CHAPTER VI
NUGGETS!
Weeks had passed since the accident, and Jim was still in thehospital. The disaster had been costly to the colliery, but notcrippling. The shafts--always the most costly portion of minedevelopment--had not been injured. Many of the galleries had beenreopened. The great ventilation fans were working again at full speed.The cages of coal were whirling up the shaft as of old.
Otto, after a short rest, had gone to work. The old miner was wellsatisfied with the fulfilment of his prophecies. The "knockers" hadindeed tasted blood, for the two men in the old workings had neverbeen found. As the mining engineer had supposed, that section of themine must be abandoned forever. Moreover, Otto's forecast that Clemwould be rescued, uninjured, also had come true.
Clem, indeed, was recovering, but the doctor declared him as yetunfit to resume the arduous work of hewing below ground. Accordingly,Owens had given him a temporary position as assistant to the safetyinspector of the mine, for the accident had awakened the interest ofthe men in safety work, and the young fellow was quite competent tohelp in the simpler forms of instruction.
Anton was still in a weak state. His lungs were affected. He wasliving at home with his mother, Owens having granted the boy leave onfull pay until he was entirely well again.
As the mine fell more and more into its old routine, Owens foundhimself oftener at the hospital. The remembrance of old times wasstrong in him, and the mine owner seemed to renew his youth in therude speech of the prospector, sprinkled as it was with mining termsonce so familiar to his ear.
Jim's liking for his employer was rapidly growing into comradeship. Hewas fully conscious of Owens' delicacy in never referring to thesecret and began to feel that here, at last, was a rich man he couldtrust. In the course of time, it was the old prospector who broughtthe matter up, first.
"Has Clem ever said anything more to you about my mine?" he askedabruptly.
Owens started, but he got a grip on himself at once. When he answered,it was in as casual a tone as he could assume.
"Not another word. I don't suppose he has, to anybody. He seems toknow enough not to talk. You heard how he snubbed the reporter!"
"I know. I heard him. He's square, is Clem. But I ain't never yetasked him what I said, down there in the mine. It's been eatin' me,all the time I've been lyin' here. To think I kep' it quiet all theseyears, an' then go blurt it out, jest 'cos I was hungry!"
"You haven't any reason to blame yourself for that, you wereunconscious. And, like you, I believe Clem is as straight as astring."
"Ay," agreed Jim, "he shows color in every pan (specks of gold inevery handful of washed sand). I'd ha' gone West, judgin' from what hesaid the other day, if it hadn't been for him."
"You certainly would."
"An' that makes us pards (partners) in a way, don't it?"
Jim paused, and then burst out again, "But I can't help wonderin'jest how much I told!"
"You'll have to ask Clem that. You remember, he said nothing to thereporter except that, in your delirium you were talking about gold."
"Gold! Did I say gold? Are you dead sure that I said gold?"
"That's what Clem told, anyway."
"Then I must sure ha' been dreamin'!" Jim's tone was both embarrassedand evasive.
Owens saw, at once, by the prospector's manner that he was nervouslyfearful of having betrayed himself and that he wanted to drop thesubject. This seemed a sure sign that the hinted discovery was true.
It was a ticklish moment. The mine-owner realized that if the matterwere dropped, now, he might never have another chance to get back toit. Any attempt on his part to renew the subject would be sure toarouse Jim's suspicion. If he were to be of any service to the oldprospector, he must seize the present opportunity.
"Too bad that it isn't gold then," he said, half commiseratingly."There's nothing in all the world that can make a man rich in aminute, as gold can. I saw that, often enough, in Australia. That'sthe land of nuggets, Jim, big ones! Most of them were found by sheerluck, and it was poor men who found them, too, mostly.
"The Australian black-fellows--pretty much savages, thosefellows--knew gold, long before the white men came. They used to maketheir javelin-heads of gold because it's the easiest metal to work,when cold, and is found pure.
"So it was not so surprising, Jim, that one of the first big goldfinds was made by a black-fellow, a husky tattooed chap who owned noproperty except a small apron of matting for his middle, a bunch offeathers for his hair, a long-handled stone hatchet, and a boomerang.
"This Cl'ck, as he was called, was employed as a shepherd by Dr. Kerr,a large sheep-owner in New South Wales. Cl'ck was a fairly intelligentfellow and had learned to talk a few words of English. He knew goldwhen he saw it. Just at the time I'm speaking of, the whole world wasexcited over gold, for it was just after the discovery of gold inCalifornia in 1848 and the great gold rush of '49."
