be the representation for something else. You said that the letters J. C. could represent Jesus Christ like he was some cowboy from another time who may have come here to mine the site and profit from the gold!”
The Prophet Ramon feels that he has put more words in his mouth than he really had first said. All he claimed was that it sounded like the initials of the Holy Savior Jesus Christ and never claimed that he had taken the gold removing it to stash somewhere else. They all said that, or maybe it was Amigo who said that because he is supposed to be the head man with all of the knowledge of how to get there on his own. Anyhow the Prophet Ramon is so intoxicated off of the peyote right now that he just wants to pass it off without arguing answering the Pawnee Indian rallying, “Yes, I believe in the past and yes it could be related, but I don’t know for sure!”
Then without any further hesitation, the Sioux Indian decides to ask, “So Prophet Ramon, do you believe in reincarnation then?”
The Prophet Ramon is not with his fullest of senses right now and this question has caught him a little off guard in a way, although he answers it the best that he can mumbling, “I guess you could say that! I read up on it a little bit!”
This is where the Pawnee Indian confronts him on his awareness on which he may have been in the past. Even though they all may have a sense to which he actually was back during the days of old, the Pawnee Indian tongue-ties, “So Prophet Ramon, do you know who you were in the past? Do you know much about your past lives and where you were born and where you may have lived in your past lives?”
Of course, the prophet Ramon has an idea of who he was because it’s his past life which draws him here to this particular place, yet he doesn’t really know everything about all of his past lives. Most of that is research that he will have to figure out on his own. But then on the other hand many insights along with mental images have surfaced exposing the true reality and identity of who he was back when.
Still many of his visions are faint and reappearing in new contexts that seem gloomy and far off and far away. It was almost like he could feel how things were back then just like they were yesterday. Anyhow the Prophet Ramon pauses for a few moments before answering the Pawnee Indian’s question as they all look him down like they were expecting some certain words to pour from his mouth, although he just quills, “Yes, I know who I was in the past. I was a Prophet of God!”
Amigo thinks that sounds like a good thing to come up with considering that they already know that much of him know by the name he goes by and they know now that he was one in the past. But nevertheless he was a Prophet of God who had the testimony of Jesus Christ held from his awareness and he has learned through the years to outshine that reality to be a Prophet of God once again. Now Amigo repeats his line to them trying to sink it in for acceptance saying, “Always a Prophet of God?”
The Prophet Ramon hears his remark adding, “I guess so why not?”
The Cherokee Indian wonders what a Prophet like him would want to or have to do with the demeanors of treasure hunting. It seems like he should be running a church or be involved with some church organization of some kind. Yet the Cherokee Indian queries a line asking, “So why are you out here in the middle of nowhere if you are a Prophet of God. Shouldn’t you be involved with a church organization or something?”
The Prophet Ramon thinks about that question for a second because there was a time that he wanted to pursue being a pastor or bishop who could take on his own church somewhere. But his main desire was to be part of a monastery, although it takes much dedication to be a monk. To be a monk you must be able to pray a certain number of hours a day and you have to be able to stay in seclusion from society. Many of the monks he has talked to at monasteries say that he should have started at a younger age in order to perfect the practices of meditation that is required to be one with God. So he had decided to do his own pilgrimage to the New World seeking out his own religious goals in this life.
The Prophet Ramon comes back telling them, “Well, there was a time when I wanted to be a pastor, bishop, or monk in a monastery. However it takes a lot of work to do all of that. Plus I just kind of did my own studying that my father had believed in and no one else really gave it a second glance or look. Most people have disagreements with others and the way they see things so I decided to just remain solo in a way. I wanted my own church there for a while but there was a lot of competition out there in the preacher field you could say.”
The Sioux Indian wonders if the Prophet Ramon knows what his name was in the past. Maybe he is a little more aware of his past lives than you would expect. Then on the other hand, maybe he really doesn’t have too much information except for a little. Maybe the Prophet Ramon only has a few clues as to who he really was back then in the past of this entire rustle and hustle. Still the Sioux Indian persists with his curiosities by querying, “Do you remember what your name was in your past life or lives?”
The Prophet Ramon rolls his eyes over for a moment and then he blinks before saying, “I think my name might have been the same as it is now I believe!”
Then Amigo blurts out the same line as once before shrilling, “Always a Prophet of God even with the same name?”
The Pawnee Indian is very demanding about finding more out about him and his own awareness of his past self. He attacks the Prophet Ramon’s integrity by deliberating, “So, Prophet Ramon do you know about where you lived at in the past. Is there one place that always pops up in your mind like you can’t seem to get it out of your mind?”
The Prophet Ramon has had images and recollections of particular places, yet many of them don’t really mean anything to him. Most of these dreams within are only on the surface and it’s hard for him to place the location of its origin. Many of the places in his dreams of the inner eye are unfamiliar to him considering that he only knows what it’s like to imagine it all back at home, though none of it was of the same context. Everything is much more different then what he has first imagined it to be in reality.
After contemplating what to say to them for an answer which would kind of make it sound as if his dream were nothing more than a masquerade of thoughts, the Prophet Ramon tells his idea disclosing, “Yes, there’s one place that pops up in my mind where’s there’s lots of horses around and there are two ethnic groups fighting. But all I can see are painted and colored faces running towards me as I slowly escape in my dream. They are moving fast, yet I am barely moving like I was sledging through quick sand or something. In the dream I can barely move along while they are gaining ground on me though they never seem to reach me either. It’s like they are moving fast yet the dream cuts off before they ever make it to me. Do you know what I am saying?”
The Pawnee Indian explains and edifies the fact that he understands completely answering back, “Sure, I know what you’re saying!”
Then Amigo butts back in to the conversation assembling, “It’s like that in your dreams; everybody else is moving fast while you’re moving very slow like you are stuck in the mud and then you wake up in your blanket and realize that it was all a dream of some kind.”
The Sioux Indian thinks about a dream he had once a while ago which was very similar to the Prophet Ramon’s story explaining, “I had a dream like you’re a few months ago. Usually I don’t tend to dream that much. But in this dream I was running after something trying to catch up to them as they were riding faster and faster away. But no matter how fast I ran I could never ever catch up to them. They just kept on riding away faster and faster.”
The Pawnee Indian makes a wise crack making fun of the dream gawking, “Was it a woman running away from you?”
The Sioux Indian makes a chuckle before everyone else grimacing, “Huh, huh funny! No it was someone I didn’t know I think. I’m really not sure!”
The Cherokee Indian feels the same way about his dreams as well. He feels that they aren’t always so accurate because there are facts about your dreams which alter the reality. He feels that dreams may be sort of overly distorted to a point and that it’s hard to make everything out when it comes to recalling the clues from dreams which denote real life. Now he speaks ahead in words of his own mentioning, “I have had similar dreams myself. In fact not all dreams are what they seem to be when you first dream or dreamt them. In fact some of my dreams were only half full of the truth and there were mixed dreams crossing over from realty over to another reality like they were somehow connected, even though they were totally different aspects of my entire life. It was like they were only clues to what I had been doing which should lead me to the things that I should be doing to form a perfect future for myself.”
