“No. But I prayed some on this matter and I do believe in the power of prayer.”
“Don’t tell me that God told you that’s where Jimmy buried his treasure.”
“All right,” Dan confessed, “Jimmy did hint around about a second, deeper cave and that it was, to use his words, ‘worth taking a good look at’ if anything happened to him. I just figure he said that to tell me where the Spanish treasure is buried.”
Longarm’s eyes widened. “Dammit, why didn’t you tell me this before?!”
““Cause I was planning to find those hidden coins for myself and use them for charitable works. And, if you find them, I expect you to do the same.”
“Some,” Longarm agreed, “but not all.”
“Most.”
“Fair enough.”
He left Dan and found a shovel, then Longarm crawled back into the second cave which he’d already found so interesting. Lighting a kerosene lamp, he started at one end of the cavern and worked his way to the other, moving very slowly back and forth on his hands and knees.
Longarm wasn’t sure how he would know when he located a spot where Jimmy might have buried the gold coins. But less than an hour later, with his fingers brushing back and forth across the dusty floor, he felt something unusual. Longarm froze for a moment, then he brushed the dust aside and saw that there was a large metal box whose top was buried just a fraction of an inch below the floor’s uneven surface.
“Eureka!” he exclaimed, brushing the dirt away and discovering an old treasure chest.
A moment later, he was prying up the lid and, sure enough, there were hundreds of Spanish gold coins gleaming up in his lamplight, pretty as an Arizona sunset.
“Holy Moses!” ]Longarm whispered, dipping his big hand into the treasure box and allowing the coins to slip between his fingers. “There must be five hundred of them!”
Longarm did not know what the coins were worth, but he expected it was in the tens of thousands of dollars, given their historical value. Even in terms of their pure gold weight, they were worth more money than he’d earn in many years.
“Jimmy. Jimmy,” Longarm whispered, rubbing a particularly large coin balanced between his thumb and index finger. “I sure wish you were here with me now, to at least see that you didn’t die entirely in vain.”
Longarm used his knife to dig out the old Spanish treasure chest. It was somewhat rusted but still intact. He carried it back to Dan.
“So,” the preacher said, “we found it!”
“Yes, take a good look.”
Dan’s eyes widened with surprise and pleasure when he saw how many coins were in the treasure box. Sniffling and then rubbing away a few tears, he said, “Do you realize how much good and charitable work this will pay for? Why, there are churches, schools, old hungry people and orphans whose lives will be changed by this treasure.”
“I said I was going to take … a little of it for myself,” Longarm reminded the preacher.
“Of course! And I would not have it any other way. After all, you risked your life for me and for this bounty. It would be only right, even if you are a federal marshal working in the line of duty.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Longarm asked with a sudden scowl.
“Oh, nothing! Nothing at all. It’s just that … well, I sort of think that you are on the government payroll. I mean, you’re getting paid every day we are here, aren’t you?”
“Why sure! In the neighborhood of a whole damned dollar a day.”
“Well, then, as a government servant, I just kind of thought that you might want to donate whatever little share you think you are due of this treasure to charity.”
“You’re wrong because I don’t.”
“Fine! Be that way.” Dan smiled but without warmth. “So I guess now we need to get back to Wickenburg before we have any more visitors. Huh?”
“That’s right.”
“With me on a travois.”
“Right again.” Longarm came to his feet. “I’ll start preparing for our trip out of this hell. There’s an old axe that the outlaws were using to chop wood. It’s dull but I can use a few mining timbers for the long extensions on the travois. There’s blankets and canvas aplenty to rig up for you to lie down upon.”
“Then we’re leaving soon?”
“At sundown,” Longarm told the man. “Actually, I think I’ll make two travois for the two extra horses to drag. You’ll be on one and I’ll pack out our food, water, and that Spanish treasure box on the other.”
“What about the bodies?”
Longarm frowned. “I’ll bury them under another rock slide. If you want to crawl over to them and say a few prayers, that’s up to you. I don’t care one way or the other. They wouldn’t have given us a burial.”
“I suppose not.”
“I know not,” Longarm said.
With that, he went and got the axe, which he used to cut four long timbers. They were made of cedar and hard