"My father was one of the 'forty-niners,'" put in Jim, eagerly.
"So you're of the real Argonaut breed, then!" exclaimed Owens, but hedid not push the enquiry, preferring to allow Jim to tell his story inhis own way and in his own time. In order, however, to keep thesubject of gold present in Jim's mind, he continued:
"For some time there had been vague hints that there might be gold inAustralia, but, before the time of the 'forty-niners' no attention hadbeen paid to it.
"For example! Once, in 1834, a ticket-of-leave man (convict out onparole), working in New South Wales, found a small nugget of pure goldin the earth and brought it to the nearest town to sell. Being aconvict, he was at once arrested for having possession of the gold,and not being able to explain how he had got it. His story that he hadfound it in the earth was laughed at, for never--so far as theAustralians knew, then--had gold been found in nuggets. As ithappened, a white settler had lost a gold watch a little time before.The weight of the nugget was just about that of the weight of the caseof a gold watch. The ticket-of-leave man was accused of having stolenthe watch, thrown away the works and melted down the case. He wasfound guilty and punished with a hundred and thirty lashes."
"Whew, that was pilin' it on heavy!" commented Jim.
"They had to be severe in those days," Owens explained. "Botany Bayand Port Jackson were penal stations. In those days there were aboutfifty thousand white folks in New South Wales and three-quarters ofthem were convicts. That meant ruling with an iron hand, if mutiny wasto be prevented.
"Twice, after that, white settlers found signs of gold, but in suchsmall quantities that the deposits were not worth working by theprimitive means employed at that time. In 1841, signs of gold werefound not far from Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, but theGovernor personally asked the finder to keep the matter a secret forthere were 45,000 convicts in the colony by that time, and he wasafraid that news of a gold-find might start a revolt that the militarywould not be able to quell.
"Two years later an even more curious discovery was made. Mr. H.Anderson, who owned a sheep-station where now are found the greatgold-fields of Ballarat--in the province of Victoria, south ofNew South Wales--threw away the finest chance to become amulti-millionaire that ever came to any man.
"While walking from the home kraal (corral) to his house, in companywith a neighbor, he saw on the ground a small piece of white quartzshining in the sun and noticed a few thin streaks of yellow in thequartz.
"He picked it up in a casual way, cast a glance at it, and handed itto his companion.
"'We're the richest men in the world,' he said, jokingly. 'You and Iare running sheep over a gold-mine.'
"This jesting statement was literally true.
"But the other, who knew just enough about such matters to be reallyignorant, wanted to display his small store of knowledge.
"'Gold!' he said contemptuously, 'that's what they call fool's gold.It's pyrites of some sort. Tut, tut, man! Golden nonsense! The onlygold in this country is what grows on the backs of sheep.'
"Mr. Anderson, trusting to
his companion's supposed better knowledge,threw the piece of quartz at a pair of wallabies (small kangaroos)that were leaping about, near by, and thus lost the chance ofbecoming the richest man in Australia. Five years later came the newsof the gold-finds in California, and the more thoughtful men in NewSouth Wales remembered these vague stories about gold having beenfound in the island continent.
"Now, let us get back to Cl'ck. His employer, Dr. Kerr, had bidden himkeep his eyes open for any signs of gold, during his wanderings overthe wild pasture land with his flocks. He promised to give him fivepounds--a large sum for a black-fellow, in those days--for any pieceof gold he should bring in, no matter how small.
"One day, in February, 1851, while leading his flocks to water atMeroo Creek, Cl'ck happened to see what looked like a smudge of yellowon the surface of a good-sized bowlder of quartz. He chipped at itwith his long-handled hatchet, and there, solidly embedded in thebowlder, was a huge chunk of gold. It weighed over 102 pounds and wassold for over $20,000.
"This accidental discovery, which made Kerr rich, and which,incidentally, gave Cl'ck a hut and a sheep-kraal of his own, wasamazing enough in itself. Even in California, which was then regardedas the very fountain-head of gold, no such nugget had been found.Yet, a couple of weeks later, a strike was made of such importance asto throw even the Black-fellow Nugget in the shade. This second strikedetermined the fortunes of Australia.
"One of the 'forty-niners,' who went to the California gold-fields inthe first ship that sailed from Sydney after the news of theSacramento discoveries had reached Australia, was a prospector calledE. H. Hargraves. He got to California in the middle of the rush, butluck was against him.
