k.'

'Did he, but--That's just the same class o' stone as the specimen
Henderson found in the back paddock twelve years ago, that sent everyone
daft after a reef there. Come on.'

McKnight was now much the most eager of the three, and led the way at a
great pace to Peterson's house. Peterson was more easily convinced, and
in a few minutes the four joined Downy at Mrs. Hardy's. The detective had
borrowed a coil of rope, the necessary tools were provided, and the party
set off. The five no sooner appeared on the flat with their burdens than
they were sighted by many of the people of Waddy, now eagerly on the
lookout for adventure, and before they reached the bush they had quite a
mob at their heels, fed by a thin stream of men, women, and children
hurrying to witness the newest development of Waddy's latest and greatest
affair.

Dick led the men into the Gaol Quarry, and at the spring turned and
pointed the way through the scrub growth under which he and his mates
always crawled to get at the opening leading into the Mount of Gold.

'In there,' he said, 'agin the wall.'

Harry and McKnight broke a passage through the saplings and ti-tree.

''Tween them two rocks,' said Dick; 'low down under the fern.'

'Yes,' cried Harry, 'here we are! Let's have the hammer, Peterson.'

Harry broke away projecting pieces of stone, widening the aperture, and
Dick and the detective joined them at the opening.

'I'll go first,' said the boy. 'I can go down the ladder we made, but it
mightn't bear a man.'

Dick went below and lit a couple of candles. Nothing had been touched in
the drive, and he peeped into the shaft and saw that the loose dirt there
was as he left it. Harry joined him in a few minutes and McKnight
followed. The men came down on the boys' curious ladder, but with a rope
about their waists, paid out from above. Downy was the last to go below,
Peterson remaining on the surface to keep the crowd back from the
entrance.

McKnight seized a candle, crawled to the extremity of Dick's diminishing
drive, and examined the place curiously.

'It's right,' he cried, 'right as the bank. She's a dyke formation, I
should say, an' rich. By the holy, we're made men--made men, Hardy!

Detective Downy was too deeply interested in his own quest to pay much
attention to the miners.

'Now, my lad,' he said, 'where are we?'

'The bag's there under them lumps.' Dick held his candle low, throwing
its light into the shaft. Downy dropp