Sounding the Reef — Tim Champlin

Searching for something to make their game of “Find the Treasure” more exciting, Bradley takes an 1854 gold coin from his father's lockbox.

In the thick woods of nearby Chicamauga National Battlefield, his cousin, Glen, slides down into a limestone cave to hide the gold piece for Brad to find. In the dark, he bends to place the coin on the faint glow of foxfire from a piece of rotting wood. Before he can stand, he gets dizzy and faints. When Brad goes inside looking for his cousin, the same thing happens to him.

When they wake up, they discover they are on a steamboat in 1854 and the gold coin is missing. Even worse, the captain sends them out in a rowboat with a huge storm coming.

Half the crew is down with fever, so the boys are recruited to join the First Mate in a small boat out ahead of the sternwheeler. They must probe for a spot deep enough for the steamboat to safely cross a shallow sand bar. The captain promises to reward each of them with a gold dollar. But that's not what they really want.

When the storm rolls in, the cousins fear they might not get out alive, especially when they all realize the steamboat is headed straight for their rowboat. One thing is for sure, they never expected to find this when they went looking for treasure.