Coronado's Gold by Kenneth Fenter, A mysterious visitor

14,000 + ft. Hesperus Peak, tallest of the LaPlata Mt. range of SW Colorado.

     Good Thursday morning. In Coronado's Gold Cliff wakes up on Thursday morning to the smell of coffee brewing. They are at their final destination, Grindstone Creek Lake. Hermosa Peak looms large only a few miles away. Carl is boiling the coffee on the campfire. Tim and Bruce are fishing for breakfast. The night before Carl and Cliff had played the Native American Flute accompanied by Bruce's harmonica. Tim had danced around the fire. Later in the night Cliff had been awakened by restless horses. Cliff tells Carl:

     “We had a visitor last night, so I was up for a while. I sat up and watched to see what was bothering the horses.”
      “Did you see anything?”
      “They settled down, and then I saw someone come down the trail from the lake. He stopped about half way from the lake to here and turned around. Then, when he was out of sight, I heard something. I followed the sound and, I swear, Carl, I heard a flute playing. It was pretty close to what we played. However, not exactly the same. And then it just faded out.”
     “Well that’s spooky!”
      “Yeah it was.”
      “What did he look like,” asked Carl.
     “Couldn’t see him well. He wasn’t a big guy. Walked stooped over, trying to be inconspicuous, I guess.”
     Carl added the same amount of grounds he had seen Cliff use the night before and then moved the pan to let it simmer. Then he poured two cups and handed one to Cliff. Carl quizzed Cliff on whether the flute sounded exactly like the Native American flute.
      When Tim and Bruce returned, they and Cliff walked up the game trail, examining it as they went. They saw no human tracks. In the dark Cliff had not been able to see whether the figure had actually been on the narrow trail, or if he had been on the grass, but the grass had not been disturbed recently.