Jewel of Hiram (The Chronicles of Crash Carter Book 1)

by Frank Felton

  THE CHRONICLES OF CRASH CARTER

  JEWEL OF HIRAM

  FRANK FELTON

  Description

  The ghost of Snively has haunted the Milam County, Texas, countryside since the 1800’s. Stories and legends fail to explain more than a century of supernatural occurrences tied to the San Xavier missions, founded to convert Apache warrior tribes on the frontier of Coahuila y Tejas. The missions were abruptly abandoned by the Spanish in 1755. Civilization would not return for more than 100 years.

  One man will discover the secrets of the Legend of Snively and unmask an enigma brought to the New World with the conquistadors.

  The aging narrator recounts his life, beginning as a young soldier on the beaches of Normandy in 1944. Near the end of World War II, his unit moves south to the Bavarian Alps – a fateful journey which would change his life. He discovers a glowing jewel in Hitler’s bunker at Eagle’s Nest, and embarks on a mission to piece together a 3,000 year old riddle. It leads him to the land where Snively roams.

  From his deathbed, the narrator foretells an ominous future. He uncovers the tragic history of this jewel, crafted by the hands of Bezalel in the time of Moses, and carried by King Solomon at the founding of his temple.

  Just as Moses’ staff, the Jewel of Hiram is possessed of supernatural powers. It has influenced the outcome of battles throughout history, breaking the will of kings and emperors. The narrator infiltrates a reluctant cadre of men who have unwittingly kept the Jewel hidden away from the world.

  But the Jewel is about to arise from almost 200 years of slumber. It will be sought by forces of good and evil, angel and demon, and its final reckoning will be unleashed.

  Description

  Author’s Note

  PREFACE: Snively – fact or fiction?

