I gently rocked the pan, letting the water sweep more silt away. My assistant watched closely as I picked out some pebbles, then swirled the rest in the pan. We could already see a glint of yellow under the reddish silt.

"See, there, that's a four-hole," I told him. I picked it out of the material and wiped it on my pants. "A bit small for the jacket, but I bet we could use it in that plaid shirt. Here."

I handed it to my assistant, who dropped it in the appropriate bucket. Then I returned to rocking and swirling the pan, pointing out flats whenever I saw them. I even picked out a half-inch two-hole that was perfect for our latest cardigan. That went into the smallest pile we'd collected today.

As I picked out the last of the decently-sized flats, Bill ran up from the mines, waving his fist.

"We did it!" he yelled. "We struck gold! Look at these!"

He opened his hand, revealing a fistful of studs in every color and size imaginable. Every one of them had both parts intact, some even with bejeweled knots. They were fit for the type of high-end suits that we hadn't manufactured in years.

"Jeez!" I exclaimed, jumping to my feet. "You hit a whole vein of this stuff? Thank our lucky stars!"

We clasped arms, and I sent up a brief prayer. "Okay, go get the guys with the detectors and give them pickaxes instead. They haven't found any good toggles in ages anyway. And I'll go check with the drillers, see if the shanks have run dry. C'mon, we'll have cufflinks for days!"

Everyone sprang into action. I handed the pan to my assistant and patted him on the knee. He looked a bit disappointed, but it couldn't be helped—every bunter started off panning for flats. I left him to his practice and took off to find the others.

As I ran, I couldn't help but imagine the peacoats and suit jackets we could make. We could even try a wedding dress, if the vein was big enough. After years of living off polos and cardigans, all our hard work and perseverance would finally pay off. We could actually eat a proper meal, and I could buy my daughter a new doll. Who knows, I might even keep one of the studs for myself and sew it into the doll's dress.

Smiling to myself at the thought, I flagged down the nearest bunter and got down to work.