In the Roaring Fifties Part 11

'You're welcome,' said Mike, grinning. 'We did it for your own good.'

'What weight is there in that?' asked Done.

'Over two hundred ounces. Eight hundred pounds' worth, perhaps.'

Jim gasped and turned to his work again, digging rapidly. Later, Burton took a sample of the gravel in the dish, and carried it away to the creek. He returned in ten minutes with a little water in the pan. Jim could see only a few specks of gold in the bottom of the pan, and his face fell.

'A s.h.i.+cer?' he said.

'Not a bit of it. That's a good enough prospect. Let me have a cut at her.'

The hole was now too deep for Done to throw the dirt to the surface, inexperienced as he was in the use of a shovel in so narrow a s.p.a.ce.

Burton continued the work till sundown, and then washed a prospect that made his eyes glisten. Next morning they bottomed. Jim was at the mouth of the shaft when Burton called from below:

'Look out on top! Catch, old man

Jim caught the object thrown up to him. It was coated with clay, but the gold shone through, and Done handled his first nugget--a plump one of about ten ounces. A little later they set to work, puddling the best of the wash dug out in the course of sinking; and then the debris was put through the cradle, and Jim awoke at last to the full zest of the digger's l.u.s.t. Pawing among the gravel in the hopper of the cradle, he picked out the gold too coa.r.s.e to pa.s.s through the holes, and the gleaming yellow metal fired him with a pa.s.sion that had in it all the frenzy the winning gambler feels, with an added sense of triumph and success. When Mike lifted the slides out and sluiced water over them, showing the gold lying thick and deep, he felt a miser's rapture, and yet had no great desire for wealth. He did not fear work, and had no love of luxury, so that the hunger for riches never possessed him; but this joy was something apart from avarice. The yearnings of untold generations after the precious gold have filtered the love of it into our blood, made the desire for it an instinct. Jim went to bed that night richer by over one hundred pounds than he had been when he rose in the morning.

Done and Burton logged up their shaft and rigged the windla.s.s, and set about the methodical working of the claim. The second day's cleaning up was not as good as the first, but it was highly satisfactory. It was not usual for the miners to keep the gold about them for any length of time.

If it was not carried to the storekeepers at Forest Creek, there were gold-buyers--buying for the Melbourne banks, as a rule--who called regularly, eager to exchange bank-notes for the virgin gold. On the afternoon of their third working day, Jim and his mate were leaning on the windla.s.s, talking to two or three men who had gathered about, waiting for one of the gold-buyers then riding along the lead, when they were joined by a tall, fine-looking digger, with a remark ably handsome brown beard and bushy brows.

'Good-day, mates! Got a good thing here?' he said, seating himself on one of the logs.

'Oh, not so bad!'

The newcomer had dropped his revolver, apparently by accident. He stooped and picked it up, but instead of returning it to his belt, toyed with it absently as he made inquiries about the lead and the yields on the field.

All eyes were attracted by the peculiar manner in which he handled the weapon, tossing it to and fro carelessly, and twirling it through his fingers with remarkable rapidity.

'That's a pretty clever trick,' said Thorn.

'This is no great shakes.' The owner of the beautiful beard twirled his revolver more rapidly. 'Lend me another.'

Thorn threw his, and the stranger caught it smartly, and juggled with the two.

Brigalow d.i.c.k, the gold-buyer, rode up. A particularly bright ex-trooper from Sydney, Brigalow d.i.c.k had a reputation as a safe man, and the horse he rode was one of the finest on the field. On one side of the front of his saddle was strapped the stout leather case carrying the gold, on the other was a bag containing money.

'Any gold to sell to-day, Burton?' asked d.i.c.k.

'Yes, in half a minute, old man,' replied Mike, deeply interested in the tricks of the juggler.

Brigalow d.i.c.k drew his horse up closer and watched the performance.

'Bet you're Californian, Whiskers,' he said.

