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"You've got to admit, it's like finding a virgin in a bor dello."
"Cute."
He gave her a friendly pat on one knee. "Congratulations, this is a rare discovery."
"How do you suppose it got here?"
"There isn't a workable gold deposit within a thousand miles, and it certainly wasn't minted by the early inhabitants. Their level of development was only a notch above Stone Age. The coin obviously came from another source at a later date. "
"How do you explain the fact it was buried with artifacts we've dated within a century either side Of A.D. 300?"
Gronquist shrugged. "I can't."
"What's your best guess?" asked Lily.
"Off the top of my head, I'd say the coin was probably traded or lost by a Viking."
"There is no record of Vikings sailing this far north along the East Coast," said Lily.
"Okay, maybe Eskimos from a more recent time frame traded goods with the Norse settlements to the south and used this site to camp during hunting expeditions."
"You know better, Hiram. We've found no evidence of habitation after A.D. four hundred."
Gronquist gave Lily a scolding look. "You never give in, do you? We don't even have a date on the coin."
"Mike Graham is an expert on ancient coins. One of his specialties is dating sites around the Mediterranean. He might identify it."
"Won't cost us a nickel for an appraisal," said Gronquist agreeably.
"Come along. Mike can examine it while we have that brandy."
Lily donned her heavy fur-lined gloves, adjusted the hood of her parka and turned down the Coleman. Gronquist switched on a flashlight and held the door open for her. She stepped into the agony of the numbing cold and wind that groaned like a ghost in a churchyard. The freezing air struck her exposed cheeks and made her shudder, a reaction that always seemed to sneak up on her even though she should have been quite used to it by now.
She grasped the rope that led to the living quarters and groped along behind the protecting bulk of Gronquist. She stole a glance upward. The sky was unclouded and the stars seemed to melt into one vast carpet of shimmering diamonds illustrating the barren mountains to the west and the sheet of ice that ran down the fjord to sea in the east. The strange beauty of the Arctic was a compelling mistress, Lily decided.
She could understand why men lost their souls to its spell.
After a thirty-yard hike through the dark, they entered the storm corridor of their hut, walked another ten feet and opened a second door to the living quarters inside. To Lily, after the abominable cold outside, it was like stepping inside a furnace. The aroma of coffee caressed her nostrils like perfume and she immediately pulled off her parka and gloves and poured herself a cup.
Sam Hoskins, neck-length blond hair matching an enormous blond handlebar mustache
, was hunched over a drafting board. A New York architect with a love for archaeology, Hoskins allowed two months a year out of his busy schedule to rough it on digs around the world. He provided invaluable assistance by rendering detailed drawings of how the prehistoric village might have looked seventeen hundred years ago.
The other team member, a light-skinned man with thinning sandy hair, reclined on a cot, reading a dog-eared paperback novel. Lily couldn't remember seeing Mike Graham without an adventure book in one hand or stuffed in a coat pocket. One of the leading field archaeologists in the country, Graham was as laid back as a mortician.
"Hey, Mike!" Gronquist boomed. "Take a look at what Lily dug up."
He flipped the coin across the room. Lily gasped in shock, but Graham expertly snatched it out of the air and peered at the face.
After a moment he looked up, his eyes narrowed doubtfully. "You're putting me on."
Gronquist laughed heartily. "My exact words when I laid eyes on it. No gag. She excavated it at site eight."
Graham pulled a briefcase from under his cot and retrieved a magnifying glass. He held the coin under the lens, examining it from every angle.
"Well, what's the verdict?" Lily asked impatiently.
"Incredible," murmured Graham, captivated. "A Gold Miliarensia. About thirteen and a half grams. I've never seen one before. They're quite rare. A collector would -probably pay between six and eight thousand dollars for it."
