Hank nodded.
“I didn’t know there were gold-mines in that part of the world,” said Kirk.
“There are. The gold that filled the holds of Spanish galleons in the sixteenth century came from Colombia. The place is simply stiff with old Spanish relics.”
“But surely the mines must have been worked out ages ago.”
“Only on the surface.”
Kirk laughed.
“How do you mean, only on the surface? Explain. I don’t know a thing about gold, except that getting it out of picture-dealers is like getting blood out of a turnip.”
“It’s simple enough. The earth hoards its gold in two ways. There’s auriferous rock and auriferous dirt. If the stuff is in the rock, you crush it. If it’s in the dirt, you wash it.”
“It sounds simple.”
“It is. The difficult part is finding it.”