There were no mining tools in the camp; no pick, shovel or pan.

Then it occurred to them that the builders of the cabin had been hunters, had discovered gold by accident and had collected that in the buckskin bag without the use of a pan.
There was little sleep in the camp that night, and with the first light of day the three were at work again.

Immediately after breakfast the task of tearing up the old and decayed floor began.

One by one the split saplings were pried up and carried out for firewood, until the earth floor lay bare.

Every foot of it was now eagerly turned over with a shovel which had been brought in the equipment; the base-logs were undermined, and filled in again; the moss that had been packed in the chinks between the cabin timbers was dug out, and by noon there was not a square inch of the interior of the camp that had not been searched.
There was no more gold.
In a way this fact brought relief with it.