Devil's Canyon: Spanish Gold (Book Two)

By L. K. Smith

In the first chapters I, Kirk, had overheard an older boy in the locker room telling of great fishing ponds in a canyon fifteen miles away from our hometown. After some research, I realized that the only way I could get there was by way of the river and that was too far to walk.
Cody Payne, my new friend, lived by the river north of town and he had two horses. After I had convinced Cody, we rode down the river to the canyon.
It was as the older boy had said, a beautiful canyon with great fishing and hunting. The older boy had also said that the property was owned by a crazy old man and he would shoot anyone he found on his land.
Cody and I had made several trips to the canyon until one day the old man rode his horse into the canyon while Cody and I were there. We had to hide from him on the side of a mountain. We began finding old Spanish gold coins on the slope of the mountain and after searching for more coins, we stumbled across a lost cave.
Cody was first to enter the cave and after several minutes of being inside, he came out screaming and ran over me trying to get away from the cave.
A severe thunderstorm forced us to leave the canyon that day earlier than we had wanted.
We rode as fast as we could up the river trying to beat the impending flood. When we saw a wall of water raging down the river ahead of us, we began searching for a way out of the river. We found the way and reached Cody’s house safely.
And the story continues. . . . 53,000 + words

• Language: English
• Publisher: L. K. Smith
• Release date: Jan 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370366385

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Devil’s Canyon

Spanish Gold

By L. K. Smith

Book Two

Copyright © 2015 by Quartz1 Publishing

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This book is a work of fiction and all characters are fictitious.

Prologue

In the first chapters I, Kirk, had overheard an older boy in the locker room telling of great fishing ponds in a canyon fifteen miles away from our hometown. After some research, I realized that the only way I could get there was by way of the river and that was too far to walk.

Cody Payne, my new friend, lived by the river north of town and he had two horses. After I had convinced Cody, we rode down the river to the canyon.

It was as the older boy had said, a beautiful canyon with great fishing and hunting. The older boy had also said that the property was owned by a crazy old man and he would shoot anyone he found on his land.

Cody and I had made several trips to the canyon until one day the old man rode his horse into the canyon while Cody and I were there. We had to hide from him on the side of a mountain. We began finding old Spanish gold coins on the slope of the mountain and after searching for more coins, we stumbled across a lost cave.

Cody was first to enter the cave and after several minutes of being inside, he came out screaming and ran over me trying to get away from the cave.

A severe thunderstorm forced us to leave the canyon that day earlier than we had wanted.

We rode as fast as we could up the river trying to beat the impending flood. When we saw a wall of water raging down the river, we began searching for a way out of the river. We found the way and reached Cody’s house safely.

And the story continues. . . .

Table of Contents

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 12

The next week I hadn’t talked to Cody Payne much hoping he would get over what happened in the cave. I didn’t want to enter the cave by myself, not that I’m scared, but I needed an extra set of eyes watching out for snakes and other animals. Also, if something happens to one of us hopefully the other one could drag them out of the cave. Just as we had been taught, never go hunting alone, I didn’t want to go into the cave by myself.

The week went by as usual, so Friday I told Cody the theater had reopened and asked him if he wanted to spend the night at my house. He said yes and he would call his parents to get the okay.

We were walking to my house and talking, I didn’t want to say anything about the canyon until Cody brought it up. He finally said we couldn’t go to the canyon this weekend because the river was still running strong and it wasn’t as high as it has been but it was still too high to ride down.

We had gone to the movies that night and Cody never said anything about the cave so I didn’t either.

Saturday morning I asked Cody if he wanted to spend the weekend so we could hunt or fish on the property I had been using for the past couple of years. I told him that it would ease my mother’s burden knowing he spent some time at our house. He said he would call his parents but he was sure it would be okay. I told him that he didn’t have to worry about a fishing rod or gun because we could steal my brothers and use them. My brother never used them anymore and he was never around the house anyway.

