Lone Star Cinderella by Debra Clopton Read Free Book Online Page B

She was throwing herself into her work today. To say she’d been distracted the day before was an understatement. Today, hopefully, there would be none of that.
    She was disappointed by noon when she’d found nothing about stagecoach robberies in the three journals she was reading. As fascinating as the writing was, she was disappointed as she went back to the chest. She was on her knees reaching into the chest for the last two journals when a board inside the very back corner of the closet caught her attention. It was crooked slightly, and from where she was sitting on the floor it looked like itwasn’t nailed. Abandoning the chest, she scooted inside the closet and ran her fingers over the board. It moved.
    But didn’t come out of its slot. Curious, she went to the kitchen and got a butter knife. Returning to the closet she dropped to her knees and inserted the tip of the knife into the crack and pried. Instantly the short board popped from the wall, exposing a small space between the closet wall and the kitchen wall behind it. And inside the cavity was a leather-bound journal.
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    Seth was coming out of his barn carrying a chainsaw when Melody’s car came careening dangerously over his cattle guard.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” he asked, hurrying to the car and yanking open the door.
    She stumbled out in an instant clutching one of the journals against her. “Y-you aren’t going to believe this! I found a map!”
    Seth caught her as she almost tripped over her feet. Her face was lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Her eyes glowed, and her smile was so explosive that Seth didn’t catch what she was saying at first. “A what?”
    â€œA treasure map!” she said, grabbing his arm and dragging him toward his porch to enter the house. “There was a board in the closet and it was loose. Behind it was this journal—it was just in there. And I pulled it out and started reading but then this fell out and it was all there.”
    â€œWhoa, hold up.” She was babbling ninety miles an hour as she placed the journal on the table and opened it. Inside was a folded piece of paper, which she carefully opened. It wasn’t a map drawn like one thought of a typical map. Instead it was a handwritten list. Sethcouldn’t help the rush of adrenaline that he got looking at it. Was this proof that his granddad’s campfire tale was true? He pulled up a chair and Melody did the same as he read it.
    â€œBegin south corner ravine at the matching rocks. Fifty steps west to tower turn twenty-five degrees left. At the rock follow the crust to the cave.”
    His heart was pounding as he met Melody’s big eyes. “Who wrote this?”
    â€œJane.”
    Seth told himself to breathe.
    Melody pointed to the familiar writing inside the journal. It was the same clear, precise writing as the others. “She says here that on May 5, 1877, not long after they’d moved to the stage stop, they were awakened in the middle of the night by a sound. When Oakley went to investigate he found a very sick man. They took him in and tried to help him but the man died two days later. But in his fever, he told your Grandpa Oakley where he’d hidden three saddlebags of gold coins.”
    The campfire tale. “Does it say who he was? Where this money came from?”
    Melody beamed. “Not so far as I’ve read. And there is absolutely no telling. Do you even have any idea how many stage robberies and train robberies took place between 1874 and 1878? Many of them. And that’s what I’ve been telling you. See, it got crazy during that time—and Sam Bass was accused of committing most of the crimes. But to have done everything he is credited for doing he would have had to be ten men. No way could he have done everything he was accused of. So, that’s the deal, there were men roaming around out there who robbed things and never got caught. It was