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Treasure Tides

By Stephanie Guerrero

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Chapter One

Ruby Perle stood at the bottom of the on-ramp to a steamship headed north and listened to her parents argue.
“Theo Perle, I’ll not set one foot on that boat. The ice still rests in the Bering Sea. You’ll give me half of your money for train tickets back East or come with the girls and I. Please, Theo,” she pleaded and rested a gentle hand on her husband’s hairy arm. “Have I not followed you all over this God-forsaken earth? Silver in Colorado, gold in California, sapphires in Montana… the girls and I need a true home.”
With a last name meaning “treasure”, her father’s lifelong obsession extended to the naming of his daughters: Emerald, Sapphire and Ruby. Desire for treasure flowed through his veins, but for one brief moment, her father weakened at her mother’s touch. Hope burst like a fountain until the whistle of the steamboat beckoned. Ruby watched as her father’s blue eyes hardened to a steely resolve. Her mother’s eyes turned cold. Ethel grabbed the wallet from Theo’s lapel, and opening the worn leather removed half the bills.
“This will get us back to my parents’ home in Louisiana. This is your last adventure, Theo. I’ll not follow. I expect you to return to me by the first snow, or my father will help me file for divorce.”
Her father’s eyes softened. “I’ll be there Ethel, I promise, but reports say that gold is there for picking up or sifting through the sands right on the beach!”
She squeezed his hand, sorrow in her eyes. “Look around you, Theo. If every one of these passengers pick up just two nuggets off the beach, how many nuggets will be left for the next boat. I fear it’s a pipedream. Nevertheless, I’ll give you time to return to me. Promise you’ll come.”
Ruby’s father kissed her mother’s cheek cheerfully. “I’ll be there… could I keep Ruby? You know she’s better at money and will make sure I get home…” Both sets of eyes turned Ruby’s direction. Her heart beat faster. How could she choose? Neither of her parents handled money well. Her mother would most likely spend the money on first class tickets and expensive meals and need to wire her own father just to finish the trip home.
Her father, in his excitement, would buy every new-fangled piece of mining equipment hoping to recoup it all on his first score, run out of money to get home and have no one to wire. Her grandfather refused to fund Theo’s schemes years ago. Biting her lip, Ruby nodded and threw her arms around her mother.
“I’ll get him home to you, mother,” she whispered in her mother’s ear.
Her mother nodded and pulled back with tired eyes. She slipped a bill into Ruby’s dress pocket. “This is for you to come home on,” she whispered. “If he will not come, please come home, Ruby.”
Emerald and Sapphire hugged her tight. Ruby’s eyes filled with tears. God, go with them, she prayed as her mother and sisters faded into the crowd. Her grieving heart ripped in two. Papa tugged at her arm.
“Boat’s leaving, Ruby girl. Hold fast to me.” The man shoved and elbowed his way up the gangplank. A tall man in a fur cap cried out as her father’s elbow shoved into his ribs. Papa moved on without stopping to apologize. Turning as best she could, Ruby craned her head around to give the man an apologetic smile. His pleasant dark eyes met hers. Surprise lit behind his intelligent gaze. He nodded with a smile. Papa pulled her deeper into the crowd and down the hold.
“You can have yer own room, Ruby girl, since I paid for two rooms. I suggest you stay put as much as possible. It’s not safe fer a woman alone among this rowdy lot.”
Then why would you bring me here, Papa? Frustration bubbled hot in her veins. She tamped it down in an attempt to practice her newfound faith. At least he’d bought decent accommodations on the packed ship. When he shut her door with instructions that he would bring meals to her for the voyage, she pulled out the small handwriting sheet of verses she’d copied from a chaplain’s Bible started to read. Tears fell. She missed her sisters already, but peace settled deep. She’d made the right decision. Why Nome, she didn’t understand, but God did. The decision felt right. Hours later, she fell asleep with the slim paper under her head for comfort.

