“Are you out of your fucking mind!!, She’s 19-years old” Clem yelled at me. “I’ll beat the shit out of you if you ever talk like that again....�� He looked at me with disgust and then looked at Chris and shook his head. “I can’t even believe what I am hearing.” Then Chris chimed in, “And I’ll smash your head with an aluminum baseball bat.” I knew it was all trash talk but I gave them credit for being honest and not holding back on how they felt. I knew they were probably right but I didn’t want to. Fine. I can't concentrate at the moment. Better tomorrow." Good. What the man said was quite an eye-opener. Brings a whole new dimension to the case."Ten minutes later, it rang again. David this time."Sorry, old chum," he began. "I'll be brief. House completion on Friday. Have you a partner for the dinner-dance on Thursday?"I assured him I'd work on it the next day, and he too rang off.I fell into bed. I think I was asleep before my head was on the pillow. The next morning, again I had a. ”We’d both heard the stories about gold fever, how once it got in your veins you were hooked for life. That wasn’t us. We really didn’t expect to find much gold when we started. It was supposed to be just an adventure to us. Boy, that sure changed in a hurry. There was no way I was spending years in a hole when I could be riding the range on my own spread. It sounded like a hell of an idea.We talked it to death over the next few weeks while waiting for the weather to break. We finally decided. It also was cream but had an orchard theme, gentle branches with pink blossom and pale green leaves. Her deep blonde hair shone as did her blue eyes. She was entrancing but beside her mother she was elfin as opposed to fairylike.Richard felt a lump in his throat but, aware as ever, noticed that Deborah was strung tight as a bow. He swallowed and took a deep breath."Hello, my darling. Have you any idea how beautiful you are?"Deborah blushed with pleasure but said nothing."The moment I've been.