Then the Pawnee Indian looks to Amigo to ask him of his dreams while he seems to sit there mocking his lips like he was performing a silent chant of some kind or another. Quickly the Pawnee Indian asks Amigo, So what about your dreams Amigo do you ever have any exciting ones?”
Amigo thinks to himself for a moment before speaking out, “Sure, I have had many dreams. But most of them are like I was in a Indian War or some kind of quarrel somewhere and I can’t make everything out from it!”
The Prophet Ramon seems enthused as he sits there listening to all of this talk about dreams and past lives muttering, “Huh, that’s something!”
Back with Indian Lace and Indian Skies on the other side of the mountain just opposite of them Indian Skies has returns to take a closer look up the trail to the ravine to see if they are there camping. Of course she had to ride a long ways around on horse and she had to go on foot a little ways as well. Hurriedly she rides up to camp as Indian Lace is grooming her horse. She pulls up holds back her horse’s bridle to make a candid stop. Indian Skies informs Indian Lace of the status from her report uttering, “They’re there just sitting around the fire. They seem out of it maybe. It seems like they were just talking about stuff I think!”
Indian Lace figures that they should just wait until sunrise and then pack up to continue the pursuit saying, “We’ll camp fir the night and head out at sunrise once again as usual. It sounds like they aren’t going anywhere and they never paid any attention to us up on the ridge I suppose!”
Indian Skies gets off of her horse and then reaches in to her horse’s bridle satchel for some beef jerky enclosing, “Sounds good!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Immediately Amigo stands up and starts’ chanting while everyone’s just gaping at the fire that is starting to die out. As he stands he starts to chant louder trying to snap everyone out of so to speak with his Indian medicine man hoodoo. The Prophet Ramon is the first one to react from this as he tries to lean up with some trouble. Amigo continues chanting before quickly commanding, “The sun is rising. Let’s get an early move on!”
The Cherokee Indian starts to lean up as well responding, “Now you want to head out now?”
Amigo turns and head back to the dying camp fire. Straight with Amigo begins kicking the loose dirt in to the fire saying, “It’s time. We’ve had a rest!”
The Pawnee Indian makes his way to his feet folding his blanket like he was already expecting an early departure. Hurriedly the Sioux Indian and the Cherokee Indian follow even though they are very mind altered from the peyote still. Of course, the high from the low-lined cacti will last about two to three days. For the Prophet Ramon it will be more intense than for the others.
The Pawnee Indian can only help propel and move ahead Amigo with his wanting to head out cringing, “I’m sick and tired of camping anyhow. All I could think about is finding the treasure and buying me a country house with lots of squaw around. Then maybe I can open up a bar as well and hang out every night talking to the customers!”
The Sioux Indian can’t imagine anyone wasting their money on such a venture relating while preparing to leave also. Instantly the Sioux Indian tries to question his stupidity by asserting, “Why would you want to waste your money on that when you could return to your reservation with enough money and gold to start a ranch. Then you could have all of your own livestock and you could grow all of your own food like corn and squash. When I get the money we’re returning home to build a house every year until I have three housed to rotate in-between.”
The Cherokee Indian finishes up placing his blanket in his saddle bags concluding, “Not me, I’m going to open my own trading post so that I can sell general store merchandise to the Indians of our community. And then you have to buy all of your feed through me in order to feed you cattle ranch I would think, huh?”
The Prophet Ramon does the same as the others by preparing to leave by putting his material possessions away such as his blanket and his canteen of water. While the Prophet Ramon packs his canteen and blanket, Amigo wonders about the Prophet Ramon’s future asking, “So how about Prophet Ramon, what are you going to do with your winnings? Are you going to build a church or something maybe?”
The Pawnee Indian hops onto his horse by putting his right foot in the stirrup before jumping up. Just then the Pawnee Indian queries to the Prophet Ramon, “Or how about a mission; you could build yourself a large mission with huge walls around protecting it like in the old days during the 1500 or 1700s, huh?”
The Prophet Ramon gets up on his horse answering, “Well, I don’t know that sounds like a lot of work!”
The Cherokee Indian can only think of putting things in terms that he can handle saying, “A lot of work; being a Prophet of God is a lot of work isn’t it? Can’t you handle running a mission?”
Hurriedly they all ride off while the Prophet Ramon thinks that is so absurd considering that there are no more missions really around at this time. Most of them were around during 1500 through 1700. Now there are mostly churches such as the Roman Catholic Church which is the largest church organization in the world. Anyhow the Prophet Ramon mentions this by informing, “There are no more missions around now days. There are mostly churches like the Roman Catholic Church!”
Nevertheless Amigo thinks about some of the other churches which even are beyond the seven churches mentioned in Chapter 3 of the Book of Revelations. As a reaction to what the Prophet Ramon has said, Amigo asks, “You’re right, there are all kinds of churches out there with different views and they are growing. You are very knowledgeable even when on peyote!”
The Prophet Ramon is of course high on the peyote brew that Amigo had prepared so ceremonial like. In fact, he is feeling pretty good except for the slight stomach ache that has him feeling like he may have a bad case of stomach digestion. Still he decides to act manly about the whole entire felling by gathering, “I feel pretty good; except for the wavering in my eyes that feels like it’s piercing over my mind!”
The Sioux Indian thinks about how he has the same array of colors running around in his mind. He tries to bring the light of being on peyote by telling the Prophet Ramon, “That’s the hallucinogens acting out of course. If you control it, you can bring forth visions and see the past or future.”
The Prophet Ramon wonders what kind of visions he would be able to see. Are they visions of his past or future, or just anything out of the ordinary? He thinks of this for a moment before asking, “What kind of visions are we talking about?”
Then Amigo comes in with the answer saying, “Like the vision you had before with the numerology being a representation of his name pointing to some secret hiding place. Actually it has brought a lot of thought to my mind on how I’m probably right about where the miner’s treasure may be stashed. But I doubt it’s in the other direction. But I’m still pondering it over a bit in the back of my mind!”
It seems that the Prophet Ramon had just thought that up for the first time based on what he had learned from his father about numerology. He has also read up on the subject realizing that there are ways it can be used to hide secret codes and other information. The Prophet Ramon even learned from his father how the Bible talks about the “Number of the Beast,” though according to the numerology the number is represented by an animal.
Bringing this conversation out in the open once again, the Prophet Ramon describes his intuition on the subject saying, “Most of what I said before was something that just simply clicked from what I have read and what my father taught me about numerology. I never knew anything about the site and the miner’s name. It just sounded funny and I only picked up on it somehow. And the 666 being the letters for “fox” is what we learned to view as the “Number of the Beast” because it was something real and tangible that lives in our realm. Everything else is of the paranormal and my family has learned to see things at not only on a spiritual level, but rather on a physical level with the world that surrounds us. Supernatural things according to my experience and my father’s experiences only display themselves once to show their presence if they want to. And many of times they don’t. I believe in what I can witness in actuality.”
At that time the Pawnee Indian yells out, “Woe; did you see that?”
