“Something [...] happened down at the old Carmel place below Lagarto. You know it’s only about two or three miles north of Casa Blanca, the place people talk so much about. I don’t know what the truth is about that Carmel place, but as sure as you’re born, things have happened there. Some say that Spanish priests buried money there when they were trying to get it back to Mexico. And Mr. Ed Dubose, once when I was cooking for him and some other gentlemen who were looking for buried money, said that he saw the print of an iron box in a hole close by. The rust was still on the ground all around the hole where the box had been, and they were just a day late getting there. Some other fellow had beaten them to it—but it was probably just as well, I suppose. There is an old grave made of rock and cement at that Carmel place.
“Some say there is a silver or gold mine down there too, one the Spanish used to work, but now it is hidden so that nobody can find it.
[...]
“Old man Miller was always scheming around, trying to get his hands on that money. He tried to get his pastor, who kept a herd of goats on the south side of the ranch next to the Carmel place, to watch for signs. One time that pastor discovered that he had lost a big billy goat from his herd. He set out to look for him, and he tramped around for three days before he came across any track at all. Then one evening, about sundown, he saw the old billy goat standing off on one side of a ravine and nibbling grass just as natural as life. He started toward the place where the goat was, but when he got there there was nothing but two dead hackberry trees. It was a natural clearing, and there were no other hackberry trees within a mile. He said he knew those trees had not been there when he started. And he could not find the slightest sign of the billy goat—not even a track.”
