DETECTING, AND BEING UNDETECTED

#157 - The foreman handed him two small gold coins. He looked, his posture changed. That was when the fever got him. He and the foreman looked at each other, gold fever in their eyes.

James Ron

Jun 25, 2026

Welcome to Before I Forget . .

I’m glad you are here. Thank you for your time.

DETECTING, AND BEING UNDETECTED

Ronnie came up through the fields behind the house and hunkered down in the high grass behind the cabins. He was about twenty yards from them.

It was 4 pm.

His view included most of the front yard where Johnnie and Jimmy were detecting; the chatter sounds and beeps of their detectors clearly audible.

A short distance away, Johnnie’s van was parked on the short grass. Carla and Pearl were there.

He could see they had found the coins. The foreman was smiling and right there with them anticipating the next find.

Jules pulled up in his huge pickup and parked a short distance from the van.

He and Carla waved at each other as he made his way to the house. He called out with a smile, “It’s such a nice day, isn’t it, Ma’am?”

“Oh, yes, it’s just lovely, indeed,” Carla said.

The foreman came out to meet him.

Jules said, “I got your text. You found something?”

The foreman handed him two small gold coins. He looked, his posture changed.

That was when the fever got him. He and the foreman looked at each other, gold fever in their eyes.

They hurried over to the front yard. “Hi guys, thanks for coming out. I can’t believe you actually found something.”

“Yeah, this is amazing,” Johnnie said. “I never found anything more valuable.”

“This is a real treat finding this stuff,” Jimmy added.

They continued detecting, Jules and the foreman close at hand.

The work crews, in two pickups, drove up to the cabins. Six male and three female workers climbed out of the back and started unloading bags of crawfish. There were four gals just days before.

The drivers gathered around the digging.

The workers lolled around outside the cabins and the girls soon brought out food for the men.

The sun set and the workers moved inside for the night. Lights off. Their workday begins early.

Darkness fell. The light from the yard’s two light poles penetrated the dark. No cabin lights, a couple downstair lights on in the house.

Jimmy shouted out, “Oh, I found something. Oh, this is crazy. Come see!”

Johnnie yelled out, “Here we go! I got something here.”

In a rush they gathered, looking at the cluster of coins. The two ‘pieces of eight,’ 2-escudo doubloons, and the remaining 1-escudos.

Jules was ecstatic, certain he was near his grandmother’s cache. He sent the workers for shovels, and soon they were digging up the front yard.

Johnnie and Jimmy smiled at each other.

Carla came up to Jules with a tray of “Thank you for letting us detect your property” chocolate chip cookies, which Jules graciously accepted. They were passed around and soon gone.

Ronnie couldn’t tell from where he was what was being said, but he knew this was the distraction he needed. Carla had perfect timing.

He ran to the back of the men’s cabin out of the line of sight of those gathered at the dig.

The men inside were talking. He knocked softly at the back door, the talking stopped, and summoning his limited Spanish, Ronnie said in a strong whisper, “Silencio.”

He picked the door’s bar lock. Opening the door, he shined his flashlight on six scared faces. He put his finger to his lips, then, ”Libertad.” They stared at him, not knowing what to make of the man dressed head to toe in black.

One of the men said, in broken English, “Who you? Ninja??”

Ronnie stifled a laugh.

“Soy amigo. Ven rapido,” motioning them outside with the flashlight beam across the floor to the door.

They gathered their few belongings and came out, staying close to the cabin. Ronnie relocked the door bar. He motioned “stay” to them and pointed to the guy who spoke to him, saying “Ven conmigo!”

He looked from the back of the cabin out to where the digging was going on. Their attention was still on the coins and the cookies. The two of them darted to the second cabin.

Again, he knocked softly at the door, motioning to the guy to “Tell them.” The girls were alarmed but quickly calmed as they recognized the voice.

Ronnie picked the door bar. The girls were soon outside. He relocked the door.

Another look out front, and they dashed back to the first cabin.

Then, “Sigueme.” They moved in single file, again out of the line of sight of those out front, to the high grass. They were in the clear.

Getting the workers safely back to the high grass was easier than expected. They probably wouldn’t discover the missing workers until morning.

He wanted to see that Johnnie, Jimmy, and Carla left the premises okay.

Ten minutes passed and Jules called an end to the day. He had to go.

From where he was it looked like they were dividing up the coins, not concerned with appraising them first. That made things easier.

In another ten minutes of small talk and handshaking, the three of them, and Pearl, were headed home. Though asked to return to continue the search, they suspected, correctly, that Jules and crew would carry on by themselves.

Jules talked to the caretakers briefly then he left for his meeting.

When Jules was out of sight, the men returned to digging, still in a fever.

Jules knew they would. He didn’t trust them, but there was nothing he could do. He was in a tight spot. He would have two of his men come down as soon as possible.

Ronnie led the group through the pitch-black night along the levees of crawfish ponds and across cattle pastures coming to a stand of tules at the edge of a wide slough.

In the tules, three boats lie ready, two inflatable dinghies and a 12’ aluminum jon boat. They were tied in tandem, bow to stern, the jon boat in the lead.

He put three men in each dinghy and the girls in the flat boat with him.

Lowering the electric trolling motor, he started it up and moved silently and slowly into the slough. He was surprised the trolling motor could pull the boats as well as it did.

After a slow half hour, they reached Grand Lake and began a 10-mile ride west across the open water.

Well enough away from the shore, he switched to the small outboard motor, risking the noise. It added more speed, but too much speed interfered with pulling the two boats behind him.

Ronnie figured an hour, plus or minus, to get across.

They ran with no running lights on, almost invisible in the night.

Light from the small town of Lake Arthur to the north reflected off low clouds, and a south wind kicked up small waves. It would rain at some point that night. Two shrimp boats coming in from the Gulf passed well in front of them.

Almost across the lake, fog appeared as a wall, thick and foreboding.

Reaching into the storage compartment, he pulled out his map and burner phone. He opened the compass app and got his bearings to where the Mermentau River continued from the lake on its way to the Gulf.

They entered the cold and dark fog.

He almost nailed the entrance to the river, just a short stretch north.

Once they entered the river, the fog was less thick and they were only a couple of miles from his destination, Scotty’s* place at the end of Little Chenier Road.

At the old landing at the end of the road Ronnie pulled in and got the freed workers out of the boats.

Pointing to the lone house on high stilts in the near distance, he said, “Vayan! Socorro!”

He got back in the jon boat and departed.

Scotty knew that he would have these “visitors” that night and that he was to call the authorities telling them, “They just showed up at my house. Woke me up.” A shiny gold doubloon for his efforts lay on his table.

Waking to their calls for help, he turned on the outside lights and appeared at the top of his stairs sleepy-eyed, bedraggled, and carrying his 12-gauge shotgun at the ready at the ready.

Seeing the group below, he motioned to them to wait. He put on his pants and shoes and came down the stairs and again told them to wait.

He got in his pickup and drove up the road far enough to get a signal on his cell, called the cops, and returned home.

He put on a pot of coffee for the group and they waited for the authorities to arrive.