The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 72

"The license is obtained easily enough--government is very happy to receive ten s.h.i.+llings per month for the privilege of allowing a man to try his luck," the inspector answered, with an attempt at a laugh.

"Then if you will oblige us by getting a license, we will commence operations to-day," Fred answered.

"Why, you are in a hurry," Mr. Brown replied, seating himself composedly, and lighting a pipe which he carried in a small box in his pocket.

"Wouldn't you advise us to commence mining?" I asked.

"To answer you frankly, I would not, because I know that you can do better than by spending your days under ground, and emerge at night to find that you are killing both mind and body."

"Why do you speak of working under ground?" I inquired. "Is not mining the same here as in California?"

"Bless your heart"--and Mr. Inspector Brown smiled at my ignorance--"don't you know that at Ballarat a shaft has to be sunk many feet below the surface of the earth, and after you have reached the layer of dirt in which the gold is found, you are obliged to work upon your hands and knees, and excavate for many feet in different directions, until at last you break in upon some other miner's claim, and are compelled to retreat and sink a new shaft?"

This was all news to us, or if we had heard of it before we had not given the subject any attention. A new light broke in upon us, and we began to consider.

"Breakfast is all ready," said Smith, just at that moment.

We had brought a few luxuries with us from Melbourne that were unknown at the mines, and I saw the eyes of the inspector sparkle as he snuffed the perfume of the fried potatoes and warm chocolate.

"Will you join us, Mr. Brown?" I asked, extending an invitation that I knew he was dying to receive. "We have not much to ask you to share, but such as it is you are welcome to." "Well," he answered, "really, I don't know as I feel like eating at so early an hour, but--"

Smith opened a hermetically sealed tin canister, which he had been warming in a pot of hot water, and the steam of fresh salmon greeted our olfactory nerves.

"What!" cried the inspector, with a look of astonishment, "you don't mean to say that you have got preserved salmon for breakfast?"

"If you will really honor us with your presence at breakfast you shall he convinced of the fact," Fred answered, politely.

"Say no more; I'd stop if all Ballarat was at loggerheads."

We were soon seated upon such articles as were handy, and after the first cravings of our appet.i.tes were satisfied, we renewed the subject of mining.

"All the miners," Fred remarked, "are not obliged to work so deep beneath the surface."

"If they do not, their chance of finding gold is exceedingly slim,"

replied the inspector. "I have known stout, lazy fellows pick around on the surface of the earth for weeks, and not earn enough to find themselves in food. To be successful a shaft has to be sunk."

"And yet, according to your own showing, gold is not always struck by such a method."

"True, and I can easily explain why it is so. Mining is like a lottery--where one draws a prize, hundreds lose. We might dig deep into the earth where we are seated, and it would surprise no one if we took out gold by the pound; and yet no one would think of laughing if we did not earn our salt. The case would be so common that no notice would be taken of it." We sat and listened to the inspector's words in silence, and began to think that we had better have remained in Melbourne and entered into business of a more substantial nature.

"I know of a dozen cases," the inspector continued, "where not even enough gold has been found by industrious men, who have sunk shafts, to make a ring for the finger; and yet not one rod from the place where such poor success was encountered others have grown rich, and left Ballarat well satisfied with their labor."

"But we have certainly read of men taking a nugget from these mines weighing over a hundred pounds," I said.

"And the account that you read was perfectly correct. I remember the circ.u.mstance well. It was soon after my recovery from the wound inflicted at the hands of Black Darnley. A man rushed into my tent one afternoon with his eyes apparently starting from their sockets, and his whole appearance that of a crazy man. He was breathless and speechless for a few minutes, but I at length obtained information that two miners had come across a nugget of gold so large that half a dozen men were unable to lift it from the shaft. I hurried to the spot, and as I went along hundreds of people were flocking to the scene. The news spread like fire upon a prairie. Saloons and rooms were deserted--miners crawled from their shafts--sick men forgot their ailments--even gamblers desisted from playing for a short time, in their anxiety to look at the largest lump of gold that had ever been discovered.

