The Race for Gold Rush Treasure: USA

by Elizabeth Singer Hunt

  Archaeology Kids

  22

  Chapter 3

  The Breaking News

  Just then, the kitchen door swung open. Jack’s brother, Max, was standing in the doorway. Max had just returned from a pizza party celebrating the end of his soccer season. Max was the goalkeeper for the local team, the “Surrey Swarm.”

  “Did you hear?” asked Max.

  Jack wasn’t sure what his brother was talking about.

  “Hear what?” asked Jack.

  “Callous Carl’s escaped,” said Max.

  Jack froze. He wasn’t expecting his brother to say that.

  Max pulled his GPF Tablet out of his bag. Recently, the GPF had upgraded it to include facial recognition software. Instead of using a password or thumbprint to sign in, all an agent had to do was look at it. Max lifted the tablet to his face and then handed it to Jack.

  Jack read the information on the screen.

  GPF NEWS FLASH

  Notorious treasure hunter Callous Carl has escaped from a Mexican prison through a hole in his cell wall. A mangled spoon was discovered nearby.

  Sniffer dogs have traced his scent to a gas station five miles west. Authorities think he was collected there by an accomplice driving a car. If you have any information about the whereabouts of this dangerous individual, please contact the GPF immediately.

  Jack couldn’t help but feel more than a bit nervous. After all, it was Jack who’d put Callous Carl in prison in the first place. He’d caught the treasure hunter trying to steal Aztec gold in Mexico. Before being taken away, Carl had threatened Jack. “I’m going to get you,” he said. Now that Callous Carl was out of prison, there was no telling what he would do next.

  Max noticed the worried look on Jack’s face.

  “Don’t worry,” said Max. “He’s thousands of miles away. Besides, Callous Carl doesn’t know anything about you. He doesn’t even know where you live.”

  Max was right. The only thing Callous knew about Jack was what he looked like. Fortunately, it had been two months since he’d seen him. Besides, reasoned Jack, Mexico was halfway around the globe. The odds of running into the man were “Slim to none, and Slim left town.” At least that’s what Jack’s aunt Sally from Louisiana always used to say.

  The good news for Jack was that there was no time to freak out. It was 7:27 p.m. There were more important things waiting for him in his room.

  Chapter 4

  The Portal

  Jack and Max headed upstairs. At the top of the steps, Max hung a left, while Jack took a right. Before they entered their individual bedrooms, the brothers winked at each other.

  Jack stepped into his room and closed the door. The bookcase on his left contained some of his favorite books. There were the Hardy Boys Mysteries, Swallows and Amazons, and Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five. There were also nonfiction titles like Guinness World Records, World Atlas, How to Draw Cartoons, and The History of Rock Climbing.

  Next to Jack’s bookcase was his desk. Above that was a corkboard with notes and photos from his friends. On the wall opposite Jack was none other than the Magic Map. This was the portal through which the GPF sent Jack away on his missions. (Max had a similar Magic Map in his room too.) Next to that was Jack’s animated globe, Whizzy. Whizzy was the device that gave Jack the location of his missions.

  Scattered throughout Jack’s room were several “Diversion Safes.” A Diversion Safe was a realistic-looking object with a hidden compartment inside. Instead of pages in the American history book on his shelf, there was a hollowed center. The tissue box on his desk was a Diversion Safe too. The bottom was missing, and there was no tissue inside. Jack was particularly proud of the last one, because he’d made it himself. Just as he was thinking about which Diversion Safe to make next, Jack’s globe, Whizzy, woke up.

  Whizzy began to spin furiously until he coughed—“Ahem!” A jigsaw piece in the shape of a country flew out of his mouth and hung in the air.

  As soon as Jack saw it, he knew what it was. It was the United States of America.

  On one of his previous missions, Jack had been sent to New York City. There, he’d been tasked with capturing a rampaging dinosaur. Jack wondered whether he’d be sent back to New York, or whether another part of America needed his help.

  Jack used his hand to swipe the piece over to the Magic Map. As soon as he put it over the USA, the piece sunk in and a red light appeared.

  He hurried to his bed and pulled his Book Bag out from underneath. After their failed mission in Ireland, both Jack and Max had to be issued new Watch Phones and Book Bags. Jack checked to make sure his gadgets were inside. Then he strapped the bag to his back and returned to the Magic Map.

  As soon as the red light inside the USA grew, Jack said, “Off to the USA!” Then the light flickered and burst and swallowed Jack into the Magic Map.

  Chapter 5

  The Golden Mission

  When Jack arrived, he found himself in the middle of a forest. But this wasn’t like the rain forest of Brazil. This one was open and dry. Its green pine and fir trees were spread apart and the grasses on the hills were brown and parched. Jack checked his Watch Phone for the temperature outside. It was a toasty 90°F.

  According to the topographical map on his Watch Phone, Jack was fifty yards south of where he needed to be. All contacts had to give the GPF coordinates of the mission meeting point. That way, the GPF could program them into an agent’s Magic Map. The coordinates were based on the longitude and latitude of the earth.

