The Lost Treasure Map Series (91 page)

“
That’s
where you’re wrong! I’ve not been everywhere!”

“
Yet!
You don’t actually have to go everywhere! It can be done with the
media!”

“
I’ve
been in the media? When?”

Malone bent
over holding his head in his hands, and rested his head on the
table, while moaning, and swiftly straightened, while Cameron
realized he had heard something about him in the media.

“
The
whole country seems to know of you ...” Malone announced, and
stopped himself.

“
I can
assure you that nothing really happened! That golf club has some
strange people hanging around ...”

“
We’re
not talking about that! So you have lost your memory! Well, this
time I have you! A complaint was made to the police about
you!”

“
While
visiting the golf club?” he replied, astonished and confused.
“Alright! I know I’m not a member ...”

“
It’s
nothing to do with your blasted golf club!” he screamed.

“
Well
then it is about time you told me!”

“
I will!
I’m coming to it!”

Cameron
gasped, wondering if he could go to prison for the crime! Yet why
did he not recall anything? If he had done something surely he
would have noticed it? What was he talking about? Was it something
he had done before he had been found in the pool of mud in the
field? Was he actually a wanted criminal, and had the people of the
media, in the wood, or on the golf course recognized him!

He could not
have! He was sure he was not like that, and he could tell by all
the people who knew him that he had not been!

How would he
handle the police without a memory? They would think he was
covering something or was insane!

Malone took
his official pose and sat upright studying him, as though a judge
about to sentence him for a serious crime, which he would regret
for the rest of his life, and he wondered what he was up to when he
never and just sat staring at his face with deep emotions of
something!

Cameron
wondered what the outcome of it all could be!

“
You
remember what you did after you left the golf course road, I
presume?” Malone casually spoke.

“
Yes! I
kept walking and ...”

“
Right!
Where did you go next?

Cameron stared
blankly and shrugged.

“
You
went to a small roadside wood! Didn’t you?”

Cameron just
pleaded guilty and wondered what he was being accused of!

“
You
were seen climbing down a well in the middle of the wood on Floors
Road! You had no right to be there and the farmer complained of you
digging a giant well on his property!”

“
What!
I’m to be charged for digging a well there?”

“
No! I’m
to warn you not to do it again, and tell you to go over there and
cover it over! Someone’s dog could’ve fallen into it!”

Cameron
realized someone must have left the cover and covering to hide it
off and realized he saw it being covered over!

Chapter 8

The Agreement

Cameron could not believe he had not realized
his own identity, and it was worse now as he could not see himself
answering it, and he rested sulking on his bed.

It was incredible the soldiers in the tent
kept getting him drinks and drunk, and had immediately handed him
cans of beer as he had entered the tent.

“
What was that all
about?
”
the
soldier that had taken him to Malone
’
s tent asked, sitting on the end of
his bed, bouncing slightly, testing the springs, and Cameron gasped
and decided just to say something.

“
Someone reported me for digging a
tunnel ...
”

“
Digging a tunnel! What to escape from
here?
”

“
I don
’
t know!
”

“
I know this place is rainy at times
...
”

“
What is happening about that
racehorse you
’
re going to buy?
”
he moaned over at Hanks.

“
We
’
re going to go over and buy it ... Are you
in?
”

“
I
’
m interested!
”

Cameron thought it over for a few seconds,
wondering why there was four of them in the deal, and why he needed
them in the deal, and why he never just bought it himself and took
the full profit! He was sure it was a gamble and Hanks would have
to win on a horse that he had not ridden. How would he be able to
check the horse out?

They all sat thinking about it on
their beds, and Hanks eventually replied,
“
Do you know I recalled seeing you
going to meet someone somewhere before you vanished! Just before
you ended up in that pool of mud in that field!
”

Cameron wondered why he had done that,
trying to recall, and trying to work out why he would do such a
thing!

“
What the hell will I
do?
”
he
eventually moaned.

The soldier at the end of his bed
looked over at him, and told him,
“
You
’
ll remember someday ...
I
’
m
sure!
”

The soldier looked over at Hanks, and
asked,
“
Have you any room for anyone else investing
in that racehorse?
”

Hanks nodded with satisfaction, and Cameron
wondered what it was worth now and what the outcome of it would
be!

Chapter 9

The Beast

Cameron was confused! They had been sitting
in the bar for four hours and it was almost closing time, the bar
was completely empty, and Hanks had not turned up!

He sat with the other three soldiers
drinking and waiting for Hank
’
s arrival!

They had been unsuccessful in getting the
horse! None of them had a horse available and they had wasted their
time and he wondered if it was the horse merchants attempt to drive
up the price! Yet he was sure none had much interest in selling
anything!

Hanks knew someone who would sell one and
they waited for him to turn up and give them information on what
was happening!

It was incredible the amount they drank and
had him drinking, for virtually most of the night, and by the time
Hanks turned up they were drunk and lethargic.

Cameron was
staring through hazed eyes, still wondering about everything, when
the doors seemed to explode apart and something seemed to shift
into his sight in an altered motion and he stared startled at it
trying to wake up and realize what it was.

