When Josh stepped out the car his fancy new cowboy boots crunched on gravel. He stood up carefully, stretched. yawned. Nearly 200 miles of over-night driving had left him with a crick in the neck.

He rolled his head from side to side, reached in the automobile and flipped on his stetson, tilting it back a ways to let a little sun hit his handsome face. He grinned to himself. Stepping round rear of the vehicle, he lent a hip against the back fender and, with a sigh, he rapped on the trunk.

"Still alive in there?" he growled, then chuckled. "Maybe sleepin', huh? Well, we're here, finally. Time to get up and face the day. Ya got some diggin' to do."

Josh grabbed his short shovel and pushed into the trees west of the spot where they'd parked up. The brushwood looked like it had lain undisturbed for centuries.

He glanced over his shoulder and beckoned. "You come on in here. Show me where the dang thing is at."

Drue had climbed out of the trunk and was brushing himself down and testing his knees while furtively glancing up and down the track for a way out. After spending all night locked in the trunk of a moving vehicle he wished now he'd said yes he'd come willingly so Josh hadn't needed to clock him and lock him in there.

Josh laughed. "We're in the middle of nowhere, buddy. Lonely road, no one's comin' by to save ya. May as well get this thing done."

Drue shrugged and reluctantly followed his captor into the forest. After a half hour they came upon a small clearing under a lightening wrecked tree with a suspicious heap of dirt in the centre.

"This the place?" asked Josh.

Drue looked around and nodded his head. "Could be. Yeah, this is it. I remember that crazy tree."

"OK, dig!" Josh threw him the shovel and he set away digging, muttering and grumbling all the while.

A few minutes later the shovel hit something. It was a small wood box maybe 8" by 6" by 6", old and covered with weird scratches, possibly symbols of some kind.

"Ha!" said Drue, wiping his brow with the back of his hand, relieved. "There it is. Right where I said it would be."

He passed the box up to Josh and made to step up, hoping it was just a hole he'd dug and not his own grave. But Josh was busy examining the box.

"I guess we need the key," Drue suggested, eyeing the brass lock on the side.

"We do, do we?" Josh dropped to his knees, tossed the box on the ground, picked up a big rock and slammed it down. The box's hinge snapped, its lid now askew. He carefully removed the lid. There was nothing inside but a scrap of paper and a candle, no money, no gold, jewels, nothing like that.

Drue's eyes widened, "Look, pal, I don't know where the cash went. It was locked when he gave it to me."

Josh shook his head. "Don't matter 'bout money. This is all I came for." He put the paper in the pocket of his shirt and, after a moment's hesitation, put the candle in there too.

"Come on," he said, standing up. "Let's get out of here," and he started back to the car. "Here ain't the place for this."

Drue exhaled shakily then picked up the shovel before hurrying after him.

Back at his car, "Get in," said Josh. "No, in the front dang seat, meat-head. Shotgun," and Drue obliged.

As Josh slid behind the wheel, Drue coughed, "I remembered where but not what... or why even. That's all I could recall, you know, after the, er, whatever... accident."

Josh glanced at him as he started the engine and pulled out onto the road.

"Thank God you remembered that much, bro," he snarled. "With this," he patted his breast pocket, "there's still a chance."