Chapter 31

Gold Rush

Lagwil led them into the elf border, but a couple hundred yards from where the nearest elf home was located. The Regulators set up their tents and fell asleep just before midnight. Although Lagwil assured them they were safe, the humans set up a night watch anyway. On the one hand it was a great honor to be allowed so close to the village, but on the other hand they still had no respect or love points with this village, since all that Torger worked for was transferred to Strong Arm when he became mayor of Calico.

Thinking of Strong Arm, Torger wondered if he made it to meet up with Stone Fist. He would find out soon.

When they woke up in the morning three elves brought them fresh fruits and nuts, and biscuits made from ground acorns. The hungry, tired, and mentally beat up humans devoured the meals, then were led to a small stream a mile away to refill their water skins. Fifteen of the twenty-one had been lost or damaged fighting the fires, but they knew the dwarves could make another one from each deer stomach they brought to them.

Once they drank all the water they could, and filled the remaining six skins, the elves led them to the western border of their lands. There were thirteen elves assembled, all with strong bows and two quivers of arrows. Lagwil was the leader.

“Good morning Torger. Much has happened in the past week, and we are not able to assemble the usual twenty elf team to clear out the leprechauns. But the thirteen of us should be able to handle the task. The standard thirty pounds of refined gold fee still applies. Lead the way to the cave.”

Torger looked at the others, and they sure hoped the dwarves found the main cave, full of a hundred leprechauns. It would be very embarrassing to lead the elves crisscrossing the land searching for the target.

As they walked Torger and Lagwil broke off from the main group. He had to ask her the burning question. “That fire was devastating, and you said liches will appear each night. Will your village be safe while your team is gone with us?”

She sighed. “It is not our way to discuss our affairs with outsiders. But we suffered greatly from the fire. Three of us died in the fire, and two in the Yosemite Valley village died in the fire. I am told you know they used all their potions. We used most of ours. The stronger arrows we were making for Jex were destroyed. And our night patrols will be fighting liches each night.”

Torger looked at her and shook his head for their loss. She continued. “Your techniques for fighting the fire saved our village, and our neighboring village. I sense you did not check your cities to see our relations. By saving the chief’s village, you gained three love points and ten respect points from each Pomo village. You also gained five of each kind from our village for teaching us how to save ourselves. Those numbers are low, but enough for us to honor our promise to help you in your quest for gold.”

Torger was in awe that just by doing the right thing he would gain favor from powerful allies. He accepted the situation for what it was and they continued walking.

Late the next day they came to the dwarf camp. Many dwarves glared at the elves entering, and most of the elves glared back. Stone Fist walked up to Torger and Lagwil.

“I’m glad you returned. The village is getting restless wanting to get to the gold. And I need to speak to you privately about Strong Arm.”

Torger said “You found the cave? Great. Lead us towards it.”

He turned to Lagwil. “Would you like to begin the battle tonight, or rest and start in the morning?”

She said “We will camp outside of this dwarf camp, but wait until just before first light to attack.”

Stone Fist said “That’s fine by me.” He led them to the north side of the camp, just a quarter mile away. It was a large flat field. “This looks like the place to build our village. There is a stream to the east, a mile away, and the cave is in the foothills a little less than two miles to the north.”

Torger surveyed the land and gave his approval. As the elves were setting up tents and a night patrol, Stone Fist brought the humans away to talk in hushed tones. “I received word from Strong Arm. He was on his way here when a messenger ran to them from Kirsk. The goblins attacked Indio, so Strong Arm and the dwarves of Calico turned to go help them. That was three weeks ago. Then yesterday I got another message. The goblin invasion of Indio was squashed, but eight dwarves died in the battle. Romalt insisted since the goblins spent most of their forces in the attack, their tunnels should be weak. Strong Arm and two warriors are leading the children and elderly here, but Romalt is leading a force of nineteen strong and battle tested men and women to kill the remaining goblins, including the queen. If they succeed, all that cooper, bronze, and semi-precious stones you saw will belong to dwarves. If they fail… as a tribe we will be even weaker, and leaderless.”

That was a lot for Torger to take in. Torger was the one to lead an invasion to free the dwarf prisoners. That affected him both emotionally, and as a mayor of dwarves. Romalt, Baybil, and the other war chief could score big or lose half the tribe. He pushed the news to the back of his mind. He had a gold mine in front of him and a village sitting on their hands producing nothing.

