"Jerry Oltion & Kent Patterson - Dutchmans Gold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Oltion Jerry)

JERRY OLTION and KENT PATTERSON

DUTCHMAN'S GOLD

JAN, I THINK IT'S GOING to rain."

Jan Van der Hoff looked up to where his wife, Frieda, pointed to a mass of black
clouds boiling up in the western sky, blotting out the stars like a great fist
rising over the ragged Panamint Mountains. "It won't hit here," Jan said. "We're
on the edge of Death Valley. It rains here about once every twenty years."

He glanced around the camp. He and Frieda sat together on a double size sleeping
bag rolled out on the hard ground. A few feet in front of them, a portable stove
sputtered, throwing off a flickering light and reeking of kerosene. Beyond that,
Jan's brother Peter sat on an identical bag. His new wife, Sarah, firelight
gleaming red in her brown hair, rested her head in his lap. They wore matching
red nylon jackets with the designer's logo written two inches high.

Peter was thirty-six, already an established lawyer, and the world's biggest
smart ass. Sarah was thirty-one, not far behind Peter. At forty-two himself, his
blond hair thinning to nothing, and a bit of a paunch, Jan had a hard time
remembering they were not children. Frieda, with both her outlook and figure
molded by her job as an aerobics instructor, had more patience.

Lightning flashed. For a split second, the Panamints' barren sides blazed in
gold. Wind whispered down the dry gullies, throwing a blinding cloud of dust
into Jan's eyes. The wind was cool, and smelled of rain.

"I think may be this is that twentieth year,"Frieda said. "We'd better get back
to the van pronto."

"What? Become the only people in history to be rained out of Death Valley?" Jan
laughed. "Not a chance."

"It's the Curse of the Lost Breyfogle Mine." Peter made Twilight Zone noises.
"Face it, bro, you'll never find it."

"I'm not looking for it. I just happen to like camping in the desert."

"Uh huh."

"So what's this Breyfogle you guys tease Jan about?" Sarah asked. "You've been
bugging him about it all day. Big family secret? I'm one of the family now. So
tell me."

"Oh, Lord. Don't start a historian talking about history." Frieda put her hands
over her ears. Jan winced. Once she'd have listened to his historical research
for hours. But after sixteen years of marriage, what could you expect? The fact