by Rik Hunik
Chapter 3
The gold watch woke him with a gentle, insistent ticking, just loud enough to be annoying and break into his sleep. His annoyance faded when he opened the watch and saw the minute hand starting the climb to mark ten o'clock. He wound it and put it away, then climbed out of the tent into glorious sunshine. He was well-rested but ravenous. The watch didn't bother him while he assessed his supplies and prepared a hearty breakfast of flapjacks.
He found the two bags of gold. He felt guilty but he took them both; they had tried to kill him first. Now he could return to Barkerville. He wasn't exactly rich, but he could afford to stay through the winter and try for a strike next spring. He would ask Melina to marry him as soon as he got back. She wasn't the type to wait for him forever.
He retrieved his own pack, then sorted through everything, selecting the best and stashing the rest. He shouldered his pack and headed downstream.
The ticking grew ominously loud so he stopped. "What now? What do you want? I killed your killers. You got revenge and I got the bloody gold. I'm a murderer now. What more do you want from me?" He started downstream but the ticking dissuaded him.
He knew it would be useless to argue and he didn't want to get rid of the watch, so he turned around and went upstream. He had enough food now to stay out for a week or more and the weather looked promising. There was no longer an urgent need to hurry back.
He came across a few places where he wanted to pan but the watch would not let him stop. After hiking several miles the watch directed him up a tiny tributary. Half a mile further the ticking got loud. No matter which direction he moved the ticking persisted. After several seconds he realized this was the spot where the watch wanted him to be.
In his first pan he found a small nugget and some flakes of gold and it got better after that. By the end of the week he had as much gold as he could carry. There was lots of gold left in the ground but there was no sense staying any longer. Still, he had to overcome a touch of gold fever to force himself to leave because he knew it was the right thing to do. He would file a legal claim and come back here in the spring with a sluice box, months to extract the gold, and a mule to carry it out.
He was rich now, rich enough for Melina. His mouth remembered the taste of her sweet lips, and his hands remembered the curves and contours of her body. Suddenly he couldn't get into town soon enough.