The humans camped with the elves that night, and both set their own watches. During Torger’s watch, the elf on duty woke up Lagwil. She came and sat with Torger.

“For thousands of years we elves have killed leprechauns and liches for the dwarves, and for the same time they have killed the hellhounds and provided us with metal weapons and jewels. Tomorrow will be the first time we attack with a smaller group. I am confident we can accomplish the job, but not that we won’t suffer casualties. I ask you to join us in battle, as our shields. It is a selfish request and one that would bring me consequences if any other elf found out I asked. As such, there will be no reward, and no reduction of cost for the job. I can only ask you this as a friend Torger.”

Torger thought about the implications. “What consequences would you face?”

“I would be ostracized. Banished from all elves forever, wandering the land alone. But I value the lives of my men and women who will be engaged in battle tomorrow. It is an embarrassment to ask for outside help.”

Torger thought it over for a few minutes, then agreed. He walked back to the dwarf camp and woke up Stone Fist. “I have decided we Regulators will join the elves tomorrow in battle. If we fall, we will respawn in Carson City, and won’t return for a week or more. I trust you to lay out which buildings will be built where, how to bring water to the village, and to make sure there is no theft of gold.”

“You got it boss. But attacking the leprechauns is a bad idea. Good luck.”

Torger walked back without much hope of winning the battle. The elves would win, but the humans were going in as fodder.

Torger woke up his friends an hour before sunrise, at the same time the elves were getting up. He explained to them they were going to join the battle to get the experience, but after the fight with the hell hounds Jex and Arden had gained an ability point and he advised them to invest it. The recommendation was a message to them all that he didn’t have high hopes for their survival. They all knew that during the battle every time they gained an ability point spend it on mana immediately. Brun and Rome were the closest to gaining the next one. Jex and Arden each invested into health, bringing them to 200.

Graul, Jex, and Rome each had the spell Haste 1, and when they were a hundred feet from the cave they cast it on the whole group. As soon as they began casting the Haste spells, a dozen spells shot out of the cave towards them. They all got hit, but kept casting Haste 1 or Shield 1 spells.

The leprechaun spells flew right through the shields and hit them all again. Fire, ice, and lightning pummeled their bodies, but thirteen arrows were shot over their heads and into the cave. Two leprechauns fell, dead, but the other eleven arrows skidded harmlessly along the stone cave floor.

Another volley of arrows was sent towards the cave, and another volley of spells hit the Regulators. As planned, Rome picked up both duffle bags and ran towards the cave behind his friends. Their charge resulted in a couple dozen half seen leprechauns run out of it, and thirteen of those little pests were hit with Ice 2 from the elves. They spell made them become fully visible, and the Regulators attacked them with weapons.

Jex was able to pick off two, and Graul and Torger each sliced one to death, before the others cast Cure 2 on themselves and disappeared again. Red Fury sent out four fireballs, hitting four unseen leprechauns in the cave. More spells came at the humans from inside the cave. Many more. Their bodies were riddled with level one spells.

Brun hit one with Poison 1, and the leprechaun got the flu and lost half her health. But another immediately cast Heal 1 and she was restored. Arden and Antic contributed very little to the fight because their spears were too slow and bulky to hit the fast moving foes. But they all worked their way deeper into the cave, making many leprechauns spend much of their mana.

Outside the elves were easily able to cast spells and shoot arrows at the remaining leprechauns who had fled the cave. They finished them off then ran to the cave mouth. Lagwil arrived in the middle of her group. She quickly counted five dead leprechauns near the entrance, and saw five humans remaining alive. As she stepped in she saw a green light surround Rome, and he disappeared with both magic duffle bags he was carrying.

Antic was laying on the floor nearly dead, and continually getting hit with level one spells, and Torger and Graul were running forward swinging their swords wildly. They each hit two leprechauns in their bull rush, and Red Fury sent out a total of eight fireballs that hit eight leprechauns. But as the brothers died, Torger’s sword fell to the stone ground and finally shattered.

The elves engaged in battle, but a few seconds later Jex disappeared in a flash. An elf ran to pick up her Bow of the Owl. He and the other elves shot arrows and spells at the mana drained leprechauns, and it turned out for them to be the easiest gold mine clearing they had ever participated in.

