A (14:38)
And so as this group of men continued their ride along the shore, Frank sort of zoned out and just kind of stared off into the forest all around him and Then at some point as he was doing this, as he was looking off to his right, he noticed amongst the thick trees, There was this little trail, this dirt trail that kind of wound off into the distance. And for some reason, Frank was just immediately drawn to it. And so he pulled on his horse's reins and came to a stop and just stared at this strange trail. Frank thought about how, for all this time, they'd been out here searching for gold. They'd basically only looked in this river and found nothing. And so he thought to himself, you know, maybe the gold is not in the river, but it's maybe out there in the woods, and maybe this trail that he was looking at Might lead them to gold. And so frank turned back around to tell the rest of the group. About his big idea, you know, to try to go down this trail here. But when he looked, he saw all the men in the group, except for his best friend blackjack, had continued on without him. They basically hadn't even stopped when frank had stopped. However, frank really didn't care that the group had left him, because he was totally over this trip and frankly, didn't want to be with this group anyways. And so he just looked over at blackjack and just kind of gestured towards this trail as if to say, you want to go this way? And blackjack, who was also totally over this trip, Just smiled and nodded like, yeah, let's go. And so the two men turned their horses and began heading down this thin dirt trail off into the woods. For several hours, Frank and blackjack continued on this trail. Deeper and deeper into the forest. You get a picture of very thick trees all around, and it's just this little winding dirt trail on the ground. They had no idea where this trail was going, but there was just something so powerful about this trail. It was like calling them to go. But as they rode along, Frank kept getting this bad feeling. Like, he kept hearing what sounded like voices and footsteps right behind them on the trail. But every time he turned, all he saw was blackjack. There was nobody around them at all. They were deep in the forest. And after a while, you know, Frank kept hearing these noises. And he asked blackjack, like, hey, are you hearing that stuff, too? And blackjack said, yeah, I am. But he, too, would turn around and see nothing. They were all alone. And so eventually, you know, the men convinced themselves that, you know, what those sounds must be Is the sound of their party who's discovered they have left the group, and maybe they're out there looking for them. But frank and blackjack really had no intention of rejoining the group. They kind of didn't like the group, and so they said, you know what? Let's just keep on going. Eventually, the path these two friends were on Led them to a stream. And so they stopped. They got off their horses, they knelt down, and they scooped their canteens into the water to get a drink. And as frank did that, he looked into the crystal clear water, and he saw nuggets of gold just sitting there in the stream. Frank couldn't believe it. I mean, he's out here looking for gold, but he was not expecting to find it right here in the middle of nowhere, despite, you know, his instinct that maybe the gold was out here. And so he just froze. And he's staring at this. He can't believe it. He grabs blackjack, who hadn't seen it yet, and pulls him over. Blackjack looks, and the two men, they're like, oh, my goodness, we've done it. But frank said, look, before we celebrate, let's see what we're dealing with here. Let's go upstream here and try to find the source of this gold. And so the two men that got up, they're super excited. They start walking along the side of the stream, Looking in the water, and as they're moving upstream, they're seeing all this gold in the water, and it's getting more and more. And eventually, they reach this rock ledge. The water was pouring over down into the stream, and literally in the ledge Are these massive veins of gold. They had found a gigantic gold mine that clearly nobody else had tapped before. I mean, this could be worth not just millions of dollars, but billions of dollars. And so at this point, the two friends began to celebrate. They were ecstatic. I mean, this is unbelievable. They're jumping around, they're hugging each other. And then at some point, they just kind of stopped and went silent because they realized they now had a big dilemma. So the whole reason frank and blackjack were out here in the canadian wilderness Was to look for gold. But they were looking for gold on behalf of the rich investor, Lafayette french, which meant they were contractually obligated to tell french if they found gold. And so here they are. They found this massive gold mine, and that's what they're supposed to do again, based on their contract. But if they did that, French would get rich beyond his wildest dreams from this mine. And, yeah, he'd cut them a check, you know, a piece of the profits. But it would be like nothing compared to what french would get from this gold Mine or. And this is where the dilemma comes in. Frank and blackjack could hide the fact that they had found this mine, and then they alone could come out here anytime they wanted, take the gold, and become rich themselves. Now, granted, they would have to be kind of subtle about it, because if they started showing up with barrel fulls of gold, you, know, lafayette french is gonna find out about it, and they're gonna be in trouble. But, you know, there was a way to do it where this mine could effectively be theirs and they could get rich. But obviously, there was a lot of risk involved in that second choice. And so frank and blackjack decided that, you know what? This is way too big of a decision for us to make just on the fly right now. So let's just stay here in the area. Let's camp out for the night and just sleep on this and come to a decision tomorrow. So the two men left the stream and headed over to this clearing that was right nearby and decided that's where they would pitch their camp for the night. Blackjack left to go gather firewood, and frank began to pitch their tent. And as frank did that, as he began setting up their tent, he began hearing whispers, Kind of like the voices he was hearing as they were walking in on that trail. And they kept thinking it was maybe the group that was looking for them. He began hearing those voices again. It was kind of all around him in the trees. But every time he looked, there was no one there. Now, frank convinced himself that maybe these whispers were actually blackjack, because he had gone off to get firewood, and maybe it was him. But at one point, when frank heard these whispers, he looked in the direction of the whispers. There was no one there. And he realized blackjack was at the same time, on the opposite side of the clearing. It could not have been him. And so frank couldn't help but feel really unsettled. It was like there was somebody or something here watching them or listening to them, but he just couldn't tell who or what it was. But frank just told himself to shake it off, you know, don't worry about that. Instead, just focus on getting the camp set up. A few hours later, Frank and blackjack were sitting on a log in front of their campfire, eating rations and talking about what they were gonna do with the gold. At some point, Frank said what he was really thinking about this whole situation. He told blackjack, look, I think we'd be so stupid to tell lafayette french, why should we take a small payday one time when we can basically have an endless supply of wealth for the rest of our lives. But when Frank looked over at blackjack to see what his reaction was to this pitch, he could see right away that blackjack disagreed. Blackjack was kind of looking down, and he kind of turned to Frank and was like, look, it's morally wrong to lie here. I would rather be poor and honest than rich and morally bankrupt. And so what had started as a civil discussion from this point on really escalated and just became a full blown yelling fight with both men absolutely refusing to budge on their stance about what to do with this gold. And eventually, when the two men were standing up and just screaming in each other's faces, Blackjack finally just threw his hands up and said, you know what? Enough. And he turned around and stormed over to the tent and disappeared inside. For a minute, Frank just stood there stewing by the fire, just completely furious that blackjack didn't see it the way he saw it. But eventually, Frank kind of calmed down and thought, you know what? I need to go to bed, too. Obviously, we are not near a decision. We need to sleep on this. And so, even though Frank was still upset, he walked over to the tent, too. Didn't say a word to blackjack. He just climbed inside, got into his sleeping bag, and tried to go to sleep. But after laying there for a while, when Frank had not fallen asleep and his friend blackjack had, he was snoring and passed out. Frank just could not help feeling enraged again at his friend. Like, how can you not see this opportunity here? Why in the world would you tell Lafayette French? That's so stupid. And so Frank just laid there restlessly, tossing and turning, listening to the sound of blackjack snoring and getting so mad at him. 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