Lt. Hank Chapel glanced at the steamer ticket in his hand and excitement grew. Last year, in 1899, he’d delivered equipment to a new bank at Cape Nome from the Seattle Assayer’s Office on a trip north to complete the telegraph lines. Caught up in the excitement of plucking gold straight off the cold, barren beaches, he’d filed his own claim just inside the mouth of the Snake River.
After finding an old Russian carpenter who agreed to stay in Nome long enough for Hank to arrive, he’d rushed back to Seattle for supplies and a little planning. Hank whistled at the clear, blue sky and praised God for providing Victor. Now, after months of waiting for the winter ice to clear, Hank was eager to head out. His mind drifted to the many supplies stored below deck. His time in Seattle had not been wasted. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation as he strode aboard the steamer eager.
“Father God, I give You my heart. I long for a successful job, a comfortable home, and a kind-hearted, hard-working, faithful wife. It wouldn’t hurt if she were lovely to look at,” he added on a whim. “All these plans and desires I lay at your feet.” He whispered the words and let the sea breeze carry them heavenward. A miner and a lad with copper hair pushed past him and caught his ribs with a bony elbow. The lad turned his head to apologize.
Hank froze. T’was no lad who offered an apologetic smile. Delicate, kind features met his confused gaze. The young woman shrugged with a grin and turned to follow her father deeper onto the deck. Hank’s heart pounded at the encounter until the crowd swallowed up the man and young woman. He turned his attention toward finding his berth. Hope at seeing the girl again kindled in his lonely heart.
Eagerness turned to impatience. The warmer seas of the coast turned to ice the further north his steamship headed. Though he sought the copper haired girl each day on deck, she remained a vision only in his dreams. Ice increasingly covered the Bering Sea. Concern grew among the passengers.
To fight boredom, he prayed, planned and searched the crowded ship for his copper-haired dream girl. The vessel offered no solitude with over four-hundred forty fellow passengers. Standing at the cold metal railing, his wearied gaze rested on the other ships chugging along beside his own.
Estimates suggested more than 1,100 fortune hunters currently headed toward Cape Nome. He sent a prayer of thanks that his own claim waited for him amid the chaos. Most of the eager souls on board would not be as fortunate.
On June 5th, standing on the deck staring at the endless white ice, Hank felt the ship jolt to a stop. He glanced across the ice as other ships came to a stop as well. With just a hundred forty miles from their destination, the ships could go no further. Eagerness to arrive had swapped common sense for a too early departure. The ice needed to melt before the ships, with all their passengers, could move forward.
An icy wind chilled him to the bone. Hank pulled his wool coat closer around his neck, tugged down his fur cap and poured out his heart to God again. Without a wife or family, his relationship to Christ filled a void hidden within him. Still his heart cried out for a companion, someone on whom to pour the love buried deep inside.
With nothing else to do, he slipped back to his cabin and pulled out his plans to create a cabin with a bathing tub and running water. Unlike his most of his fellow prospectors, he’d secured two jobs in Cape Nome to provide a steady income: one job as an assayer and the other job continued the wrap up of the army’s new telegraph line. Though his service in the army ended in December, he’d been contracted to finish out the work. With property and steady work, he hoped to be well established in the community.
A tug on his heart reminded him of priorities. Gold, jobs, houses and opportunities all beckoned, yet a higher purpose always prevailed in his heart. Living for Christ meant staying close in prayer. Bowing his head, he paused in his planning to lay all his desires back at the feet of his Savior.
“God, I cannot say why I feel drawn to Cape Nome. I feel a tug in my heart directing my path there. I long to establish a legacy of faith. Is it wrong to want wealth, a wife, a home? All that I have or will have rests in Your hands.”
A loud crack of ice and glance out the window pointedly reminded him of the fact they were stranded.
“Father, I add… please make a way where there is no way. If You are calling me to Nome, please get us there safely. You once told the apostle Paul that he would witness in Rome. His ship wrecked and stranded him, yet you saved him and all with him and got him to Rome.
My ship is stranded on my way to Nome,” he laughed. “Kinda feels appropriate. Please rescue me and all who are with me and get us to Nome,” he sucked in a deep breath and raised his eyes. Out the porthole, the ice-cutter ship, the U.S.S. Bear, worked its way ahead of his own. Moments later, the ship quaked under his feet and began to move… slowly, it inched forward. Hank threw his head back in joyful laughter.
“God, you are faithful to a thousand generations! Praise Your holy name!” Hank exclaimed.
“Nome, here we come!” he shouted across the ice and waved his cap at the captain of the icebreaker ship. The man nodded back. Though the ships moved slowly through the ice, five days later, the icy beaches of Cape Nome appeared. Smaller vessels pushed out to meet the ships anchored in deeper water.
Eager to disembark, Hank joined the throngs of miners pushing for position. Cold salt water sprayed over his face, yet he didn’t care. The rush of adrenaline and excitement of the other passengers spread into his veins. When his feet touched the sandy beaches, he smiled and touched the wet sand squeezing the small crystals between his cold fingers. Nome. He was home. Now, he just needed to build one.

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