After we’d circled back, we headed north again. Trudging up a narrow path, we finally came to an opening that led down into a small ravine.
Stewart froze. “This is it.” His pulse raced. This had to be the place. He glanced at the rocks to the right, hoping to see something that resembled a man’s body, but nothing stood out to him. Still, it wasn’t enough to stop him from continuing down the rise into the gulley.
I sniffed the air, hoping to catch the smell of mint, but couldn’t find it. Maybe it would come back at the bottom of the ravine?
The way down was rocky and steep, so it was slow going. It leveled out closer to the bottom, and we found ourselves surrounded by a meadow of grasses with a small stream running through it. Following the stream, we found that it continued much further than we thought, leading into a narrow canyon.
“Do we keep going?” Ian asked.
Stewart’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know. Let’s look around here first.”
We spent another hour exploring both sides of the gulch. Ian and Stewart took one side, and the rest of us took the other. A few fissures opened up, and we eagerly followed them as far as we could go, but they dead-ended, and we had to turn back.
Twenty minutes later, a shout came from across the ravine, and we hurried in that direction. Another fissure opened up on that side, and Stewart stood at the top of several rocks, but couldn’t seem to go any further. Ian was nowhere to be found.
“Ian’s down there, but I can’t see him, and he hasn’t responded.” Stewart shouted, pointing to a place we couldn’t see.
“Is he hurt?” Ramos asked.
“I don’t know.”
I picked up from Stewart that Ian had gone around a boulder and disappeared. He hadn’t responded to any of his shouts, so Stewart had stayed put and called to us. From where he stood, it was too steep to head down without risk of causing a landslide.
“I’ll come up.” Ramos began to climb over the boulders.
“Wait. I’m in a bad spot, and there’s no way down from here. Go over that way.” Stewart pointed to the other side of the crevice, and Ramos followed his directions. Soon, he’d made it to the top and started down. “Be careful. Those rocks are loose.”
A few minutes later, we heard Ramos’s shout. “I found him.”
“Is he okay?” Stewart asked.
Several tense seconds passed before Ramos responded. “Yeah, but you might want to come down here. Go around the way I did.”
Stewart picked his way back down the boulders. Before he could reach the bottom, Uncle Joey had already started up, taking Ramos’s path. I followed right behind him, and Billie came behind me. The boulders were big, but they weren’t insurmountable. It was getting down the other side that was the tricky part.
I worried about Uncle Joey, but he didn’t have any trouble. I mostly scooted on my butt to make it down and Billie followed my example. Stewart wasn’t far behind, but he was cursing in his mind that we were all beating him to it.
“What’s down there?” he shouted, unable to wait any longer.
I reached the bottom and hurried around the boulder behind Uncle Joey. In front of us was a small opening leading into a cave. Ramos stood at the opening, but Ian had already gone inside.
Stewart caught up to us, and his breath hitched. He rushed to Ramos’s side. “Is Ian in there?”
“Yes. When I got here, he’d just come back out, and he was putting on his headlamp. I guess he didn’t want to wait for the rest of us.”
Stewart stepped into the cave after Ian, but stopped short. “It’s pitch black in there.” He riffled through his back pack until finding his headlamp. Flipping it on, he headed inside. Following his example, the rest of us found our headlamps.
Uncle Joey turned to me. “Do you think it’s in there?”
I sniffed the air for mint, but couldn’t smell a thing. “I’m not sure. I’m not getting anything.” A sudden fear that a bear might be deep inside the cave caught at my chest. “What about bears? Could one be in there?”
Ramos glanced at me, his brows arched in surprise. “You want to wait?”
I nodded. “Maybe for a few minutes. Just to make sure.”
“Really?” Billie asked, surprised. “But this looks like the place he described. I can’t just stand here. Come on. Let’s go in.” She was thinking that, with Ian and Stewart already inside, they’d be the first to be attacked anyway.
She had a point. “Okay. But let’s stick together.”
Ramos took the lead with Billie right behind him. I went next, and Uncle Joey took up the rear. There was no sign of Ian or Stewart, and, after thirty feet, we found out why. The cave took a sharp turn to the right and blocked out all the light from the entrance.
Shinning my headlamp on both sides of the cave, I found nothing but hard rock that seemed to soak up the light. Rocks and boulders littered the ground and made it difficult to advance. The smell of dark earth and musty air was nothing like the mint I’d smelled earlier.
After stepping over and skirting around several more boulders, we continued deeper into the cave, and I started to get nervous. The walls closed in on us a few times, and we had to duck under large boulders before we were able to continue. How far were we going to go?
A few minutes later, Ramos stopped. “There’s a branch up ahead that goes in a different direction. I think they may have gone right. Should we keep going?”
Uncle Joey nodded. “Yes. But if we don’t catch up to them soon, let’s turn back.”
We continued on, going much further than I liked, especially after ducking under several more rocks and boulders. Uncle Joey was just about to call a halt when we heard voices up ahead. Following them, we found Ian and Stewart examining the cave walls.
Ian glanced at us and shook his head, harsh disappointment rolling off him. “This is as deep as it goes.”
