“There on a ledge, half buried in dust, I found some curious objects.
“‘Copper,’ I said at once. ‘Not worth much. Take some back for souvenirs.’
“I chose a crudely formed lamp for burning tallow, and a rudely fashioned bowl.
“But how heavy they were! I had not seen such copper before.
“I carried them to our cabin and set them upon the hand-hewn table. When Timmie returned, with half a caribou slung across his back, he looked at my find with interest.
“Once he had lifted them he became excited. Questions came thick and fast. Where had I found them? Was it far? Were there many such? How his words flew!
“‘Why?’ I asked at last. ‘They are only copper. There is no want of copper here; whole boulders of it in the beds of streams.’
“‘Copper!’ he exclaimed. ‘Copper! That’s not copper. Haven’t you lifted them? They’re made of green gold.’
“Green gold! I thought he was mad. But he was not.” Again Gordon Duncan’s eyes wandered to the hills. “He was sane enough. He’d had a course in such things at some University; worked in a jeweler’s place, too. Seems they mix some copper with gold. The result is a greenish combination called green gold.
“And there you are.” His words became deeply reminiscent. “I had been hunting gold for months, digging here, panning dirt there, but when I did find gold I needed neither pick nor pan. And I didn’t know it was gold.