The trail crested one final saddle before plunging back down toward the desert floor, spreading the river valley out below them in the last light of full day. There were a few sighs and low whistles from the folk following – it was the first green they’d seen in near a week that wasn’t some cactus or other. Hell it was more green than some of the youngest had seen their whole lives. Of course, most were here for the gold, not the green. There promised to be a lot of it, too. As he read the strata laid out on hillside and canyon below he was sore tempted to stake a claim himself when they reached the valley floor, but there was something far more valuable to him than gold buried here. And he meant to find it.