  Jack followed the directions through a clump of trees. A striped chipmunk scattered across his path. A woodpecker tapped on a nearby tree. Lying on the ground were hundreds of brown pine needles.

  Soon, the trees opened up into a small clearing.

  Hanging from a tree at the edge was a rusty tin can. Just below that was a large square pit. The pit was about three feet deep. Surrounding the area was a white string staked at each of the four corners of the square. Small trowels and pickaxes were scattered throughout.

  Inside the pit was a woman. She was kneeling and brushing at something in the ground. Figuring this was his contact, Jack made his way over. But out of nowhere, an animal attacked!

  It charged at him from the right and pinned him to the ground. Panicked, Jack tried to think what kind of animal it could be. There were lots of predatory animals in the USA, including mountain lions and bears. But as soon as Jack saw what it was, he breathed a sigh of relief. It was a large brown dog.

  The dog playfully jumped off of Jack and wagged its tail.

  Woof!

  Woof!

  Woof!

  Jack sat up on his elbows and looked at the tag on the dog’s collar. It said “Callie.”

  “Hi, Callie,” said Jack, brushing the dust off of his trousers. “Nice to meet you.”

  Woof!

  Woof!

  Woof!

  By now, the woman in the pit had noticed Jack. She made her way over to him. The woman was about fifty years old with long, wavy brown hair. There was a notepad stuffed into the belt of her jeans. Dirt was on her knees from where she’d been kneeling.

  “Sorry about that,” she said. “Callie can sometimes get a bit too friendly.”

  “That’s all right,” said Jack. “I love dogs.”

  Jack loved dogs so much that he even volunteered for the local animal shelter.

  “I’m Mary Sutter,” she said, sticking out her hand.

  As Jack was shaking it, he realized something. He recognized that name. It was the name of the archaeologist that he’d read about in his AK magazine.

  “Wow,” said Jack, almost starstruck. He’d never met a famous archaeologist before.

  “The GPF said they’d be sending their finest,” said Mary.

  Jack didn’t want to brag, but he was one of their most decorated agents.

  “They already have,” said a voice from behind the trees.

  “Huh?” said Jack.

  When Jack saw who it was,
he rolled his eyes. Max walked over to Mary and Jack with a cheeky grin.

  “Do you two know each other?” she asked.

  “You could say that,” said Max. “We’re brothers.”

  “When I asked for a couple of agents,” said Mary, “I had no idea they’d be sending brothers!”

  “Neither did I,” thought Jack.

  He loved his brother. But he kind of wanted this mission to himself. A fly buzzed past Jack. He shooed it away.

  “So what seems to be the problem?” asked Max.

  “There’s no problem,” said Mary.

  Jack and Max looked confused.

  “But I do need your help with something,” she said.

  She led the boys over to the pit. Inside was a rectangular box. Although most of the box had been excavated, the bottom was still stuck in the ground.

  Mary opened the lid. When Jack and Max saw what was inside, their eyes opened wide. There were hundreds of gold coins and nuggets. Jack remembered the article in AK. It said the find was worth $25 million. The boys were speechless. They’d never seen this much gold in one place in their lives.

  “It dates back to the California Gold Rush,” she said.

  Some of the coins were stamped with the year 1851. Others were marked with 1852. Jack knew that the California Gold Rush began in 1848 when James Marshall discovered gold in Coloma, California. For many years after that, people flocked to the area to strike it rich.

  “This is called a ‘strongbox,’” she explained. “Banks used them to carry gold coins and nuggets when they traveled by stagecoach.”

  “How did it end up here?” asked Max.

  “Somebody probably stole it,” said Mary, “and buried it here for a later date. But for whatever reason, they never came back.”

  “What do you need us to do?” asked Jack.

  “As soon as I take it out of the ground,” she explained, “I need to raft it downstream to the nearest town. From there, I have to drive it to San Francisco. There’s an expert waiting to authenticate the coins.”

  “And you want us to provide protection?” asked Max.

  Mary nodded.

  “I’ll have the box out of the ground within the hour,” said Mary. “In the meantime, why don’t the two of you head down to the river? Who knows, maybe you’ll find some gold of your own.”

  Chapter 6

  The Fool’s Gold

  Callie stayed behind with Mary. The boys made their way to the American River, which was a five-minute walk from the camp. The American River was the place where James Marshall found gold in 1848. It was also where hundreds of thousands of miners worked and lived to try and make a fortune.

  Jack gazed at the glistening river in front of him. He watched as it rushed over the rocks in its way. Jack wondered what life had been like for a 49er. He knew that the work was backbreaking and long.

  Most of them spent their days in the freezing river, swirling gravel, dirt, and water around in pans. Sometimes, they’d find a flake of gold. Sometimes, they’d get a bigger nugget. Most of the time, they found absolutely nothing. By 1852, the “easy gold” was hard to find.

  Jack plunged his hands into the water. He dug into the riverbed and scooped up some of the rocks. Flakes of bright yellow rose to the surface. He was shocked. He didn’t think finding gold was going to be this easy.

