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The following Saturday afternoon was unseasonably warm and sunny and since the men had been promising to take the twins fishing, they decided this was the day.-Andy and Candy were ecstatic.-Andy didn’t even fuss a little about Candy going.-He was too excited to worry about his masculine ego.
The cliffs along the east side of Sugar Creek rose straight up toward the clear blue sky.-The trees growing along the top edge of the rock formations seemed to have dug their roots tenaciously into the solid limestone.-In several places, water was dripping from between layers of rock and running down the face of the cliff which extended in both directions almost as far as you could see. There were only a few gaps in the nearly solid rock wall where it was possible to climb up and down.-Moss grew in some places covering the towering façade with what appeared to be green carpeting.-A few trees grew near the base of the cliffs near the banks of the stream and seemed to stand watch for any thing that might threaten the wild beauty of the rugged terrain.
Of course, the twins’ excitement of going fishing waned pretty soon after it was obvious that they weren’t going to catch a bunch of fish in the first fifteen minutes.-They, of course, grumbled that they were “bored;” that word that adults find so unpalatable.-“Here you have been fussing to go fishing for almost all winter.-Now the weather cooperates today and you don’t have enough patience to sit here ten minutes to see if you get a bite.”
“I got a ‘bite’ alright; from a mosquito.”-Andy complained.
“Could we go just around the bend and explore a little,” Candy begged.-“Please, Daddy.-Pretty please with ice cream on it?”-She liked ice cream even better than sugar.
“Oh, okay.-But don’t go near the water.”
“We won’t,” they shouted as they were already on their way.
“And don’t be climbing.”-More instructions.
“Okay,” they shouted again in unison.-Then there was silence for several minutes.
“Andy.-Candy.-Can you hear me?”
“Yes, we hear you, Daddy.-We’re okay.”
Andy, put his finger to his lips.-“Be quiet.-I think I heard something.”
“What?-What did you hear?”
“There it is!” he whispered, pointing up into a tall tree.
“That looks like a oak tree, Andy.-Remember, we learned what oak leaves look like and the acorns that grow on it?”
“Do you see the squirrel?-It’s right below that big x mark on the tree way up there.-There, he moved.-Did you see him?”
“Yes.”-Candy almost shouted.-She had forgotten to be quiet.
“Oh, you scared him away.-Look.-He jumped from the limb on this tree to the limb on the other tree.-See, how the limbs kinda overlap from one tree to the other?”
“I’m sorry.-I didn’t mean to scare him.-But look, there he is right above the x mark on this tree.”
“Those marks look funny; almost like somebody marked the tree for some reason.”-Then they looked at each other and their eyes became wide and excited as they both remembered the story from the library.
“You don’t s’pose—no, that’s silly.”
“It couldn’t be.-Could it?”-Suddenly they heard or felt something or someone behind them.-They turned simultaneously and both of them almost fainted.-Whether from fright or disbelief, they’d never know.
“D-d-d-do you s-s-see what I s-s-see?”
“It looks like the Indian from the story,” Candy barely whispered.
The image didn’t move or speak but just stood and watched them.-Finally, he motioned them to follow him, and they did, on tiptoes, although they couldn’t have said why.-The figure stopped about midway between the two trees and pointed at the ground.-The kids looked where he pointed and saw an old rusty shovel lying there.-He looked sadly at the twins and then slowly faded from sight.
"What do you think he meant by pointing at the ground like that?"-Andy had an idea but he wanted to see if Candy had the same idea.
"I supposed he wanted us to dig here.-Do you think this is where the gold is buried?"
"I don't know what to think."
Andy picked up the shovel and almost as though he were in a trance, he began to force the shovel into the hard earth.-However, about the third time he tried to stab it into the ground, the handle almost disintegrated in his hands and the rusty lip of the metal bent upwards and there was no way to do anything else with it.
Candy picked up a stick and began to try to scrape away some of the earth with it.-The stick was rotten, too, and got them nowhere.