We hunted and fished the whole weekend. Cody said he had fun but it wasn’t the same as going to the canyon. He said he couldn’t wait until next weekend; he was going to the canyon, cave or no cave.

It was Thursday when Cody told me the river was down but the sand was still soft in places. He said if we were able to ride the river, we would have to be careful and carry some extra rope so if one of the horses got stuck we could have the other horse pull from solid ground. He also said the doctor had released him to play football and if his ankle was well enough to play football, it was well enough to go to the canyon.

Friday we agreed on the usual, Cody would stay at my house and we would go to the movies and then stay at the canyon over the weekend. We were walking to my house when I asked Cody what he had seen in the cave.

It was scary, and there were bones all through the cave and most of the skeletons still had their helmets and armor over their bones. It’s a big cave that seems to run all the way to the other side of the mountain. That’s all I remembered before I freaked out. Oh, and it looked like there were bags of something stacked all over the cave, probably more gold coins, Cody said.

I was for sure now; it was the cave they wrote about in the book I had read from the library. The story about the Spanish soldiers coming to the canyon searching for the seven cities of gold. They had heard from other soldiers that there were gold mines in the canyon. The soldiers were convinced the Kiowa tribe knew where the gold mines were. After months of the soldiers trying to learn from the Indians where the mines were, the soldiers lost their patience. The soldiers attacked the Kiowas in the middle of the night hoping to force one of them to tell where the mines were. The soldiers were surprised to find the Kiowas were the fiercest fighting Indians that they had encountered. After hours of fighting, the Indians forced the soldiers into the cave and they either starved to death or were killed by the Indians.

I was excited and disappointed at the same time. If the bags were filled with coins or gold, it would make us richer than we ever dreamed. Yet the thought of having to drag all that weight out of the cave then haul it back to the barn would be a lot of exhausting work.

Cody said his dad, Mr. Payne, had always taught him to face his fears so he guessed he was going to have to go back inside the cave. He said we needed to stop off at Otasco and buy another battery for the spotlight just in case the other on runs down and to make sure we remembered to take the gallon of Coleman fuel for the lantern. He said we were probably going to be spending a lot of time in the cave over the next month.

We went to the movies that night and sat in the back of the theater talking about the cave. The people in front of us were shushing us throughout the movie. We decided to stop talking and watch the movie.

Saturday morning we were up early raring to get to the canyon. My mother even made some comments about us being changed boys, whatever that meant. She drove us to Cody’s house without asking any more about the coins or anything else about our doings.

We were walking to the barn when Mr. Payne came out of the front door of his house. He asked us if we were going to the north pond and we told him we were. He said he wanted us to lead the horses across the river and to be careful crossing. We nodded our heads as we continued to the barn. After reaching the barn, I told Cody we might as well plan on staying at the north pond tonight to give the river another day to dry out. He said that if his dad thought the river would be that soft then it probably would be a good idea.

We crossed the river cautiously leading the horses as we had been told. The river wasn’t that soft and we could see downstream it seemed the same but we thought it would be a good idea to give it another day. We rode to the north pond and made camp. We hunted all day and into the night thinking about the cave the whole time.

We awoke the next morning early as we had been doing to see Wolf lying next to the fire. We gathered our gear and saddled the horses to make our way to the river.

Once we were on the river, Goldie and I lead the way downstream. We knew she was our best chance to make it to the canyon without incident. I was taking my time and letting Goldie take the lead in whichever path she wanted because I trusted her senses. Goldie never stumbled nor faltered as she crisscrossed her way downstream.

We approached the canyon over an hour later than it had been taken us but it was worth it, not having to deal with the black mud.

We rode into the canyon to the mound where we usually tied off the horses. I asked Cody if he would rather catch some fish first and eat dinner or to check out the cave first. He said he would rather eat some crappie.

We caught enough fish for dinner and headed up the mountain to camp.

