After a makeshift dinner consisting of instant food and tea brewed from spring water that had been filtered and boiled, Liang En took his metal detector and thoroughly scanned the areas around where there were signs of human activity.
Perhaps due to the poverty of the people who passed by this place at that time, apart from a common 1882 version Morgan silver dollar, he only found a dozen or so bullet heads that had turned into lead blobs.
"These are naked lead bullet heads from an old-fashioned pistol, originating from a .44 caliber handgun," Barry said as he took the small pile of bullet heads.
"At least in the early 20th century, these outdated bullets were still in demand in the West and Canada, even though they had fallen out of favor in the East and big cities. If I recall correctly, my father used to buy the same type of bullets for his old revolver until I was seven or eight years old."
"It seems like there was a fire here before," Liang En said quietly as he looked at these deformed bullets. It was apparent that these bullets weren't fired during the time when the outlaws were having fun.
"By the way, what's the value of this silver dollar?" After discarding those worthless bullets to the side, Barry looked at the tarnished silver dollar in Liang En's hand and asked.
"Just 30 to 40 dollars, because there were too many of these Morgan silver coins minted in this year, and this one isn't well preserved," Liang En tossed the coin to Barry and explained.
As the sun set, the temperature dropped suddenly.
Fortunately, the cave felt quite comfortable overall with a fire burning at the entrance. Liang En and Barry sat by the fire, chatting, while loaded rifles were placed within arm's reach, safely on standby.
Through their conversation, Liang En learned that Barry was of Irish descent and had a U.S. green card. He had retired from the military a decade ago and had been working with Bruce since then.
Thinking about it, since Barry had been sent by Bruce, it was likely that his abilities and loyalty were among the best under Bruce's command.
Because the vegetation cover on the surface was very sparse, the temperature quickly dropped below freezing. Occasionally, they could hear the howling of wolves in the distance, but as long as there was a fire burning at the cave entrance, there wasn't much danger.
After chatting for a while, Barry went to sleep first. Liang En stayed by the fire, tending to it and keeping watch for the first half of the night. The pieces of broken wood they had collected from a nearby gold mine burned remarkably well, saving him from having to add more wood frequently.
By the time the second half of the night arrived, Liang En and Barry switched shifts and retreated into the depths of the cave to sleep in their sleeping bags. The night passed without incident. On the following morning, they had a few bites of bread bought from the supermarket, drank some milk, and packed up before setting out again.
Three hours later, they finally reached the summit of the last mountain. From there, looking eastward, they could see a small basin surrounded by mountains, with a dried-up spring in the center.
"I think we've arrived," Liang En smiled at Barry after taking out his phone, comparing the previous map with the surrounding terrain and the local GPS data.
An hour later, they arrived in this earthy-yellow valley, and as soon as Liang En's eyes fell upon the mound near the spring, he noticed a glint of light.
It had to be said that this place was indeed a great spot to hide something. For the locals, they wouldn't typically come to this dried-up spring, and travelers, upon seeing the surroundings, would instinctively focus on the spring instead of searching the area around it.
"We need to dig up this mound next," Liang En said after pretending to assess the small valley, about the size of a basketball court, and pointed to the glinting mound.
"If I'm not mistaken, what we're looking for should be beneath this mound."
"How did you figure that out?" While Barry had already agreed to follow Liang En's lead in this treasure hunt, curiosity got the better of him. "There doesn't seem to be anything distinctive about this mound compared to the others around."
"Just take a look at the cliff above the mound," with the enhancement of his card "Observation (R)", Liang En had also noticed something unusual about this mound. He proceeded to explain, "These mounds are often formed by the weathered rocks falling from the mountains. The larger the mound below, the higher the degree of weathering on the cliff above."
"But this mound is an exception," Liang En said, pointing to the mound emitting light in his line of sight. "Look at the cliff above it; it's hardly weathered at all. Theoretically, there shouldn't be such a large mound below it."
"You're right, that makes sense," Barry nodded and took out a shovel from his backpack. Together with Liang En, they began to dig. Five minutes later, they stumbled upon something interesting.
"This stone seems to have been stacked manually." After digging over a meter deep through gravel and dirt, Barry suddenly exclaimed. He had noticed clear signs of human workmanship against the side of the cliff.
After donning a headband with a camera, they continued digging. Before long, they were facing a cave entrance in the cliff. It was about a meter in height, and they could see two boxes inside the cave after clearing the entrance.
A layer of thick dust had accumulated on top of the boxes, a trace of nearly a century gone by. Judging from the style, the wooden crates appeared to be the type used back then to store explosives at construction sites.
"Careful!" Just as Liang En was clearing away the last few remaining stones, Barry suddenly pulled him back. "What's wrong?" Liang En asked, caught off guard by the sudden tug. "There seems to be a bomb near the edge of that box."
Barry nervously turned on a flashlight and looked inside. Sure enough, next to the crate was a bundle of cylindrical mining explosives.
"The explosives are fake." After inspecting for a while, Barry showed an exasperated expression. The bundle that had looked like explosives was just some paper tubes filled with mud.
Considering that the bandit almost never harmed anyone during his robberies, placing a fake bomb here was understandable.
The two of them then pulled the dusty boxes out of the small cave. They opened the boxes after ensuring they were safe.
The boxes contained coarse cloth bags, half of them filled with well-preserved banknotes that were no longer in circulation. The other half held smaller bags, boxes, and various-sized rolls of paper.
Evidently, it would be unwise for just Liang En and Barry to carry these items out solely. They decided to take inventory first. Afterward, they planned to divide the items and pack them in their backpacks.
There were about three to four hundred coins wrapped in paper rolls, mostly common Morgan silver dollars, and around thirty gold coins.
Wrapped in paper were small pieces of gold nuggets, along with gold sand stored in glass bottles. Together, they weighed approximately two kilograms.
In addition to the hard currency, there were various crafts packed in paper and wooden boxes. Just the watches and silver timepieces added up to around ten pieces. Furthermore, there was a series of rings, brooches, and other jewelry made from precious metals.
The diamond brooch Liang En was primarily looking for was found in one of the boxes. Although most of the small gemstones on the brooch had disappeared, the main body of the brooch and the peanut-sized light blue diamond were still intact.
"Besides the brooch, all of these items combined could fetch around five to six hundred thousand dollars," Liang En estimated quickly, arriving at a final conclusion. "Though it's hard to say if it would do as well in an auction."