After a few
minutes he heard a loud giggle burst out of Simpson’s lightly
closed lips, breaking the intense atmosphere, and he turned to see
the angry expression on Fogler’s face and he realized how deep it
was and he followed his eyes back to the door and to Hanks
standing, looking embarrassed, with a horse that looked like it had
been crossed with a monster!

Yet on close
examination he saw something was wrong with the horse, and had to
have some medical condition. Something he couldn’t quite grasp, and
he tried to wake himself to get it!

It was
supposed to be a racehorse! But why was it abnormal?

He gawked
confused and saw one of the locals look in a door startled and he
followed his startled eyes to the horse’s eyes and saw danger! The
horse looked extraordinarily strange! He was not even sure it was a
horse at times, and he started thinking it was the drink and his
memory problem.

It had eyes of
some wild beast, and killer eyes that had a deep hate of what
seemed to be humans! He could hardly believe a horse could have
such a reaction to humans!

“
What
have you been doing to the thing?” Simpson moaned, glaring at the
thing in disbelief as though it were not fully there and a figment
of the imagination. “Look at it! Have you whipping it into shape or
something?”

“
Get
stuffed!” Hanks grumbled loudly.

“
So this
is our amazing racehorse?”

“
Guess!”

They all
stared as Hanks walked right up to them with the beast, towering
over them. What astonished Cameron was he could not get how they
could control such a thing while riding! He could see why Hanks
might have been whipping it and started trying to see any damage to
the beast!

“
Well?”
Hanks moaned.

“
Well
what?” Simpson swiftly answered.

“
Well
what do you think of our racehorse? It was the best they had and I
could get!”

“
The
best for the price then!” Simpson replied, and stood up and
wandered around it, amazed by the incredible size of it in strange
places, as if it had been trained doing something else, and how
much a danger it looked, and he ultimately giggled at
it.

Cameron had a
hard time accepting the thing could win a race.

“
It was
bred to race!” Hanks announced, seeing his reaction. “Look at those
muscles and the enthusiasm in those eyes!”

“
Enthusiasm in those eyes!” Simpson replied. “The thing looks
like it’s going to maul someone! It looks like it was bred and
trained for a wild rodeo or circus act!”

What amazed
Cameron was the barman had vanished and remained hidden away out of
sight.

He wondered
where the hell Hanks intended to keep the thing, as he had not
suggested anything. He could just imagine Malone’s face and temper
if he discovered the thing in one of the tents.

When the
barman emerged Fogler left and arrived with some more drinks for
them and insisted in giving Cameron the most alcoholic drink he
could think of, and Cameron got annoyed and conclusively asked
why.

“
You
know I read somewhere it can give people with memory loss their
memory back!” he replied, with a laugh, looking sideways in small
glances at the horse.

“
Memory
back!” he moaned back, confused. “I’ll be lucky to remember
anything after all these!”

“
Well,
it may cause your brain to start functioning again!”

He started
wondering what they were up to and why such drastic action. He was
sure it was part of one of their schemes and that he would have to
wait to find out what, like everything else.

Something
strange about the horse grasped his imagination!

It was far too
different! He also could not work out why he had brought it into
the bar! The thing could easily smash the place to pieces, if it
finally went crazy.

“
Where
the hell did you get that thing?” a pensioner gasped, rushing in
the bar door, with his hair soaked and standing up, as he went to
get an umbrella he had left behind.

“
I
bought it at an Ebay dealer!” Hanks moaned, and laughed drunkenly.
“It’s marketed as a genetically improved racing horse!”

Everyone at
the table seemed to look at Hanks at the one time, and Cameron, who
was in the middle of gulping down his drink, coughed simultaneously
and it blasted up his nose, and he had to cough it out.

The pensioner
gasped, and told them he was the last time he bought anything there
again and rushed for the door!

“
It was
the only place I could get something worthwhile!” he explained. “If
I hadn’t the deal would have been off!”

“
As long
as it runs good!” Simpson replied. “If not you’ll have to return
the thing!”

Hanks nodded
firmly in agreement, showing them he had control of the
situation.

Cameron
recovered from his cough and thought over what the hell he had
bought, and after not thinking of anything he started ticking off
things that it was not but ended up with the exact same!

Simpson downed
his drink and jumped up and moved slowly over to the beast now tied
near a wall by its rope! He examined it all over its body and they
all moved over and joined in and remarked how fit it looked, but
its abnormal looks astounded and confused them on whether it was
capable of winning a race.

While they all
turned around to go back to their seats and turned their backs on
it Cameron was surprised that it gave a silent growl, like no horse
he had ever heard, and it sounded like a wild cat or beast in the
wilderness, and it made a shiver run up his spine and he never
forgot it and the way it eyed them up like it was being held by its
prey!

Cameron
watched rain blast against a window and wondered why he never found
a hotel instead of staying in the army camp.

They sat
listening to Simpson and Fogler arguing over racing horses when
they heard something crash to the floor and turned and saw the
racehorse had knocked something over and Hanks marched over like a
cowboy and calmed it down.

They all
laughed when Hanks started explaining in detail how sad the horse
had been and that he had just brought it into the bar to cheer it
up, as it suffered from depression!

Cameron was
surprised to hear Hanks bet them a hundred pounds that they could
not cheer it up and Simpson and Fogler immediately agreed, and
silently discussed it and how best to do it and they marched up to
the horse and both of them kept whispering in its ear.