“Breathe in that fresh mountain air, Hector! Makes me feel alive, it does! And that smell, you can practically smell the gold from up here! We waited long enough let's get to the river and find us a vein!”

“Uhh, Sir! Be careful climbing down, the natives told us that this place has been cursed ever since the Incan Empire fell.”

“That is a load of rubbish and you know it Perkins! Besides once I get all that gold for the estate, father will be sure to leave everything for me instead of SILAS! OHHHH I HATE HIM SO MUCH! RUBBING HIS GRANDCHILDREN IN MY FACE AND BRAGGING ABOUT HIS STOCKS! WELL I’D LIKE TO SEE HIS STOCK MEASURE TO MOUNTAINS WORTH OF GOLD! ONCE -”

“Sir! Calm down you are working yourself up! Get any loader and you’re likely to start an avalanche!”

“ONCE I DRAIN THE GOLDEN RANGE OF EVERY! SINGE! DROP! OF! GOLD! THEN I WILL FINALLY PROVE MYSELF AS THE BETTER BROTHER! OR MY NAME ISN’T CORNALIUS D. ALDRIDGE!”

“Sir? Why didn’t you hire an explorer to find the veins for the excavation sites? Why did we have to come and do it ourselves?”

“Because Perkins! I have to do this myself! I have to prove myself to father again! I have to show up SILAS!”

“But why am I here, Sir?”

“You expect me to carry most of the equipment Perkins? You’ve been with me for nearly forty years now; honestly Perkins you should know me by now!”

“Let’s just focus on reaching the river alive right now, Sir.”

As the two explorers traveled down the mountain their shadows danced on the black and white mountains. The tall muscular shadow practically danced around the smaller thin shadow with a noticeably larger backpack. After reaching the river and panning a route to a vein the smaller figure pulls a shovel and pickaxe out of his pack, and hands it to the other.

“Now Sir, remember this is the – sacred – area where the Incans got the majority of their gold. To avoid their curse, you have to be respectful when you mine their gold and give thanks to the mountain afterwards.”

“Perkins! Stop listing this Indian curse Mumbo-Jumbo! I will claim what is rightfully mine with this gold! Then when father dies SILAS WILL UNDERSTAND HOW INFERIOR HE IS TO HIS OLDER BROTHER! NOW WITH THIS PICKAXE I HOLD IN MY HAND WILL MY FORTUNES BE REAPED!

“Sir, respectfully!”

“QUIET PERKINS!”

As light turned to dark and electric lanterns illuminated the night Cornelius found the first glitters of a vein in the side of one of the mountains.

“Perkins wake up! I have found it! I have shown up my brother!”

“That is excellent, Sir! Remove a large portion of the vein for proof then we can get excavation sites to do the rest for us. And do not forget to thank the mountain.”

“Nonsense Perkins! I have done this myself! Not the Mountain! I have bested SILAS!” Suddenly the mountain shook and the lanterns were snuffed.

At daybreak there was no sign of the two explorers, no shadows seen, no evidence of them ever arriving. The only change in The Golden Range was a fresh mound of rock and snow near one of the mountainsides.