For a long time, we were absolutely silent.
“Whoa…,” whispered M.K.
“You guys.” Sukey whistled. “I don’t think we’re in Drowned Man’s Canyon anymore.”
We stepped out of the boat. M.K. unhooked the ropes, pushed the button on her vest, and the parachute retracted back into her collar. Then she pushed a button on the bottom of the boat and it retracted back into its utility box.
She replaced it in her vest and we looked around. We were standing at one end of a small canyon, about the width of two football fields, with steep walls that rose straight up toward the blue skies. There was no way of telling how long it was, as both ends curled away from us, out of sight.
Directly across from us were more waterfalls like the one we’d just come over, the little rivers emerging from the canyon walls and spilling into small pools that glittered like—M.K. was tugging at my sleeve.
“Is it… is it gold?” she asked.
“I think so.” I just stared. I couldn’t help it. I had never seen anything like this golden canyon.
Every surface shone with white and yellow light. The pools below the waterfalls seemed to be filled with liquid gold; the walls sparkled in the sun.
“I think it’s a huge gold deposit,” I told them after a moment. “An enormous vein of quartz shot through with gold ore. I’ve read about these but I’ve never seen anything like… Come on, let’s go look at it.” I took off for the nearest wall at a run. They followed me, Pucci flying in crazy circles as though he was intoxicated by the sight of all that gold.
When we’d reached the wall, I could see that my initial impression had been right. The canyon had been carved out of one giant quartz deposit, with a huge vein of gold running through it. Every surface was shining white, with lines of bright gold running here and there.
“It’s a gigantic gold mine,” I told them. “The biggest in the world! This is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.” I ran a hand over the wall, tracing the veins of gold and the bright white stone.
“No, it’s not,” Sukey whispered and when I turned to look at her in surprise, I saw that she and Zander and M.K. were all staring at the other side of the canyon. “That is.”
I followed their gaze and nearly fell over.
Farther down, a good four hundred yards past the waterfall, high up in the canyon, tucked under the slightly overhanging walls, was an elaborate series of cliff dwellings, terraces, and the squared-off apartment buildings I’d seen in books about the ancient peoples who had made their homes in these canyons. But instead of having been formed of mud or adobe, they all seemed to have been carved out of the quartz and gold walls of the canyon.
They glittered in the bright sunlight. Beyond them were terraces of green. “They’re cliff dwellings,” I told the others. “The ancient groups of people who lived here built them up high in the canyon walls like that to protect themselves from invaders. They sometimes had secret staircases carved into the rock, or they built ladders out of plant fiber. This is incredible. This has to be one of the most exciting archaeological finds of the last century. I mean, this is on par with the tomb of Tutankhamen, with the ruins at Mycenae, with the ice temple in Lundland!” I was so excited I had to stop to take a breath.
“Did Dad get here?” Zander asked, looking confused. “Do you think that Dan Foley’s treasure is here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. I stared up at the incredible structures. “But if he did see this, I don’t understand why he didn’t tell anyone. This would have made his name. It would have made him the most famous Explorer in the world. We’ve got to get over there and document this. This is incredible. We’re going to be famous! Archaeologists will call these the West Cliff Dwellings.” I saw Sukey scowl and added, “I mean, the West-Neville Cliff Dwellings. I can write a paper on the geology of the canyon and draw the maps.”
“I’ll bring back specimens of those animals in the cavern,” Zander said. “And they’ll name them after me.”
“We’ll be rich!” M.K. added. “We can do anything we want.”
“Gold,” Pucci called out suddenly. “Rich!”
“I’m glad you’re all with me,” Zander said. “Otherwise, I’d assume I was imagining this.”
“If we were imagining it, I wouldn’t still be so hungry,” Sukey said. “We need to get something to eat and see if we can clean M.K.’s arm.”
“You’re right,” Zander said. “I think I saw some fish in the pool underneath the waterfall. Why don’t you all go look for some firewood and I’ll look for plants we can use. Then I’ll see if I can spear a couple fish with M.K.’s knife.”
“You won’t really be able to do that,” Sukey said.
“Dad taught him to spearfish,” I told her. “He used to catch striped bass from the beach near our house with a sharpened stick.”
Sukey looked impressed. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s split up. We’ll find it quicker that way. M.K., are you okay or should someone go with you?”
“Of course I’m okay,” M.K. said in an insulted way and walked off, her small legs striding across the canyon floor.
It didn’t take long for me to fill my arms with dry cottonwood branches, and when I returned to the waterfall, I saw Sukey had been similarly lucky. She used Zander’s stick-twirling trick to start a small fire.
“I can’t wait to tell him it took you only two minutes,” I told her.
“Are you guys ever not competitive?” she asked me.
Zander came back holding a fistful of fleshy leaves from some sort of cactus and chattering with excitement. “I think this may be some kind of aloe plant. And I saw these incredible finches. Not any species I’ve ever seen. They must be some variety that lives only in the canyon. I still don’t understand, though. If Dad came here, then how come we never heard about any of these species? Why aren’t these called West finches or something like that?”
Sukey had been looking around warily and she said, “I was just thinking that. Why haven’t we heard about this place?”
“Maybe Dad never made it here,” Zander said.
“But then how did he make the map?” I had taken it out and was checking his calculations. They were perfect.
Sukey had her pistol out now. “I just don’t like it,” she said. “There’s something strange going on here. Where’s M.K.?”
We all looked around, but M.K. was nowhere to be seen. “M.K.?” we called. “M.K., where are you?”
There was only silence.
“M.K.?”
In one direction were the waterfalls and pools. In the other, the canyon narrowed and wound out of sight.
“I think she went that way,” Sukey said. “Looking for wood. Up around that bend over there.”
We followed her path along the canyon floor, running as fast as we could and calling M.K.’s name. As we came around the bend in the canyon, we saw more waterfalls and some huge rock formations, all of them quartz shot through with gold. Next to one of them there was something lying on the ground. I felt my heart seize up.
“There’s something up there,” Zander said. “Look up ahead.”
Sukey’s voice was shrill and panicked. “I think it’s her vest. Is it her vest?”
We rushed over.
It was M.K.’s vest, and it was lying in a small pool of blood.