The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 115

"It's a lump as big as my head I've found," roared Mike, making another dive for the whiskey barrel, but we choked him off, and made him stick to his text.

"Do you mean that you have found a nugget of gold as large as your head?" demanded Fred, eagerly.

"To the divil wid yer nuggets--what do I know about nuggets? It's a lump of pure goold I've found; as big a lump as my head, and ten times as heavy."

We could hardly believe the news Mike imparted to us was true; but his eagerness convinced us that he had stumbled upon something, although we feared it was a lump of quartz, with a few streaks of gold running through it, such as was often found in Ballarat, and which, for the want of a good quartz-crushing machine, was thrown aside as being worthless.

"Come and see for yourselves," yelled Mike, almost out of patience at our obstinacy in not placing implicit reliance upon his word in regard to the matter.

"Will ye come and look at the beautiful piece of goold wid me? and thin perhaps ye'll belave without further words. But remember--one quarter is mine."

We told Mike that we would stick to our word, and that he should have his share even if he had found a lump as large as his body. The a.s.sertion satisfied him, that we intended to deal honestly by him; and leaving Mr. Critchet to tend the store, we walked towards our claim, the purchase of which, on our part, had excited the ridicule of more than one of our friends.

On our way, Mike related the manner in which he found his treasure. He said that he had worked steadily for an hour or two, and had not found the first sign of gold, and that he stopped for a while to rest and smoke his pipe, and also to trim his lamp; that he fell asleep, and slept for an hour or two, and dreamed that he was sitting on a nugget of gold that was as large as his father's mud cabin in Ireland, and that he was wondering how he could get it up the shaft, when he was awakened by a drop of water which trickled from the ground overhead, striking him on his nose.

He started up, and thought how pleasant it would be if his dream would only come true; and rather by accident than design he let the point of his pick fall into the earth where he had been sitting. The dirt gave way, and he thought by the dim light of his lamp, that he saw something glisten.

Once more he struck the ground, threw aside a little dirt, and then he imagined that his dream had come true, for the bright gleam of gold was before him.

"Me heart was in me mouth," Mike continued, "and I did not pretend to use me spade or me pick for fear that the goold would vanish from me sight. I threw myself upon me knees, and dug with me fingers, and hardly dared to breathe for fear that I should lose it; and when I had freed it from the dirt, and attempted to lift it up, O! didn't it seem good to have it howld back, as though it didn't like being dragged from its bed so early in the morning!

"I worked it clear of the soil; and then me heart was too full to stay there any longer. I had to run to the store and ease me heart. But mind, honeys! Fair play in the division, ye know. Mind the honor of an Irish gentleman, who is too modest to spake for himself."

Mike's idea of modesty was about on a par with the natives of Australia, who think they are in full dress when the only article of wearing apparel that they can boast of is a hat, or a cast-off stocking, thrown on the roadside by some blister-footed adventurer on his way to the mines.

We pacified the man a second time; and by this period we were at the shaft, and ready to descend. Fred insisted upon going first, and after him the Irishman, while I hailed a pa.s.sing patrolman, and got him to extend the same favor to myself, when I got ready to be lowered in the bucket.

"Well, Fred," I shouted, "have we been hoaxed or not? Is it a blarney stone or a lump of gold that Mike has found?"

"Pull up," yelled Fred, and I heard some heavy substance thrown into the bucket.

"I'll see you hanged first," I retorted. "You are not going to make me draw up a fifty pound piece of quartz, and then laugh at me for my labor."

"Pull up quick," cried Fred, in an eager voice; and I heard a howl from the Irishman at my obstinacy.

"In the name of the saints, up wid it, good master Jim," pleaded Mike; but I rather hesitated, strengthened in the view which I took in the matter by the policeman.

"It's little gold that was ever taken from this claim, sir," he said, "although it has paid one or two proprietors by speculation. The soil is not of the right kind for large nuggets."

"How big is it?" I asked, addressing those who were some thirty feet below me.

"About as large as your head," was Fred's reply.

"Is it solid?" I demanded.

"It looks to be! But don't stand there asking questions, when you can satisfy yourself. Round up the bucket."

I began to think that the Irishman's dream was true, and that the whiskey had not taken possession of his senses.

Fred was not in the habit of indulging in practical jokes; and I finally concluded that I might as well satisfy myself whether a stone or a lump of gold was in the bucket. I wound up the windla.s.s, while the policeman peeked down the long, dark shaft, eagerly watching for the bucket, to see what it contained.

"Do you see any thing?" I asked, when I thought that it was near enough to get a glimpse of its contents.

Before I could repeat the question, the eyes of the patrolman glared as though starting from their sockets, and his face flushed scarlet.

"Up with it, in the name of goodness," my companion shouted, leaning over the shaft, and grasping the rope that held the bucket in one hand, and attempting to pull it up, regardless of the rough windla.s.s that I was working at.

"Can you see it?" I demanded, resting from my labor for a moment, and glancing down the shaft.

"Don't stop, sir," cried the policeman; "up with it, or the devil may carry it off before our eyes."

I did not feel so superst.i.tious; and in spite of the warning managed to get a glimpse of the lump that had almost turned the brains of the Irishman and Fred.

At the first glance, I almost let go my hold of the windla.s.s, I was so overpowered. My eyes appeared to blur over, and my brain grew dizzy. I did not seem to possess the strength of an infant, and for a moment I paused, and tried to rally my senses.

My heart beat so wildly that I thought it would burst, for the single glance that I had cast towards the bucket revealed to me a sight that would have driven half the miners of Ballarat crazy, and the remaining portion frantic with delight, provided, of course, they had seen and owned what I saw.

CHAPTER LXI.

THE RESULT OF GROWING RICH TOO RAPIDLY.

My officious friend lifted the nugget from the bucket and laid it before me, and for a few minutes I gloated over and pa.s.sed my hand over its unequal surface, and weighed it in my imagination until I was roused from my reverie by those in the shaft.

"Send down the bucket, so that we can get up," shouted Fred; "we don't want to stop here all night!"

I hurried to relieve my friend, and by the time that he was safe out of the shaft, and the bucket had re-descended for Mike, I was comparatively calm.

Fred and myself shook hands over our prize, and then lifted it, and sought to form some idea of its weight, in which we were aided by the official of the law.

"It will weigh forty pounds," cried Fred, after a moment's handling.

"More than that, sirs," answered the policeman, with a dogmatical air that was charming to us, because every additional ounce made us richer.

"I've seen a few nuggets since I've been stationed here, and I had oughter know about such things," he continued, turning our prize over and over, and scrutinizing it with the air of a connoisseur. "Do you see, there's not an ounce of quartz stuck to the whole piece, and gold is awful heavy when it comes in the lump style."

We a.s.sented to his remarks without a word of opposition. We could have listened to him for hours, it seemed so good to have him extol, instead of depreciate, the nugget.

"How much, then, do you think that it will weigh?" I demanded.

"Well," replied the officer, after a moment's pause, and another lifting operation, "I should say about fifty pounds, if my opinion was asked.

"If my advice was asked," the officer continued, in a patronizing manner, "I should say, take that nugget to the government reception office without delay, and after it is weighed, get a certificate of deposit. That is my advice, but my opinion may not be worth much, one way or the other."

We agreed that his advice was good, and that it would be wisdom on our part to accept of it without delay, for it was rather dangerous having so much gold in a store, when the town was swarming with thieves.