The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,258

and water.

He thought about the bags of gold dust and nuggets they’d buried beneath his bedroll and thought about the tools he’d stacked beneath some trees north of where they were sleeping. If that water kept rising, they might need to move to higher ground, which would mean digging up their gold.

Mary was already snoring. He hated to wake her up, but he also didn’t want to make the mistake of waiting to move until it was too late. They’d worked too hard and too long to take a chance on losing it now.

A hard gust of wind pushed at the tent fabric. Robert thought he could hear the squeak of protest from the tent stakes. At forty-nine years old and sporting a bad knee, he wasn’t as fast as he once was, so he stayed beneath the relative safety of the tent, unwilling to go out into the storm unless it was absolutely necessary.

The storm rose in intensity, the claps of thunder so loud it sounded as if it was right on top of them. The flash of lightning afterward lit up the inside of the tent. When it did, Robert saw something that made the hair rise on the back of his neck.

Water was coming into the tent, and from the creek side of their camp. He grabbed his wife, shaking her awake.

“Mary! Get up! Get up! Water is comin’ into the tent.”

Mary Whiteside rolled to her knees and began throwing their meager belongings into the bedrolls and rolling them up. When she reached for Robert’s bedroll, she remembered the gold.

“Robert! Get a shovel and dig up the gold or we’ll lose it sure as shootin’.”

Robert bounded out of the tent and made his way in the darkness, stumbling twice and falling once before he found the cache with their tools. He felt around in the darkness for the shovel, and when he felt the spoon-shaped metal beneath his fingers, breathed a quick sigh of relief. Now all he had to do was find his way back to the tent.

At that moment, another flash of lightning illuminated the sky long enough for him to get his bearings. He saw Mary running out of the tent toward higher ground. She was screaming his name.

“I’m here! I’m here!” Robert called. “Keep going. I’ll be right behind you.”

Rainfall was so heavy that Robert found it difficult to breathe without inhaling water. Covering his face with his arm, he made for the tent and then fell over it in the dark. By the time he got to his feet, the tent had fallen in, and he wasted precious moments pulling it aside so that he could dig. He hadn’t expected it to be difficult. There was only a few inches of dirt over the box, but he’d become disoriented. Every time he lifted a shovel full of dirt from the ground, the hole filled up with water so fast that he couldn’t tell where he’d been digging.

Panic began to set in as he toyed with the idea of having to abandon the dig to save himself. The waters of Cherry Creek were completely out of their banks now, and more than once, he’d been staggered by the swift, unexpected power of the flow.

Just when he thought it was over, Mary appeared at his elbow.

“Leave it!” she screamed, and grabbed his arm.

“Our gold! Our gold! I can’t leave our gold!” he yelled back, and turned to thrust the shovel back into the dirt, only to have the water sweep it out of his hands.

Lightning struck a tree near where they’d built their campfire only hours earlier. The sudden smell of sulfur was strong, despite the pouring rain.

Robert gasped and started to dive for the shovel when Mary yanked him around and slapped him hard on the side of the face.

“Run, you fool! Run with me now before it’s too late!”

Robert grabbed her by the hand and, together, they managed to stagger out of the rising water.

“This way!” Mary cried.

Robert held on to her, fearing that if he didn’t, he would lose her the same way that he’d lost their gold.

They ran and they ran, climbing up as they went until they’d reached ground high enough to escape the rushing flow of Cherry Creek, then they collapsed together beneath an outcropping of rock. Huddled together, with their sodden bedrolls at their feet, they held hands and prayed.

Hours passed, and so did the storm, although the rain continued to fall. They were forced to move