From the Journal of Issac McNamara.....

(REMEMBER, TO KEEP UP WITH THIS CONTINUING STORY OR TO GET CAUGHT UP SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU FIND THE PREVIOUS STORY...)

Sheriff Overstreet eased back in his chair and put one booted foot up on the desk.

"Back around 1790, the Frenchies still owned Missouri, a trapper by the name of Yocum moved up the White River and opened a trading post where the James River comes in. He would trade with the Indians, Delawares, mostly, for furs and pipes and he supplied blankets, trinkets, hatches and such. Had him a good thing going. He was the only white male in 300 miles and them Indians needed what he had. One day this group of Delawares came in to trade. They did not have any furs, what they had was a sack full of almost clear stones. Some of them big as your thumb others the size of bird shot. Old Yokum knew what those stones were right away. Them Delawares spoke a little French and he a little Delaware and soon he determined that they had got them down in Arkansas a ways and that they was just a laying on top the ground. Yokum gave them what they wanted and told them Delawares that he would trade for all them clear stones they wanted to bring in. Them Delawares decided that the old French man had lost his mind and never came back. Yocum left in the Spring of 1803 and went looking for them stones. He never came back. Some say he took that sack of stones with him, others are convinced that they is still buried somewhere around the site of that old trading post. You figured out what them stones were Boy?"
" Valuable?" answered Zeke.
"Do wild bears poop in the woods?" snorted Overstreet " They was diamonds!"
"Alright, so how does that affect us Sheriff, treasure stories run wild in this country. Folks tell of pirate gold being buried along the banks of the Arkansas, or hidden Spanish gold, why you can even find folks chasing the end of a rainbow."
"Difference is, this one is true. There are a bunch of Confederate Soldiers saying they want to start the war again, and they could afford it if they found Yocums diamonds."
"Sheriff, we got to let that war go, its over, we lost. We got to learn to get along with them Yankees." said Zeke.
"Boy, them Yankees is going to take my badge away, some blue belly up there in Springfield claims I rode with Anderson's bunch back in '62 and he wants to appoint a new Sheriff."
"Well. he's right, you did, but only till you realized Anderson was more than a soldier, he was crazy. You left and joined up with Bedford Forest just before Shiloh, same as me."
"Well, he thinks I'm a bad influence on the folks here in Stone County, so I might loose this badge, anyway I want you to take a ride down river to check and see if there is a group of men acting like soldiers digging up the landscape."
"Well. Mr. Brown is wrong, he thinks your sending me out to look for some renagade Reb's that robbed Gordy's post down in Blue Eye."
Overstreet smiled, spit a stream of tobacco juice into a tin can at the end of his desk. "Well, seeing as how your going for a ride....."