“But the gold mine?” The words slipped unbidden from Florence’s lips.
At that her grandfather did a curious thing. With one long bony finger that trembled slightly, he pointed straight down at the center of the floor:
“We hid it. Hid it good.”
“But wh—where is it?” the girl stammered.
“The two middle planks we hewed out of a spruce log,” was the answer. “Lift ’em up and you’ll see.”
Florence and Jodie did lift the planks. They did see. Beneath the cabin floor was a dark cavity.
“Not very deep,” the old man laughed happily. “Not far down to the bed rock. Flash your light down there, son.”
Jodie threw the gleam of his electric torch to the bottom of the cavity. Then an exclamation escaped his lips. Casting back the gleam of his torch, some tiny objects appeared to turn the place into an inverted sky, all full of stars.
“Gold!” the old man murmured. “It’s gold, son. Gold!”
After Florence had crept into her sleeping bag that night, she found her mind filled with many questions. Would they truly find gold, much gold, down there in that dark hole? For her grandfather’s sake, she hoped so. What of the reindeer? They were feeding and sleeping now in that narrow valley. Would they be able to drive these all the way to Nome? Would those Russian natives truly remain away, or would hunger drive them back?