port the lucky find throughout the camp. The
effect was instant and electrical. Every miner stopped work, and there
was a rush to the commissioner's office to see the nugget. All were
cheered up. If there was one nugget, there must be more. Confidence was
restored to many who had been desponding. Obed and the two boys were the
heroes of the hour, and the crowd came near lifting them on their
shoulders, and bearing them off in triumph.

Obed felt that this was a good time to sell the claim.

"Boys," he said, "we struck it rich and no mistake. How rich I don't
know. There may be other nuggets where this came from. But I and my
partners want to go back to America. The claim's for sale. Who wants
it?"

CHAPTER XXIX.

SELLING THE CLAIM.

"Let's adjourn to the mine," said Tom Lewis, a short, sturdy
Englishman.

"Yes, let's see the place where the nugget was found," echoed another.

"All right! I'm agreeable," said Obed.

Followed by a crowd of miners, Obed Stackpole strode to the claim where
he had "struck it rich." In spite of his homely face and ungainly form
there was more than one who would have been willing to stand in his
shoes, homeliness and all. The day before little notice was taken of
him. Now he was a man who had won fame at a bound.

They soon stood around the lucky claim.

"It isn't much to look at, gentlemen," said Obed, "but looks is
deceptive, as my old grandmother used to tell me. 'Handsome is as
handsome does,' and this 'ere hole's done the handsome thing for me and
my partners, and I venture to say it hasn't got through doin' handsome
things. It's made three of us rich, and it's ready to make somebody else
rich. Who'll be the lucky man? Do I hear a bid!"

"Fifty pounds," said Tom Lewis.

"That'll do to start on, but it won't do to take. Fifty pounds I am
offered. Who says a hundred?"

A German miner offered a hundred, and Tom Lewis raised ten pounds.

A Scotch miner, Aleck Graham, offered a hundred and twenty-five.

From that time the bids rose slowly. Obed showed himself an excellent
auctioneer--indeed he had had some experience at home--and by his dry
and droll remarks stimulated the bidding when it became dull, and did
not declare the claim sold till it was clear no higher bid could be
obtained.

"Three hundred pounds, and sold to Frank Scott," he concluded. "Mr.
Scott, I congratulate you. I calculate you've made a pretty good
investment, and I shouldn't wonder if you'd find a