We had had three or four hours’ heavy up-hill work, but I didn’t feel tired a bit. My body was as light as my heart.
“Over that range, Tom,” said Bill, “and we’re there.”
It was the steepest of all the ranges, and took us a time getting to the top, and then, looking down, I saw a great natural basin, shut in by high hills. You would have thought there was no outlet from it, unless you climbed over the hills which surrounded it; but when you got down, you discovered a number of artful little turns and windings, which led to gullies and smaller basins which you could not discern from the heights. We had to wake little Liz, as there was some danger wheeling the barrow down so steep an incline. She jumped out quite bright, and let me carry her some distance. If she had been my own child, I could not have felt more tender towards her. Presently Bill pointed out his tent, and said he should not wonder if his old mate were sleeping in it. Sure enough, when we were within six yards of the tent, he rushed out with a revolver in his hand, and fired at Rhadamanthus, who had sprung at him the moment he made his appearance.
“Lie down, Rhad!” cried Bill, pushing the dog away with his foot; “and you, Ted, drop that revolver, or I’ll wring your neck for you!”
Almost on the words, Bill leaped at the fellow, wrested the revolver from his hand, and sent him spinning a dozen yards away. It was not done a moment too soon, for I believe he was about to fire on us. He was a desperate-looking fellow was Teddy the Tyler. A white-faced, white-livered, flat-footed bully. I heard some queer stories about him afterwards.
“You murdering villain, you!” said Bill, as Teddy the Tyler rose from the ground with an evil look, and tightened his belt. “Do you know you might have shot my little girl?”
Little Liz was clinging to her father, trembling in every limb.
“A good job if I had,” muttered Teddy the Tyler.
Bill strode quickly up to him, and seizing him by the collar, forced him to the ground by dint of sheer muscular strength.
“If ever again you raise your hand,” he said, between his clenched teeth, “against me, or my little girl, or my mate, or my dog—you so much as lift your finger against them, say good-bye to the world. I’ll break your infernal back for you, as sure as the Lord’s in heaven!”
“What do you bring loafers into the gully for?” growled Teddy.
“That’s my business,” answered Bill. “I discovered this place, and I’ve a right to bring a friend. This is my mate now. Call him a loafer again, and I’ll knock your ugly teeth down your throat; keep a civil tongue in your head, and I’ll not interfere with you. I make you a present of this gully, every inch of it.” Teddy’s face brightened. “I know where there’s a richer one—ah, you may stare, but you’ll not put your foot in it! To-morrow I shall take my tent away, and you can work here by yourself till you rot, if you like. I don’t think you’re fool enough to get the place rushed, for that would put an end to your little game. Pick up the revolver, Tom, and stick it in your belt. It’s mine. And throw out of the tent everything that belongs to the thief.”
I carried his blankets and clothes out to him, and threw them at his feet.
“There’s something else in there belonging to me,” he said. “My neckerchief.”
I found it, and flung it to him. A bright-coloured neckerchief, which he slung about his neck, sailor fashion. The light of the moon shone upon it, and I noticed particularly the combination of bright colours in which it was woven.
As he gathered up his things he had a parting word to say, and he spit it out with foam about his lips, like the hound he was.
“I’ll make this the worst night’s work you have ever done! You shall cry blood for the way you’ve served me! By this, and this, I swear it!”
He wiped the foam from his mouth, and, flicking it to the ground with a snap of his fingers, walked slowly away.
We took no further notice of him, but putting the chain on Rhadamanthus, we went into the tent, and lay down till morning.
We were up with the lark, and out. As we passed along the gully, I noticed that Teddy the Tyler had put up a sort of mimi, and that he was asleep under it.
“Now then, Tom,” said my mate, “I’ll show you something that will open your eyes. That fool there knows nothing about it. I discovered the place three weeks ago, and held my tongue, having my doubts of him.”
Coming to the end of the gully we walked over a pretty considerable rise in the land, Bill leading the way, through more than one heavy clump of timber on the other side. We might have walked half a mile through thick clusters of trees, when Bill clapped his hand upon my eyes, and told me to close them. We might have walked a hundred yards further, when he took his hand away, saying we were there. It was a strange-looking spot, completely hidden by wood-growth; a piece of land that appeared to have been scooped out of the hills, in the exact shape of a saddle.
“Look around you,” said Bill; “see the hills, every one of them, shelving down into this hollow. Look at the veins of quartz, auriferous every bit of it, all running down to one point. Here’s a piece of the stone”—picking it up—“with gold in it, here’s another with more gold in it. That’s evidence. Now take your fossicking knife, and dig up some of the earth at the trunk of that tree with the large spreading roots. Dig into the roots. I thought as much. You can see the gold in it without spectacles. The stuff there’ll yield an ounce to the tin dish. Why is the gold just at that spot? Because it has slid down the heights with the rains, and the roots of that tree have caught some of it in its descent, and held it fast in crevices. This hollow beneath us contains all the gold that has been washed for ages off these golden hills, and it is all ours—all ours, every ounce of it!” He was on the ground, showing me proof of his theory in small lumps of gold that he dug out here and there. “Tom, kneel down here by my side, and I’ll tell you why I worship it.” He held it in the palm of his hand, and gazed with glowing eyes upon it. “I see this educating her; I see this making her fit to hold her own with the best lady in the land; I see it bring smiles to her lips, roses to her cheeks; I see her doing good with it; I see her, the light of my days, removed from the hard trials that make life so sad to many; I see lifelong joy and happiness in it for my pretty Liz, my pretty, pretty Liz!”
He let the gold fall to the ground, and hid his face in his hands. I understood then how perfect love can be.
We returned to the old gully, and carried away our tent and all that belonged to us. Before night we had our fireplace built, and our tent fixed in a spot where it would be secure from floods. The next day we set to work.
Bill was a true prophet. The hollow was heavy with gold. We did not find a regular gutter of it, though Bill said if we sank deep we should be sure to come upon one; but within a few feet of the surface, and sometimes almost on the surface, we lighted upon rich pockets of gold. Talk of jewellers’ shops! This dirty hollow took the shine out of all of them. And as day after day went away, and our bags of gold got heavier and heavier, we laid plans for the future. We were to go home and buy a farm; Liz was to be educated and grow into a beautiful young woman and get married, and we were all to live together and take care of the children—how the little one laughed when we came to this part of the story! for we spoke freely before her;—it was all settled, and certain to come true. Those five weeks that we lived together were the happiest of my life. Liz was like a star in our tent, and made everything bright and beautiful. We all worshipped her—Bill, me, and Rhadamanthus—and lived in her, so to speak. The tricks she played, the stories she had to tell, the discoveries she made, gladdened the
