Free Missing on Superstition Mountain by Elise Broach Page B

somewhere on the mountain. It’s supposed to be one of the richest veins of gold anywhere in the West. People have been searching the mountain for over a hundred years trying to find it.”
    A gold mine! Henry pictured the gold mines in movies and books, where people walked into a cave and discovered that the walls, floor, and ceiling were sparkling with precious gold.
    â€œ GOLD !” Jack cried, bouncing on the toes of his sneakers and almost falling off his bike. “Wow!”
    Simon flashed Henry a quick glance, and asked Emmett, “Why do people think that?”

    Emmett looked annoyed. “You know, if that’s what you guys are interested in, you really should talk to the historical society. That’s all they care about these days—figuring out the location of the Lost Dutchman’s Mine.”
    â€œBut it’s gold!” Jack insisted. “If we found it, we’d be RICH. ”
    â€œYeah, that’s the idea,” Emmett said. “But people have been looking for that mine for over a century and haven’t found anything. If you ask me, it’s a big distraction from the real research we should be doing, about the Apaches and the early settlers … the Spanish influence in this area.”
    Which all sounded mind-numbingly boring compared to a hidden gold mine, Henry thought. Who wanted to learn about early settlers when you could be searching for the biggest pile of gold in the country?
    Simon leaned over the front of his bike, not the least put off by Emmett’s dismissive comments. “But why do they think there’s a gold mine on the mountain? And whose gold is it?”
    Emmett ran his hand through his hair. “There’s no question that there’s gold on the mountain. Plenty of people have found gold ore, starting with the Spanish in the 1500s. But it was pretty well tapped out in the 1800s; I doubt there’s anything left to speak of. As to who it belongs to … well, I guess you’d have to say it belonged to the Apaches originally. Or to the mountain. But as far as the Lost Dutchman’s Mine, that belonged to Jacob Waltz.”
    â€œWaltz? That’s the name of my street!” Delilah exclaimed.
    â€œMost of the streets around here are named for historical people or places,” Emmett told her. “Waltz wasn’t a Dutchman—as a matter of fact, he was German. Came here in the mid-1800s. Supposedly, he and his partner discovered gold on Superstition Mountain and struck it rich. They kept the mine a secret, and after their deaths, nobody ever found it.”
    â€œAnd people have died looking?” Simon asked. “That’s the big secret, the reason our parents won’t let us go up the mountain?”
    â€œWell, that and a few other things,” Emmett replied.
    What other things? Henry wondered. “How did people die?” he asked, but even as he said it, he realized that he knew the answer: they were shot, or fell into canyons, or had their heads cut off. That wasn’t the important question. The important question was why did people die? Why was the mountain so dangerous a place that to climb it meant to risk your very life?
    Jack blurted out, “Yeah, our mom says there are mountain lions and rattlesnakes! Did people get EATEN ?”
    Emmett shook his head. “There are mountain lions and rattlesnakes, but they haven’t killed anyone lately, to my knowledge. Sometimes it’s a rock slide. Or a flash flood that fills a canyon and drowns someone. There are a lot of steep slopes … people have fallen. But more often, they just get lost on the mountain without enough water. They die of dehydration.”
    Henry felt a tremor go through him, remembering their trip up the mountain and Jack falling into the hidden canyon where the three skulls perched.
    Emmett sat down on the top step of the porch. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, dislodging his glasses, and for a