“Candy, is anybody gonna believe this happened?-I’ll bet if we try to tell them, they’ll laugh at us and make fun of us.”
“I guess you couldn’t much blame them if they didn’t believe us.-I saw it and I’m not sure I believe us.”
“We’ll have to make them believe us, some way.-We’ve got to get a good shovel and come back and dig up whatever’s there.-That poor man looked so sad.-He seemed to be saying, ‘If you find the gold, you can prove I’m not a robber and I can finally be free of disgrace.’”
“I don’t know how we’ll do it, but we got to.”
They turned and went back to where Ed and Johnny were fishing.-“Say, you sure do look serious and subdued—almost scared.-Did something happen?”
“No, everything’s okay.”-Candy and Andy picked up their poles and pretended to fish for a while.-They just weren't quite ready to share that experience with anyone yet.-The fish were not biting at all and pretty soon the grown-ups decided to call it a day.-The day had grown cool and the clouds were beginning to look dark and leaden as they hovered overhead like a blanket ready to smother the earth.-Andy and Candy didn’t speak of the event any more that day until they went to bed.-Candy sneaked into Andy's room and they lay and whispered back and forth way up into the night.-It seemed like an eternity until it was time for story hour again on the next Thursday.
The story as read by Mrs. King told how the posse missed Shadowhawk in the darkness under the cliffs; but when they got a little closer to the two who actually robbed the bank, the thieves opened fire on the posse thinking they were chasing them.-The posse returned fire and ended up killing both of them.- They took the bodies back to town.-Some of the men at the saloon remembered playing cards with them a couple of nights before and identified them as Carl Delk and Mitch McElroy.-There had been another man with them; his name had been Tom Bishop but they all called him Lefty.-They had no idea what had happened to him.- They had said they were from a place on the Ohio River called Joeville, which was thirty or forty miles away.-They were buried in Boot Hill near the settlement where the bank had been robbed but no one ever realized they were the thieves.
According to the legend, Shadowhawk had wandered around for nearly thirty years, with everyone still believing he had robbed the bank.-Before he had left so many years ago, he told his father that he would never rest until he had proven his innocence.-His end came, the tale continued, when he crossed paths with an angry, wounded bear.-His spirit was at last free and could return to the area where he had grown up so he could try to clear his name.
The Story Hour Leader finished the book: “And the legend says that once every one hundred years the ghost of the falsely accused Indian, Shadowhawk, appears to a person or persons and tries to persuade them to dig up the gold along with the proof that Shadowhawk is innocent of the robbery.-Until he is vindicated, he can never be at peace in the Happy Hunting Ground in the sky, but must forever haunt the cliffs around the hiding place and search for someone to prove his innocence.-
The Wells Fargo Bank from which the gold was stolen offered a ten thousand dollar reward but the gold was never found.”
Andy immediately spoke up, “A hundred years is a long time, isn’t it?”
“Yes it is, Andy.”
“The book doesn’t say how many days or how many times Shadowhawk can ask for help does it?”-Candy asked.
“You do realize that this is only a sto
ry somebody made up, don’t you, kids?-At most, it could be called a ‘legend’ that had been passed down through the centuries from generation to generation.”
“But it could be true, couldn’t it?”
“Oh, I suppose something like that could have happened but now it’s only a story.-Okay children, next week we will start a book about dogs by Albert Payson Terhune.-I think you’ll like it, too.”
Later, when Chrissy and Penny had picked them up and they were on their way home, Chrissy noticed Andy and Candy were exchanging very serious whispers in the back seat.-And they weren't telling them about Shadowhawk and how the story ended.-Penny and Chrissy both wondered at that change.-When they reached the Wroe house and Penny prepared to get out and go inside, Andy and Candy did something unusual.-They began to beg to spend the night with Johnny and Chrissy.