We entered our camp and as it had been before, undisturbed. We made the fire and then I cooked the fish. We were eating when Cody said he wanted me to go into the cave first because he didn’t know how he was going to react this time and for me to be prepared for what I was going to see.

We rode down the mountain and walked across the canyon to the base of Soldiers Mountain. We found our markers and I showed Cody how I had been lining them up to find the cave. I began climbing the slope, as Cody would yell out directions occasionally. I had a little problem finding the cedar tree that guarded the cave but eventually I found it. I yelled back down to Cody telling him he could climb up the slope.

I took off my backpack and removed the spotlight. I unzipped the back and pulled out the Coleman lantern that we had bought Friday at Otasco. We now had two lanterns so we thought we would leave one in the cave and leave the other one at camp on top of the mountain. Cody was bringing the gallon of Coleman fuel in his backpack. We had filled the other lantern we had at camp earlier and we were going to leave the rest of the fuel in the cave. We weren’t worried about anybody finding the cave or stealing the lantern, heck, we were having problems finding the cave and we had a good idea where it was located.

Cody walked up next to me and removed his backpack asking me if I was ready to be freaked out. He was smiling and I thought it was good he was over the last encounter he had with the cave. Cody said it was probably best if we dragged our packs to the cave and leave them at the entrance that way no one could see them from the canyon. I nodded my head as I went behind the cedar tree dragging my pack. I dropped my pack outside the entrance and I stood staring inside the cave not seeing much without the spotlight. I was waiting on Cody and trying to prepare myself for what he had described about the cave.

I was having second thoughts about going inside when I thought about the old saying, No guts, no glory.

By now, Cody was standing next to me and said, Sure you’re ready for this?

As ready as I’ll ever be, I said with uncertainty.

Cody dropped his backpack alongside mine and handed me the spotlight that was on the ground next to the base of the cedar tree. He began to pump up the lantern and I waited until he had the lantern lit before I eased my way into the cave. The entrance was narrow for the first seven feet and then it opened into a wide opening. I was being careful paying attention to the walls and ceiling for snakes. I crawled to where the cave expanded and sat waiting on Cody as he crawled through the narrow opening. Cody slid the lantern to me and I picked it up setting it aside to give him more room. Cody sat beside me as I raised the lantern to shine the light across the cave.

This was very eerie and I could see how it freaked out Cody. It was as he said, there were skeletons all over the cave with their armor still strapped across their bones.

I started to become uneasy and told Cody, let’s go back outside for a few minutes. He said that I didn’t have to ask him twice as he was already making his way out the mouth of the cave. I left the lantern burning as I followed him out of the cave. I climbed out with a sigh of relief as I made my way around the cedar tree to where Cody was sitting.

It’s not easy, is it, I mean seeing all that? Cody said.

I just shook my head as I heard a horse in the canyon. We saw it was the old man riding north through the canyon. He didn’t have his rifle pulled from his scabbard so he must not think anyone else is in the canyon. I reached in my back pocket and pulled my camo hat out placing it on my head. Cody did the same and whispered, Do ya think he will be able to see us?

I couldn’t see ya while you were standing by the cave until you started moving and I was standing at the base of the mountain. As long as we stay still, I don’t know how he will be able to see us, I answered in a whisper.

As long as the old man stayed away from the other side of the canyon, where our horses were, we would be okay. We watched the old man riding closer sometimes staring in our direction as he made his way up the canyon.

We stayed still until he rode past the pond and behind the ridge that was north of the pond.

He was out of sight now and Cody said we were going to have to wait for him to ride back through the canyon in case he rode toward our horses.

He said if that happened, we had to create some kind of a diversion to steer him away from the horses.

We waited for a half hour before the old man came riding back through the canyon.

I glanced down to the beach to see the footprints we made in the sand this morning while we were fishing. I nudged Cody and pointed to our tracks, his eyes grew wide. We watched as