Jim reached into the water, found the pebble that had caught his interest, lifted it out and looked at the small, beautiful gold nugget. Smiling again, he removed a gold-pan from his pack and scooped into the creek as far as the pan would go, scraping gravel from the bottom. Crouching low, he filled the pan with water, reaching in and mixing it thoroughly with the gravel and dirt. Then he started agitating the contents.

Gravel, dirt and water swirled over the edge and back into the stream. Jim added more water, continued mixing and swirling, and after a few minutes stopped, stood up and examined the contents of the pan. His smile was joined by a loud shriek, "EEYOW!"

There in his pan were a few rocks of no value, so he plucked them out and threw them aside. There were also three small gold nuggets, lots of gold flakes, and some black sand; there was at least ten dollars worth of gold in the pan!

Book 2 - Murder on the Chilkoot Trail

Author Bio