The Adventurer

the place since Emelina's time had not made any noticeable improvements.
    "Two whole days, Gideon, and we've gotten nowhere."
    "People spent most of the century looking for the
Titanic
, They're still looking for Kidd's and Laffite's gold. And they still haven't found Amelia Earhart's plane. Treasure hunting requires time and effort and plenty of patience."
    "But we've got a map."
    "You keep saying that. Your precious map isn't a magic talisman, you know. It's just a crude sketch that could have been made by almost anyone at any time and mean almost anything."
    "I'm sure the map is genuine. It's a family heirloom."
    "You got any idea of how many family heirlooms are nothing but junk?"
    "This isn't junk. There shouldn't be any problem. Darn it, this is your area of expertise. Why can't you figure out what this code means?" She scanned the odd notes in front of her. "Sixty, ninety and a straight line connecting two dots with the number twenty-five beside it. Then the phrase, 'White rock at intersection of B and C. Ten paces due north.' I tell you, Gideon, we're overlooking something obvious here."
    "Yeah. A white boulder."
    "That, too. Where do you suppose it is?" She looked around as she had countless times during the past two days and saw nothing of a white rock.
    "It probably got washed away or covered up with mud and debris years ago. People who bury treasure expect to dig it up again within a few months or years at the most. They often use transient points of reference like an outhouse or a tree or something else that could easily be gone by the time the next generation comes looking for grandpa's gold."
    Sarah wrinkled her nose. "An outhouse?"
    "Sure. That was a favorite place to bank the retirement funds in the old days. Who would go looking for gold in an outhouse?"
    "You, obviously." She laughed up at him. "Ever find any that way?"
    "I refuse to respond to that on the grounds that it may make me look like an idiot."
    Sarah giggled. "You did, didn't you?"
    "It was a long time ago." Gideon came to a halt. "Isn't it time for lunch, yet?"
    "You know, Gideon, there are times when I get the feeling you're only in this for the food. You've been showing an uncommon interest in mealtimes since I cooked that first dinner for you."
    "Hey, how was I to know you could cook? And what are you complaining about, anyway? The way to a man's heart is through his stomach."
    Sarah slid him a sidelong glance. "Is that true? Am I getting closer?"
    He threw a heavy arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side for a moment. His lips moved sensually in her sun-warmed hair. "You're welcome to get as close as you want, Sarah."
    "Unfortunately your idea of close is not the same as mine. Not yet, at any rate."
    "Are you sure of that?" He boldly let his hand glide over the curve of her breast.
    "Positive." She pushed free of the tempting embrace and stalked across the small clearing in back of the old cabin to where she had left the picnic basket.
    Gideon followed more slowly, his eyes thoughtful. "What happens if we find the earrings, Sarah?"
    "
When
, not
if
, we find them." She knelt on the ground and spread out the red and white checked cloth she had brought along in the basket. "And what happens is that you get one pair and I get the other four. Just like we agreed."
    "And then you go back to Seattle and I go home to my place on the coast?" He settled down on the ground, one leg drawn up.
    She thought about that as she unwrapped tuna fish sandwiches. "No, of course not. This is a long-term plan I'm working on here. But I haven't made all the decisions. I'm not exactly sure how to handle our relationship after we find the earrings. I can't just move in with you, yet. You're not ready for that."
    "I'm not?" He took a big bite out of his sandwich.
    "No. So it looks like it'll be a long-distance commute for a while. Which won't be easy because I'm scheduled to start a new book next month. Once I start working on it I won't have a lot of free time."
    "And I've got a magazine to get out by the first of every month."
    "Things will get complicated, won't they? But we'll manage somehow."
    "More likely once we find the earrings you'll go back to your real world and that'll be the end of my courtship," Gideon said flatly. He took another large bite of his sandwich.
    "No, that's not the way it will be."
    "I think it will be exactly that way, Sarah."
    "Damn it, you really do think I just brought you along so you could help me find my