“I thought this was it.” Stewart ran his hands over the walls, searching for a vein of gold. “But I don’t see anything.”
The rest of us turned to examine the walls for signs of gold, but found nothing.
“Let’s go back,” Stewart said. “Maybe we missed something.” He couldn’t go around us in the tight space, so we all turned around and began the trek back to the entrance in single file.
With everyone searching the cave walls for any sign of gold, we worked steadily forward. Uncle Joey was in the lead, and he came to the previous fork in the path. He stopped, making sure we were all together, before he took the path on the left.
“What’s the hold up?” Stewart called.
“There’s a fork on the path. I just wanted to make sure we went the right way.”
“This doesn’t seem right,” I said. “Shouldn’t it be further down?”
“This was the only fork I remember.” Uncle Joey glanced back at Ramos. “What do you think? Should we go right or left?”
Ramos wasn’t sure, but he nodded anyway. “I think that’s it. So go left.”
Uncle Joey nodded and continued down the path. We climbed over several boulders and I tried to remember if any of them seemed familiar, but I was completely turned around. Before we’d gone too far, Stewart asked if we could see any light from the entrance. It was pitch dark ahead, and Uncle Joey stopped. “No. Nothing. Should we be there by now?”
Alarm tightened my stomach. Wouldn’t it be ironic if, with all our combined expertise, and my super power, we all got lost in this stupid cave?
Uncle Joey was thinking that we’d been so focused on exploring for gold that we’d forgotten to take precautions. We should have marked the walls, or at least laid a rope along the way to guide us back.
“Hold up.” Stewart called. “I’m not far from the first fork in the path, so let’s think about this.”
We turned around. Billie was in front of me now, but I couldn’t see anyone else. Ramos was still on the other side of the rocks, but at least I could make out the light from his headlamp.
“Too bad we don’t ha
ve a way to mark our path,” Uncle Joey said.
“We could drop trail mix on the ground every few steps,” I suggested. “Would that work?”
Uncle Joey nodded. “Yes. But not the raisins. I don’t think we’d be able to see them.”
“That’s true. I’ll use mine first. When I run out, we’ll use someone else’s.”
“Okay.” Uncle Joey raised his head so the others could hear him. “I say we keep going, everyone okay with that?”
At their affirmative replies, Uncle Joey turned back around, and I began dropping the brightly colored candy about every ten steps. The pathway narrowed, and another big boulder blocked our way. Had we come to this one before and climbed around it?
Uncle Joey wondered the same thing, but he kept going and climbed over it. I followed him, but slipped and nearly fell. “I don’t remember this being so hard.”
At the top, I turned to slide down on my stomach, reaching for footholds as I went. Near the bottom, Uncle Joey steadied me, and I landed next to him. My headlamp glistened off the walls of a ten foot cavern. The open space carried the sound of dripping water, but I couldn’t see another way out.
“I don’t think this is the right way,” I said.
Uncle Joey stepped further into the space, his attention caught on something in the corner.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I’m not sure.”
I followed Uncle Joey to a jumble of rocks, where something white reflected the light of our lamps. As we got closer, the rocks turned into shoes, and the white stones became bones. I gasped and took a step back.
By then, everyone else had joined us in the cavern. Stewart hurried to Uncle Joey’s side and froze, shocked at what lay in front of him. He knelt beside the bones and found a rock pick hammer and a small shovel. “It must be a lost prospector.”
Stewart began to search what was left of the skeleton’s clothing. Ian watched him for a moment, before turning his attention to the cavern walls, convinced there had to be gold in here somewhere.
Uncle Joey was thinking that the poor fool had been lost in here, and, if we weren’t careful, it could happen to us.
Stewart sat back, holding an old tin in his hand. He opened it to find a few coins and some chewing tobacco. “There’s no identification on him, but if this is any indication, I’d say he was here in the early nineteen hundreds; that would mean he’s been here for a hundred years.” He glanced at Ian. “Did you find anything?”
Ian shook his head. “No. There’s no sign of gold in here. That miner must have gotten lost.”
“Let’s see if we can get out of here,” Stewart said. “We can always come back another day if we want to.”
He said that for Ian’s sake, thinking that it might be worth exploring without the rest of us. To find a miner was a sign that this cave had possibilities, and we might be on the right track. In fact, those remains could even belong to Jeremiah Taft.
I didn’t think so. Not once had I smelled the minty scent from before. If that had come from Jeremiah, then this wasn’t the place.
Once again, Uncle Joey took the lead, with me behind him and everyone following. We made it over the boulder without too much trouble and followed the trail mix all the way back to the junction. How long it took to get there surprised me. My perception of distance was thoroughly skewed in this place, and panic began to rise in my chest.
“So which direction do we go now?” I was so turned around, that I wasn’t sure what way to go.
From behind us, Stewart shouted. “Go left at the junction.”
We turned in that direction, and I ran out of trail mix. Billie got out her bag and took over, dropping the mix every ten feet or so. Before we knew it, she’d run out as well, and Uncle Joey called a halt.
“Did we miss another fork in the path?” I worried that we’d taken the wrong turn again. “It didn’t seem like we’d gone this far from the entrance.”
