‘That’s all nonsense,’ said Dick,
catching hold of him.
‘You put your swag down,’ said Caldigate,
also catching hold of the other shoulder.
’What am I to put my swag down for? I’m
a-going back to Nobble. Crinkett’ll give
me work.’
‘You’re not going to leave us in that
way,’ said Dick.
‘Stop and make the shaft straight,’ said
Caldigate. The man looked irresolute. ‘Friends
are not to part like that.’
‘Friends!’ said the poor fellow.
’Who’ll be friends to such a beast as I
be? But I’ll stay out the month if you’ll
find me my grub.’
’You shall have your grub and your money, too.
Do you think we’ve forgotten the potatoes?’
‘—— the potatoes,’ said
the man, bursting into tears. Then he chucked
away his swag, and threw himself under the tent upon
the straw. The next day he was making things
as straight as he could down the shaft.
When they had been at work about five weeks there
was a pole stuck into their heap of dirt, and on the
top of the pole there was a little red flag flying.
At about thirty feet from the surface, when they had
already been obliged to insert transverse logs in the
shaft to prevent the sides from falling in, they had
come upon a kind of soil altogether different from
the ordinary clay through which they had been working.
There was a stratum of loose shingle or gravelly earth,
running apparently in a sloping direction, taking
the decline of the very slight hill on which their
claim was situated. Mick, as soon as this was
brought to light, became an altered man. The first
bucket of this stuff that was pulled up was deposited
by him separately, and he at once sat down to wash
it. This he did in an open tin pan. Handful
after handful he washed, shifting and teasing it about
in the pan, and then he cast it out, always leaving
some very small residuum. He was intent upon his
business to a degree that Caldigate would have thought
to be beyond the man’s nature. With extreme
patience he went on washing handful after handful
all the day, while the other two pulled up fresh buckets
of the same stuff. He would not pause to eat,
or hardly to talk. At last there came a loud
exclamation. ‘By------, we’ve got
it!’ Then Dick and Caldigate, stooping down,
were shown four or five little specks in the angle
of the pan’s bottom. Before the sun had
set they had stuck up their little red flag, and a
crowd of neighbours was standing round them asking
questions as to their success.
Mademoiselle Cettini
After three days of successful washing, when it became
apparent that a shed must be built, and that, if possible,
some further labour must be hired, Mick said that
he must go. ‘I ain’t earned nothing,’
he said, ’because of that bout, and I ain’t
going to ask for nothing, but I can’t stand
this any longer. I hope you’ll make your
fortins.’ Then came the explanation.