“You said we could sometime and then Grandmother Lydia got sick and then Ramon got shot and we couldn’t find the right time to do it.-But Grandmother is okay now and Uncle Bruce and Aunt Janet are with her and they found the bad guys who killed Mr. Mendez so could we, could we, please spend the night?”-That was a long speech for one of the twins to make without the other butting in.-Actually, they had agreed between themselves that Candy would do the asking because she “begged” better than Andy did and she usually got what she wanted.
Penny looked at Chrissy and Chrissy nodded her head.-“I don’t mind if you don’t,” Chrissy said.
“Well, I guess it’ll be alright.-But you have to mind and do exactly what Johnny and Chrissy tell you to do.-Is that understood?”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!-We’ll be so good it’ll be unbelievable,” Andy chimed in.-“But we need to go upstairs and change out of our good clothes.-We wouldn’t want to ruin them by getting them dirty or something.”-That sure was a strange statement.-They never thought about putting on old clothes to play in.-Penny was a little dubious about what they might be up to; but she had told them they could go, so she wouldn’t back down, now.
“We’ll be over there in a few minutes, Chrissy.-What time is it, Mama?”
“It’s about four-thirty.-Why?”-That was an unusual question, too.
“Oh, just wondering.”-The twins exchanged ‘looks’ and Penny’s curiosity was roused further.-But she still wasn’t especially alarmed.
Johnny was coming in from working on the new house about the time the twins got to the trailer.-Andy spoke up as soon as they all got inside.
“We want to talk to you about something and you prob’ly won’t believe us.-But every word of it is real.-We both saw it and what it did.”
“You’ve got to help us help him or else it will be another hundred years before he can try again.”
“We’ve got to help him find the proof or he’ll be stuck here for ever.”
Johnny finally got a word in edgewise.-“Whoa!-Whoa!-Kids! Wait a minute!-Slow down and start from the beginning.-I don’t understand anything you’re saying.”
“Well, you remember when you and Dad took us fishing?-Well….”
“It was just like this book they were reading to us at the liberry.”
“You see, this Iroquois Indian was accused of robbing a bank.”
“But he didn’t do it.-Some bad white men did; but they blamed it on Shadowhawk and he couldn’t prove he didn’t do it.-So his tribe threw him out—vanished, I think they called it.”
“Banished.-But what does that have to do with going fishing?-I still don’t—“
“Just listen; you will.-The book said if Shadowhawk could get someone to dig up the gold there would be proof that he didn’t rob the bank.”
“But he only gets to try once every hundred years and if we don’t help him he can’t try again for a whole ‘nother hundred years.”
“So you’ve got to help us dig it up.-Shadowhawk, his ghost, I guess, showed us where to dig the day we went fishing, but the old rusty shovel wouldn’t work.-There were the “x” marks on the trees just like it showed in the book and the bend in the river and everything.”
“Please, you’ve got to help us.-Get a shovel and come with us down to the fishing hole and we’ll show you where he showed us.”
“Will you help us, please, please, please?”
“The lady at the liberry said it was just a story, but—“
“We both saw Shadowhawk and he pointed to where we need to dig and everything—.”
“He looked so sad ‘cause he was being punished for something he didn’t do.”
“Well, Chrissy, do you feel like going treasure hunting?”-Then when the kids were out of earshot, he finished up.-“Boy, they do have vivid imaginations, don’t they?”
Chrissy called her Mom and Dad while Johnny was getting the best digging tool they had.-“Mom, the kids want to go down around the fishing hole for a while and it did sound like fun, so we’ll be back before dark.-Just wanted you to know where we were.”-Then they took off toward the creek.-The kids were so excited, Chrissy and Johnny were both glad they were humoring them.
When they got to the place, Andy and Candy pointed to where the “x’s” were on the two big old oak trees.-
“In the book the two “x’s” were closer to the ground.-But they’re still there.-Do you see them?”
“Well, actually, I do see them.-And the reason for them being so high now would be because the trees have grown a lot in two hundred years.”
When the kids ran on ahead, Chrissy poked Johnny in the ribs.-“I thought we weren’t going to encourage them.-Now you’re making the scenario fit the case.”
