The Charlie Bell Sting

By Terry L Shaffer

A-10 pilot, Captain Greg Miller, is forced to eject from his Warthog after an in-flight emergency, and is injured when his parachute is blown into a rocky canyon in the Growler Mountains west of Ajo, Arizona. He seeks shelter in a shallow cave and discovers an old pair of saddle bags buried in the dirt near the back of the cave. In the saddle bags, just before he is rescued, he finds a gold nugget and papers dated 1889, describing a gold placer claim and forty-two ounces of gold located somewhere between Yuma and Ajo in the Arizona Territory. The only directions to the claim are a metes and bounds description with a place called Ahren's Seep as a landmark.

Just hours after sharing this information with two friends and a researcher, the pages are stolen from the researcher in a smash and grab robbery. One of the thieves, Alfredo Menendez, discovers the information about the claim and the gold and sets out to steal it, first for himself, then to pay for a crooked lawyer to get Menendez out of jail when he is arrested for the robbery. Menendez is released and immediately burglarizes the researcher's home looking for the gold but finds nothing. He comes back again to confront the woman at knifepoint, and she shows him that the documents are over a hundred years old and the gold is long gone under escheatment laws. Panicked and knowing he owes most of the gold to the lawyer who will have him killed if he doesn't produce what is Menendez to do?

And what about Captain Miller and his friends? Even with the help of a researcher, what are the chances they will find Ahren's Creek, the claim, much less strike gold?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09LGLV927
• ISBN13: 9798759720980
• Release Date: November 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"