  PROLOGUE

  PART 1

  1. Arise

  2. Crash Carter

  3. D-Day

  4. The Temple

  5. Airborne

  6. Eagle’s Nest

  7. The Jewel

  8. Queen Elissa

  9. Return to Texas

  10. The Conquest

  PART 2

  11. The Masons

  12. Lone Star Beer

  13. Hank’s Secret

  14. The new Job

  15. On the Farm

  16. Hank’s History

  17. Aiden Benson

  18. Houston’s Gift

  19. The Key

  20. Mary Benson

  21. Milam County, Texas

  22. Home on the Range

  PART 3

  23. Boots on

  24. Penance

  25. The Fledgling

  26. Becoming a Man

  27. Learning to Fly

  28. Amazing Grace

  29. The Eulogy

  30. The Awakening

  31. Drake Raines

  32. Commencement

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  ~~~

  Copyright 2013 by Frank Felton

  All Rights Reserved

  Editing by Jeanne Williams

  ~~~

  ISBN: 978-0-9913538-0-4

  To my Grandma Nell - a lifelong schoolteacher who gave one final lesson from her deathbed. Diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2008, she managed to live almost 4 more years. In asking me to deliver her eulogy, she unlocked a voice that had remained silent for far too long. Whether she did so knowingly, or unwittingly, I will never know.

  Nervous as I should have been during the funeral, I was not. Her strength had given me the same. It was during the service that I realized this last act of Grandma Nell would change my life. It gave me the confidence to once again put pen to paper, and give voice to those who cannot speak. Death should be not proud.

  A few months later, another mentor named Christine (Chris) Holcombe passed away. She is perhaps the most successful County Extension Agent in Texas history, and I came under her tutelage in the 1980s. As a high school senior, I prepared to hand in a nomination request to Representative Chet Edwards during a campaign stop in Cameron. It was part of my application to the U.S. Air Force Academy.

  Before I could hand the application to Rep. Edwards’ chief of staff, Brady King, I was intercepted by Chris, who snatched the paperwork from my hand, took a quick glance, folded it in half, and handed it back to me. She told me to re-write it. I was beyond upset, and frustrated, but I did as she said. She was, of course, right. I went on to graduate from the Academy a few years later.

  I was asked to be a pallbearer, so I wrote a poem for Chris and read it at her funeral. On the way to the graveside, her son Andy related that he had no idea I was capable of such words.

  It then struck me, like a lightning bolt – neither does the rest of the world.

  Things come together in odd ways, and the Lord works even more mysteriously. I’d like to believe both of these women knew exactly what they were doing.

  Author’s Note

  Military battles in this novel are recreations of actual engagements and track with historical accuracy to the greatest extent possible. Names are changed to protect those who continue to serve on Active Duty.

  I’ve done my utmost to remain true to the written Word. If I have erred, then so be it.

  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. - 2 Timothy 3:16

  PREFACE: Snively – fact or fiction?

  If you were ever to see the gods, say, see them come walking down a leaning tree, wearing shiny orange robes, this would be the place. – George Sessions Perry

  A legend in rural central Texas tells of a ghost that roams the countryside with a lantern, searching for, or perhaps guarding, a long lost treasure of Mexican gold. The ghost roams the rolling landscape, with its fertile blackland soil and luscious pecan groves, on the edge of the Post Oak Savannah range, nestled against the San Gabriel River. Based on sightings, the ghost has taken up residence near the same property where author George Sessions Perry once lived. Before his untimely death, this parcel of land provided a trove of literary wealth for Mr. Perry. It has a bizarre history of tragedy – murder, treasures lost, and supernatural occurrences.

  Born in Rockdale, Texas, in 1910, Mr. Perry wrote an award-winning novel detailing the life of a Depression-era tenant farmer in a fictionalized version of Milam County. He described not only the hardships, but the physical beauty and state of mind, to pitch perfect harmony, with Hold Autumn in Your Hand. He earned the coveted National Book Award for his story. Critical acclaim for Mr. Perry’s writing drew comparisons to John Steinbeck, thus, Perry went on to write for The Saturday Evening Post. He later abandoned novelization in order to write for periodicals, to the chagrin of his fans in Texas.

  While Hold Autumn in Your Hand was published in 1941, the agrarian lifestyle of Milam County remains little changed to this day. To hold autumn in your hand is to preserve one’s garden harvest in a Mason jar, enjoying the fruits of the field even half a turn past the September equinox and into the dead of winter. It was crucial to survival. The book’s title has a sentimental feel, yet stands as a testament to the harsh tribulation of the farmer’s livelihood.

  Ten years after Mr. Perry published the novel, he purchased the very land that inspired it. The farm spanned 68 acres on the southern edge of the San Gabriel River, where the tributary m
akes a hard cut northward before its confluence with the larger Little River, itself feeding the Brazos on its way down to the Gulf of Mexico. He made a valiant effort to farm the land, with little success other than the inspiration for a new novel; Tale of a Foolish Farmer.

  Mr. Perry ultimately met his demise under mysterious circumstances in 1957, or most likely 1956. His body was not found for several months after he went missing. He had entered a deepening depression, tortured by hallucinations of death during his time at the invasion of Sicily in World War II. His condition was complicated by alcohol. He displayed symptoms of mental illness.

  Before his demise, Mr. Perry spoke the gospel as it regards the lifestyle of a bygone era. Horse and donkey soon gave way to the John Deere, lignite coal sprang forth to provide electricity and manufacturing, and the fields once filled with King Cotton are now a mix of corn, milo, and cattle. Despite these changes, the soul of rugged individualists remains deeply imbedded in this rural patch of civilized society.

  In his later, unpublished writings, Mr. Perry revealed regret at having taken the easier path in life as it related to his professional writing career. He opted to pursue non-fiction journalism for major circulation on the East Coast, rather than the rustic novels of Texas which launched his career. In typical Perry allegory, he would say that he chose the less difficult sandy-land farming, rather than the harder yet more rewarding blackland soil of which his most famous novel was based. Sandy loam is far easier to till, yet lacks the fertility and ability to hold moisture so necessary to a magnificent harvest.

  People around here find his self-deprecation nonsensical. They hold no grudges against him for his chosen pursuits, but will always be indebted for the mark he left behind. They will remember him for the accurate portrayal of their way of life, and the always colorful cast of characters cherry-picked from the local populace. The tombstone of Perry’s beloved hound dog is all that remains today of his occupancy of this farm.

  Mr. Perry’s home turf boasted a heritage so colorful that he could have filled a library with novels of its history. Named for a hero of the Texas Revolution, Milam County was once the largest county in the largest state, comprising one-sixth of Texas. Both lost their titles, however, as Milam was diced into parts over time, and Texas was toppled when Alaska joined the Union in 1959.