Then the Sioux Indian answers back, “What?”
Next the Pawnee Indian says, “I just saw something scurry across the trail really fast. It looked like it had a scurry foxy tail to it!”
The Cherokee Indian looks ahead down the trail as the peyote plays with his eyes a little even though he doesn’t really see anything. Quickly the Cherokee Indian mentions, “I didn’t see anything!”
Then and now the Pawnee Indian tells them all, “Well, they only show themselves once, huh?”
As a response to all of the commotion, Amigo describes the scene by expressing, “You must really be high or something; it was only a few small sips?”
The Pawnee Indian thinks back to his lie about seeing something unfolding, “No, I really did see something scurry across the trail!”
Amigo comes back with his explanation even though he never saw anything in the first place articulating, “I bet it was a roadrunner that ran passed or some bird or coyote, if anything!”
The Pawnee Indian fades back to the moment once again faltering, “Maybe a coyote if it wasn’t a fox!”
The Sioux Indian fades back to a dream he had that was so real that he seemed to keep having it over and over again. In fact some of the things in the dream are instances and past recollections which have led him here to this journey. Some of the parts in his dream have brought about images that make the treasure so real that he can almost taste it at times, although he saw a few obstacles. And now many of those obstacles are gone now, although there is still one obstacle that remains and he kind of pushes that point to the side for at this instant.
Nevertheless the Sioux Indian relates this to everyone even though he is especially gearing the story towards the Prophet Ramon. A moment later the Sioux Indian turns to them all saying, “In fact I have had dreams that have showed up once only to show themselves with a bit of the truth and I have had dreams which tend to show up all of the time. In fact some of them have related to my being here on this journey for discovery.”
The Pawnee Indian is the one to race in and question his story for any aspects of the truth like he states are present in them. Indeed the Pawnee Indian is leery of everything testing, “And what stories of your dreams are those that you should share with us?”
At the present time the Sioux Indian decides to share his dream with them knowing that it will spark a little bit of fancy in some of them and if not all of them gibbering, “I had a dream where I was running with a treasure but I couldn’t tell what the treasure was except that it was heavy and I could barely carry it all. And the more I tried to take the more it kept slipping away from me as the hands of others seemed to slurry all over it trying to steal it away. Yet I still was able to get away with some of it and I never to let go of all of it!”
Suddenly Amigo chuckles for a moment before quilling, “That really sounds like quite a dream sequence!”
Next the Cherokee Indian tells a tale of one of his dream that is a driving force to them teaming up together noting, “I have had a dream that has made a lot of significance in my travels and it is one that I can’t get out of my head. It’s one that involves the Sioux Indian. I told him about it and he just simply thought that the dream sounded too far out in left field. In the dream I am running and he is catching something which he throws back to me and I catch it as well. Then the dream shifts to some chaos before we are alone with the treasure. Soon in the dream there is nothing but complete and utter silence and then the vision dies away and I usually wake up with nothing as usual.”
The Prophet Ramon has been listening to all of these stories so very quietly that he finally perks up a few words lipping, “Do you know what you are catching in the dream or dreams?”
The Cherokee Indian thinks to himself for a brief second before quibbling, “No, I don’t have the slightest. But whatever it is we are out to keep it out of the hands of others and that’s for sure! And for some reason it was a delusion where we are barley moving yet we are moving in unison for some uncanny reason or another. It’s like we are moving together yet we are moving so slow and everybody else is moving so much faster than us nearly catching up to take whatever it is that we are possessing!”
The Prophet Ramon tries to go more in detail as his mouth begins to get really thirsty from the effects of the peyote jousting, “What does what you’re catching look like? Is it a box or a bag of some kind? Maybe it was Pandora’s Box or something like that?”
The Cherokee Indian fades back to his dream while his eyes seem like they are in a trance maybe, or it’s like he’s daydreaming all over again. A moment later, the Cherokee Indian answers back saying, “It looked like a bag of some kind; maybe it was a burlap sack or mill sack or something. I’m not really sure what was inside there though. It could be anything.”
Then Amigo butts in to the subject by blurting, “Maybe it was some gold or something like that.”
Then the Pawnee Indian cuts in to the conversation by adding, “I bet you it was some precious stones like amethyst, topaz, or beryl crystals perhaps.”
The Cherokee Indian thinks back to the reverie wondering about how heavy it all seemed when he caught it averring, “I don’t know what was in there, but whatever it was it was pretty heavy to catch without dropping it!”
The Prophet Ramon wonders if he’s curious as to what it was and if there’s any way he could find out asking, “Don’t you want to know what’s in there somehow?”
The Cherokee Indian has an idea about finding out, although it would take some more reoccurrences of the dream in order to find out. He tells his idea by relenting, “I would have to try and have the dream again using a dream-technique so that I could do some more self-hypnosis and try to catch images of more Religious Icons with images of the conflicting forces that are at hand.”
The Prophet Ramon pictures many of his Religious Icons such as his Bible Research and the Bible itself, of course speaking out loud, “The Bible and my research is my most reliable source of Religious Icons I can think of and there pretty obvious!”
The Sioux Indian jumps in to the topic by instructing them all, “It’s different when you have dreams that happen all over again and again. Sometimes they aren’t all what you think they are made up to be. They are so distorted and some things are very exaggerated indeed.”
Then the Pawnee Indian decides to ask the Sioux Indian something about his deep impressions asking, “So Sioux Indian have you had any dream with the Cherokee Indian that are similar to his?”
The Sioux Indian has to re-apply his thinking cap a bit contemplating, “No, I don’t think mine were like his, they were a little different I believe. Just a bit I suppose!”
The Cherokee Indian realizes even more so now that his dreams were the only ones with both of them present saying, “My dreams were the only ones with both of us in there together I believe!”
Now Amigo goes on to addressing how this is their way of remembering the past by deliberating, “Now, what do you think of doing peyote?”
The Prophet Ramon figures that the question is directed towards him elaborating, “I think it brings up lots of emotions and it gets you pumped up emotionally!”
At this moment Amigo goes further with giving details of using peyote by eloquently saying, “This is one of our Critical Rituals involving “Cults of the Dead” where we separate the world of dreams which is the world we live in from the dead which is the world of the afterlife for every one of us!”
The Prophet Ramon is a little confused as to how they can relate the world of the dead with the world of the living through the aspect of only dreams querying, “How can you relate the world of the dead with the world of the living through only dreams?”
At this time Amigo correlates with the Prophet Ramon by expounding to him, “In dreams the world of the dead is separated from the world of the living once you realize that it is aspects of your past life coming forth through visionary means. These dreams flow to show you how close you are to your achievements, although they are cloudy and fuzzy and your mind makes a mockery of them to leave some sort of passion between the real world and the imaginary world of the supernatural!”
Then and there the Pawnee Indian tries to put things in a way that he might understand more thoroughly by shrugging, “Basically this ceremony is our divination in to a realm that lets us see where we need to make changes in order to justify what the future holds!”
Right off the bat Amigo can’t believe what he just said or maybe he’s only trying to throw the Prophet Ramon off from the idea acting, “What, justify the future?”
