The Texas Treasure Tragedy, Part Ii

He rose from his half-finished whisky, and set out, clear out of town. Blackjack would be very keen to know what the soft, little clerk had found. Gil rode back out into the desert, retracing where he previously went. Finding the cave by the Chisos Peaks, not that far from the Big Bend. As he walked in his hands shook, at the sight of countless chisel-marks. He’d seen it this morning but it still sent a flutter deep through his heart. He walked into a broad corridor, hand-hewn right from the peak. On either side of him endless slots were filled with copper-hued antiques. Each slot held one such metal tube, and he opened one to look inside, a brittle paper slid into his hands, the letters he clearly recognized. They were in Greek and Latin script, though neither language was his own. He knew he gazed upon something that dated back to ancient Rome. He looked at another copper tube, and saw letters written on the outside. It was the single word ‘Alexandria,’ the letters quite clearly described. How it had gotten all the way here, Gil rightly could not understand. As far as he knew the Romans never crossed the ocean to find new lands. But he’d read enough to know what it meant, of the library so long ago burned. Had somebody sailed it across the Atlantic, to save it from a destruction unearned? The thought of it all make his vibrate, his mind jumping about excitedly. They he heard a horse, and a loud shout, and his joy turned to doom quickly. “Come out of there Cuddy!”Blackjack cried, “With you hands up if you want to live! We’ve come for the treasure, and we’re taking it, so either leave now, or we’re coming in!” Gil he froze, then started to walk, not knowing what to do now. He reached to the sunlight, six awaited, Blackjack’s face pinched in a scowl. Blackjack smiled, and sent Lopez ahead, into the cave with another man. Long minutes past, then Lopez raced out, crying,”Amigos! It’s all been a scam!” Lopez held a single metal tube, he pulled from it to old paper sheet. He cried,”It’s nothing but moldy paper! No gold, no treasure, no money!” Blackjack glowered, and stared at Gil. Gil swallowed, then found his nerve. He said,”Inside that cave is the wisdom of ages, something the whole world deserves! “Those documents there and incredibly old, and tell of things that we though long lost! Endless history that we never knew, a chronicle of all that once was!” CONTINUES IN PART III.