The stranger nodded. 'Let me have another shooter,' he said.

A third was thrown to him, and he twirled the three in the air, discharging each into the tip as it reached his hand.

'Bravo! bravo!' The performance was growing quite exciting.

'That's simply nothing,' said the amateur prestidigitateur modestly.

'Throw me another, and I'll show what I call a d.a.m.n good trick.' He cast his eye around the group. It lit upon the gold-buyer casually.

'Here you are.' Brigalow drew his revolver from his belt, and threw it.

'Very good, and many thanks,' said the stranger. He coolly placed the other revolver in his s.h.i.+rt, turned the gold-buyer's long six-shooter on its owner, and said: 'Come down off that horse, Richard, my boy!'

Brigalow laughed uneasily, but did not stir. 'Comedown, curse you!' cried the other with sudden ferocity; and, springing to his feet, he seized d.i.c.k, and brought him heavily to the ground over his horse's rump. 'Lie there, or, by G.o.d, I'll scatter your brains on the gra.s.s!' said the juggler. 'The first man that moves will peg out a claim in h.e.l.l to-night,' he continued, leading the horse away, and walking backwards himself, with the revolver pointed. No man doubted his word. d.i.c.k crouched on the ground, staring after him, furious, but quite beaten.

Suddenly the robber sprang to the horse's back with a clean jump. 'Now, that is what I call d.a.m.n good sleight of hand, Brigalow!' he cried; and, producing a short, heavy green-hide whip from his s.h.i.+rt, he lashed the horse mercilessly, and went riding at a breakneck pace down the gully, heading for the distant timber.

'Tricked!' cried the ex-trooper, jumping to his feet--' tricked by the great Blue Bunyip! Tricked like a kid!' He turned and ran for the troopers.

'I surmise Mr. Solo was lurkin' behind them there whiskers,' said a tall, thin Californian, when the party had somewhat recovered the surprise.

Jim started, recalling the encounter with Long Aleck in the Melbourne bar.

'Was that Solo, do you think?' he asked.

'Dead cert' replied the Californian. 'Them's his playful ways.'

'If you guessed it, why didn't you give a hint?'

'Not knowin', can't say; but it's just pawsible I ain't pus.h.i.+n' myself forward as a target this spring.'

Done found this indisposition to interfere in 'other people's business'

very marked amongst the diggers; and their toleration of notorious evildoers was a p.r.o.nounced feature of their easy-going character, encouraged, no doubt, by their contempt for the law, which appealed to them only as an instrument of oppression.

'This means a gallop for the troopers,' said Mike.

'They'll run him down!' e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jim at a venture.

'The man occupyin' my socks is bettin' ten ounces agin all the feathers off a wart-hog that they don't,' answered the Californian.

'But look at the weight he carries!'

'You're a bright boy--a most remarkably bright boy!' drawled the American, 'an' I guess you'll pick up a heap o' knowledge afore you die out, but up to now you don't know much about Solo. He kin ride like the devil, an' fight like the hosts of h.e.l.l, an' he's ez full o' tricks ez a pum'kin's full o' pips. I tell you, Amurka's proud of her son.'

'Who sez he's American?' asked a digger, resenting the appropriation.

'Well, sir, if he ain't he's that good an imitation he might's well be the real thing.'

About half an hour later three troopers came cantering through Diamond Gully, looking very smart in their Bedford cords and s.h.i.+ning top-boots, and the diggers yelled derisive orders, and greeted them with cries of contempt, jeering them from every hole along the lead. 'Jo!' was the favourite epithet hurled at the troopers and all representatives of const.i.tuted authority. Done never discovered the origin of the term, but into it the diggers compressed all the hatred they felt for unjust laws, domineering officials, and flagrant maladministration.

'I thought you knew this Solo,' said Jim to his mate that evening.

'Well,' replied Mike, 'I reckoned I did; but he changes his disguises pretty smartly, 'r else that was another party in the same line o'

business.'

IX