The humans all appeared in the abandoned dwarf village near Carson City. Rome was digging in the duffle bags and he was handing out clothes to everyone when Jex was the last to arrive. All the men got a good cheer at her appearance in the nude, but were doing so jokingly and respectfully turned away.

They took inventory and were thankful for Rome’s spell of Teleport 1. Torger and Graul had bronze swords, Brun and Rome had their spare silver staffs, and Jex had Incoming Blizzard. She handed Arden her regular recurve bow, along with a quiver full of arrows that were simple sharpened sticks. She had eight stone arrowheads and hoped they could make it to the dwarves safely. None of them had any armor, but they did have their four tents and six water skins.

As they set out from the ghost town, they hoped their encounters with trolls, bears, wolves, cottols, and rocs would be minimal.

The battle had been too intense for any of them to spend any ability points they might have earned, and lost them and any accumulated experience, except Rome who gained one ability point before teleporting. He used it for more strength. But Torger told everyone he was proud of his friends for putting up such a good fight against enemies they could barely see and that moved so quickly.

They were able to avoid mountain trolls, and rocs left them alone since there was much easier meals for them to eat. But during the ten day walk back they were attacked by cottols five times, always in groups of three. By then the cottols had grown to level eighteen, and they all just barely gained two ability points from the fights. The cottols were a little bigger and stronger, and the bronze swords struggled to inflict death blows to the heads or hearts. But I.B. saved them every time and Rome and Arden made sure to keep Jex alert. Torger got in a few shots with the recurve bow too, but they desperately missed their better weapons and armor.

They returned to see a fully functional kitchen, a mostly completed smithy, and four other partially started buildings. Stone Fist was directing construction workers and stopped to come greet Torger.

“Welcome back boss. I hope you like what you see.” He beamed with pride.

“This is great Stone Fist. I take it everyone’s been cooperative with your leadership.”

“Yes. They’re all so eager to get to the gold that they’re doing everything they can to set up the village quickly. I’ve got five hunters, two water carriers, four cooks, three dishwashers, three clothes washers, seven builders and six miners, just like you demonstrated in Calico. The system works great. Before this kind of organization everyone rushed in for the gold and little got done for the benefit of the whole village. There are fifteen children and elders who can’t work yet or are too old.”

“It looks like things are under control here. I’ll activate the shield and set our respawn point here. But where’s Calico? I don’t see any of them.”

“You’re not going to believe this. They’re south of here, with the elves. They found another gold mine in the foothills! They’re going to establish their community there. You should go say hi. But I still haven’t heard from Strong Arm or Kirsk. I want to know how the invasion of goblins went.”

Torger thought about everything he knew. They would soon be getting gold, but had to get a lot of it to pay back the elves. The elves wanted them to kill trolls near them, but they needed better weapons and armor. They couldn’t get better weapons and armor until iron came from Indio and there was a fully functional blacksmith. And the smithy was almost complete.

“Stone Fist, we have a lot to do this summer. My friends and I are going to set up our tents, and take tomorrow off. And I’m happy with your progress, really, but where are the farmers planting crops?”

Stone Fist looked down and shook his head. “I knew I was forgetting something. I’ll pull two construction workers and a miner.”

“Not yet. We need the smithy going at full capacity in a week. Finish it before you reduce your crew.”

“OK. But it’s early June and already a bit late for crop planting. The harvest will be small this fall. We’ll need a lot of food to save up for the winter.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. Get the smithy done, then get those seeds planted quickly.”

Chapter 32

Upgrades

A week later the Regulators walked into Rich Fields. Strong Arm renamed the Calico dwarves to be the Rich Fields dwarves. It looked much like Torger’s new village called Sonora, but he would raise it to level three and rename it. Strong Arm’s village was near what would be Modesto on Earth. Torger and his friends finally had a sense of permanence. They were brought to Nuva naked and separated, then lived in a cabin called Home, then were slaves in the Salton Sea, then were in charge of Calico, then traded to be in charge of Parker, then moved to Carson City, then near Sutter’s Mill for a few weeks before now finally having a permanent home near Sonora. By permanent they knew that meant for the next sixteen months until the tyters returned and killed them. But pushing that aside they lived in a village of dwarves that were friendly to them, with close ally dwarves to the south and two villages of elf allies to the east. They had plenty of food, water, and land, and soon would have wealth in the form of gold nuggets and steel weapons and armor. They could finally talk to the dwarves they knew and rescued from tyranny with a calm and relaxed attitude.

