Mountain Moonlight - By Jane Toombs Page 0,29

to say anything.

"I suppose she thinks we're out of our minds to be following that old treasure map," Vala went on. "Oh, not you--I mean Davis and me. Since he's a kid, it boils down to me."

"She wouldn't make that kind of judgment."

"I distinctly heard her say it was crazy to search for gold in the Superstitions."

"You're not searching for gold," he pointed out.

"But we sort of are, Davis and I. Gold is treasure."

"Definitely. But as I keep repeating, treasure doesn't have to be gold."

"Well, no, but in the Superstitions everyone pretty much figures it must be."

"Yeah, the Lost Dutchman Mine and the Apache gold are pegged into the mountain, whether or not they ever were here. Or ever existed."

"You said Apache gold, how come not Ndee."

"That's what the general public calls it. Apache or Ndee, however you think of them, didn't have any interest in what to them wasn't a useful metal so the chances of them amassing gold is remote. In my opinion, both the legends are little more than fairy tales."

"But you said the Dutchman was a real man."

"He existed, all right. Dutch is what they called Germans in those days and Jacob Walz came from Germany. What I said earlier about him is true, though--he died stone broke. No one has ever proved one way or the other whether he actually did mine for gold or whether the nuggets he once found came from a hidden Spanish cache, one with its own legend."

"So just maybe...." she said softly.

"Don't get fixated on gold," he warned.

"I'm not. But wouldn't it be wonderful if once in a while a fairy tale came true?"

"They never do." He heard the bitterness in his voice, surprised he still resented his father with such intensity. He thought he'd put that behind him.

Being on this mountain with this woman from his past was stirring up a multitude of emotions, some better left unexplored.

Later, back at the cabin, both Vala and Bram enjoyed Pauline's rabbit stew. Davis woke up in time to eat, sitting in a chair padded with a cushion, but acted more sleepy than hungry.

"I don't hurt except a little bit," he told his mother. "Pauline's medicine is working."

"Could the medicine be making him drowsy?" Vala asked her.

"Sometimes does," Pauline said. "No harm to it."

"I'm awake now," Davis insisted. "I been thinking about getting lost and all and I figure maybe it was Coyote playing a trick on me like he does in the stories."

"They are just stories," Vala reminded him.

"Yeah, but they mean something. Mokesh said so. He said they wouldn't have gone on telling them for so many years otherwise."

"How did you know Mokesh?" Pauline asked.

Davis explained, ending with, "So, before he died, he gave me an old map and that's why we came here."

"Can I see the map?" Pauline said.

When Bram got it for her from Davis's pack, she held it carefully, examining the drawings on the deer skin by the light of a kerosene lamp.

"Yes, old," she said at last, handing back the map.

"And real," Davis put in. "Mokesh said so."

Pauline nodded. "I met him once when I was very young. How good he found you, boy, before he had to die far away from home without a friend to give his map to."

"Are you Ndee, like him?"

Pauline smiled. "My past is mine, I share it with no one, not even Mokesh's friend. But I tell you one thing true, boy, the map will lead you to your heart's desire."

"My heart's desire?" Davis echoed, sounding surprised. "That's exactly what Mokesh said. I think he meant gold. Is that what you mean?"

Pauline shrugged.

"You're like Mokesh in a way," Davis told her. "He used to say things that he never would explain."

That made her chuckle.

"Maybe we could tell Coyote stories," Davis said.

"It's night, so that's the right time."

"Why don't you start?" Bram suggested.

"There's a bunch of them," Davis said. "The first one is how Coyote stole fire, so I'll start with that."

"A long time ago when the animals were people, no one had fire but the Fireflies and they wouldn't give it to anyone."

He went on to tell how Coyote had to outwit them to get a piece of the fire. "But the Fireflies and their friends chased him so he gave the fire to Buzzard. Buzzard got tired after while and passed it to Swallow, but then the Fireflies made rain medicine and the fire began dying.

"Swallow passed the few coals that were left to Turtle. Turtle put them under