“Well, imagination is good for them.-They’ll see soon enough that it’s just a story, Honey.”
“We were standing right here and we both felt something was behind us and when we turned around—“
“There he was,” Candy finished and then they turned to look behind them again and this time all four of them saw a hazy form materialize and seem to look at them sadly.
“Johnny, we’ve evidently got good imaginations, too.-Do you see him?”
“Well, I definitely see something.”
“Shadowhawk, is that you?” Andy asked.-The figure made a move toward them and all of them involuntarily took two steps backwards.
“We came to help you, Shadowhawk.-Can you show us where to dig?”-Candy’s voice was a little shaky but she showed no actual fear.
The apparition moved up toward the slope that led to the place half way between the two marked trees.-Then he went down the little incline and stood on the spot where he had stood before when the twins first saw him.
“If we dig here, will we find the evidence to prove you didn’t rob the bank?”-Chrissy had admonished Johnny not to encourage the twins and now she was talking to the ghost as though he were real.
An errant breeze seemed to stir the feather that was fastened in his headdress as the disgraced tribesman slowly nodded his head.-Then the image seemed to dissolve right before their eyes.-However, the breeze still appeared to be playing with the old layer of leaves on the ground where he had stood.
“Well,” Andy spoke, “are we going to dig or just stand here?”
“Yeah, according to the story, Shadowhawk came upon the white men as they were covering the hole after hiding the gold.-So, let’s get to it.-We don’t have much time until dark so let’s hurry.”-Candy was insistent.
Johnny obediently stuck the point of the shovel into the earth and brought up a shovelful of decaying leaves and earth.-Then another and another until he was more than knee deep in a hole he had dug.-But suddenly, his shovel struck what seemed to be a hard, impenetrable surface.-He tried to skirt around it and find a softer surface on one side, but it seemed to be solid and huge.
“I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to budge the ground in any direction.-Besides I’ve got to rest a few minutes.-I’ll come up there on the little ridge and sit down and try to figure out something.”-Johnny was walking as he spoke and then as he took the second step after extricating himself
from the hole, he tripped over something and landed on his stomach.-When he laughed and tried to push himself back to his feet, his hands seemed to sink beneath the surface.-Then the earth simply gave way beneath him and suddenly he was falling several feet below the level of the ground.-
Chrissy screamed and scrambled to the mouth of the gaping hole Johnny had fallen through.-“Johnny, are you all right?-What happened?”-Her voice seemed to echo hollowly as she called down to him.-“Stay back, Candy!-You, too, Andy!-Johnny, answer me.-Are you okay?”-Chrissy was almost crying.
“The fall just knocked the wind out of me, that’s all.-I’m fine.-This looks like the mouth of a cavern.-Of course, it’s dark inside and I can’t see anything, but it sounds like it’s huge in there.-Chrissy, lie down and let me see if I can brace myself by hanging on to you and pull myself out of here.-I believe I can reach you.”-Chrissy lay down as he instructed and reached down as far as she could with her hand.-Of course, with her tummy getting bigger, she couldn’t lie as flat as she would have been able to without the extra bulge.-Johnny reached up and strained toward her hand, but he just couldn’t quite reach it.-He lacked almost a foot making the connection.
Chrissy could plainly see there was no way she would be able to get him out.-“Andy, can you go back to your house and get Dad, a rope and a flashlight and bring him back here?-Can you do that, Andy?”
“Yeah, sure.-I’m sorry, Sis.-He wouldn’t be in there like that if I hadn’t wanted so bad to help Shadowhawk.-I’m sorry.-I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, Andy, really it is.-He isn’t hurt.-We just need to get him out and with a rope and a flashlight, we can get him out easy.-Just go get Dad and everything will be fine.-Okay?”
“You want me to go with him or stay here with you, Chrissy?”
“You can stay here with me, if you don’t mind, Candy.-You’re both big kids and Andy can run fast to get Dad.-But be careful, Andy, don’t try to go so fast that you get too tired before you get there.-Now go right up that little hill where we came down.”
