busied themselves with the preparation of the meal of
which they were in so much need. A break in the clouds, as they partook
of it, added to the contentment they felt, for by the cessation of the
rain an undisturbed night's rest seemed assured to them, and they needed
that to fit them for their attack on the morrow upon the treasures they
had found.

They were in calmer mind on the following morning, which was fortunately
fine, and set out to systematically examine the extent of the
gold-bearing stone they had stumbled across. It was all on the side of
the hill which was farthest from the swamp, and it seemed as though the
whole side of the hill was composed of it.

"What's to be done now?" Palmer Billy asked, when they met at the midday
meal.

"We'll get as much of the gold as we can in a couple of days, and then
send Murray back with two horses for stores enough to last another two
months. By that time we'll know how much the reef is good for, and maybe
have enough on hand to carry off and bank."

"Ah, that's the talk," Palmer Billy said admiringly. "No more flying
round for the sharks to bite at you. Plank the stuff in the bank, and
sit smiling at them. That's the talk."

"There is no bank at Birralong," Murray said.

"Isn't Marmot's good enough?" Palmer Billy asked. "Didn't he put up
stores on a tally, and don't we owe him a turn now we're in luck?
Marmot's good enough for me till the Government wants to build a railway
and comes to me for a loan."

"That's a bit premature, isn't it?" Peters asked.

"Marmot's as good as a bank, and better; he stood us a shout and stores
when we were stony. Where's the bank that'll do that?" Palmer Billy
retorted. "You tell him, when you ride in for fresh stores, to shift
some of them pumpkins out into the back-yard, because we're coming in
soon with a dray-load of nuggets," he added to Murray.

CHAPTER XV.

BLACK AND WHITE.

In an isolated part of barren country, where the grass was sparse and
coarse, the soil poor and stony, and the timber stunted and scraggy;
where, in fact, everything for which the white man had neither use nor
need was to be found, and where nothing existed that he or his stock
could utilize--a black-fellow's camp was situated.

It was a primitive affair, as black-fellow's camps always are. A few
long, thin sticks, looped and stuck in the ground, and with a
miscellaneous collection of bark and branches laid over them, formed the
huts, or