Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 3 | The Farm Craven Boyd (the reading list book .txt) 📖

“Kids these days,” Goldie muttered with a grunt.

Her hands were already dirty, so she didn’t mind brushing the clumps of dirt and clay off the rusted clasp. She was able to get it undone with some effort.

She looked inside and gasped. “Call your daddy on the radio. Right now.”

Three

The market finished the day without any incident or ugliness. Everybody had been curious about what Harry and Goldie had found, but most of the group wanted to maintain their positions. Rob had radioed them once to let them know when things were wrapped up, and to meet him at the workshop. He had a couple of picnic tables set up and some cold beers ready. Goldie had promised her special lemonade.

“What do you think?” Anna asked Angelica. “Good news or bad?”

“It’s hard to tell. If they’re breaking out the good stuff, it could go either way,” she said.

“Didn’t Rob tell you, like, did you go on another channel and work your womanly ways on him? Make him inappropriate offers?”

“Of course I did,” Angelica pouted. “He said no. So, he gets the guest room tonight!”

Steven walked up, hearing the last of that and laughed. He put an arm around Anna’s waist and pulled her to him, kissing her neck.

“Oh, you keep doing that, we’re so going to have to skip out on the drinking,” Anna said with a small gasp.

“Oh, hell no!” Angelica said, firing up the Kawasaki and taking off for the farm, kicking up dust clouds.

“For a foul-mouthed hellion, she sure is embarrassed easily,” Anna said, turning to him, kissing him.

“Everybody has their weaknesses,” he told her.

“I haven’t found yours yet,” Anna said, pushing him back a little bit so she could separate them before things got too hot.

“My weaknesses? I have one.”

“Only one?” Anna asked.

“Yup. You,” he said simply, then turned and ran to the UTV that Andrea had just fired up.

Anna stood there for a moment, feeling the heat and love from that simple statement. She knew it was true.

“Are you coming, or what?” Andrea called. “For some reason, Angel took off and isn’t answering the radio!”

“Yup,” Anna yelled, running for them.

The second gate closed behind them as they shot towards the workshop.

Rob had a set of towels covering the find. The dirty and rusted ammo can was sitting off to the side. He’d spent two hours sorting and cleaning Harry’s find. He’d had his mom find him the polishing agent, but he’d only used it sparingly to verify what he was looking at. Angel was there first, having picked up Curt and Steven along the way. A few moments later, the other Kawasaki Mule pulled up. Everybody jumped off the back and headed inside.

“First things first,” Goldie said, passing out paper cups of lemonade.

“What’s under the towel?” Anna asked.

“Is that what Harry found?” Curt asked about the ammo can.

“Don’t make us wait, I have to pee,” Andrea said in a whiny voice.

“Drink up,” Goldie said, tossing back a paper cup of her own.

They did, and many of them gasped. She’d mixed the batch strong, so strong they could barely taste the lemonade. Harry and Leah laughed as the rest made faces and tried to control their reactions.

“Wow,” Anna said, looking into her cup, “this is going to be either really good, or really bad.”

“The lemonade?” Goldie thundered.

“No, judging by the strength of the drink,” Anna told her soothingly.

“Oh, well, I guess I figured you all would need to gird your loins before looking at this. Harry?”

Harry pulled the towel away like he was a stage magician. There were what looked like stacks of coins piled on the table. Dante frowned, then moved in closer. Leah followed, before the rest of the group started piling around.

“Oh wow,” Dante said in a quiet voice.

“Is this what I think it is?” Curt asked, having remembered some of this from their trip to Fort Smith.

“Yeah,” Leah said.

“I can’t see, I can’t see,” Angelica whined.

Rob promptly picked her up and put her on his shoulders.

“Holy shit, is that gold?” she screamed.

“Gold and silver. Harry found an entire ammo can full of gold and silver coins,” Rob said in a quiet voice, very unlike his normal tone.

“I tripped over it, dad,” Harry informed him.

“Silver?” Anna asked, and picked up a coin that had been cleaned. It shone brightly, so she held it up for the others.

“Is it… real?” Andrea asked.

“I’ve sorted the coins by year and type,” Rob told them. “I’m pretty sure most of the gold coins are $10 gold eagles, but it’s hard to tell without some more cleanup. Moisture has gotten into the box at one point.”

“Gold doesn’t corrode,” Anna said helpfully.

“Yeah, but the dirt got in with the water. I tried cleaning some of these up, but then remembered the better condition they are in, the more they’re worth. I wanted to ask you guys… I mean I needed to show you…”

“What are the spread of years?” Dante asked, starting to go through the gold coins left to right.

“Late 1800s through 1932 on the left most side. Then some 50s, 70s and 90s,” Rob answered.

“Let me down,” Angelica said.

Rob gently boosted her down and she stood at the end of the table.

“This is a lot, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Gold and silver? Yes,” Dante said holding one coin up. “Curt, look at this.”

Curt walked over, looked at it, then gasped, “Um… This coin right here is worth about $1400,” he said.

“That’s what I thought. The gold dealer in Fort Smith had one. It was one of his pricier pieces,” Dante told them.

“Just guess,” Anna said.

“Quarter of a million?” Dante said, shooting from the hip.

“What?” Goldie shrieked, refilling her paper cup quickly.

“I mean, I’m guessing most of these gold coins here are in the $800 to $1000 dollar range. Some are more, some are less. There seems to be a lot more gold than silver, which surprises me. Everybody has silver.”

“But gold always holds its value,” Goldie finished.

“Dang, that’s worth a