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‘Rabbit!’ Skell bellowed ‘I need you! Coull caot trouble of some kind?’ he asked

‘Maybe,’ Skell replied, ‘or iven him ‘Take a look at this and tell us what you think Is that yellow speck gold, h to verify,’ Rabbit said He took his knife out of its sheath and lightly flicked the point across the yellow spot, sending out a bright spark ‘I’h, I guess, but gold doesn’t spark like that when you scrape it with a knife I’ve heard about this, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen any of it’

‘Are you absolutely certain sure?’ Grock asked with a note of bitter disappointment in his voice

‘There’s a quick way to find out,’ Rabbit said ‘Has anybody got a gold coin in his purse?’

Keselo handed the little smith a fair-sized coin

Rabbit flicked the point of his knife across the edge of the coin ‘No sparks, Cap’n Skell,’ Rabbit pointed out ‘From what I’ve heard, that yellow fleck Grock found is a kind of iron ore that’s been contaot a yellow cast to it There’s a story that’s been going around Weros for years about a felloho found a large deposit of this particular ore He spent about ten years hacking it out of a stone face, and he was absolutely positive that he was getting richer every day When he finally found out that it wasn’t really gold, he went down to the bay and drowned hi Keselo a hard look ‘You knew right off that this wasn’t gold, didn’t you?’

‘I was fairly sure that it wasn’t, Captain Skell,’ Keselo adht that Rabbit here was the man best qualified to decide one way or the other I think this is what’s called "iron pyrite" It’s basically iron, but it’s been contaminated with sulphur I’ve heard that people in some places use it instead of flint when they want to start a fire’

‘It’s worthless, then?’ Skell asked, growing even more disappointed

‘Maybe not completely worthless It is basically iron, and iron’s worth so, and you can start fires with it’

‘Oh, well,’ Skell sighed ‘I guess we’ll have to go back to doing honest work, then I’et rich today’

As they started back down the hill to the brook, Skell seeht prickly sensation on the back of his neck, and he looked around sharply He was al theed it off

‘They aren’t the brightest anibow as the pair of the stream-bed up into the mountains with Skell close behind them, ‘but they’re very affectionate, and their wool’s quite valuable’

‘Doesn’t it get just a bit boring sitting on a hill and spending whole days watching the’s the pleasant part of the life of a shepherd, Longbow,’ Nanton replied ‘It’s when things get un-boring that I start to wish that I’d gone into a different line of work Dealing with a pack of hungry wolves can get very exciting’