Bo-Bo darted between everyone’s feet. The chain rippled across the floor and up the wall. The ringtail must be pulling on it.

Bo-Bo ran toward the saloon door. A wonderful smell drifted under her nose. There on a table was a plate with a bit of Hangtown fry on it. Mr. Smeets’s leftovers! Bo-Bo knew she’d never get a chance to try that expensive Hangtown fry again. She gulped it down, then bolted out of the saloon.

The ringtail waited at the back of the building. She had jumped down from her perch. Sheng had stood up and was calling Bo-Bo.

“Where’d you go?” he asked. “Did you get into more trouble?” They could hear the banging and crashing of the fight inside the saloon. Sheng’s question hurt Bo-Bo’s feelings, but she couldn’t stop to think about that now. She had to make sure the ringtail kept her end of the bargain.

“Where’s the map?” she woofed.

“Hold your horses!” the ringtail said. She ran to the rooming house next to the saloon and jumped into a window. The chain and the stake trailed behind her. She came back with a roll of tattered canvas in her mouth. It was crumbling around the edges. She dropped it next to Bo-Bo.

“Good luck!” the ringtail said. She began to scurry away. The chain clanked behind her.

“Wait!” Bo-Bo called. “You’re not going to get far that way. Stay still.”

The ringtail stopped. She kept a front paw raised, ready to run.

Bo-Bo sniffed at the chain and collar. The collar was held together by a simple buckle at the back of the ringtail’s neck. There was no way the ringtail could have reached it.

“Don’t bite me,” she ordered. She took the piece of leather that went through the buckle in her teeth and pulled at it until the collar loosened. The ringtail put a front paw on each side of it and pushed it over her head. She started to run away. Then she stopped.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said. “You could have just taken the map and left. I won’t forget.” Then she darted away.

Bo-Bo ran back to Sheng. He had unrolled the map and was staring at it.

“This is… this is…” It sounded like he was almost afraid to say it. “Look! This is the map to Crooked Cave!” He traced some lines on it with his finger. “It’s faded, but I can see that rain cloud over a mountain! Just like Uncle Gwan said!” He shook his head in disbelief.

Bo-Bo sniffed the map.

“Look!”

All Bo-Bo saw were some marks on the canvas. But they meant something to Sheng. “This drawing of buildings, this must be Pickax Flat, right where we are now,” he said. “And those are the hills to the east.” He looked toward the hills that loomed in the distance.

“So we leave town to the north; then we go to the east to some big stones shaped like four fingers sticking up in the air, near these three pine trees. From there we cross a river and head downstream. Then we cross a canyon—I think that must be Buzzard Canyon. I’ve heard miners talk about that—see the drawing of the buzzard? And then at this X is a cave—Crooked Cave! This is where the prospector left all his gold!”

He whooped. He picked up Bo-Bo’s front paws and danced around with her. She opened her mouth in a big grin and let her tongue hang out. A lump in her chest loosened. “We’re going to be all right, Bo-Bo!” Sheng said.

He dropped her paws. “What was that ringtail doing with this?” he wondered. He rolled up the map and put it in his pocket. Someone in the saloon was yelling. It sounded like Mr. Smeets shouting at everyone not to break his property.

“We’d better get out of here,” Sheng said. “Come on, Bo-Bo! Let’s show those crooks how much gold we can get!”