Dead Man's Gold by Lee Hoffman

Vern sure had the knack of getting into a parcel of trouble. First the damfool cattle had stampeded, and he'd been sent to find and bring back the twenty-odd beefs that had gone and lost themselves. Then he discovered the dead Spaniard - with pockets full of gold! Dead man or not, gold was gold, and Vern was not about to let this opportunity pass him by. So he would hunt down the source of that lost gold mine, and that was the real beginning of his trouble. Because how far can a man get in rugged country without his horse, his gun and his boots...and with a mad old coot tracking him down!