"As happened so often with the men who knew only a little mining, hethought he could do better than merely follow the crowd. He staked aclaim that looked more promising than the ground on the outskirts ofthe established mining camps. The claim proved worthless, or nearlyso.
"Seeing the vast crowds streaming into California, and being convincedthat there would not be gold enough for all, Hargraves decided to gohome, rather than to stay in the California gold-diggings and die ofhunger--as so many of the forty-niners did."
Jim nodded assentingly. He knew those stories. Many a one had hisfather told him. He was well aware that the trail of gold is a lineof graves.
"On his way back home," Owens continued, "Hargraves remembered that hehad seen ground in New South Wales which bore a marked resemblance tothe regions where gold had been found in California. It was notordinary alluvial gold land, such as prospectors were apt to seek, andno one had ever suspected that gold might be found there. Hargraveshad kept his eyes open, when in California, and had realized thatalluvial gold was but a beginning, that the biggest amount of wealthlay in a reef.
"Reaching Sydney in December, 1850, Hargraves made his way towardswhat is now the town of Bathurst. He was out in the field,prospecting, when the Black-fellow Nugget was found, and heard nothingabout it.
"Near the end of February, 1851, working in Summerhill Creek, hediscovered sure signs of gold, though in no such alluring quantity ashad been found on the creeks leading into the Sacramento River. Heworked steadily up the creek, not only panning as he went, but alsostriking off to right and left to see if the ground gave promise of areef. There, on the last day of the month, he found a bowlder ofquartz and gold, or, to speak more correctly, a detached piece ofquartz from a reef, the greater part of which was almost pure gold andweighed 106 pounds.
"Hargraves was a man of sense. Instead of hurrying back to the nearesttown with his find, selling it and blowing the money, he did somefurther prospecting. He collected specimens from different parts ofthe neighborhood, realizing that he had made a discovery not lesssensational than when Sutter found the first gold in his mill-race inCalifornia.
"Then he went straight to the government authorities of New SouthWales, and, in addition to establishing his own claims, he asked thata reward be given him by the government. The governor, anxious to stopthe emigration from New South Wales to California, and realizing thata gold-find would bring enormous wealth and prosperity to the colony,made him a grant of $50,000 and a pension, providing that he wouldreveal the gold-bearing locality to the authorities, first, andproviding the territory should produce a million dollars' worth ofgold.
"Hargraves was as good as his word. He showed not only the famousLewis Ponds, Summerhill, but also another and even bigger field onthe upper waters of the Macquarie River. Owing to their priorinformation, the authorities were able to establish mining laws andgood government before the rush set it, and Bathhurst was freed fromthe wild orgy of lawlessness which marked the days of the'forty-niners.'
"All this, Jim, was a wonderful jump forward for New South Wales, andthe town of Sydney boomed. But it was equally bad for the otherprovinces of Australia, and Victoria, being the nearest, sufferedmost. Almost every man able to wield a pick or rock a miner's cradle,deserted his work and rushed to Bathurst. The gold was so easy toseparate from the quartz that a man could get rich using no other toolthan an ordinary hammer.
"Shepherds and even sheep-owners deserted their flocks, farmers lettheir land go to weed, merchants abandoned their shops, manufacturersallowed their machinery to rust, school-teachers locked the doors ofschools, and workmen of every line of labor flocked to Sydney andtoiled along the widely beaten track to Bathurst.
AUSTRALIA'S TREASURE-HOUSE.
One of the shafts of the Kilgoorlie Gold Mine, more than 1000 feetbelow the surface.
_From "Mines and Their Story," by Bernard Mannix Sidgwick andJackson._
_Courtesy of Kilgoorlie Gold Mining Co._]
IN THE RICHEST GOLD MINE IN THE WORLD.
Drilling the rock for blasting on the Rand Reefs of South Africa; thecompressed-air drills give a million blows a day, each with the forceof half a ton.]
"The authorities of the province of Victoria were in despair. Thecolony was plunging into ruin. Something must be done at once. Theyoffered a huge reward to any one who should find gold within twohundred miles of Melbourne. On the very same day, two men came toclaim the reward. One had made a strike on the Plenty River, the otheron the Yarra-Yarra. In August, 1851, came the discovery of gold atBallarat, gold in its pure form and in large grains. The Bendigofields developed immediately after.
"Then came a rush unparalleled! Money came easy, just as it comes easyto any man who has the good luck to be first at a strike. Every onegot rich in Ballarat. There were no blanks. It was the richest groundthat ever was found. The grains of gold were so big that they stuckout and looked at you!