The Pawnee Indian now feels that his wisdom has been demeaned and he has another way of expressing himself telling them all, “Yes, it’s a divination in to a realm where we can make changes to our future. In other words are future isn’t set because the past as well as the future can and is able to make the same adjustments that we ourselves can make. And sometimes our own dreams are so distorted that there’s nothing we can do to change the future according to the past!”
The Sioux Indian is really confused now thinking that the Pawnee Indian is so high that he is obviously mumbling out his rear trying to make some sense out of no sense. Quickly the Sioux Indian baffles a line speaking louder, “I don’t know if it’s you or the peyote, but I’m so confused by your insinuations that we should just worry about the treasure and forget all of that mumbo jumbo divination talk.”
Just about at that moment in time, Amigo turns towards a distant crest of a nearby mountain which gives him a slightly closer view of what has followed. Immediately his eyes fix upon the subjects as their distant bodies begin to emerge with more exposure. It seems that they aren’t paying any attention back to them though as the images continue to ride along the grade of the crest as it tapers off in the distant at the southwest end of the mountain.
As Amigo looks his hands start to tremble as the effects of the peyote and its powers of divination take head on their whole entire bodies with more of a mental picture for him to remember. As Amigo’s hands shake, the bridle of his horse turns in the direction of the mountain that lies just north of his secure point. It doesn’t take but only a second before the Pawnee Indian notices blabbing, “Hey look; we have a hand trembler at work!”
The Cherokee Indian who is so high he can barely think anymore enquires, “I wonder what is making him tremble so much?”
The Sioux Indian looks off in to the distance about the same time the Prophet Ramon does over towards the lower mountain range. The Sioux Indian and the Prophet Ramon can see two figures on a horse ride across the mountain without paying any attention to them. Quickly they both realize that it may be the same entities who they had seen before, yet they may be different people. But for some reason the reaction within Amigo has taken a hand trembling affect which then stops as he turns back in line with the others.
This is where the Prophet Ramon brings his humor and wit to the test when he declares saying out loud, “Well, there’s those foxes I was talking about! And there’s not only one, but there’s two foxes and they have shown themselves twice this time!”
Amigo then turns his bridle over in that direction answering back, “Those aren’t the same girls as before!”
The Pawnee Indian glares over towards the distance noting, “Then why were your hands trembling so much?”
Right away, Amigo thinks up an excuse as his hand trembling which is part of his power as a diviner comes showing forth clarifying, “I thought I saw some shotguns strapped to their saddles!”
The Pawnee Indian comments back fast like pondering, “You can’t see that far without any binoculars or a telescope!”
The Prophet Ramon reaches in to his satchel bag for his telescope so that he can take a closer look over there. Once he takes a hold of them, the Prophet Ramon lifts his telescope to his eyes while riding even though the trail they are riding on is extremely bumpy in places. It only takes another moment before he catches their location and he begins to focus in on them. A moment later he can see some shotguns strapped to both of their horses and it looks like the female in the lead may have a rifle as well.
Quickly the Prophet Ramon mentions this to all of them expressing, “Yes, I can see some shotguns and maybe a rifle. It even looks like they may gun straps on too!”
Amigo fades back in to the trail and looks back saying, “Must be some outlaw women!”
The Cherokee Indian of course thinks differently about what type of women they could be up there riding along the lower mountain range. He feels that there could be some sort of pursuit going on for any matter. Relating this idea to Amigo and the others, the Cherokee Indian makes an insinuation telling them all, “Or they could be some sort of Bounty Hunters following us for some reason!”
The Pawnee Indian can’t even imagine any Bounty hunters following us from that distance. And he’d think that they would be right on their trail and usually Bounty Hunters travel in groups of three to five people when they are out trying to capture wanted individuals. Nevertheless the Pawnee Indian brings this fact to mind by exasperating, “Then why aren’t they following us from a closer fixed position. It seems like they aren’t really even paying any attention to us for any reason!”
The Sioux Indian believes that maybe it’s their imagination somehow and their minds are playing tricks with them toting, “Maybe it’s the peyote playing tricks with our minds?”
Then Amigo knows when he is seeing imaginary aspects of life and the difference between facts that happen to be real. He answers back with much doubt to their opinion on the Bounty Hunting idea saying, “No, those females up there are real, but I doubt they are Bounty Hunters. They are probably some other treasure hunters or maybe they are even some stragglers just passing through looking for something else that we have nothing to do with!”
The Prophet Ramon thinks that sounds like a bunch of predisposed malarkey and that Amigo is just trying to pass the buck or two off somewhere else. It seems that the Prophet Ramon has another inkling wondering, “Then why are they riding along with us. This is the second time we have seen them. It’s kind of coincidental that they are riding to the side of us just a little north of here?”
The Cherokee Indian believes in his first impression explaining, “I’m telling you that they are following us for some reason!”
The Sioux Indian figures that if they all know about the treasures and other people such as Amigo and his stories are concerned with the miner’s bottle and the story of Rock Springs, then there’s a good chance that others such as those women up there may know something about that fact as well. He mentions this notion by compounding, “Are you sure there’s no one else who knows about the stories of the lost gold that we are solely after?”
Amigo has to think for a moment because there’s no way he could possibly know everything about the treasure and he feels that he is definitely not the only one who knows of the treasures existence. Of course, there’s the fact that there are four Indians already and one prophet amongst their group alone. And there’s no telling who else has any inkling to the treasure and its secrets to find its whereabouts.
Anyhow Amigo goes on speaking about whether or not he knows anyone else replying, “No I’m not sure; I don’t know anybody else. I haven’t talked to anyone except for the Prophet Ramon because I didn’t want to travel alone. It’s just coincidence that he came over seas for the same lines of treasure hunting.”
The Pawnee Indian wants to protect his interest in the treasure and he doesn’t want to have to give it up for some unknown forces from some unknown outsiders. Straight away the Pawnee Indian brings his awareness to mind by screeching, “Maybe we should confront them and see where they are headed. I wouldn’t mind getting some Indian squaw for a night or two!”
The Prophet Ramon figures that they should leave them alone and just carry on with their day of endeavors. There’s no reason for them to go so far out of their way for two females that may appear to be traveling alone. There’s even a chance that they may be part of some camp close by that they are making way to and that in fact they aren’t really alone anyways. The Prophet Ramon gives some details suggesting, “We should just carry on and leave them alone. There’s a chance they are heading to a camp or something like that. We don’t really know who they are and we should let them come our way before confronting anyone. Don’t you all think?”
Amigo takes his last line as a sort of slight insult implying that they can’t think and that they are obviously letting their horniness get in the way of making an honest living as far as they are concerned. Quickly Amigo comes back with protecting their worthiness saying, “Don’t talk to us like that! Of course we can think; this is just a lonely ride to some of the guys. They’re not going to come this way anyways, especially if they happen to be following us along the way!”
The Cherokee Indian has a different way of handling the situation adding, “We’ll wait until they do and only if they do come this way!”
