Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp
Gold Member
Ladies Gentlemen: When I returned to Mexico I had a no.of silver Babbitt bars which I intended to cast into diving weights. I had these in a sack of about 75 pounds. These bars were of a size to correspond to about 10 lbs each. they looked like oxidized silver. Because of the high silver etc., content, they clinked instead of clunked.
One day I went to a small village / ranch at the end of a unimproved road to check on two treasures. After a long dusty hot trip, we arrived and of course were invited to the traditional coffee. While drinking it and into small talk, I asked if they had any treasure stories, they said no.
When we finished, my compadre and I left in my New Chevy 3/4 ton pickup and camper shell to check out the spot that we had come for . Nothing, after a few dusty, hot, sweaty, hours of searching, we returned to the ranch. On the way I remembered the Babbitt bars in the sack and suggested that we play a trick on the ranch group,. he agreed.
When we arrived, I parked the pickup away from the ranch house, and while my compadre went to the house to set up more coffee and seemingly tried to keep their attention away from me, I carefully opened the back of the shell, and after apparently looking around to see that no one was looking, (snicker) I carerfully pulled the sack out and went to the passengers side, obviously carrying a very heavy sack which clinked agreeably on each step. I opened the passenger's door and dropped the sack inside, which made another extremely impressive clink. I then made show of locking and rechecking the door, then went to the house for my coffee.
As we were drinking it one of the men asked, "did you find anything"? With a straight face, my compadre said "NO" . A little later another asked the same question, again my compadre answered "NO". As we were getting ready to leave, I went to the pickup and again went through my little act of putting the sack back inside of the shell in a box with a padlock, unfortunately, forgetting to lock it he heh e.. One of the men then suddenly decided that yes, he had a fence post treasure of his former boss to look for. We agreed that we still had time to go look for it..
It was now dark, but six entered the shell and sat on the seats along the sides. I could see them clearly by the running / lights. As soon as we left the ranch, one of them opened the box took out one of the "Silver" bars. After hefting , scratching, and tasting it, passed it around, they all were grinning. When we arrived a the point, the bar was again inside of the box. No-one said anything. The area was quickly searched, nothing, so we returned to the Ranch where we again went through the coffee routine, where again we were asked if we had found anything. Of course we denied it and quickly directed the conversation to another subject.
A little later my friend took out a bank loan to rebuild his house. About this time some of the men from the ranch came by and saw this. To them, it confirmed what they had thought, 'we had found a nice silver bar treasure from the mule train' .
Our success is still told of in the campfires or coffee secsions up there, it revives their faith in treasures.
Don Jose de La Mancha
p.s. Well, potential diving weights WERE involved sniff.
One day I went to a small village / ranch at the end of a unimproved road to check on two treasures. After a long dusty hot trip, we arrived and of course were invited to the traditional coffee. While drinking it and into small talk, I asked if they had any treasure stories, they said no.
When we finished, my compadre and I left in my New Chevy 3/4 ton pickup and camper shell to check out the spot that we had come for . Nothing, after a few dusty, hot, sweaty, hours of searching, we returned to the ranch. On the way I remembered the Babbitt bars in the sack and suggested that we play a trick on the ranch group,. he agreed.
When we arrived, I parked the pickup away from the ranch house, and while my compadre went to the house to set up more coffee and seemingly tried to keep their attention away from me, I carefully opened the back of the shell, and after apparently looking around to see that no one was looking, (snicker) I carerfully pulled the sack out and went to the passengers side, obviously carrying a very heavy sack which clinked agreeably on each step. I opened the passenger's door and dropped the sack inside, which made another extremely impressive clink. I then made show of locking and rechecking the door, then went to the house for my coffee.
As we were drinking it one of the men asked, "did you find anything"? With a straight face, my compadre said "NO" . A little later another asked the same question, again my compadre answered "NO". As we were getting ready to leave, I went to the pickup and again went through my little act of putting the sack back inside of the shell in a box with a padlock, unfortunately, forgetting to lock it he heh e.. One of the men then suddenly decided that yes, he had a fence post treasure of his former boss to look for. We agreed that we still had time to go look for it..
It was now dark, but six entered the shell and sat on the seats along the sides. I could see them clearly by the running / lights. As soon as we left the ranch, one of them opened the box took out one of the "Silver" bars. After hefting , scratching, and tasting it, passed it around, they all were grinning. When we arrived a the point, the bar was again inside of the box. No-one said anything. The area was quickly searched, nothing, so we returned to the Ranch where we again went through the coffee routine, where again we were asked if we had found anything. Of course we denied it and quickly directed the conversation to another subject.
A little later my friend took out a bank loan to rebuild his house. About this time some of the men from the ranch came by and saw this. To them, it confirmed what they had thought, 'we had found a nice silver bar treasure from the mule train' .
Our success is still told of in the campfires or coffee secsions up there, it revives their faith in treasures.
Don Jose de La Mancha
p.s. Well, potential diving weights WERE involved sniff.