Chrissy leaned over again to see Johnny down in the hole and to let him know they’d have him out in almost no time.-About fifteen minutes later she could hear what sounded like a car and she sent Candy up the little hill to see if it was their Dad.
“It’s them, Sissy.-It’s Mom and Dad and Andy in the Rendezvous.-They’ve got a rope and a lantern and a flashlight.-Here they are.”-Candy reported from the top of the little hill.
“What in the world is going on?-I couldn’t make heads or tails of what Andy was trying to tell me except that Johnny had fallen into a hole.-Is he alright?-Is he hurt or anything?”
“He’s right down there and he’s walking around so I don’t think he’s hurt or anything like that.”-Chrissy scrambled up so that her Dad could take her place at the mouth of the hole.- Ed called down to Johnny.
“Are you okay, Johnny?”
“I’m fine, Pop.”-Johnny had begun calling his father-in-law, “Pop” right after he and Chrissy were married and Penny had become “Mom” while his own parents were “Mama and Daddy.”
“Let’s get you out of there, then.-I’ll throw down the rope and you grab hold and I’ll pull you up.”
“Wait a minute.-Before I get out, I’d like to look around a little.-Do throw down the rope and a flashlight, though, and I’ll hang on to the rope and look around a little before I come back topside.”
“You, be careful, Johnny, I don’t want you to go too far.-There could be a cave in and well, just don’t go too far.-Okay?-Well, here’s the flashlight and here comes the rope, too.”-Ed watched a little apprehensively as Johnny walked to the gaping orifice that could be seen near the bottom of the hollowed out hole in the ground.
With the flashlight in one hand and the rope in the other, Johnny moved toward what looked to be the mouth of a cave.-Ed held firmly to the other end of the rope.-Johnny had to stoop only slightly to get through the opening.-He stood just inside the opening and shone the light all around what turned out to be a fairly large room.
“What do you see, Johnny?” Ed called.
“It’s a large room and it seems to open into another beyond it.-Looking straight up, I think I can see a little daylight.-Could one of the twins go up where we were digging and check to see if they can see any light coming through from down here?”
Andy had heard Johnny’s suggestion so he scrambled up to the hole Johnny had dug.-“Yes, I can see just a little light from the flashlight, Dad.-It seems to be coming from around the edges of a rock or something.”
“Okay.-Be careful and don’t fall through, Andy.”-His dad sure didn't want any body else underground at least unintentionally.
“Oh, my—I think there’s a skeleton down here.-There’s the skull and that looks like a bullet-hole in it.”-Johnny had advanced further into the chamber and had used up almost all of the length of the rope.
“Johnny, don’t go any further in there.-I think it’s time to come back up.”-Ed was a little concerned for Johnny’s safety.
“Do you see any gold bars, Johnny?-Do you see the treasure?”-Candy was excited.
“Yes, there is something in a big bag down here covered with dirt and leaves and stuff.-There’re also saddle bags down here with what looks to be big black coats of some kind inside.-They sure don’t look like something an Indian would have worn. Yes, I think there is a gold bar and several more beside it.-We’ve found it.-We’ve found the bank loot!-I’ll bring one of them back up with me and then we’ll have something to show the sheriff when we tell him.-Here, Ed, your arms are longer than Chrissy’s.-I think you can reach it.”
“Okay, now.-Brace yourself and I’ll pull you out.”-With much grunting and huffing and puffing, Johnny was soon above ground again.-Andy and Candy were holding the gold bar and looking at it with awe and disbelief.-Ed and Penny, though were still pretty much in the dark.-Then, suddenly, a stiff breeze began to blow and the ghostly figure of the Indian appeared one last time.-He smiled and bowed and then waved his hand in farewell.-Then they saw the tawny brown coat and black muzzle of the horse described in the book and that Shadowhawk had called ‘Cougar.’-Shadowhawk mounted the stallion and disappeared from sight as he had before.-This time, though, they knew they wouldn’t see him again.
