As night fell on the mountainside a light sprinkling was happening from up above. Two burly men carrying full sacks trudged along happily with a pick axe on their shoulders.

The rain had literally just started halting their day full of work and by their attitudes you could tell they had had a very successful day indeed. As they came down the mountainside a large community of tents was on the horizon. Their temporary home.

The slightly skinnier, but shorter man sighed contently. "It's been a good day."

The larger one nodded with a smile. "I should say, be a hundred dollars worth."

"If they had said California was going to be this good I woulda been out here twenty years earlier."

"It's an actual gold mind, it is."

Having reached the tent community, the first thing they noticed was a Chinese man grilling something over a lit fire pit. The larger man tipped his hat. "Good evening to you, Chan"

"The Chinaman can't understand you, Fred. I don't know how many times I gotta tell you that."

"Haven't told me enough, I'd say."

The shorter man smirked slightly at his friends jab before approaching their tent. Fred went into it while he put down his axe and bag and began tending to the fire right beside it. Inside, he could hear the sound of metal falling to the ground while exclaiming, "Countin' your gold, are ya?"

"Must be a fortune! Oh, what I could buy with this beauty!"

The shorter man turned his head and grinned at his own little fortune. With his personal bag he could go to San Francisco and raise a family living rather comfortably for the rest of his life. The thought raised his spirits.

"I'm coming in Fred!" The shorter man spread out the leaves in the fire pit with a twig as the fire began to grow dimmer.

As he lifted the tents side holding his bag Fred suddenly warned him, "Stop!" Without hesitation he did so. "You almost walked right into the trap!"

The shorter man laughed. "Indeed. You almost stopped my heart right there." He took a look at it and smiled. All he could see was a pile of leaves, but he knew how deep the trap hole was underneath it. Sure, it was a crude contraption that a couple of miners who had very little schooling behind them had made, but it was effective enough should anyone attempt to steal their gold. The thought made him look behind him real quick warningly. Some varmints would stop at nothing. Still, they were safe as he moved around the trap to make it to his bed.

Each of the miners took of their shoes as they sat on their bed and ate a little bit from the bowl of beans left over from the morning.

They each loaded their guns and laid down peacefully. Their trap was set and their gold lay by their beds. Truth be told, they almost wanted to hug their bags like a newborn holds its blanket. Their gold was that valuable. It was time to rest before hitting the hills for just a little bit more tomorrow.

Several hours later in the dead of night a male scream reverberated from a nearby tent waking the two miners.

The shorter miner exclaimed, "What the hell is that?" The screaming died suddenly.

As if on cue both miners jumped out of their bed and looked toward their guns. The two miners figured there must be a thief on the loose, but they would be ready. The men looked at each other in anticipation and grabbed their guns, caulking, and pointing them at the tent's entrance.

At first it was a dead silence and the miners began to think that maybe it was just a false alarm coming from a neighbors bad dream, but then the leaves crunched right outside their tent.

The shorter man yelled threateningly, "Do not come any closer! We are armed and we will shoot if you choose to enter!"

Again the world fell silent and the miners stayed at the ready before an eerie voice reverberated around them. "Give me my gold or die."

Fred shouted fearfully, "Who said that? Who are you?"

Again it fell quiet as the wind blew the entrance to the tent wide open. The miners could see plainly what was outside. Only to their astonishment and fear nothing was there.

The voice again sounded, but with a malice this time. "Give me my gold or die!"

The shorter man decided that whoever this thief was, they had decided to play games with them and this was no time for games. It was time to go on the offensive. "I dare ya! Step into this tent and show yourself!"

The voice answered quickly this time as it announced, "Die."

The miners could not believe their eyes as they stared into one of the most menacing things any of them had ever seen. They fired their guns at it, but before they knew it a hand had grabbed each of them and they screamed quickly and sharply before falling to the floor dead.

A second later their bags of gold had vanished leaving a quiet and motionless tent with two dead bodies in it…