Sinister Threat

By J.W. Wilson

The forest and hills were quiet as Bob Waters moved along the tree line carrying a large, heavy canvas bag. The items it contained were documents that could possibly reveal the key to unlimited power. Being one of four persons who had access to the information, he was saddled with the task of delivering the papers to a group that had sworn loyalty to the United States government. Bob had escaped a trap that an anti-government organization had set to capture the documents.

As the only one available to deliver it, Bob had to get the information out to the US government mining office in the Ohio Valley.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984512796

Book preview

PROLOGUE

EARLY 1930’s

The forest and hills were quiet as Bob Waters moved along the tree line carrying a large, heavy canvas bag. The items it contained were documents that could possibly reveal the key to unlimited power. Being one of four persons who had access to the information, he was saddled with the task of delivering the papers to a group that had sworn loyalty to the United States government. Bob had escaped a trap that an anti-government organization had set to capture the documents.

As the only one available to deliver it, Bob had to get the information out to the U.S. Government Mining Office in the Ohio Valley.

Bob was the Clerk of Courts for Belmont County, Ohio, whose offices were in St. Clairsville. He was also a member of the underground in WW1. The documents had been given to him by a German citizen with whom Bob had rendezvoused in England to receive the pouch.

As he moved deeper into the valley, he thought he heard voices that seemed to be following him. He was in an area at the top of a ridge commonly known as Hazelwood Hills. As the voices got closer, he knew he had to hide the bag, for if he were discovered with it, the results would be unimaginable.

He proceeded along the creek and headed east toward the end of the valley. He started to climb the hill and tried to keep from getting trapped. He had gone about twenty feet up the hill and found it too rugged to scale. As he moved back down the hill, he discovered a small cave under a pair of huge rocks and decided to stash the bag there and come back later and retrieve it.

He shoved the package under the rock and had just finished hiding the object, when he saw the three men who had been following him. He immediately hid in the brush, keeping quiet, as they passed his position without discovering him.

Having approached the location and noticing nothing suspicious, they moved off to the northwest. They stopped for a break, but they were still in sight. When they finally moved out of the immediate area, Bob had a chance to escape. He expected to return later and recover the documents.

He immediately moved out of the area and headed for the main road in the area; a road that he could take to Morristown. He made the four-mile trip in about two hours. When he arrived in the small community, he retrieved his vehicle, a 1928 Ford Pickup, and he drove to the county seat as fast as he could, while checking to make sure he was not followed.

As soon as he got to his Clerk of Courts office in St. Clairsville, the Belmont County seat, he sat down and drew a map of the area where the bag with its contents had been hidden. He also included the tale of his experiences and other pertinent information about its contents.

He placed the map in his family Bible and hid it in an old storage bin under some papers to be put in the records depository and marked it as ‘finished’, fully intending to return for it as soon as things cooled down.

He returned home to Fairpoint and was going to contact the Sheriff’s Office the next day to tell them what he had hidden.

The following day, he got in the pickup and drove to St. Clairsville. He had decided to move the Bible to the Sheriff’s Office for more security. The Bible was handed to the Sheriff’s deputy who put it in an evidence bag and placed it in the evidence room under Bob Waters’ name.

Several months later, as he was going into the courthouse, a black limo pulled up to the bank next door. The bank was entered through the front door. The robbers started shooting, and Bob was caught in the cross fire. He was shot and killed while going into the bank.

The Sheriff did a thorough investigation of the shooting, but he was unable to find any motive for Bob’s death other than he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The bank robbers were caught, and they were sentenced to life in prison.

CHAPTER 1

LATE 1950’s

Belmont County is in the southeast corner of the state of Ohio. The Ohio River is on the eastern border and to the west lie Guernsey and Noble Counties. Monroe County is South of Belmont County. To the north are Harrison and Jefferson Counties and, take away the steel mills, chemical plants and the power plants, there isn’t much else.

Most of the county is farmland and fields. The balance of the county is forests with many stands of oak, hickory and locust. The locust trees were used as props in the mines because they did not rot as fast as the other trees.

My family was part of the influx of immigrants that came after World War I. Other groups came after World War II and the Korean War. The immigrant workers came to work in the coal mines and the steel mills. The major part of the immigrants was Polish, German and Italian.

They settled in different sections within the county and contributed substantially to the economy and culture. Their contributions could be seen all over the area.

Each of the ethnic groups stayed pretty much within their tight-knit communities. Most of them learned to speak English, and the area flourished.