The Sioux Indian follows upon his friend the Cherokee Indian’s lines expressing, “If they come any closer, I think we should confront them and see what they are up to just so we can peak our own curiosity!”
By now Amigo feels that all they should do is just keep a simple eye out for them in that direction suggesting, “Lets’ just keep our eye on them and see for how long of a distance they continue to follow us!”
The Pawnee Indian isn’t really that buzzed after all, although he doesn’t feel that they should do anymore peyote along this trip. He figures that they should stay as sober as they can so that they don’t become too bedazzled over the whole entire journey. Now is not the time for them to lose their senses and thus, lose their train of thought that they have built up along the way. The Pawnee Indian tells them all, “I’m really not that affected by the tea, still I think that we should refrain from anymore sidetracking. The visions this time were merely distorted and we should wait until we are closer to our destination. In other words we did the ceremony too early for that matter.”
The Sioux Indian has the opposite effect considering that he is so high that he can’t even focus on them two women riding along the lower mesa of the mountain. Feeling so out of it, the Sioux Indian admits, I don’t know what you’re talking about; I’m so high I could fly a kite!”
The Cherokee Indian takes that as a bit of humor by calculating, “I feel like a kite flying around in the clouds for that reason!”
Amigo can’t believe what he is hearing. It’s almost like they are a bunch of Dagon Wimps or something tallying, “You guys are all a bunch of wimpy mothers!”
The Pawnee Indian sticks up for everyone else asking Amigo, “So what; are you some sort of heavy weight or something?”
Amigo isn’t really that high considering he is a member of the Native America Church which is a church organization for tribal peyote worshippers like himself. And nonetheless he has made this his pilgrimage of brotherly love along the peyote road to help celebrate his freedom of religion and speech which is a Constitutional Right.
Amigo tries to defuse the situation by telling them all, “I’m a little high I guess; but not enough to let some couple of girls spoil our fun for anything!”
The Prophet Ramon takes another look, although this time it is with his naked eye and not his telescope that he has brought along for the journey. From looking even at a distance, the Prophet Ramon can see that they have disappeared from any sight. Quickly he lifts his telescope back to his eye and takes another faraway stare. At first sight he realizes that they have gone out from his vision.
The Prophet Ramon brings this all to light describing, “They disappeared out of sight!”
Amigo thinks about it for another second before answering back, “They’re probably just coming down from the crest of the mountain back down onto the mesa that sets in between that one and the next one!”
The Cherokee Indian senses that they are riding that way on purpose. It’s either because they want to be seen or they are trying to keep close tabs on them as well. Anyhow no matter what he considers to be the reality of the situation, the Cherokee Indian says, “They must be riding that way on purpose for some uncanny reason!”
The Pawnee Indian knows that they must be trying to keep an eye on them so that they don’t lose track of them along the way. Indecisively the Pawnee Indian refers this dilemma by unfolding, “Of course, they are riding higher up. It’s so that we don’t suspect them of anything and they are also trying to keep their close tabs on us all. I bet you they don’t even know that we noticed them up there on the side of the mountain.”
The Sioux Indian is very curious as to whether they ever even peeked down at them or not schilling, “I bet you they had to of taken a good look at us from up there without us even noticing?”
The Prophet Ramon thinks back to when he scoped them both out with his telescope implying, “It didn’t seem like they ever paid any attention to us when I was looking at them through the telescope both times!”
Right away, Amigo defends the argument by adding in addition, “Of course, they saw us! What do you think they are just some blind women up there riding along with their heads up their rears?”
The Cherokee Indian feels that he is making this circumstance all the more difficult by insinuating that they are following them and that they have seen them all without a mere doubt. He starts his own little debate by replying, “How do you know they saw us? We have no real proof that they are following us or that they have even ever laid their eyes on us. We should just move on and see if they continue to follow us. And after a few more days traveling, if they are still following us in a peculiar fashion, then we will have to change our course or we will have to confront them or something!”
The Pawnee Indian has an idea since they are now simply out of plain sight. He directs his attention to the others by persuading, “Why don’t we just keep traveling until after dark a few miles before we camp for the night?”
Then Amigo gets an even better idea explaining, “How about this; we just ride our rears off for a mile or two and then slow down for the rest of the way!”
Immediately the Pawnee Indian starts to ride fast just the moment Amigo commands it. Quickly Amigo follows suit and the rest decide to fall in one after the other. Soon the trail is flowing with lots of dust that trickles itself high upon the wind.
Consequently a few minutes later Indian Skies notices a cloud of dust just before they reach the bottom of the mountain crest saying, “Look! There’s a cloud of dust trailing behind them!”
Indian Lace takes a glance for a turn before answering back, “They’re trying to outride us because they think we are following them perhaps! We will pick up the pace for about three or four miles which should be enough!”
Right then and there, Indian Lace and Indian Skies begin to ride much faster, although it doesn’t seem like they’re willing to tire their horses out or throw a shoe for no wrong reason. However much of the ride is rough because they are far from the trail riding along the lower basins.
CHAPTER TWELVE
There’s only one word that describes what the others feel towards Amigo, who seems to be the team leader. And that word is ethnocentrism: for some reason they like their ways are less important than his way, though the Pawnee Indian may appear to be the one to side with him on occasion. Or maybe he is just the wrench in the money bag so to speak.
Nevertheless they continue plunging as much dust to start up a dust storm on the other hand or trotting plunge. They continue to travel approximately three miles or so before slowing down just as Indian Lace had previous expected them to travel before tiring wearisome. One reason Amigo starts to slow down is because riding on the peyote is causing a slight headache even though peyote is one of his ways to bring out the visions like it were his innate God.
Basically it’s a God shown forth through the means of a plant even when some of its own truth is unimagined and at the same hand dark at times. As they once again come to a slow riding pace, Amigo takes a look back behind them to notice all of the unsettling they did while riding really fast. He even wonders if they have out witted the females who he believes is following them.
With this deeply seeded within his mind Amigo speaks bringing up, “That ought to do it! I wonder if we lost them and they will become curious as to what happened to us the next mountain range they ride across the ridge of.”
The Cherokee Indian thinks that they will eventually figure it out if they are following them along for the ride of richness is concerned. As the Cherokee Indian turns looking back at the dust blowing off the trail swerving towards the slight brush that lines along, he comments, “They’ll come to their senses eventually!”
The Prophet Ramon sees so much does flying by from behind that he can only add, “That’s a lot of dust we sprawled up. Are you sure there’s no way they could see that. The dust stretches a good fifty feet in to the air!”
Then Amigo agrees with the Prophet Ramon about how that is a little much citing, “That is a little thick because we rode pretty fast. It’s a good thing none of us have thrown a shoe so far on this trip!”
The Pawnee Indian never worries about such a thing considering he checks his horse’s shoes every time they camp and it even seems like the rest of them do as well. Anyhow the Pawnee Indian gives some details describing his travels, “Well, I’m sort of a Black Smith myself. I have a few tools with me and a few extra sets of shoes just in case. You just have to get the fires brewing hot enough and I even have a small anvil and hammer I brought just for the trick!”
