Shirley, I do have a first aid kit with a little anti venom. Ginger was good at sniffing out snakes and chasing them off. As always, I'll carry my rifle as I lead our well laden Bruce. He is a strong donkey. Craig, I've got some fishing rods, lures and tackle back at Sister Philomena's. The kids love them but we three can take our pick. I like fishing, very relaxing. I think Sister Phil has a book on Roanoke too. I'm sure she'd lend it to you. It's got some old maps too. I like maps and have an old compass. See, the needle always points North.
As we round a sharp bend, three ugly, dirty men leap out in front of us. They demand to know the way to the Valley of Gold. What can we do???? We don't want them to steal Sister Philomena's gold. If we tell them, they might still kill us.
We deny knowing anything about any Valley of Gold, which is true, as we do not know. Somehow one of us has to sneak away and hide the gold. Who will do it?
All of a sudden a loud shot rang out and the the thug holding the knife to Craig's throat flew backwards dropping the weapon with blood spraying from his right shoulder. Next thing Terence appeared from behind Bruce quickly reloading his rifle. The thug with the long rifle turned quickly and they both fired at each other simultaneously. Terence's bullet hit the thug between the eyes dropping him dead instantly. Terence took a bullet to the chest and flew backwards with blood flowing from him. He landed hard and lay motionless. Gathering his wits the third thug pulled out a long hunting knife and went at Craig with the devil in his eyes. As he lunged at Craig another shot rang out with a bullet hitting the evil man in the thigh. He yelped and fell at Craig's feet screaming obsenities as was the thug with the shoulder wound. Shirley had pulled out the small calibre 8 shot pistol Terence had lent her and made a lucky shot at a moving target. She'd saved Craig who now had his own gun out, the revolver Terence had lent him, and was kicking knives away from the bleeding men and taking the long rifle from the dead man. Bruce had not moved but was looking down at Terence's motionless body. Shirley ran over to Terence while Craig took guard. The bullet had hit very close to Terence's heart and his jacket was covered in his blood. Shirley opened up the jacket to see a thick silver bound Bible with a large hole through it. The bible had taken most of the bullet's impact and even deflected it upwards. At that moment Bruce pawed Terence's boot and neighed loudly making Terence take a deep gulp of air, sit upright suddenly and ask "What happed?" Checking out his wound, Shirley was able to see the hole was shallow, badly bruised and even managed to extract the hollow point bullet before cleaning, steriising and bandaging up a very pale looking Terence. She even found some antibiotics in his first aid kit. Terence kept muttering lots of simple prayers, thanking and thanking God and blessing Philomena as his conscience on Earth and other mutterings. "Sheriff Tomas Jones in Plymouth loves God" at times. "He will redeem us." He kept saying in shock and dilermium. The two wounded men were similar but the one with the light thigh wound was bleeding profusely, pale and going into shock.
Saved by the Word. Just then, a couple of Cherokee rode up. Chief Flying Eagle said, "Greeting, my friends. Hello, my sister, Shirley. I bring you greetings from our great, great, great grandfather, Swift Fox. My medicine man will care for the wounded men and turn them over to the white man's law.
Sharp shooting Shirley had saved the day. Shirley later told us she was a direct descendant of Annie Oakley.. so the North Carolina country girl had quite a pedigree for taking down pistol wielding thugs and whipping men in sharp shooting contests.... How lucky are you to embrace the good Lord and always carry a bible on your person Terence. Well all that remains before we head to Sister Philomena's Orphanage is to get these criminals locked up. Who is Chief Flying Eagle Shirley. You are also a descendant of a Cherokee chief.. y'all sure have interesting forebears......
God bless you Shirley. What skill you have. Please keep that pistol I lent you, a gift . You too Craig, keep that revolver I lent you too. You're a good man and friend. Chief Flying Eagle has my thanks too. Seems you have Indian blood Shirley. Noble blood, I am honoured to know you.
We reached Sister Philomena's at dusk and were warmly welcomed. The good lady wept as she accepted our golden gift. That evening we sat down to the best meal we had had in weeks.. in terms of it being home cooked as opposed to over a camp fire.. so no offence Terence and Louise. So exhausted were we we almost fell asleep standing up. We have been invited to stay at the orphanage while we recover from our futile and dangerous search for gold and prepare for our next adventure on Roanoke Island.....
