The Secret of the 48th Foot

Julia, a law professor at West Virginia University, is warned by a member of a radical right-wing militia band to ignore a coded letter she had received recently or suffer an unfortunate accident. She meets with Ben, a professor of history at WVU and they break the code which leads them to a package containing papers dating back to the late 1700s, papers the militia band is also obviously after.
Following their cryptic message, they slip out of Morgantown and head south to Charleston, where they are given another coded letter which sends them directly back to Morgantown. There, at the Law School the following morning, following the instructions from the coded message they had received in Charleston, they find a map allegedly pointing to the location of a chest of gold and silver coins buried in 1775 during the French & Indian War.
Following the map they head east to Oakland, Maryland. They borrow a metal detector from a former student of Ben's who introduces them to a man named Doodle who leads them to a few sites that resemble the buried treasure site on their recently discovered map. But they find nothing. That night, "crashed" in a local motel, they study the papers their coded messages had uncovered and they decipher yet another message: "behind the saddle." It has to mean something, but they have no idea what.
Early the following morning they get a panicky call from Doodle who has learned that militiamen were preparing to search all local motels for Ben and Julia.
They rush to WalMart, purchase winter camping gear and supplies and take off for the rugged mountains to the east where they continue searching possible sites for the treasure. They find nothing but they pick up an under-fed, ill-treated dog, who latches on to them when they feed him and shower him with kindness. They name him "Leon," and he joins their travels.
The next day, at lunch in a restaurant in Mt. Storm, WV, they hear a waitress tell a customer that Abraham Lincoln's mother was born nearby, "behind the saddle," a gap in a nearby mountain. Excited with this discovery, they drive to the area, set up camp, and plan the next day's search.
Later that afternoon two militiamen stop at the same Mt. Storm restaurant and learn that a couple who fit Ben and Julia's description had become very excited when a waitress mentioned "the saddle." Upon learning the meaning of "the saddle" the militiamen decide Ben and Julia have headed there.
The next day, after crossing the gap called "the saddle," and spending hours searching, Ben and Julia find and dig up the chest of precious coins their map had suggested. Then, as they are celebrating two militiamen emerge from the woods, pistols drawn.
They order Ben & Julia to start digging their graves. Leon, ever the survivor, slinks off into the woods. As Ben begins digging, Julia tries to get away, is kicked violently and screams out in pain.
Suddenly, from out of the woods comes Leon, who leaps at the man who had kicke...