By now Amigo has to bring some common sense to the group by jargoning, “I hope we all have brought some extra horse shoes along, I did!”
The Sioux Indian answers back quickly, “I have four or five left!”
The Cherokee Indian repeats after the Sioux Indian informing them all, “I have about the same!”
The Pawnee Indian carries on with, “I’m okay in that department!”
The Prophet Ramon has no problems with anything like that explaining, “I’m alright as well!”
Amigo becomes very agitated from being trailed on their journey saying, “Good, because we don’t want to have to make any emergencies stops to have to camp out early on our trip. The sooner we get there the better before someone else stumbles over that place again!”
The Cherokee Indian is confused as to why he is in a hurry to get there if so many may have reaped the rewards from the site before they even ever have made their way to the place yet. The Cherokee Indian shows some doubts to Amigo and his sentences. A moment later the Cherokee Indian words, “Why are we in a hurry if there’s nothing there perhaps. And for all you know someone else is over there mining the place as we speak?”
Consequently Amigo becomes even more aggressive with the stories of his legend and knowledge take a hold of himself blurting, “Then we will just have to confront them and chase them away. There are five of us and probably less of them I would hope.”
The Sioux Indian wonders what they will do if the law or some enforcement official were to show up enquiring, “What do we do if we get there and others show up and it happens to be the law of some kind like a sheriff or something?”
Amigo thinks for a brief moment before chuckling telling them all, “Well, the place is called Badger Springs and if a badge does spring upon us then we just tell them that we are passing through and we were just looking for a place to camp for the night. And we tell them that we were planning on leaving in the morning at sunrise.”
The Pawnee Indian decides that that sounds like a brilliant idea summarizing, “That sounds like a plan to me! We don’t want to spend too much time in a camping area if the badges show up investigating some Indian and cowboy gold hunting stand offs. It figures they would give the place a name like that for some reason or another.”
The Prophet Ramon is getting kind of paranoid for the matter of thinking that they are going to be entering unknown land without any proper easements. He feels like probing around with them all asking, “Are you sure we don’t need some permission to travel on that land. Are there any ranchers that are herding in that area?”
Amigo realizes that he’s right there are some cattle fences in the rea and that there are some ranchers herding in that area. In fact, they would only need an easement from some rancher or land owner if they were going to build something, though on the other hand all they will be doing is mining, panning an assessing the area for more than placer minerals are concerned. Amigo brings this realization to them all by expounding, “Well, there are some ranchers in the area, although I think they are only herding steer for that matter. I haven’t really seen anything else out there since I have been there the last time.”
The Pawnee Indian has just clued in on a point of matter about his story and what he claimed to have done before this whole entire journey ever begun. The Pawnee Indian is confused about a certain aspect that now doesn’t quite seem to make any sense to him. Without any further hesitation, the Pawnee Indian asks, “You told us that you stopped at the Federal Land and Grazing Office to learn some facts about the trip?”
Amigo stops and pauses for a moment before answering back, “That’s right!”
Then the Pawnee Indian comes back with the rest of what he was going to ask by asking, “And you didn’t look to see if anyone had any Grazing Rights to this area. When did you go to the Land and Grazing Office before or after the first time you came here?”
Amigo must be assured that he speaks with certainty; otherwise they may all catch him in in a lie even though he is telling the truth in a sense. Though he is tired and he is also under the influence of a hallucinogen that is starting to give him such an angry and bad trip in a way. Amigo tries to do the right thing by wanting to make them feel less suspicious by exclaiming, “I stopped by there right before I headed this way the first time I ever came out here!”
The Prophet Ramon clues in a question to probe wondering, “What did you do when you were there?”
Amigo thinks back with a cloudy yet clear mind informing them all, “First off, I checked for any mining claims that may have been staked in that area and I even studied everything I could about the Township and Ranges of that area the best I could. I even wrote as much as I could without anyone becoming wary of me!”
The Pawnee Indian wonders if he even dared to check out whether or not any ranchers were ranching within the area. He brings this question about asking, “Did you even bother to see if there were any ranchers ranching in the area?”
Amigo really didn’t think of that at the time. For some reason he forgot to look up anything about the ranchers and only the miners saying, “No I overlooked the fact about any ranching because at the time I was only concerned about whether or not there were any miners operating any placer claims in the area!”
The Prophet Ramon has an argument about his research considering it isn’t as thorough as he has been bragging about. Quickly the Prophet Ramon wonders about his knowledge questioning, “So how do you know the miner on the bottle isn’t a miner and rancher for that reason?”
Then Amigo gets confused when mixing that with everything the Prophet Ramon had said about his numerology and such. Amigo takes the argument further by getting to the point saying, “Now why would I think that some rancher would pretend to be a miner in the area anyhow. I doubt a rancher would even want anybody out there messing around on his land where his herds are roaming! And even you thought that the name sounds like a code name or something!”
The Sioux Indian sticks up for Amigo and his defense accumulating together, “Yes, you said that name was some code name of some kind and that it shouldn’t be ignored!”
The Prophet Ramon feels like the both of them or maybe all of them may seem to be ganging up on him when he has never ever even ventured his way out here before. He tries to snub them all and what they are getting at by explaining, “Well, that was before you brought all of this ranching in to the scheme of things. At first we were only concentrating on the mining aspects of everything. My mind wasn’t on any of that rancher stuff except for that bag of gold you found at the barbed wire cattle fence. Other than that I never even gave it a second glance or thought.”
The Pawnee Indian has a hunch as to how maybe the ranchers may have found out about the arrastras and the ancient mining site somehow. According to the Pawnee Indians own feelings, how could they not know about any of the treasures that are merely more than a legend? They would have to be stupid to have not historical knowledge on some land that they are ranching on, right?
The Pawnee Indian delivers his rationalizations by saying, “How could those ranchers ranch there, yet not know anything about the gold, huh? You would think that they would have had it all wrapped up a long time ago! The first time they ranched out there rounding up their herds they would have stumbled upon something, right?”
Nonetheless, Amigo doesn’t feel that way. He feels that the ranchers are only concerned about selling of their heads when they reach a certain number keeping them under control saying, “Not necessarily! I think the ranchers would have too much to do with keeping their eye on their herds making sure that no predatory game gets in the way. Most of the times they have to ride around checking on them while counting their head to make sure none of them have been killed in the process.”
The Cherokee Indian agrees with Amigo’s point summarizing, “You may have appoint there; sounds like the ranchers have enough work on their hands watching their herds while trying to round them up at times!”
The Sioux Indian agrees with his friend the Cherokee Indian by admitting, “Sure they do, they have a lot of land to have to travel around herding up their steer and cattle. I wonder how many acres of land they have to manage in order to give their animals enough grazing and pasture to keep them fed at all times. How many acres do you think they have Amigo?”
Amigo thinks about that for a brief moment before answering back, “I don’t know! There could hundreds and hundreds of acres they have out there. There could be as much as the Homestead Act which would be about 640 acres if they applied for one! Then they would really be I business because they can farm and cattle rustle!”