  “Eureka!” he cried.

  Max looked over at the water and laughed.

  “That’s not real gold, you silly,” said Max. “That’s fool’s gold.”

  Jack had never heard of “fool’s gold” before.

  “It’s a mineral called ‘pyrite,’” said Max. “It looks like gold, but it isn’t.”

  Jack wondered if the 49ers were constantly being tricked by fool’s gold too.

  Disappointed, he pulled his hands out of the water and wiped them on his trousers. Another fly buzzed around Jack. He shooed this one away too.

  Just then, they heard a tinkling sound behind them. It was the sound of a silver dog tag clinking against a collar. It was Callie.

  Woof!

  Woof!

  She burst through the forest and onto the bank. Excitedly, she ran back and forth along the river. She splashed water all over Jack and Max.

  “Callie!” said Jack and Max at the same time. They held their hands up, trying to shield themselves from the spray.

  Mary emerged from the trees, handling the heavy box. Jack and Max rushed over to help her.

  “We can use my raft,” she said, nodding to a blue raft nearby.

  They carried the box toward the bank and lifted it into the front of the boat. Mary and Callie climbed in next to it. Jack took a seat in the middle. Max pushed the raft into the river and grabbed an oar from inside. After a few strokes, the foursome took off, leaving Mary’s camp behind.

  Chapter 7

  The Ambush

  As they rafted downstream, Jack soaked in the scenery. This part of California was absolutely beautiful. In addition to the green trees that lined both sides of the river, large gray boulders dotted the landscape.

  “Do you know why the American River is so cold?” asked Mary.

  Jack didn’t think it was the air temperature. After all, it was hot outside.

  “It comes from the snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada Mountains,” she explained. “Before it gets here, the water has traveled nearly fifty miles.”

  Through the trees, Jack spied a squirrel scurrying on the ground with a nut in his mouth. Ahead, there was an extremely tall pine tree. It was at least four stories high.

  “There’s a bald eagle on top of that one,” said Mary, pointing to the tree. “It’s hunting for fish.”

  Jack knew that bald eagles were “fish eagles,” but he could never understand why they were called “bald.” After all, their head was covered in white feathers. Just as Jack was going to ask Mary that very question, Callie started to bark.

  Woof!

  Woof!

  Woof!

  But this time her barks weren’t playful. They sounded angry and frightened. Callie’s body was stiff, and the fur on her back and tail was up. She was pointing at something somewhere in the distance.

  “It’s okay,” said Mary, stroking her fur.

  “What do you think it is?” asked Max.

  “Probably a bear,” said Mary. “There are quite a few in these parts.”

  Jack didn’t know about Max, but he wasn’t looking forward to running into a bear.

  As the river turned right, Callie’s barking only got worse. Not only was she woofing, she was also starting to growl.

  Jack scanned the banks, looking for the signs of a dangerous animal. But aside from the harmless squirrels he had seen, there were no other animals in sight.

  Then he spied something strange ahead. Standing on top of a large boulder to the side of the river were two skinny, bearded men.

  One had red hair. The other’s hair was white. The men were wearing tattered jeans and dirty short-sleeve shirts. Except for the fact that they had different colored beards, they looked the same. In fact, they were identical twins. They were also carefully watching the boat.

  Jack wasn’t sure what the men were up to, but he didn’t like the look of them. Neither did Callie. Jack was about to warn the others when the men leaned down to touch their toes.

  As the raft approached the boulder, they yanked a rope that was lying across their feet. It caught the front end of the boat and violently lifted it up and out of the water.

  One by one, Jack, Max, Mary, Callie, and the strongbox tumbled out of the raft and into the river below.

  Chapter 8

  The Diversion

  Jack couldn’t believe it. They’d been ambushed!

  But why?

  The foursome had done nothing to the men. They didn’t even know them.

  Unfortunately for Jack, there was no time to think about those guys. The river had quickly pinned him against a boulder. The water was pushing on his chest, making it impossi
ble for him to escape. Behind him, he could hear Mary crying out.

  “Callie!” she called.

  Callie was paddling as hard as she could, but her head kept dipping under the water. Mary was trying to reach her, but her dog was on the opposite side of the river.

  Just then, a blue blur sailed past Jack. Max was behind the raft, trying to swim after it. But without anyone in it, the raft was floating faster than anyone could catch it. It quickly sped ahead of Max and out of his reach.

  SPLASH!

  The sound came from the left bank.

  The two men from the boulder bounded into the river. Step by step, they began to cross it, using the rope as a guide. Midway through, they put their hands into the water and pulled something out.

  It was the strongbox!

  The men began to hoot and holler.

  “There’s gold in them thar hills!” squealed the red-haired man.

  “There’s millions in it!” hollered the other.

  They carried the strongbox across the river. As soon as they hit the right bank, they cut the rope and disappeared into the trees. Jack made a mental note of a yellow-leafed tree standing near the exit point.

  If there was any question as to why the men had overturned their raft, it was now answered. Like the 49ers before them, the two greedy men were thirsty for gold.