"Geelong, which was the nearest town to Ballarat, was deserted. Threemonths after the discovery of gold the mayor of Geelong complainedthat there were only eleven men and over three thousand women andchildren in the town."
"Ay," agreed Jim, "and I remember in Pot-Luck Camp, the first time adecent woman came into the town, a miner offered her a bag ofgold-dust to just shake hands with him. I've seen seven camps in astring, wi' maybe a thousand men in each an' nary a woman in the lot!"
"A camp like that becomes right wild," Owens agreed. "Ballarat, for awhile, was about as dangerous a place as ever the world saw.Ticket-of-leave men from New South Wales, escaped or paroled convictsfrom Tasmania, roughs that had been run out of camps by vigilancecommittees in California, Chinese and Malays swarmed there. Thediggers refused to take out licenses, fired on the police, charged themilitary stockade, and when the troops charged back and took 125prisoners, a jury acquitted every one of the mutineers as upholders ofindividual liberty. If a man did not find gold, he starved at theexorbitant prices demanded for food; if he did make a strike, thechances were ten to one he would be murdered the next day. Colorado,at is worst, could not be compared with early days at Ballarat.
"Bendigo followed right after. That was a nugget corner. During theyear 1852, alone, three big nuggets were found there, one of 24pounds, one of 28 pounds, and one of 47 pounds. All these nuggetsrevealed outcrops and the finders all beca
me rich men.
"One of them was found in a queer way. A prospector, or 'fossicker' asthey call them back there, had been panning all along a small creek,finding hardly enough color to pay him for his day's work. He waswalking on the very edge of the bank, scanning every stone he came to,but seeing no prospects. Suddenly the bank caved in under him,throwing him into the water. He came up, spluttering, and there, rightin front of him, the water was washing off the dirt, was one of thepurest nuggets that Australia ever produced. That was probably themost profitable bath in history."
"Some men are born lucky!" declared Jim, enviously.
"That's true," Owens agreed, "and it has been a characteristic ofAustralia that all the big finds have been made by lucky accidents.Even recent discoveries are no exception. Did you ever hear the storyof Pilbarra and the crow?"
"Never did."
"It's a classic in Australian gold mining. It's as queer a story as Iknow. It doesn't sound true, a bit, but all the documents in the caseare on record.
"One fine day, a youngster in West Australia--clear across the otherside of the continent from Bathurst and Ballarat--was idling along anarrow track, as youngsters will, even when sent on a hurried message.On his way, he saw a black crow hopping some distance away. With anatural boy movement, he picked up a stone and shied it at the crow.The bird gave a loud croak and flew away a little distance, but in thesame direction in which the boy was walking. Presently the crow waswithin throwing distance, again. The boy stooped to pick up anotherstone.
"Just as he was about to let fly, however, he noticed some gold specksin it and took it home. There he showed it to his father, who was anemploye in the convict prison there. His father showed it to theWarden, as he was compelled to do, for he was also a convict, though a'trusty.'
"The much-excited Warden knew that the governor of the colony ought tobe notified at once, but how was he to do so without the secretleaking out through the telegraph office? Forgetting, in hisexcitement, that the governor did not know as much about the matter ashe did, he sent the following message:
"_'Boy here has just thrown stone at crow.'_
"He entirely neglected to mention that there was anything special ineither the stone or the crow.
"The telegram puzzled the governor not a little. But he had a sense ofhumor, and he replied to the Warden's telegram with the followingmessage:
"_'Yes; but what happened to the crow?'_
"The Warden realized his former omission, and risking discovery,telegraphed:
"_'Stone, gold.'_
"The telegraph operator, not seeing how this could be a reply to thegovernor's question thought an error had been made and forwarded themessage:
"_'Stone cold.'_
"The governor thought his friend the Warden must have gone crazy, buthe was not to be outdone. He wired back:
"_'Forward crow.'_
"This time it was the turn of the Warden to be puzzled, and, as soonas his duties would permit, he went to the capital--almost athousand-mile journey--taking, not the crow, but the stone filled withspecks of gold. This was in 1888. Over half-a-million dollars' worthof gold was taken from Pilbarra before the end of the year.
"The richest gold field in Australia was hit on by accident fouryears later. This was Kimberley. Signs of gold had been found there in1882, and again in 1886 but not enough to be worth working. In 1892two prospectors started out to explore the region. They worked forweeks and found nothing. One of them, thoroughly disgusted, gave upthe search and started for home.
