"We'll certainly do that little thing," said Dick. He held his torch closer to the wall to examine a large crack in the surface. It was of rotten, crumbling stone in the fissure and as Dick pried at it with his flint knife, a handful of fragments dropped out.
Dan stooped to look at them. He rose to his feet with his eyes bright with excitement.
"Do you know what this is?" he exclaimed. "Quartz! Rotten quartz! And it's heavy with gold."
Dick stared at the glittering bits of ore and echoed: "Gold!"
"We have stumbled on the place where all that metal comes from," said Dan. "This is a mine. See how the passage goes on at a right angle. It was dug to follow the ledge of gold."
"I wonder. These people don't value gold. They use it the way we use any common metal."
"It's the only metal they know," said Dan. "And it's common here as old iron is with us."
Raal showed no interest in their find. Gold was nothing more to him than lead or tin. He picked up a yellow nugget from the floor and carelessly threw it away again.
"I don't think the tribe hollowed this tunnel for gold," said Dick. "I believe they cut it for use as a temple. And from the rock that was dumped outside they collected the gold that happened to be mixed with the crushed stone."
"What a find!" Dan repeated over and over. "Why, Dick, this would lead to a gold rush if the news ever got out. Just like the California and Yukon stampedes."