"When I reached the opening of the shaft I found many hundred people present, and fresh arrivals were joining the crowd every moment. I organized a force, and drove the excited throng from the opening of the mine, for I feared that the chambers which had been excavated would not stand the pressure, and that those above and below would be buried alive.

"After I had succeeded in my efforts, we set to work and raised the mighty nugget to the surface, but instead of its weighing two or three hundred pounds, it weighed one hundred and ten. But it was a splendid lump of gold, almost entirely free from quartz and dirt, and of rare fineness and purity.. The finders were overjoyed, as well they might be, and guarded their treasure with great care until they saw it safe in the custody of the government agent. A gentleman from Melbourne, who was on a visit to the mines for the purpose of collecting rare specimens of gold, offered the lucky finders four thousand pounds for the nugget, but they got an idea into their heads that it was worth more, and declined."

"And was that the largest nugget ever found?" I asked.

"As far as my knowledge is concerned. At the other mines I have heard that immense pieces have been found, but I consider the rumor as exaggerated."

"You would be greatly surprised if we should happen to discover a piece worth as much," I remarked.

"I think I should," answered the inspector, dryly, slowly filling his pipe, and apparently dilating on the subject mentally.

"Well, we will not pledge ourselves to make such a strike as the one you have related, but we will guarantee to get more gold than two thirds of the miners at Ballarat," Fred said, confidently.

The inspector shook his head.

"You don't know the kind of work that you will have to undertake," he said. "In the first place, you have got either to buy a claim, or begin digging at some spot where no one would think, unless a new arrival looking for gold. All the dirt that you wanted to work out would have to be carried to the water, and you can see that our lakes and rivers are not very extensive.

"We will imagine that you have resolved to commence operations, and that a suitable spot has been selected. After a day's digging, you will find, that to prevent the earth from caving in and burying you up, timber is wanting. You make application, and find that to buy staves and planks will cost you as much as a small house in the States. Even a few cracked branches are valued at the rate of five or ten s.h.i.+llings per stick, and you can calculate how much the cost would be after sinking a shaft a hundred or two hundred feet, to say nothing of the chamber work."

We began to comprehend that mining was rather difficult and uncertain work.

"Then, according to your showing, the best thing that we can do, is to pack up our traps and return to Melbourne," Fred said, after a long pause.

"By no means; you are not going to start so soon, I hope," the inspector replied.

"We see but little use of remaining here and wasting our means on an uncertainty," I answered.

"Have patience, my lads," replied the inspector, softly; "are there no other ways of making money besides mining?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, with a suspicious glance.

The inspector laughed, and slowly refilled his pipe.

"I don't propose to rob the specie train, or to waylay travellers. I think that money can be made in an honest manner, and without working very hard."

"But how? Show us the _modus operandi_."

"I will, with great pleasure. Make an agreement with your companion here, Smith, and let him return to Melbourne and load two teams with goods, such as I will give you a hint to buy. By the time he returns, you can have a store or large tent to receive them. Paint on a huge piece of canvas that you have fresh goods from England and the United States, and call your place the 'International Store." It will sound well, and half of the fellows here won't know what it means, and of course they will patronize you for the purpose of finding out."

"But where is the capital to come from?" I asked, thinking that I would test his friends.h.i.+p by pretending that we had but little money at our command.

"A thousand pounds will be enough; I will recommend you to dealers in Melbourne who will be glad to give you three months' credit," the inspector answered, promptly.

"That may be true, but a thousand pounds is a large sum of money, and where are we to find it?" I asked.

"Why, I have five hundred pounds that I don't want to use, and I am so certain that what I recommend will succeed, that you are welcome to it without interest for a twelvemonth."

Mr. Brown seemed so sincere and honest that we were compelled to shake hands with him in token of our appreciation of his offer.

"We are comparatively strangers to you," Fred said. "How dare you to offer to trust us with money, when you don't know but we may deceive you?"