Strong Arm came out to greet them. “Welcome Torger and the Regulators. You guys really are movers and shakers. I wondered if you inspiring us to take out Small Foot was a fluke, and when you reclaimed dwarf slaves I wondered if that was luck. But it seems you have taught us how to build better villages with a better tax code and inspire us to work harder together. And I hear you taught the elves a better way to fight a wild fire. You are still prey, but have befriended both dwarves and elves. I get to be a firsthand witness to major historical events. Your names will be in our record books for sure.”

“Thank you Strong Arm. We are only introducing ideas that work better on our own planet. We’ve come to check on the progress of Kirsk and Romalt. Have you heard anything?”

“Yes. Kirsk’s team just delivered the first shipment of iron this morning, and we received a message that Romalt and the warriors will return tomorrow. We really need them. Construction is slow, and I only have one dwarf in the mine. No one is planting crops, and everyone is on their own for food and water. I’ve got mostly old dwarves and children here. If they took heavy casualties with the goblins, I don’t think our village will survive.”

That wasn’t good news. Strong Arm would owe the elves thirty pounds of refined gold in a year whether they mined that much or not. “I’m sure everything will work out. Do you mind if we stay the night here?”

“Not at all. You’re welcomed guests. But as I said, you’ll be on your own for food and water.”

They set up their tents, and there was still a couple hours of daylight left, so they went hunting. They returned after dark with a deer and two rocs. During the hunt they found out Torger and Graul’s bronze swords did little damage to the birds, now level eighteen. But I.B. and the recurve bow did plenty of damage to knock them out of the sky, and Lightning 2 from Brun did some damage as well. They had been warned that his poison spell would taint meat, and they knew from experience fire spells ruined the valuable feathers they enjoyed sleeping on, and using for Jex’s arrows.

When the dwarves saw the birds, they rushed forward offering to buy the meat. These dwarves really were foraging for themselves. Torger surprised them all saying the meat was a gift to them, and they would all get an equal cut. They feasted that night and talked with the dwarves Torger had been the mayor of for several months. He still remembered all of their names.

The next day they saw dwarves approaching from the south, just after lunch. The humans had killed another deer that morning, and Jex broke her last stone arrowhead. Strong arm was trying to make her iron arrowheads in his incomplete smithy.

As the dwarves approached they looked haggard and depressed. Torger counted eight of them, but knew twenty-one had gone to kill the goblins.

Baybil led the procession. He greeted Torger with a smile, but wasn’t completely enthused with the encounter. He looked too tired and mentally occupied to care.

“Hi Baybil. It’s good to see you again. Would your men like some deer meat? We were just finishing eating lunch and have a few pounds left over.”

“That would be great Torger. We haven’t eaten much in the last few weeks.”

They sat on flat stones while Jex, Arden, and Brun brought over chunks of venison from the camp fire. All the dwarves but Baybil dug into it with gusto. Instead, he pulled Torger away from the others.

“As you know, Romalt decided we should attack the goblins after they attacked Indio. It seemed they wanted their slaves back, and Indio lost eight dwarves fighting and killing seventy-three goblins. Romalt led twenty of us into their tunnels on a counter-strike, to kill the queen and take the treasure. We won. We got the treasure. But only eight of the twenty-one of us are left. Our tribe is weak. Romalt fell in battle, as did his son the other war chief. That leaves me in charge of the whole tribe until the next council of mayors. I have you, Strong Arm, Kirsk, and Krig from Blythe to rely on. I need you four mayors to unite and prosper. When news of Romalt’s death gets out, the dwarves may become depressed and work will slow.”

“What happened? Surely Romalt wouldn’t have gone in with the odds so evenly matched.”

“Brute happened. After he was shamed at the last council in which your mayorship was extended for a year, the traitor joined the goblins. He led a squad of them to attack Romalt. It was Brute’s axe in his own hands that split our chief’s skull. I killed him myself, but that is a sting that will never go away.”

Torger was taken back by the news. Strong Arm was only going to get seven healthy men and a healthy woman to plant crops, brew beer, and mine gold. And Baybil was one of them, but now he was the temporary tribal chief and couldn’t do much for physical labor. These Rich Fields dwarves were in trouble, and Torger could think of no way of helping them.

