In the Blink of An Eye by Jerry Baggett (ebook reader for surface pro TXT) 📕

Samantha said, “Can the top tray be lifted out?”

Dick brushed the covering aside. “Look at that! a tray full of tarnished silverware. It may be too heavy to lift out with the tray, the soft wood’s falling apart. We need something to place the silverware in.”

“Good luck with that,” she said. “Hey! Stack everything onto a small piece of that scorched metal from the tin roof. We can carry it to the car that way. I’m anxious to see what’s underneath the tray. This’s so exciting. Too bad Grant had to leave. He’d get a kick out of exploring the chest.”

“We can’t wait for that. We’ll fill him in later, in a private setting.”

“Wait a minute, Dick! Has it occurred to you that those people causing all the trouble may have been looking for this long-buried chest?”

“Oh yes. However, Maria said she’s the one who set the house on fire trying to attract the attention of the fire department.”

“I know, but, Dick, someone must be aware of something valuable buried here. They may be hiding out someplace, waiting for us to find it. I think we should hurry on out of here.”

Dick removed the deuterating wood tray, piece by piece, then motioned for Sam to come in close for a better look. Both stared down into the trunk. He dropped down on one knee and tossed out two large bundles of worm-eaten confederate bills. Then, two more bundles of old US bills. He thumbed through one bundle. “Fifty-dollar bills. There are four bundles of twenties and three bundles of fifties here.”

He straightened up and looked around, then lifted out three heavy canvass bags. One bag tore open at the bottom as he placed it on the ground. Neither could speak for several moments. “That looks like very old US gold coin.” He picked up a coin and rubbed it with his fingers. “A twenty-dollar gold piece.” He grabbed one of three more larger bags, hefted it momentarily, and placed it next to the gold. “This is probably silver coin. It isn’t as heavy as the other.

“There’s several, no, four gold ingots on the bottom of the chest, not quite the size of a brick, four of them. They’re quite heavy, maybe one hundred ounces each.” He lifted one with two hands. “No! closer to two hundred ounces. I’ll carry them to the car one at a time. Boy! The family must have been well off when they buried this stuff. Open one of the larger bags and take a look at what’s inside while I remove the ingots. Try not to let the old bag tear open.”

“You’re right, it’s old silver coin, Dick. I can’t believe it. Your ancestors buried this treasure. Your great-great-grandfather must have placed it here under the house. I want to hear the rest of the story.”

Dick raised himself up and looked around. “All your talk about someone watching has me nervous. Keep your eyes open while I get the rest of this stuff out of the hole. There’s also a stack of five, thin, flat, silver plates stacked next to the gold. This must be how wealthy people stored their wealth. There were not a lot of trustworthy banks in rural areas at that time.”

“It’s starting to rain again,” Samantha said. “Let’s sit here, in the car, and think things over for a few minutes. Tell me more about your family around the time this stuff was buried here.”

“It’s a long story but I’ll try to give you some of what I remember from going through old family papers with my dad.”

“The McGowin family came over from Scotland and England. They settled in Connecticut, and the Philadelphia area. Two young, well-educated brothers started a dry goods mercantile business in New York, learned that most of the wealth at the time was concentrated in the south because of the slave economy. They cashed out that business, purchased a merchant ship, filled it with merchandise, sailed south to Mobile, Alabama and started a new business there, on the waterfront. A ships chandlery mercantile business. They soon found out cotton and other crops from the slave economy destined for Europe, lay idle on the docks for lack of merchant ships. Somehow, they ended up with two more merchant ships. Profit from that venture went toward the purchase of land around Mobile, then in the rich farming land along the rivers flowing south toward Mobile and Pensacola.”

“Start the car, Dick, so you can clear the windshield,” she said.

“The brothers found the crops grown from the plantation more lucrative than the mercantile business. After losing one of their ships in a storm, the profitable shipping enterprise was sold to investors from New England who continued to ship their timber and farm products to Europe at a favorable rate. That’s what I can give you in a nutshell, sweetheart. More about the McGowin family will have to wait.” He waved his hand, pointing ahead. “We need to get moving. We’d better call Hunt. Maria was in terrible condition when they carried her out of here.”

Chapter 38

Angel texted; ‘today is the day’, three times in succession and waited for a response.

Moments later, he called. “You won’t have to be accounted for in the doctor’s practice for as much as a week,” he said. “It’ll take at least that long to get the smell out of the office. Everything worked out just fine. Now, what’s the emergency?”

“The end game has started. You need to realize we’re done here. The tent’s collapsing down on top of everybody, the way I thought it would.” Angel listened to him unload about losing his brother, then spoke up. “You’re in the clear if you’re out of California, and don’t go back. Just remember our survival plans. You can’t fool around. It’s time to protect our assets and get the hell