In which the old man reveals himself to our heroes; a tale is told.
“W-well, mister”, Billy stammered, clearly put off by the sudden appearance of a man with a knife. “We’re just hiking thru these parts. Why d-don’t you p-put down your knife, and we can talk about this, O-OK?”
The man, still in silhouette, stopped short.
“Oh geez! “said the man suddenly, lowering the knife. “Sorry ‘bout that, boys! I was sitting over here whittlin; some wood, taking in the sunshine, and I overheard ya. I didn’t mean to be scarin’ ya any. Lemme put this away.”
“Oh geez! “said the man suddenly, lowering the knife. “Sorry ‘bout that, boys! I was sitting over here whittlin; some wood, taking in the sunshine, and I overheard ya. I didn’t mean to be scarin’ ya any. Lemme put this away.”
The man, slid his knife into a sheath on his belt. “Why don’tcha come sit wit’ me a spell. I likes hearin’ stories of the gold mines ‘round these parts, and I’d love to swap tales.”
As a gesture of trust, the man turned around and took a few steps back to the far entrance of the bridge.
As a gesture of trust, the man turned around and took a few steps back to the far entrance of the bridge.
The boys looked at each other in disbelief. “One second, sir!” Billy said, then turned back to his brother and whispered “Did that really just happen?”
“Yeah, crazy right?” Ted replied in hushed tones. “Scary fellow right there, but he seems harmless, right? What do you think we should do?”
Billy thought out loud for a moment. “I say we go talk to him. We are not doing anything wrong. He put the knife away, and didn’t seem to intend to scare us. We do outnumber him, and we have age on our side. I say we go talk to him and see what he has to say, but don’t tell him about the geocache. Hopefully we can get out of this without making him suspicious or angry at us. K?”
“OK.“ Ted said. “I could use a break anyway. Lets go sit over there and talk to the old man. I’ll follow your lead.”
The boys tried to walk nonchalantly across the bridge to where the old man was waiting for them, still obviously nervous. Both kept a tighter grip on their hiking sticks.
When they stepped out into daylight on the far side they saw that the old man had already taken a seat on a rock about 10 ft from the edge of the bridge. Ted was relieved to see a pile of wood shavings littering the ground around the old man, he had been whittling wood. At least that part of his story was true.
The man smiled at the boys. He looked to be of medium build. He was wearing a well worn wide-brimmed brown leather hat, a green plaid shirt, faded blue jeans, and worn out old boots. On his belt was a large knife. Ted thought it looked a little like a bowie knife.
The man’s age was hard to guess due to his long thick gray beard - the boys were not very good at guessing ages anyway - but he was clearly well into “old man” territory. His eyes were blue, but faded grey with age. He beckoned the boys to sit on the rocky outcropping on the opposite side of the trail.
The boys took up his offer and sat down. They never took his eyes off him.
“Again, I’m a real sorry for scarin’ y’all like that. Anyway, me names Angus. Angus Dawson. It’s nice to be meetin
The man’s age was hard to guess due to his long thick gray beard - the boys were not very good at guessing ages anyway - but he was clearly well into “old man” territory. His eyes were blue, but faded grey with age. He beckoned the boys to sit on the rocky outcropping on the opposite side of the trail.
The boys took up his offer and sat down. They never took his eyes off him.
“Again, I’m a real sorry for scarin’ y’all like that. Anyway, me names Angus. Angus Dawson. It’s nice to be meetin
you fellers.”
“No worries, sir”, Billy said, after a moments pause. “It was a scare to be sure, but these things happen….”
“No worries, sir”, Billy said, after a moments pause. “It was a scare to be sure, but these things happen….”
Billy’s voice trailed off, and he got a puzzled look on his face like he just missed something important. “Wait! Your names Dawson you say? Are you perhaps related to...”
“Seamus Dawson would be my grandpappy”, Angus confirmed before Billy could finish. “So ya see why I be havin’ a special interest in the tales that are told about gold in these here parts.”
“Oh wow,” Ted exclaimed. “This is amazing. I never expected to meet a Dawson on these trails. That’s actually kinda awesome.”
“Well met, indeed, young man”, the old man said. “where did ya say you fellers are from?”
They spent a few minutes small talk discussing the boys upbringing, and how nice their home town is. They also spoke about the trails the boys took this morning. The old man deflected any inquires about his past. They even managed to joke and laugh a bit about some teenage hijinks Ted got into the year before. The boys started feeling comfortable enough with the old man that they let their guard down enough to fish some trail snacks out of their pack.
They spent a few minutes small talk discussing the boys upbringing, and how nice their home town is. They also spoke about the trails the boys took this morning. The old man deflected any inquires about his past. They even managed to joke and laugh a bit about some teenage hijinks Ted got into the year before. The boys started feeling comfortable enough with the old man that they let their guard down enough to fish some trail snacks out of their pack.
Suddenly the old man stopped smiling and looked sternly into Bills eyes. “So, how did you be a’hearin’ about me grandpappy’s gold?” he demanded, a chill creeping into his voice.
“W-well sir,“ Billy stammered, slightly put off by the old mans sudden shift in mood. “The Dawson Mining Consortium is a bit of local legend in Brysonville. We learned recently, in history class truth be told” - a white lie seemed warranted here - “that some ruins from the old mine still exist up here. We have some time off school, so we decided to hike up here and see if any of that was true.”
“I thought that’d be the situation. I’ve had trouble with people believin’ the tales they’ve heard about me grandpappy hidin’ his gold up in these here hills. Truth be told, it be a bunch of hogwash and nonsense, but folk still be comin’ up here and pokin’ around my papa’s old house, digging for gold. I don’t care for it much,” Angus said emphatically, “I don’t care for it much at all.”
“Well, sir, we are not looking for gold,” Billy replied, satisfied that it was technically true as they didn’t expect to find any actual gold in their searches. “We’re just trying to explore some history. We don’t mean to cause no harm, nor damage any property.”
Angus’s eyes suddenly warmed up, and a smile crept back across his face. “Excellent!” he said “Glad to hear it.”
The old man shuffled to his feet.
“Listen here fellas, I’ve taken enough of yer time. I’m gonna be movin’ on down the trail. You boys take care, ya here?”
“Yes, sir!” Billy replied.
The boys watched as the old man picked up the wood he was whittling, and started walking over the bridge. When he got to the other side, he turned around, saw that the boys were still watching him, turned back, tossed the whittled wood into the river, then kept walking down the trail.
The boys kept their eyes on the old man until he disappeared from sight. Once they were satisfied he was gone, they packed up their gear, and headed the opposite way down the trail.
“Lets go finish this, and find that box”, Billy said quietly, “Hopefully this would be the weirdest thing that happens to us today.”
Hope, however, is never a good strategy.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Copyright 2015 by Dave DeBaeremaeker. All Rights Reserved.