Baybil led Torger and Strong Arm into the half way constructed kitchen, away from prying eyes. He dumped the contents of his duffle bag onto the flagstone floor. Several copper and bronze swords and shields fell out and clattered on the floor, and Torger knew the dwarves outside heard it. But then he reached in and started pulling out handfuls of topaz, opals, malachite, onyx, and pearls.

Torger was stunned by the wealth. That was why Baybil didn’t want all the dwarves to see it, and why he made a lot of noise with the copper and bronze.

“The remaining warriors have already been paid. They split the three hundred pounds of copper coins between the seven of them. I need to introduce myself to the elves and establish good relations with them as Romalt had done. Strong Arm, your village needs weapons upgraded with elf magic, and these stones are the key. I want you, me, and the seven warriors who returned with me to have full steel armor and axes all infused with elf magic. Get your smithy going and produce as fast as you’ve ever done before. How much iron have you received from Kirsk?”

“A team brought the first shipment today. I traded forty ponds of pure bronze for forty pounds of iron ore. I will need to buy all the copper from those warriors, and we need a source of tin to make more bronze, or get a bigger crew here to extract this gold from the mine. We lack dwarfpower.”

Baybil looked at Torger. “You have come up with unique solutions in the past. Do you have ideas to share with Strong Arm to get his village on the right track again?”

“I do. Stone Fist is almost complete with construction in our village. He can be here in two weeks to oversee the construction here.” Both dwarves nodded their approval of the idea. “I also have some relations with the local elves. I can find out if I can introduce you to them.”

“That would save me a lot of time. But I don’t know if it’s going to be enough for this village.”

“The only other thing I can think of is to merge our villages. But you and I tried that before, and most of your people ended up going to Indio to work as prison guards.”

“Many dwarves have tried mergers in the past, and it rarely works out. For whatever reason a village of sixty dwarves is a little unruly, and a village of eighty is uncontrollable. But if this village fails, we may have to try it.”

The next day the Regulators left to visit the elves, and Strong Arm sent a warrior to escort Baybil to Sonora. They stayed as a group for the first three days, then split off with Torger and Baybil agreeing that they would have to make a dirt path between the two villages. The dirt paths Torger had Calico dwarves make between Calico to Small Hammer, and then to Indio, had cut travel time by a third. The same should be true to cut a seven day walk into a four day walk between Sonora and Modesto.

It was the middle of June when they were greeted by Lagwil. She explained she had to take Torger to the center stone to be tested by the Winds of Truth. She apologized but said it was elven law.

After the testing showed he was there to trade she escorted him into the village itself, but his friends had to stay at the border. He was led up a ladder and onto the platforms that ran between trees, just like in Yosemite. He went into a large Sequoia and his size shrank from just under six feet tall to just over one foot tall. Lagwil took her place at the council table, and motioned for Torger to sit down next to her.

Torger looked around and asked “Why are there five women elders here? In Yosemite there were two women and three men, and Yiloding was there to make a fourth man. Are there not enough men in your village?”

He hoped they wouldn’t be offended by his sincere question. Lagwil answered “Elves select the most intelligent of our people as leaders. It makes no difference if the elders are male or female. Dwarves select leaders based on military strength or financial prosperity, so usually they end up being men.”

That made sense to Torger, and if they were offended by his question they didn’t show it. Lagwil continued. “I’m sure you are wondering why you are here. We have had… discussions. You bravely volunteered your human friends to assist in clearing out the leprechauns, and I accepted your offer to help.” The Winds of Truth lady seemed to be stretching the truth, but Torger let it go.

“In battle, when an ally falls, their equipment is gathered and accepted as part of the loot of war. But in this case you died, yet are still here. Our discussions have been focused on whether your equipment is still yours, or if it was forfeited when you died.”

Torger interrupted “I can easily resolve this. We want our armor and weapons back, but I am willing to pay for them. And as the Winds of Truth old you, I am here to trade.”

“It is good that you are willing to pay for them, that eases things. But some of our elves want steel armor and weapons, and they all want the Bow of the Owl. It is possible to trade with the dwarves to get the armor modified for us elves.”

Torger looked at the elder who had spoken. “I think it will be more useful in our hands, than in elf hands.”