"Two nights after, while camping, his horse became restless andstarted to plunge and kick at a wombat, near by. The prospector got upto quiet the beast, fearing he would break the picket-rope. On hisway, he stumbled over a stone, which, in the light of early dawn, hesaw to be rich in gold. He pegged out a claim at once, fetched hispartner, and the two men took out $50,000 worth of gold in threeweeks. This was the beginning of the great Coolgardie field.
"In the same region, about 24 miles away, not long after the openingof the Coolgardie field, a miner just missed wealth. There was a smallcamp there, but one man had no luck. While sitting dispiritedly in hisdog-tent, just before going to sleep, he began to burrow with hisfingers in the loose soil on which he was slouching and discovered asmall pocket of gold. He was so excited that he shouted out the newsto the camp.
"Before he could realize what was happening, the other miners crowdedround, and pegged out claims to the very borders of his tent. All hegot out of it was the small bit of ground on which his tent stood. Thepocket only yielded a hundred dollars' worth of gold, his neighbors toright and left, got more than ten times that amount in the first threedays.
"I could go on for hours, Jim, telling you about the Australiangold-fields, but I've said enough to show you that I meant what I saidwhen I suggested that it was a pity that you hadn't found gold. Themining of every other metal needs a lot of capital to begin with--asgold does, when you begin to work a reef--but, in nearly every golddeposit, there are placers or pockets where a man can clean upquickly."
Jim's face was glowing with a lively interest. His excitement hadgrown as the mine-owner proceeded.
"And these here nuggets," he queried, "what makes 'em? Where do theycome from? We don't find anything like that over here!"
"No," agreed Owens, "you don't. Chunks like 'The Welcome Stranger'which sold for $48,000 and which was found right in the road, thewheel of a passing wagon having cut through the soft earth and exposedit, are peculiar to Australia. Even South Africa, which is the largestgold-producing country in the world, hasn't any nuggets like that.
"As for where nuggets come from, Jim, that's a bit of a puzzle. Somesay they grew in the earth, water heavily laden with gold, depositingmore and more of the metal in the one place; other scientists claimthat the nuggets were made in the days when the earth was all fire,and that the nuggets have been there ever since. Neither theoryanswers all the facts. It's truer to say that we don't know, yet, hownuggets came to be, nor why Australia has most of them.
"Some day, Jim, if you're interested, I'll try to explain to you thegeology of gold. It's pretty complicated. I did a lot of study on it,when I was a young chap. Somehow, I seemed to be one of the men whodidn't have any luck at the diggings. So I took to assay work(ore-testing), out there in Australia, and made more with my littleassay outfit than most of the miners did with their claims."
Jim propped himself up on one elbow and stared fixedly at themine-owner.
"You know how to make an assay, yourself?"
"Roughly, yes. Of course, only for field work, you understand. I don'tpretend to be a mineralogical chemist."
"You can do it yet?"
"I suppose so. I haven't done any for years. This coal-mine businesshas kept me busy. But I've still got my portable assay outfit up atthe house. I kept it for old-time's sake."
Jim's eyes glistened eagerly.
"You go to my cabin, Owens," he said, and it was noticeable that hedropped the "Mr.," "and five long paces due north from my kitchenwindow, you dig! You'll find a chunk of ore, there. Assay it, and thencome back here!"
"But--"
The old prospector waved the interruption aside, impatiently.
"Do it, and then talk!"
Owens shrugged his shoulders and left, but little less excited thanJim.
That evening, during the middle of the night shift, when no one waslikely to see him, the mine-owner went to the spot designated andbegan to dig. A foot or two beneath the surface, he found the chunk ofore. He put it in his pocket and hurried to his own house.
It was nearly dawn before he completed the assay. Then he put the oreand his memorandum of results in the safe and went to bed for a shortsleep.
That morning, after breakfast, he returned to the hospital. He foundJim in an excited state.
"No, Mr. Owens, there's nothing wrong with him," the doctor explained,"only he hasn't slept all night. He's been asking for you, every fewminutes."
When the mine-owner entered the
ward, Jim struggled up to a sittingposition.
"What about it?" he queried.
Owens closed the door carefully, came up to the sick man's bedside,and answered quietly,
"About 110 grains of gold to the ton and 800 ounces of silver. There'ssome native copper, too."
"It's a real find then?"
"It isn't what you'd call rich," the Australian answered cautiously.
"How about this, then?"
Jim took his old coat, which he had got the hospital attendant tobring him the night before, ripped open a seam, showing a narrow tubeof buckskin running around the hem, and, opening its mouth, poured outa few grains of yellow metal into the palm of his hand.