"Now Shadowhawk won't be disgraced any more.-He can join the rest of his tribe in the Happy Hunting Ground in the sky."
"But we won't see him any more and that's kinda sad, too.-But I'm glad for him, Candy."
Upon returning to the house, Johnny immediately called his friend Sheriff Lampton.-He and some members of the County Rescue Team brought ladders and ropes and big lights and went down into the cave.-They recovered the skeletal remains and the bone structure indicated without a doubt that the body had definitely been male Caucasian and not American Indian.-The leather saddle bags had also been white men’s gear.-They had given some protection to the big black coats that were inside which also proved to be white men’s apparel.-They also matched the description of the clothing worn by the bank robbers as related by the witness who saw one of them as he left the back door of the bank.-They discovered fourteen gold bars among the debris on the floor of the cave.-There was no longer a Wells Fargo in the immediate area but it didn’t take long for Sheriff Lampton to find one elsewhere.-
The bank president had identified himself as Keeley Davis.-"And how may I help you Sheriff Lampton?"
"Mr. Davis, some people who own a farm here near Fordsville have discovered some gold bars which we believe are part of the loot from a bank robbery perpetrated in the late 1700s.-They feel the treasure should be returned to the original owners which would seem to be Wells Fargo.-We wondered if you or a representative could come here, determine if it is your property and, if so, take possession of that gold."
"How many gold bars are there, Sheriff?-And are you sure it's real gold and not something painted up to look like gold?"
"We have had it authenticated by an appraisal firm in Owensboro, so, yes, al
l fourteen gold bars are 99 % pure gold and each bar weighs about twenty pounds.-When they were discovered in a cave, they were in or near the remains of heavy saddle bags and the Wells Fargo markings are still visible on the gold bars."
"Then, of course, Sheriff, I will be glad to make the trip myself.-I should be there no later than Friday."
Keeley Davis of the Wells Fargo Bank and Trust Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, made a special trip to see the gold bars and determine their origin.-At the time they were stolen from the Bank, Mr. Davis told them the reward offered had been roughly fifteen percent of the total value of the gold.-Since the gold had appreciated in value he felt it only fair to increase the reward also.-Before he left with the gold no one had ever expected to see again, he deposited twenty thousand dollars into the savings accounts set up for Andy and Candy’s college expenses.
As soon as the news got out about the gold being found (they hadn't told even the sheriff about the ghost) Ed was besieged by calls from folks wanting to see where the gold and other artifacts had been found, particularly the press.-The Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, The Louisville Courier-Journal and The Cincinnati Herald-Tribune all sent reporters and photographers to make their news reports.-Then, of course, there were the dozens of small newspapers trying to find a new angle to report.-At first it was actually interesting to Ed and Penny when people wanted to see the cave, but after answering the phone a few hundred times, it was beginning to be slightly tedious.-
Many curiosity seekers would even show up unannounced and begin to make their way toward the back of the property where the cave was located without so much as asking permission to trespass on Ed's property.-They would often leave the gates open so that the cow and horses would be allowed to leave the protection of their pasturelands.
Later on, some spelunkers came and explored the cave. They, with Ed's permission, dug out the entrance way so that there was easy access to the cave.-They found several large chambers and passageways that led in different directions.-One tunnel had apparently been dug by hand and seemed to lead toward the Wroe’s house; but about half the distance from the cave to the house the subterranean passageway had collapsed and they could travel it no further without careful excavation.-They even mapped some of the chambers of the cave and several other people came to see it, too.-However, since it was on the Wroe property and the Wroes would be liable if anyone were to be injured in the cave, Ed, on the advice of his attorney, felt it necessary to suspend any more visitation or exploration of the cave system.-They did discover that there had been a flat rock that covered an opening that dropped into the cave and the bank robbers had just removed that “lid” and dumped the gold, their disguises, and their dead partner into the cave through that hole.-Through the years, the roots of the two old oak trees had wound around that “lid” and sealed it shut.-But, at any rate, Andy and Candy knew they would never forget their friend, Shadowhawk.