The next morning Shirley saw Terence and Sister Philomena deep in conversation with a very red dog sitting quietly between them. He turned up here a month ago said Sister Philomena to Shirley. He's about 2 years old and keeps trying to herd up the children whenever I ring the meal bell. I'm giving him to Terence as he lost his Ginger so tragically. I've named him Fred the Red. He's intelligent, has a great nature and boundless energy. I got him all licenced, chipped, vaccinated and the Vet said he's a pure breed Australian red cloud kelpie. He's taken a real shine to my Terence too who loves all dogs. Good luck at Roanoke. Fred's good at digging up things, too good, he may be useful to you.
Shirley, Craig and Terence, whispered Sister Philomena, with Terence and Fred and now Craig sitting quietly by, if you do go to Roanoke, borrow this old book from my library on it. It has this old map in it which may help. Heed the word CROATOAN. Google it. The stories are mixed, confused but there are mentions of Demonic forces, Undead and even Vampires. I do not discount such notions and ask that you all wear these Silver crosses around your necks. It would worry me less if you did. God bless you, Shirley, Craig, Terence and even Fred. Solve the mystery if you can but know you always will have a home here if you desire. Sister Bridget is preparing supplies for you all and preparing the jeep for you. We also have a medium sized truck, a small and medium sized cabin boats if you need them. I need Bruce to plow, he's very strong. Just then, sister Kathlyn rang the breakfast bell and Fred jumped up rounding up 30 odd giggling children and herding them to the dinning hall. "He gets his meaty bone for that" laughed sister Phil.
Sister Phil you are a saint.. or need to be.. Terence, Shirley and I will sponsor your canonization. Sister Phil gigled girlishly.. "oh silly man". "C'mon lets go and eat, then you rest for what will be much adventure and intrigue on Roanoke island. Only wish I was going with you".....
I looked up Croatan. When the Europeans returned to Roanoke ,the only traces of the colonists were two graves and a message: the word Croatoan carved into a post of the fort and three letters Cro carved into a nearby tree. But none of this really explains the significance of the carving of the word Croatoan on that post or the fact that the same word has accompanied inexplicable disappearances in North America in the last few centuries, often in places far away from Roanoke Island. A few days before his death, and following a disappearance that remains unexplained to this day, Edgar Allan Poe was brought to his death bed in a state of delirium whispering the word Croatoan. The same word was found in other places at other times: scribbled in the journal of Amelia Earhart after her disappearance in 1937, carved into the post of the last bed that the celebrated horror author Ambrose Bierce slept in before he vanished in Mexico in 1913, scratched on the wall of the cell that the notorious stagecoach robber Black Bart inhabited before he was released from prison in 1888 never to be seen again, and, most disturbingly of all, written on the last page of the logbook of the ship Carroll A. Deering when it ran aground with no one aboard on Cape Hatteras in 1921 (not that far from what was once known as Croatoan Island). What the secret of Croatoan is and in particular what its connection is to those born in the Americas that causes their disappearance even far from home remains a mystery to this day. It would be remiss of me, however, not to mention one more theory, that of the natives who once lived on Roanoke Island all those years ago. The Croatans themselves believed that the island had a spirit and, if angered, this spirit had the power to change those who offended it into the form of animals, trees and rocks. Hmmmmmm. Are we sure we want to tangle with supernatural spirits???? I also read the someone has potentially found what they believe to be the remnants of The Lost Colony underground. I wonder if Fred can sniff underground objects?
Seems you are as intrigued over the Lost Colony as I Shirley. Confusion tho re Croatan (Indian tribe) and Croatoan (mysterious writings). Is that correct. Note the two names are almost identical. Surely that has significance. We have been involved with supernatural spirits before.. but these Roanoke spirits sound diabolical. We will need a vote....
'Fred sure can smell underground' said sister Philomena to Shirley. 'That's why he keeps digging holes, everywhere!' After listening to Shirley's harrowing tales behind the word CROATOAN, Terence's jaw dropped with eyes wide open. 'I'll go if Shirley and Craig do.' he croaked. 'I'd like more Holy water too.' he said looking at Sister Philomena.