back.

"I'm an old hand," he exclaimed--"old enough in years and mining to be
grandfather to the lot of you, and I don't give a shearer's curse for
your fakes and your fiddlements; and I struck a swamp where I said
there'd be a reef--but, as I'm a singer, it's gold."

[Illustration: CAPERED ROUND THE BOULDER. [_Page 216._]

The conversion of the sceptic completed the triumph of Peters, and,
giving way once more to the enthusiasm of the moment, he capered round
the boulder, yelling and shouting, the others joining in, despite their
weariness and their saturated clothes. What were a few temporary
inconveniences compared with the significance of Palmer Billy's
admission? A night's sound sleep, a few hours' sunshine, a couple of
good meals, and their discomforts were at an end; while there in the
boulder they had tapped, and probably in others that they saw around
them, and perchance in the hill up which they had clambered so
tediously, there was gold, and gold which was theirs by right of
discovery, by the right of the mining laws, written and unwritten, and
the right of their future toil. The tucker might be getting scarce; but
what of that? A few hours' work and one of them could ride away back to
Birralong to clear off the score they had left and bring more stores,
more horses, more anything they wanted--whatever it was, in a week it
would be paid for. The gold was at their feet; the strength to win it in
their muscles; the craving for possession in their minds. What
wonder, then, that they knew nothing, heard nothing, saw nothing, as
they yelled and danced, but the delight that was upon them--the wild,
untrammelled, ravenous delight which only comes to those who know
success in the midst of desolation and despair.

When they had relieved somewhat the fury of delight, they bethought
themselves of their creature comforts and the needs of their horses. The
latter, profiting by their freedom, had found a way for themselves down
the hillside to a spot where there was something they could eat; and
when the men found them, they found also that the spot was very much
more suitable for a camping-ground than the summit of the hill. A
shelter of branches was constructed, under which they placed their
stores, and a fire, after some difficulty, was lit. Then, primeval
instincts being strong, they removed the wet clothes they wore, and hung
them in the shelter where the heat of the fire could reach and dry them,
the while they