She replied “As a mayor of a dwarf village, your blacksmith could make you new weapons and armor.”

“Or he could make armor for elves, for a price.”

“You talk of prices, yet you now owe our village sixty pounds of refined gold. I think your credit has been stretched too far.”

“You mean I will owe you sixty pounds of gold. I still have a year to pay it off.”

“Eleven and a half months. Conveniently the same amount of time you have left as a mayor, then you will leave a large debt to your successor. But let’s set that aside. Why have you come here to trade?”

“We need better weapons and armor. Once we get quality steel, we want your alchemists to infuse spells. I just found out armor can also be strengthened with magic.”

“Yes, of course it can. But it only nullifies the same type of spell the gem is infused with. I see you’re confused. We can use an emerald to infuse it with ice three, and infuse it into a helmet. If the helmet gets hit with ice one two or three, the gem will absorb the spell and the wearer won’t be damaged. But that is a very expensive process. Your helmet, greaves, bracers, pauldrons, gauntlets, chainmail skirt, boots and chest plate would each need three emeralds or rubies. One for lightning three, one for fire three, and one for ice three. Thirty-six emeralds aren’t cheap, and neither is the alchemist’s labor for that much work. And that’s just for one set of armor, yet you have seven humans who each need a set of armor. Wealthy elves and dwarves will use lower quality gemstones to absorb level two spells in their helmet and chest plate. Even that could cost several years wages.”

“I see. I’m not that wealthy. Our more immediate concern is retrieving our belongings. We have a quest from Edina to kill mountain trolls, and we can’t do that without our stuff. So how much is it going to cost me to buy what used to be ours?”

A different elfa answered. “We will discuss that. Please step outside and give us privacy.”

As Torger exited the tree, he returned to normal size. He walked along the catwalk for a half hour, always staying as close to tree trunks as he could. Finally he was summoned to return. When he took his seat they negotiated, and the lowest price would be three gold coins. He had nowhere near that much money, so he left. As he neared the edge of the elf territory one of Lagwil’s subordinates ran up to him.

“Sir. I heard you were interested in purchasing strong arrows because your top archer is strong and keeps breaking them. I am a fletcher on the side and am looking to make a little extra coin on the side.”

After a twenty minute discussion Torger walked with him to his friends who were hunting a few miles from the elf village. Antic pulled out of his duffle bag all eighteen billik legs and seventy roc feathers. The elf took them and said he would deliver them at that same spot in three days. Antic and Graul agreed to come back to the area in three days.

They all walked back to Sonora and made it before dark the following night. In the morning Antic and Graul took all the silver and copper coins Torger had, which totaled to about fifteen silver, and returned to the Sequoia elves. By the time they would get back it should be three days.

Meanwhile, Torger found Baybil busily looking at all the mostly completed buildings and farm and mine. “Stone Fist has done a wonderful job here Torger. I’m sure he will be equally valuable to Strong Arm and building that village. I sent him back when I arrived here yesterday morning. I trust you can oversee the operations here.”

“Yes. Kind of. My friends and I were not able to recover our weapons and armor from the elves. I will have Guntrink start making more for us today, if his smithy is fully operational. Once he has us equipped, we need to fulfill a quest for the elves.”

“Being a mayor is a tough job. You need to take care of your people, and strengthen alliances. You can’t bankrupt the village, and you have to gain ability points to invest in the shield strength and village growth. No one has time to do it all, so you appoint competent dwarves to handle specific tasks. I was a mayor for nearly fifty years, and now I’m the tribal chief with no war chiefs. I have two top ranking vacancies to fill, and I’ve got six months to figure it out to bring up at the next council. I don’t want to burden you with my troubles Torger, but I’m saying delegate tasks to people you trust. It will be much easier than trying to handle everything on your own.”

“Thanks for the advice Baybil. I’m going to check in with all my villagers, you know, make the rounds.”

“Torger, before you go, you’ll need some money soon. Strong Arm made some things for you, and he needs to sell them to refill his own pockets.” Baybil uncurled his fingers and held out a shotgun shell, filled with black powder and a copper casing.

“How many of these did he make?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what you do with them. But he says he needs a gold coin real soon and he has them ready.”

“At two silver per shot, that’s fifty shots. Excuse me Baybil, I’ve got a gold mine to plunder.”