He looked at Finley. Not only did she appear relaxed, she seemed to be enjoying this. Her lips were curved, and her hair sailed behind her. She wore her denim coat over one of the long dresses she liked. This one was brown print with a full skirt.

“News of Benjamin’s find quickly spread, setting off a gold rush in the year 1828, twenty years before the California gold rush began. Some fifteen thousand people flooded into the region, hoping to find gold. The first ones who arrived were the lucky ones—they harvested it by simply picking it up off the ground. Once they’d collected all they could that way, they started panning for gold in rivers and streams, then directed water flow to create mudslides that brought material containing gold down into sluice boxes.”

They sailed past tunnels snaking away from the main tunnel, then underneath wooden supports. Was he supposed to believe that splintery pieces of one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old wood would keep this thing from caving in? What if an earthquake hit?

“A robber baron named Milton Lawrence, who’d made his fortune in steel, sent geologists and surveyors to this area. They reported back to him that these hills were marbled with veins of quartz containing gold. Most veins of that type are an average of two-to-three inches thick. But here, they found an area where several large veins converged into a vein that was approximately twenty-two feet wide. They called it the glory hole. Milton Lawrence promptly bought up five thousand acres and built the Big Cedar Mountain Gold Mine.”

The train slowed, then stopped. To the side, a room-sized area had been carved out of rock. It gave way to a narrow passageway. A few battery-powered lanterns built to look old-fashioned lit the space.

They climbed out of the cars. Damp ceiling hovered just above his head. His balance was off, and the whole place seemed to be tilting to one side and then the other, like a ship.

He took up a protective position behind Finley, legs braced, arms crossed over a chest that had gone tight with pressure. Panic edged his thoughts. What had he been thinking, bringing her down here? If this thing started to come down, he’d throw his body over hers. Were the walls closing in? It felt like they were closing in.

“The glory hole,” the tour guide continued, “is one of the largest veins of quartz carrying gold that has ever been discovered anywhere in the world.” She pointed out the area where it had been mined, explaining how long it had been and at what angle the vein had traveled.

He bit down on his molars, gritting it out.