The Phantom Miner-A Tale of Greed and Vengeance
About this ebook
"Boy," he'd whisper, his breath cold against my ear, "let me tell you about Tom Barkley and what happens to men whose souls rot from the inside out."
I'd pull the covers to my chin, but I never stopped him. Even as my heart hammered and sweat beaded on my forehead, I had to know. Now, decades later, I understand why he told me. Some stories aren't just stories. Some are warnings.
Part One: The Fever
In the mid-1800s, gold fever swept through California like a contagion. It infected men's minds, turned brothers against brothers, made murderers of merchants. The little mining town of Clantondale sat in a valley where the Sierra Nevada mountains cast shadows that lasted too long, even in summer.
Tom Barkley came to Clantondale in 1849 with nothing but a pickaxe and a hunger that couldn't be satisfied. He was a lean, weathered man with eyes that never quite looked at you straight. The other prospectors gave him a wide berth—there was something wrong about Tom, something that made your skin crawl when he smiled.
He had no family, no friends, no woman waiting for him. Just the gold. Always the gold.
At first, Tom worked his claim like everyone else, spending fourteen-hour days in the California sun, his hands bleeding, his back screaming. He found a few small nuggets—enough to keep the fever burning, enough to make him desperate for more.
But Tom Barkley wasn't patient. And he wasn't honest.
The first prospector disappeared on a Tuesday. Name was Samuel Flint. They found his camp torn apart, his sluice box smashed, and a dark stain in the dirt that looked too much like blood. Sam's gold was gone. So was Sam.
The second disappeared three weeks later. Then a third.
The remaining prospectors started traveling in pairs, watching their backs. They whispered Tom Barkley's name when they thought he couldn't hear. They'd seen him lurking near the camps of the missing men. Seen that hungry look in his eyes.
Tom grew bolder. The whiskey made him sloppy, and the gold made him greedy. He'd sneak through the camps at night like a phantom himself, searching for men who'd struck it rich. When he found them, he'd wait until they were alone, until the darkness was thick enough to hide what came next.
His shack filled with gold. Nuggets and dust, all stolen from dead men's claims. Tom would spread it on his table and run his fingers through it, laughing that wet, ugly laugh of his. The gold glittered in the lamplight, but it never seemed to shine quite right. It looked dull, somehow. Tainted.
Part Two: The Trap
Tom Watson wasn't a particularly brave man, but he was smart. And he was tired of watching his friends disappear into the night, tired of finding empty camps and bloodstained pickaxes.
"We've got to do something about Barkley," he told his partner, James Cole, one evening as they sat by their fire. "Before he does to us what he did to the others."
They hatched a plan. It was simple, really. Men like Tom Barkley were predictable—show them gold, and they'd follow you into Hell itself.
The old Hangman's Shaft mine had been abandoned for five years, ever since a cave-in killed six men. The entrance was still there, a black mouth in the mountainside that exhaled cold, stale air. Nobody went near it. The locals said you could hear screaming from deep inside, though everyone knew the screaming came from wind through the tunnels.
Everyone knew. But nobody really believed it.
Tom Watson spread the word careful-like. He made sure Tom Barkley overheard him talking at the saloon about a new strike, a rich vein of gold deeper in the Hangman's Shaft than anyone had dared to go. He made it sound accidental, like he was drunk and letting secrets slip.
Tom Barkley's eyes lit up like lanterns. He bought Tom Watson a drink, acting friendly, but Watson could see the murder working behind those eyes. He knew Barkley's plan—follow them into the mine, kill them when they found the gold, take it all.
What Barkley didn't know was that Watson had a plan too.
Three nights later, when the moon was nothing but a sliver in the sky, the three men met at the entrance to Hangman's Shaft. Tom Barkley brought his pickaxe and a bottle of whiskey. Watson and Cole brought lanterns and determination.
And dynamite. Hidden in Cole's pack, wrapped in oilcloth.
"You sure about this gold?" Barkley asked, his words slurring. He'd been drinking since sundown.
"Sure as sin," Watson replied. "Saw the vein myself. Thick as your arm and running deep."
Discover more
Ratings and reviews
- Flag inappropriate
- Show review history
- Flag inappropriate
- Flag inappropriate
About the author
Drac Von Stoller's short stories have been read in over 66 countries with over 3.5 million downloads. Drac has had 182 of his ebooks in the top 32 categories on the Google Play Store. Drac has now completed a total of 470 Ebooks and Audiobooks to date through Google's AI narration. In 12 months, Drac has already had over 287,794 downloads of his Audiobooks!
Drac has also had over 652,945 downloads of his Ebooks and Audiobooks in 2024!
Drac also had a record-breaking month in September 2024 of 102,722!
Drac Von Stoller is in the process of pitching his idea for a TV Series to major networks in 2024!
Drac Von Stoller's website is at this link- horrifyingtales.wixsite.com/
Drac Von Stoller's film- "Horrifying Tales From The Dead" is available at these sites below with links- Amazon Prime Video, Tubi TV, Fawesome TV, XUMO Play, Midnight Pulp Channel, Cineverse, and YouTube TV.
Amazon Prime Video to rent or buy at this link-https://www.amazon.com/
Tubi TV at this link-https://tubitv.com/
Fawesome TV-https://fawesome.tv/movies/
XUMO Play-https://play.xumo.com/
Midnight Pulp Channel at this link-https://www.midnightpulp.
Cineverse at this link-https://www.cineverse.
YouTube TV at this link-https://tv.youtube.com/