Uncle Joey shook his head. “I didn’t see any other turnoffs, but it’s hard to tell. I could have missed it.” He glanced back at Ramos. “Does any of this look familiar to you?”
Ramos shook his head. “It all looks the same to me.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Uncle Joey opened his pack and pulled out another packet of trail mix. “We’d better keep dropping these, just in case.”
I took it from him. “I’ll do it.”
After taking a quick water break, we started off again, sweeping the sides of the cave with our headlamps to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Climbing over boulders and rocks, everything seemed the same. In fact, we could be going in circles for all I knew. Would we ever get out of here?
The path in front of Uncle Joey stopped in a mound of rocks, and he swore. “What the hell?”
He glanced to the left and let out a breath. “Wait… it’s this way.” A small opening to the left beckoned him, and we squeezed between several boulders to try this new direction. After we climbed over several more rocks, a faint light suddenly penetrated the darkness, and my heart raced.
“There it is,” I shouted. “The entrance is just ahead.”
The last hundred feet or so seemed to stretch out forever until we finally stepped out into the light of day. My knees nearly buckled under me, and I wanted to kiss the earth. Instead, I sat down on a boulder and pulled off my headlamp. With a huge sigh, I turned my face toward the sun and closed my eyes.
Ramos sat beside me. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. I’ll never go in another cave again.”
Everyone sat down. Billie heaved out a shaky breath and turned to Stewart. “So what do you think? Is that the right cave?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s the closest we’ve come to an actual mine, and with that skeleton… it could be. There might be another path in there that would lead us to the gold, but I don’t know.”
“Do you think you’ll come back?”
He held back his excitement and tried to look circumspect. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“What do you think, Shelby?” She turned my way. “What do your premonitions tell you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think the gold is in there.”
Ian’s head jerked toward me, and disbelief filled his face. “Why do you say that?”
I shrugged. “It’s just a feeling, but I think going back inside is a waste of time.”
Ian wondered if I was just saying that so I could come back without him. It’s what he’d do, so he wasn’t going to give up. He’d just make sure he was better prepared. He and Stewart could come back in the next couple of days and leave us to fend for ourselves.
I sighed. If he wanted to go back in there it was fine with me. Suddenly famished, I rummaged through my backpack for a granola bar and drank most of my water. Everyone else did the same. About ten minutes later, we were ready to leave.
I checked my watch, surprised at how late it was. “It’s almost three. I didn’t think we’d been in there that long. We’d better head back.” I glanced at Billie. “Were you still thinking of leaving today?”
She shook her head. “It’s too late now. I’ll probably head back in the morning though.” She was thinking that finding the skeleton would give her something to write about, but she wasn’t sure it was enough, especially when we didn’t know who it was.
“There was a story about several men who left to search for the mine and never made it back,” I told her. “Maybe one of them got lost in there.”
Billie nodded. “What if that was Jeremiah? Maybe he busted an ankle or something and couldn’t get out?”
“It’s possible,” I agreed, not wanting to sound too sure of myself. “But I don’t think so. No… I think the Taft mine is somewhere else.”
Stewart couldn’t believe how sure I was acting, and it made him doubt me. “We’ll see. I might want to come back sometime. I don’t think it would hurt to check it out, as long as we bring the right equipment. Taking a metal detector w
ould help. But for now, let’s head back to camp.” He got to his feet and started up the rocks, Ian close behind him.
Billie and I went next, followed by Uncle Joey, with Ramos bringing up the rear. Leaving the gorge behind, we trekked up the steep side of the gully. It was slow-going and, by the time we got out of the ravine, and onto the ridge, I was sweating. The heat of the day shocked me, and I took off my hoodie to tie it around my waist.
Stewart plotted our direction with his compass, and we started off, keeping to the edge of the mountain ridge and following it a lot further than I thought we’d gone. Finally, he checked his compass again and changed our route to a western direction.
To be honest, everything looked different going back, so I didn’t know where we were. As the others continued ahead, I needed to stop for a potty break. I’d put it off as long as I could, but I couldn’t wait another minute. Luckily, Ramos said he’d wait for me, and I hurried off into a grove of trees.
I went further than was probably necessary, but I wanted to make sure I had my privacy. After taking care of business, I began the trek back. I got to the spot where I’d left Ramos, but couldn’t see him anywhere. My heart skipped a beat. Had I gone the wrong way?
I glanced over my shoulder to the stand of pine trees and backtracked. In the grove, I looked for anything familiar, but it all looked the same. I hadn’t noticed the slant of the sun before, but figured I should try to head west again.
Several hundred yards later, there was still no Ramos in sight. This time, real panic set in. What was I supposed to do now? I stopped, turning in a full circle to get my bearings, but nothing stood out. I was truly and completely lost.
“Ramos.” I shouted. “Where are you?”
Straining my ears for a response, I heard nothing but the wind. Dread tightened my stomach. How could this be happening? I hadn’t gone that far. Before I could yell again, the subtle scent of mint hit my nose. I sniffed, finding it coming from my right.
High Stakes Crime: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Shelby Nichols Adventure Book 15) Page 20
