After discovery of Clinton Brighton's U.S. Marine dog tag on a dead enemy combatant at the conclusion of the Battle of the Midnight Freight in Colorado many years after Clinton's disappearance while on a hike in the Desolation Wilderness with a patrol of Boy Scout Troop 49, ContraForce Zulu West Deputy Station Chief Echo was assigned to lead the investigation into the reopened case which was initially started before the creation of ContraForce Zulu. How did the dog tag, assumed to be on Brighton's body under tons of granite that swept over the trail near the Lakes Velma, many years later come...

To Hartley, it was incomprehensible, and he had absolutely no idea of its purpose, what it was, what it meant, or what it represented. He was brought back to what to Hartley was reality by the soft ticking of his windup travel clock on his writing desk along the far wall, which indicated 4 A.M., straight up. It was not yet morning, just the slightest hint of lighter grey through the storm clouds over the ridge to the east came through the casement window panes of the little cabin. Once again, he sensed Liza's presence. Her essence most subtle. Liza's essence. Yet, which of her realities,...

Jane had been trapped in Hartley's little wooden cabin somewhere in the Pleiades star cluster since she arrived during a time-spring in the near, yet however far distant, past it was. Unknown to her and the scientists who discovered the physics that made it possible for her to traverse the impossible distance in the brief moment required, Einstein had failed to deduce a critical element of his general theory of relativity. That is, the various laws of physics, known and unknown, are also relative to each other. A particular value of mass, velocity, gravity, or whatever, is determined by also...

Dad continued, 'Son, you are out of school now, and it is time for you to be on your own. There are too many mouths here to feed, and our house is just too small. My health is gone, and just trying to get along with your mother takes about everything I can muster. When I was your age I was already on my own. My old man, your granddad who died of diabetes before you were born, threw me out one day, and I headed for Alaska, figuring, why not? It was ten years before I met and married your mother and started to have all you kids. It's a tough world out there, but you gotta figure out how to make...

The Ageless Sojourner *Daniel's Steinbeck Lost* Daniel was born on a small farm in western Kansas on July 24, 1917. His mother became pregnant when his father, who was serving as a marine on a U.S. Navy destroyer, came home on leave the previous year. He was the older brother of a fifteen year old classmate friend of his mother. One thing led to another, and when his leave was over, his father went back to the war, to never return, his destroyer sunk in an engagement in the mid-Atlantic. Unknown at the time, Daniel's mother was pregnant with Daniel. It appears she never told the father, and...

The Children Sojourner *Foothill Farm Life 2nd* Larry and Liza Lizzard were stretched out on the top rail of the wood fence dozing in the warm sun as Stella Goat munched on the new grass growing under the bottom rail. She had to turn her head sideways to reach under the rail to get the very best grass. Sometimes, her long ears would get stuck, so she would have to wiggle and squirm to get loose. But, she still wouldn't stop munching on the grass. Every once in a while everyone looked up as a car or a truck drove down the road out front. Then, they would go back to what they had been doing....

As the transcription process proceeded, the author, with keen interest, began reading the ongoing parts of a serial written by Matthew for the newspaper entitled, The Nevada Muleskinner Gang the Muleteers. With growing excitement, he knew that he had, in Mother Lode vernacular, struck gold.

Clinton and the U.S. Marines made a good match. Due to the Marine's ongoing need for communication specialists, after basic training he was selected to attend communications technical training, as well as combat and command schools. He hoped his parents would attend his graduation from basic but it wasn't to be. After initial training (in the military, training never really stops) he was assigned to communications on a U.S. destroyer of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet, stationed at San Diego. However, during his basic training, Clinton decided that his destiny was to become a U.S. Marine...

Prologue The Brown's Farm is a make-believe farm located up the hill and to the east of the real town of Amador City, which straddles California's historic Highway 49 near Sutter Creek and north of Angels Camp where Mark Twain wrote The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. A few more miles to the north you will find Sutter's Mill in the town of Coloma, where John Sutter discovered gold that started the historic 1849 gold rush. Here are three tales of the Brown's Farm during the first half of the 1900s. It, and Old Town Amador City, has changed little over the passage of time.