"Free gold!" he said, triumphantly.
One glance of a trained eye sufficed.
"That's the stuff, sure enough. But you didn't find much of it, eh?"
"Where do you get that idea?"
"The grains are big enough to pan easily. If there was much of it, youwouldn't have left the place without cleaning up a good stake."
"There is plenty of it. But I had to get out."
"Why, then?"
"To save my skin. An' I couldn't get back there."
"Back where?"
"Where I found it."
"That doesn't tell me much."
"It ain't intended to."
"Then why," said Owens, showing irritation, "did you show me the oreat all?"
Jim looked at him under lowered eyelids.
"Have you ever been a prospector, honest?"
The owner of the coal mine put his hand in his breast pocket.
"I thought this might interest you," he said, "so I brought it along.That's me!"
He put his finger on one of the figures in the picture that he handedto the prospector. It showed a young fellow, bearded, in the typicalAustralian digger's rig-out, panning gold. The photograph was an oldone, evidently, and there was no doubt that it was a resemblance ofOwens in his youth.
"Ay, it's you," said Jim.
For some minutes there was silence. The mine-owner let the prospectorthink the matter out in his own way. Finally, with an air of desperatedetermination, Jim began:
"I'm gettin' old, now, an' times has changed since I found that ore. Iain't never give up hope of gettin' back there, but it don't look likeit, now. I ain't the man I was. This last spell has crippled me up,pretty bad, too. I ain't never goin' to be right husky, again. Thedoctor says so."
"You can have a job above ground, here, as long as you want to."
Jim nodded appreciation of the offer.
"That's a square deal," he admitted. "But," he went on viciously,"I've had enough o' coal. I don't want to see a bit o' coal again,long's I live! I want to get back to God's country."
"Which is?"
"Where I found that!" replied Jim, evasively.
Owens made no protest. He kept silent, being sure that his companionwould go on to talk.
"I'm gettin' old," Jim repeated, after a while, "an' it takes twothings to get where I found that ore--a tough constitution an' money.I got neither. It's a job for a young fellow."
"I'm not much younger than you are," suggested Owens.
"Clem is."
"Well?"
"But he hasn't got any more money'n I have."
The mine-owner bent a level glance at the old prospector.
"Don't beat about the bush so much, Jim. If you don't want to sayanything, why, drop the whole business. If you have anything to say,spit it out! You want me to grub-stake you? Is that it?"
"Me an' Clem. I won't do nothin' without Clem. A man has to have apardner."
"I've no objection to Clem. On the contrary. But I don't grub-stake aman just because he shows me a bit of ore! I've been in the game toolong for that. How do I know where that gold comes from? It might havebeen picked up from some mine now working at full blast. As for thegold-dust--why, it would be queer if you hadn't found some of it,somewhere.
"No," he went on, anticipating Jim's interruption, "I'm going to dothe talking for a minute. You wanted to be sure I was a prospector. Ishowed you. You wanted to be sure I knew enough about gold to make anassay. I've done that for you.
"But confidence can't be all on the one side. You'll have to show yourcards, the same way. You'll have to convince me that you're on thesquare, too. I'm not suspecting anything, mind, but this has got to bean open-and-shut deal, or I don't go in.
"Tell me who you are, where you've been, what you've done and what youknow about gold deposits, anyway. I've got to know where you foundthis ore, how you came to find it, and why you haven't been able toget back there. You'll have to show me some proof, to start with, andwhat chances there are of taking the necessary machinery to theplace, before I think about investing any capital.
"You can keep back the exact location of the strike to the last, ifyou like. If it sounds right, why, I'll think about it. But, mark you,Jim, I make no promises. You can talk, or not, just as you choose. I'mnot hunting trouble, understand, this colliery keeps me busy enough.But if you want help, maybe I can give it to you. That ore deposit--ifit's a deposit--can either be let alone or developed. If you let italone, it's no good to anybody. If it's developed, there's a chancethat it might make money for the both of us. Decide! It's up to you!"
Silence fell in the hospital ward. Jim's eyes were far away, evidentlyin that strange and distant land where he had made his find. Then heturned a piercing glance on the mine-owner, who returned it frankly.
The old prospector cleared his throat and swallowed hard. For a momenthe seemed about to speak, and then stopped himself. At last hisfeatures settled into decision.
"Send for Clem to come here to-morrow," he said, "I'll tell theyarn."
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