Montezuma's Gold

     Peter Logan already regretted doing the exchange; he was hot, dusty and tired. For three hours he had followed Professor John Snap's instructions, written on white three-by-five index cards. This was only the second day of their five-day travel agenda and the whole process was boring. On top of that, he had sixteen freshmen pretending to listen to everything he had to say while one of the two seniors, Jan Kit, wanted to correct everything he said. Professor Snap's graduate assistant, Bill Kneed, was also tagging along.

    "Professor Logan, Professor Snap spelled his name as Moctezuma, Not Montezuma!"

    "your are quite correct Jan, but because they're both pronounced the same, the second spelling has become the acceptable norm. If you held up both spelling to most people they would be able to tell you something about the man in the second spelling but not the first.

    "Look I know you're all disappointed that Professor Snap was unable to make the trip as planned, and I know he could have conducted this field trip infinitely better than I'm doing. The Aztec empire was his specialty and he loved taking his students on these field trips, both for his enjoyment and for the knowledge each of you would pick up for your later studies.

    "Look at it this way, there are 21 students sitting in my summer geology class wondering what a professor of history is doing teaching an advanced geology class for seniors and graduate students. I'm sure, like you Jan, that a few of them are shaking their heads with some of the things he is saying. But maybe we all need to step back and look at the situation with our hearts.

    "Professor Snap wants to be at his wife's bedside every minute he can in the next few weeks. The cancer started spreading rapidly through her body the last several months. Nothing was helping her.

    "Here is what I would like for you to do today. Explore on your own or with a friend until four every day. At four we will meet at the steps of the human sacrifice alter and discuss the day. When we're through, everyone can be on his own until the next day. Is that all right with everyone, or would you rather we all stuck together?

    "That's what I thought. Now let me finish this last little bit of information and then everyone can scatter."

    When Peter finished he motioned for the assistant to stay around a few minutes while the students scattered in every direction.

    "Bill, now that I have that over with why don't you catch up with some of the students and give them a guided tour. I think I will sit down by that big rock over there and rest my back for a while. I'll see you at four" With that Bill turned left and started down the trail while Peter Logan eased his backside down against the large boulder. The boulder was warm and it felt good aginst his tired back.

    As Peter eased down against the rock his right foot slipped on the loose gravel and he had to jam his heel hard into the dirt to stop from falling on his butt. Peter felt a small loose stone fall in between his shoe and sock when he felt his foot slip and he reached down to get his finger around the stone but only succeeded in pushing it further down to his toes.

    Grunting, Peter leaned down and untied his shoe to get the stone out. He pulled his shoe off and hit the bottom of the shoe with the heel of his hand, watching as a small stone dropped out and rolled a few inches, finally coming to a stop against a shiny piece of metal. As Peter put his shoe back on and began tying it, he looked at the metal object. Even out here, he thought, shaking his head; the metal looked like a silver pull-tab from a beer can.

    Peter glanced down one more time at the shiny silver pull tab before starting off. As he did so, the light caught the pull tab at a different angle and instead of looking silver the pull-tab looked golden.