Stanley is assigned to Group D and given a cot to sleep on in a tent with the other boys in his group. He is issued two orange uniforms. His counselor is Mr. Pendanski (nicknamed "Mom"). The other boys in his tent are X-Ray (Rex), Squid (Alan), Magnet (José), Armpit (Theodore), Zigzag (Ricky), and Zero. Each day, the boys arise at 4:30
A.M. and are given a shovel with which to dig a hole. Stanley learns quickly that X-Ray is the unofficial group leader and that cooperating with X-Ray is essential to his survival. Stanley is nicknamed "Caveman" by the other boys and is accepted by them after he finds a gold tube with the inscription "KB," which he gives to X-Ray so that X-Ray can get a day off. After finding the gold tube, the digging escalates, at the Warden's command. Stanley realizes that they are not digging to build character; they are digging to find something buried in the dried up lakebed. Because the Warden believes that the gold tube was found in X-Ray's hole, she instructs the boys to dig in that area and not near Stanley's hole, where the gold tube was really found. Stanley realizes that the inscription on the gold tube could stand for "Kate Barlow."
Kissin' Kate Barlow was a feared outlaw of the Wild West. Stanley's great-grandfather, who had been riding a stagecoach from New York to California, was robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow and was stranded in the desert for three weeks. He survived, claiming to have "found refuge on God's thumb."
Kissin' Kate Barlow was the former Katherine Barlow, a school teacher known for her delicious jarred peaches. Legend has it that Katherine Barlow, a white woman, fell in love with Sam the Onion Man, a black man. Interracial relationships were illegal in the Green Lake community. The town's citizens set out to lynch Sam because he had broken the law and kissed a white woman. Sam's donkey, Mary Lou, was killed, and as Sam and Mary Lou tried to get away, Sam was also killed. From that time on, Katherine Barlow was known as Kissin' Kate Barlow. Eventually, Trout Walker (who had wanted to marry Katherine when she was a schoolteacher) and his wife (whose appearance closely resembles that of the Warden) find Kissin' Kate and intend to torture her unless or until she tells them where her treasure is located. Kissin' Kate is killed by a yellow-spotted lizard and indicates that the treasure is buried in the dried-up lake bed.
