The others were still absent when they reached camp, but soon returned disheartened: they had found nothing.
May began joking them, and asking if they had found stuff that would go five dollars to the dish.
They dolefully replied, "No; nor any that would go one dollar, which would pay—but five cent stuff was all that they could hit on."
"Two dollars!" she cried. "Oh, that's nothing; that will not satisfy me." She laughed as she cried, "Fifty dollars to the pan is about my figure!"
"Fifty dollars!" one of them replied with a sneer. "I guess you'll not get that round this yere region."
Then her father offered to wager that he could lead them to a spot where they could get stuff as rich as she had said, within an hour. He said this in such a jovial way that they saw there was some deep meaning to it. And when Mr Bell nodded to May, and she produced the tin and upset it into a dish, and they saw the shine of the gold, there was a lively time.
It was late, but light enough; no one could sleep. All hands rushed up to the place, each washed a pan of dirt, and every one showed gold—coarse gold, galore!
No need to describe how they cached their boat, and moved their camp to the hillside near their find. How they built the shanty for May and her father, which we were then in, and hewed a couple of dug-outs for themselves.
Then for two months they worked away with pick and shovel, dish and sluice, almost day and night, till they had secured some eighteen hundred ounces, which gave them about £1000 each!
Then they planned that all should go home together for the winter. They purposed to secure their claim at the headquarters of the Government in that region, which they supposed was Circle City, for they believed then that all that country belonged to the United States. They intended, however, to stop off at Dawson City to ascertain the truth.