The Prophet Ramon is still pretty high off of the peyote which has distorted his hearing just a slight bit. After misinterpreting what he has heard, the Prophet Ramon repeats, “Cattle wrestling?”
The Pawnee Indian says the word phrase again repeating, “Cattle rustle he said. That’s when they tie them up by all fours like they were one of them damn rodeo clowns.”
Amigo carries back in to the conversation by leading, “Cattle rustling! Sometimes they have to really hear their game up when they get too far away and the weather is really bad. That just depends on how many rustlers are working together and how big the herd their driving is at the time.”
The Sioux Indian makes a wise crack with a future brand name while trying not to laugh, “Maybe we should design our own cowboy pants and call them rustlers or are we too Indian to dress that way!”
The Cherokee Indian thinks to being back at home on the range quoting, “Sure we have Indian rustlers!”
By now Amigo himself is still feeling out of the ordinary pointing out, “Come on, you’re all high. There’s nothing wrong with any Indian Cowboys out on the range! Now is there?”
At about that moment the trees have passed on by for a breaking view as the Pawnee Indian turns towards the next mountain range of New Mexico yelping, “Do you see what I see?”
Quickly Amigo moves his head the other way commenting, “Ah, look whose back again. They must have seen our trail of dust or something maybe!”
Just then Indian Lace and Indian Skies turn to make their way through a small canyon to the other side of the limestone and red sandstones that separate not only their distance but their height above them as well. Slowly Indian Lace and Indian Skies fade out from the view of the gang. The Pawnee Indian notices that they have turned from view contending, “Looks like they turned in to a canyon or ravine up there!”
By now Amigo is sort of confused to how they are keeping up even though they may have seen their dust spread all over the wind. Nevertheless Amigo moves on to his implication blurting, “Are you sure none of you have sisters that you told of your travels?”
The Pawnee Indian is the first to explode with such a crazy idea in mind yelling, “Do any of us look like we would want to bring our sisters?”
Amigo repeats the question saying again, “I asked; do you have any sisters?”
The Pawnee Indian answers once again telling Amigo, “Yes, I have a couple of sisters. But those aren’t any of my sisters. They must be one of their sisters!”
The Sioux Indian defends himself by excluding the option, “I don’t have any sisters and neither does the Cherokee Indian!”
Then Amigo turns to the Prophet Ramon asking, “Prophet Ramon?”
The Prophet Ramon doesn’t spend too much time before saying, “Sure, I have two sisters, but they’re not Indian like those girls!”
Amigo takes a second to soak in all of the information he has gathered before toting, “Huh, I wonder who they are then?”
The Prophet Ramon has his own understanding of who they probably are since the Indians act like a bunch of hot heads. He brings another facet to their attention by coinciding, “Are you sure there aren’t any females that have been watching you to beat you to the punch?”
Right away, Amigo becomes agitated and of course it’s the peyote bringing out the worst in him. In his own defense Amigo protects his interest by babbling, “Beat us to the punch. Well I already have one thing saved from the trip I took the last time. I have a little token right here in this satchel bag. So far it’s the only relic I could find, although they have no monetary value to me!”
The Prophet Ramon is curious as to what he is talking about requesting, “And what is it that you have there if it’s not worth any money?”
Amigo turns to everyone speaking, “Oh, just some bones I found at a burial site! There not much; in fact they are kind of decayed and corroded anyhow!”
Here’s the right appropriate time for Amigo to induce his intrusion in to the soul of the Prophet Ramon. So far this won’t create any sickness making him very ill as of yet. However the Prophet Ramon will slowly start to losing his soul and, or he may even become partly possessed. And on the Prophet Ramon’s part, there’s a chance that he may become vulnerable to Amigo and his sorcery. The Prophet Ramon may even become sickly ill if he were to come in to close contact with such relics considering how they are sacred to Amigo. And later they may become sacredly important to the others as well.
The only confusing part to the Prophet Ramon is, “Where’s this so called burial site that he has found?” And the other question is “Whose bones are they significant to in this part of history?”
Furthermore the Prophet Ramon carries on further digging for more information from him by eluding, “And where is this burial site located?”
Through the last few moments, Amigo has realized that telling the truth won’t hinder his plan because the time is now anyhow for the initiation. With this fact on his mind, Amigo says, “That’s funny that you should ask because that’s why I didn’t want to back track in the first place. The burial site I found was in the “X” box known as Township 12!”
The Pawnee Indian cuts in to the whim of things divulging, “Well, that makes sense why not to backtrack. All because you found some dead bones there. Hell, there are dead bones just about everywhere where we are going, huh?”
Amigo moves his head straight in front of himself before assuming, “Well, isn’t that right? Where we are going there should be bones in every pan instead of gold nuggets?”
The Sioux Indian contemplates the thought for a jiffy before answering back, “That wouldn’t surprise me none; if all we do is end up coming out here for just some measly bones to scrap!”
The Cherokee Indian has a point to clear up speculating, “Is Township 12 part of the same ranch by chance you think?”
Straight forth Amigo has seen how screwed up the cattle fencing system out there is with all of the different kinds that it’s hard to say what’s what out there. Amigo decides to tell them all in an unassured fashion expressing, “That’s hard to say! Everything out there is such a mess. Some of the cattle fences are on top of rifts and peninsulas which drop of and end at cliffs. Then they pick back up a few hundred feet down and later crossing through rivers where the barb wire is hanging mangled within the currents. In fact one time I nearly slipped in a small waterfall where there was some barbed wire strung down along the side. If I would have slipped I would have been cut up pretty badly for sure. And I didn’t want that to happen now would I?”
The Pawnee Indian butts in with how it will be when they get there by asking, “So when we get there we won’t be able to be sure about who the ranchers are out there. And we won’t be able to tell who the miners are either if any of them happens to show up around the time that we are over there!”
Now Amigo agrees completely and fully with the Pawnee Indian by exasperating, “That’s right; just like them two women out there. We will never know who they are until there’s a confrontation!”
The Prophet Ramon can’t believe what he is hearing. Amigo is talking about a confrontation with some females and he doesn’t even know who they are and they could be anybody for that matter. In fact, only previously, Amigo was figuring that it was one of our sisters and mistaking them for his own sisters when he came off of the boat alone. So far the Prophet Ramon is all mixed up from the hallucinogens to where nothing seems to make very much sense to him during this trip.
Anyhow the Prophet Ramon is curious as to what Amigo is talking about by asserting, “What confrontation? You mean with those two lonely females up there?”
The Sioux Indian agrees with the Pawnee Indian right off the bat, although he kind of goes back on what he said earlier by saying, “We don’t want any confrontation with any sisters!”
The Cherokee Indian takes his side by conjuring and confusing, “You mean with those two nuns up there who may be Catholic nuns. Or maybe they are Catholic Indian Nuns. Or maybe he figures it’s our first cousins removed and its okay if we kidnap them and marry them! You think them girls or religious women will come our way?”
Right away, off of the bat Amigo feels like they are shunning him. Quickly Amigo negates the conversation by stating, “Alright, enough with your nonsense and humor, if those women do head this way just act natural?”
