“Where’d you get that, kid? That’s a huge chunk for just one person. You wanna share?” All of a sudden, hands are reaching out, all trying to pull Triple T off the chain.

“Yeah, kids don’t need gold. And we’re starvin’ out here! You’re on our claim, so I’m thinkin’ that’s ours!”

“Run, Arcade!” Zoe reaches for my hand, tugs hard, and pulls me from the huddle. Loopy is at my feet. I grab him up, duck through a hole in the group, and start to run and slip through the mud.

Doug scrambles up the bank and calls to me from the top. “We need some doors, Arcade! Summon the doors!”

Summon the doors?

“I’ve never done that before!” I shout back. “They’re supposed to just . . . show up!”

By now, the prospectors are breathing down my neck, so I gotta try something.

I trap the sizzling token between my palms. It pulses light and heat. “Get us back home!” I yell. Golden doors appear at the top of the bank, and the coin slot pushes out from the middle.

“Thank goodness!” Zoe yells. “Throw it in, Arcade!”

I pull the Triple T Token off the chain and, just as I reach the top of the muddy bank, I flip it into the slot. A huge golden mining trough appears on the top of the elevator doors. I motion with my hands for the doors to open. They do, and Zoe, Doug, Loopy, and I run in. We turn just in time to see the prospectors about to enter the elevator with us. But right before they do, the trough tilts down, sending a stream of golden glitter slush all over them.

“Eureka!” I yell.

The doors close.

*  *  *

We landed back in my living room. Muddy, but just us. No prospectors in sight.

Zoe grabs me by the collar. “EUREKA? We barely avoid disaster with greedy prospectors and you yell, ‘EUREKA’?”

I picked a clump of dried mud off my elbow and grinned. “Eureka is the state motto of California. It means ‘I found it!’ I read it right here in my library book . . . uh-oh . . .” I looked over at Doug, who had his fist up to his mouth. “What happened to the book, Doug?”

“What happened to the book?”

“That’s what I said, Doug.”

“You told me to grab the book on the way out.”

“Yeaaaah.”

“So I did.”

“And?”

“You didn’t tell me to grab it on the way back. So I guess it’s like the opposite of Eureka, you know? Because I didn’t find it, I lost—”

“Doug! Do you know how much I hate to lose library books? How am I supposed to explain this to Ms. Weckles? Borrowing a book is a privilege that I take very seriously!”

Doug slumped down on the floor. “Sorry, Arcade. I got kinda scared when that guy pushed me in the mud.”