He had waited as long as he could for he greatly feared that in her weakened condition she might not survive this last sad ordeal. But in Eileen’s veins flowed the blood of Irish stoics and Indian chiefs and she accepted the inevitable with great courage and fortitude.
“Under the floor,” she replied as bravely as she could.
“He chose well,” Bill whispered, “for here the wolves can’t get him.”
“The cabin will be the tomb of a true Alaskan gold seeker here in the heart of the wild northland,” said Jack reverently.
The boys commenced to tear up the heavy timbers that formed the floor of the cabin and when they had a couple of them up what they saw underneath almost caused their senses to leave them, for there in a big pit lay sack upon sack made of moosehide piled up like cordwood!
Bill lowered himself into the pit and lifted out the sacks to Jack who piled them up against the wall. The rawhide thongs had come loose from some of them and the shining yellow metal poured out in a golden stream about the floor.
When hardships and starvation overtook the boys they knew them for stern realities but having stumbled upon the great store of gold in this wholly unexpected manner and under such surprising conditions they didn’t know whether it was truly so or merely a wild and woolly dream. They really didn’t. To them it was all too wonderful for any human explanation.
While they were hard at work getting up the sacks, the gold seeker who slept on yonder bunk and the half-breed girl who lay weak and helpless on the other bunk were well nigh forgotten for they were the masters of gold that made them as rich as the ancient Crœsus or the modern Rockefeller.
“‘GOLD! GOLD! NOTHING BUT GOLD!!!’”]