The Pawnee Indian can’t actually wait for that moment to come. And of course he tells them all how he is going to act when that time comes by gabbing, “Of course, I’ll act natural. I’ll just show them what a ladies man I am!”
The Cherokee Indian can only pretend to have heard something different by relating, “Oh, that’s great. Not only should we invite them over to fondle them, but we should then simply take them along and share the treasure with them!”
Amigo can only agree with the Pawnee Indian by clearing it all up saying, “We won’t mention the treasure at all. Let them mention it and then we’ll take them for a ride and hold them up!”
The women on the other hand weren’t trying to be seen, although they were. Indian Lace turns back to Indian Skies as the clear a canyon entering towards a down slope out onto the open lower range. As they begin to ride closer together as more space comes, Indian Skies asks, “They had to of seen us again!”
Indian Lace is grateful if they did telling Indian Skies, “Good! I hope they did so they can have something to talk about!”
Indian Skies can’t imagine them not realizing that they are being followed. She goes on to point this out by saying, “If they saw us they probably think that we are following them!”
Indian Lace also understands that they don’t know them from cotton picking nowhere. Indeed they have never laid eyes on them before. However she has a line of defense if they do wind up in a confrontation clarifying, “We shouldn’t worry about what they think! They don’t even know us. We have never talked to them before in this life. They’re probably on peyote by now anyways and they are too high to come after us. We are just merely a mirage to them!”
Indian Skies is still curious as to what they will say if they do come in to contact with them marveling, “And what will we tell them if they do come?”
Indian Lace has a good one to throw them off from connecting them to the site by suggesting, “We’ll simply tell them that we are Tewa Indians heading home. Or we could tell them that that we are Hopi Indians returning back to the Navajo Reservation!”
For some reason Indian Skies has some negative feelings towards the Indians accepting that considering that they are from around that area such as Amigo. If they do come in to contact with them, Indian Skies realizes that their confrontation may be unexpected and it would be hard to convince them of such a story. Amigo himself would most likely know that they are lying and they may blow their cover. She feels there’s a chance that they may be recognized and that they should try not to get too close to them.
But as long as they have some similar clan names to use that are also shared with Navajo clan names than maybe they might not suspect them of anything when it comes to following them. Nonetheless the Indian band will do anything in their power to bring this person under their rightful justice to preserve their traditional beliefs. And they are serious when it comes to their sacred and religious property that they feel is still theirs according to the law of precedence as far as any ranches or ranges of herding are concerned. And when it comes to any miners who have staked any claims using techniques by writing their finds to the land by placing wine bottles corked with written pieces of papers signed with their mark, Amigo would of course be the first to contest.
Anyhow Indian Skies asks a simple question to ease her pains of paranoia querying, “Do we have any clan names we could use that would throw them off because so far we don’t know too much about where they are from except that the leader is Navajo?”
Indian Lace has a few bull clan names to use but she’s not sure how stupid he really is if they come in contact with them. Still she shoots a few names to herself before asking, “So what names should we use?”
Indian Skies has a few not to use saying, “Well, we shouldn’t use the Bluebird clan or any Coyote clan names, that’s for sure!”
Indian Lace has a few nonchalant clan names to use adding, “How about’ we use the Hopi Corn Clan name and we are also a part of the Wolf Clan. I doubt they’ll think very much if we use those clan names!”
Indian Skies is okay with that because it sounds basic and it’s not too bland on the other hand either. In fact they will probably believe that they are farmers from somewhere on the Hopi Indian Reservation. That won’t make the Indians and the Prophet Ramon too suspicious of them being related to the past. And of course without any doubt there are differences between their looks now from back them.
Though nonetheless Amigo is fond of the past and knows his own and that of the Prophet’s by some fate. Yet she and her friend should still try to refrain from any close encounters with the men and their obsessions. Meanwhile Indian Lace wants to keep moving with a tilt towards the north informing Indian Skies, “Let’s make sure we head a little north out of view for a while just in case they did see us and do suspect something.”
Back with the men, the Prophet Ramon wonders how much farther they will have to travel until they camp. To him it seems like they never could out ride them females at no matter what the cost. It appears that they just seem to keep up at no matter how fast they ride. Well, of course, they are riding along the “Old Spanish Trail” to follow along with hitting all of the sites. There’s obviously only one other way to go according to Amigo and the trail still meets at certain intervals along the distance.
Anyhow the Prophet Ramon brings this question out in the open gibbering, “So how much father until we camp. It seems to be getting a little dark as dusk sets in!”
Amigo thinks about that for a moment before answering, “Well, we will after another mile or two. We just want to throw them off a little bit by waiting until after dark. This way we will get some extra time in as well.”
The Pawnee Indian figures that that is a good idea waiting until after dark before they camp. Quickly he replies, “That sounds like a good idea. We don’t want them too close anyways right away!”
However the Cherokee Indian feels that that won’t matter too much once they get another camp fire going really bright. Anyone can see a camp fire even from a few miles away especially when they are at a higher elevation than they are at. The Cherokee Indian mentions this considering that he doesn’t think it will matter where they camp at saying, “That’s not going to matter once we get a camp fire going. They’ll be able to see it wherever we camp at.”
The Sioux Indian is getting hungry and sick and tired of living on a frontiersman diet of only beef jerky and his can of beans. Wanting to get the chance to hunt something, the Sioux Indian discloses, “I am getting tired of eating raw cans of beans that we have been cooking in the fire. And the beef jerky is getting a little old all of the time!”
Amigo realizes that there’s not too much he can do about that until that get closer to their destination or they get a chance to get close to something. So far they haven’t seen too much game along the way. In fact most of it has been at a distance scurrying off right away. And there’s no reason for them to go off of the trail entering on to someone else’s land where ranchers are herding their cattle. They don’t want to hunt anything that doesn’t belong to them causing any trouble.
Amigo relates this fact by telling the Sioux Indian and the others, “We will keep on the lookout for anything. But we don’t want to wonder off of the trail too far even if we do see something. So far there hasn’t really been anything around to even get a shot at except for some small game. Eventually we will come across something and we will butcher it up for a few good meals or so. But we don’t want to leave any waste along the trail just in case anyone was to come across it. In other words we don’t want to leave any evidence of our riding along the trail if you know what I mean! For right now we have to refrain from eating for three days because we partook of the peyote plant. You’re not supposed to eat until three days afterwards.”
The Pawnee Indian feels like he’s going to puke from listening to some of them talk about food. He makes a puking raspy cough like sound before enquiring, “I feel like I’m going to get sick; just quit talking about food and let’s hurry up and find a place to camp for the night so we can lie back for an evening!”
Amigo tries to push the Pawnee Indian a little harder and further commanding, “We will find a place to camp fairly soon. There’s a place right down the trail from here where we can find a good settling spot for the evening!”
Another mile goes by and they decide to stop and camp for the night. Before camping they look around to see if the coast is clear, although it’s really too dark to see anything but the bright stars above.
Below is a link to "Bags of Gold" subpage 4.