One night, late in the fifties, two prospectors showed up at the San Felipe stage station. It was rather late in the evening, and their intention was to stay over night at the house. These two had struck a rich pocket on their trip and had several thousand dollars worth of gold in their possession.
As they were sitting gossiping with the hostler and generally relaxing after two months on the desert, the door was opened suddenly, and a lone bandit came in and struck up the place. He lined them against the wall, took their guns, and ordered them to lay their belongings on the table.
He seemed to be aware that the prospectors had gold with them, for he told them to lay out their gold and money, too. When they had complied with the order, he told the two to be on their way and to keep going. This they did, leaving so fast that they forgot part of their mining tools. They were never seen again.
The bandit followed them out into the night, leaving the hostler alone in the station. In about half an hour he returned, kicked in the door, and ordered the hostler to get him something to eat and drink. Then the hostler did a very foolish thing. He recognized the bandit and called him by name, whereupon the bad man said: “There’s just one thing to do-get a shovel and start digging your grave! I’m going to roll you into it-a dead man!” The hostler picked up a shovel as if to obey the order. They went outside the station; but instead of digging he rushed the bandit, raised the shovel high, and brought it down on his head just as he fired. Both men were killed; and their bodies were found lying across each other, by a traveler who came through there shortly afterward. There was no gold on the table, and the bandit had none on him. Evidently fearing just such a chance interruption, he had buried the gold somewhere within a ten-minute walk of the station, when he followed the prospectors outside.
This episode happened on a moonlight night in October; and the story goes that if anyone camps on the site of the old stage station on that night, he will hear-about midnight-the sound of voices mumbling, and see the rise and fall of a shovel for an instant, just before the moon goes under a cloud.
Two lost prospectors, a hostler shot in the heart, a bandit with a bashed-in head, and some buried loot! But-those who lack an understanding of such things as this should not try to find the buried gold. Four men have tried it, at different times, and have come to dismal ends! There’s a curse on this hidden gold, and old-timers will tell you it can never be found, and for this reason: Every time the shovel rises and falls, it packs the treasure deeper into the earth!