  The beautiful prose of Mr. Perry portrays the people of a relatively difficult era, but Perry’s years and those beyond were far less tragic than that preceding the 20th Century. Ancestors of the Tonkawa lived here 4,500 years before Christ, settling the San Gabriel River valley. Europeans came in the 1600’s, and the Spanish colonized the area with a number of missions, built to convert the Tonkawa, Comanche and Apache tribes during the 1700’s. Fast forward another hundred years, and the early 1800’s saw full scale settlement of Coahuila y Tejas. The United States expanded in search of Manifest Destiny. This ushered in a period of tumult for the fledgling state of Texas.

  Arrival of the white man preceded the revolution of Mexico from Spain, and then of Texas from Mexico. Texas joined the Union through statehood, then seceded, fought in the Civil War and made amends throughout Reconstruction. The Lone Star State fell into economic turmoil throughout the early 20th Century. In a hallmark of such upheaval, five of the six flags of Texas were raised during a 40-year period from 1821 through 1861.

  The edge of the frontier ran directly through Milam County. It was not until 1846 that Indian raids were finally put to an end with the fort at Bryant Station. Settlers were then allowed to return to their homes abandoned during the Texas Revolution, but the return of the settlers was yet a hundred years after the original Spanish missions in Milam County were constructed.

  Today, the locations of the three missions, as well as a Presidio, have been discovered and documented by archaeologists from Southern Methodist University and the state of Texas. While built to establish a foothold on the frontier, in less than a decade the missions had been mysteriously abandoned. Many attribute this rapid abandonment to supernatural forces, but a closer examination of records yields a more plausible scenario. It was caused by scandal and murder within the ranks of the Spanish military.

  A young Spanish Captain named Felipe de Rabago was appointed to lead the new missions at San Xavier. He was a man gifted with more dollars than sense, his family become with wealth from the silver mines of Zacatecas. As with men of his status, despite mediocre physical attributes, such position of prestige fed innate desires of the flesh. It gave way to an unhealthy pursuit of women.

  This was a serious problem for the Catholic priests whom he was to protect. Captain Rabago’s illicit ventures led to an affair with the wife of a well-placed Spaniard from San Antonio. By these infidelities, in 1752, the captain was excommunicated from the Church. In retribution, the husband of the woman, and a priest named Father Ganzabal, were both murdered. Evidence pointed to Captain Rabago as the primary suspect. He was sent into exile. He repented from his lascivious ways, and was eventually acquitted of the charges eight years later.

  With this looming scandal and declining climate conditions across the territory, the Spanish government soon shuttered the San Xavier missions. They relocated resources further west to San Saba. As the missionaries departed, they buried valuables, including a large golden Cross. They did so seemingly to prevent the Indians from stealing these possessions as they made the trek back to San Antonio. The buildings were set afire to prevent anyone from taking up occupancy. They banished this land, Milam County, back to the fringe of the forsaken frontier.

  Others claim it was the Indians who acted first, besieging the missions and forcing an abrupt burial of the valuables. In this context, the story of Captain Rabago’s infidelity might have been merely political cover to mask a failed expedition. Now saddled under the weight of a terrible drought throughout the southwest, it’s not beyond the realm of speculation for a government to act in such a manner.

  The truth is lost to history.

  The reason for the abandonment may not be known, but there is no doubt the Spanish left quickly. It is somewhat certain that in the ensuing departure, artifacts were thrown into the irrigation well near the middle of the mission and buried. There were few other options in such haste. This well was atop a hill less than a mile from where Mr. Perry’s story takes place some 175 years later, at a point just east of where the San Gabriel River makes it turn to the north.

  Jeanne Williams, a local reporter, writes of the exodus in the Temple Daily Telegram:

  …the settlement witnessed a scary sight — a ball of fire in the sky circled the area. Some believed the fire ball represented the wrath of God, who cursed the presidio that soon was plagued by disease and a drought so severe the river dried up. The missions were abandoned in 1755 leaving behind charred ruins, intrigue and tales of hidden gold that won’t stay buried.

  The area would lie dormant a century nigh. Inhabitants scattered as leaves on a windy autumn day. Just as a field is plowed to make way for the season’s planting, so too would the Lord clear this land for his future plans. When the Great Flood ended, the sign of the rainbow graced the skies, and Noah raised his hands to Heaven. The promise of the rainbow would be kept, but this time, the Lord’s vengeance would come at the precision of a scalpel; without the brute end of a sword.

  PROLOGUE

  Supernatural happenings in Milam County have confounded commoners and intellectuals alike. Speculation of lost treasure is related by J. Frank Dobie, who taught at the University of Texas, as well as Cambridge. His early writings focused on the vanishing way of life in rural Texas and myths of treasure. Mr. Dobie, in his voluminous writings on Texas history, focused a few lines to the subject of Snively’s gold in the early 1900’s:

  On the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain, in almost its exact center, there is a deep hole of considerable circumference which appears to have been covered with loose dirt. The remaining surface is comparatively level and of hard, rough rock. According to legend, this hole in the center was b
lasted out and used as a hiding place for a fortune in gold. This fortune was hidden by the Spaniards and is thought to have been the property of the missions.

  Since that time many have searched for this hidden treasure but none has ever found it…. he once located the spot but the moment he started to dig for the treasure a great flood came down the river and obliterated all traces of it forever. Thus the elements conspire in helping Snively to protect the gold.

  When the story of a wandering ghost and long lost gold was first related to me, it described a middle-aged man named Snively. He supposedly was the first treasure hunter to pursue the riches of Milam County. He was a whimsical man who spent his life in a quest for such action. Along with his recent partner, Brooker, they methodically pieced together the location of the old missions long before archaeologists from SMU began to dig. They searched for five weeks to locate the three sites using quaint historical records which described the surrounding area.

  Snively was a risk-taker, a man who felt certain this trove would set him up for life. During the sixth week, Snively and Brooker found the location of what they believed to be the primary mission, the San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas. This was the big one, the largest mission of the three, marked by a lone cottonwood tree atop a hill overlooking the San Gabriel River valley. It was Snively’s belief that the treasure rested in a well at this site.

  They began to dig.

  ~~~

  Milam County, Texas, 1853

  Evidence was in their favor. This was the perfect place to build a fort. It was the high ground, with close access to water. The river bottom, blanketed with pecan trees, provided a natural defense to the west, and the northern flank offered a steep drop. Open prairie to the south, and east, presented an uncompromised view for miles. The plateau of the hill was an oval, several acres in area, with a low spot where grew the lone cottonwood tree.