ed. However, the gentleman, dressed for
riding, was beforehand with him.

"It's an open offer, I suppose," he said.

"Certainly," replied Cathro. "I don't care who gets my claim, so long as
I get the money."

"Then it's concluded," said the horsey man. "I buy the claim."

"Done," said Cathro. "The matter is closed. The claim is yours. Now,
that's how I like to do business; just a straight offer and a prompt
acceptance. Scarlett, this is Mr. Chesterman. He takes my place. You can
take him over the ranges and along the blazed track: no doubt, you'll
find him a better bushman than myself. Chesterman is accustomed to carry
a 70lb. swag; he'll make an excellent beast of burden. I wish you luck,
Chesterman."

"But don't you think," said Mr. Crewe, turning to the horsey man, "don't
you think you're rather hasty in buying for such a large sum a property
you have never seen?"

"I've been on several gold-fields," said Chesterman, "and I have had
good luck on all of them. My method has always been to act on the first
information of a discovery. A field is always richest at the beginning
of the rush, and I know by experience that the picked claims, on a new
field that yields such results as this does on the first washing, are
worth having. I start to-morrow. Is it possible to get a horse through?"

"No," replied the pioneer, "not the slightest chance of it. Until a
track is cut, it will be quite impossible; but if you're good in the
bush you can follow the blaze, when once you have struck it."

At this moment, there entered the room a very imposing person. He was
quite six feet high, and broad in proportion; his frank and open face
was adorned with a crisp, gold-coloured beard. He was dressed in a
rough, grey, tweed suit, and carried a newspaper in his hand. Big men
are not usually excitable, but the blue eyes of this Hercules were
ablaze with suppressed emotion. In a voice that sounded like a cathedral
bell, he said, without preface or introduction, so that the room rang
again, "Listen. 'Gold discovery in the Eastern ranges. There has arrived
in town a lucky digger who is said to have sold, this morning, some 800
ounces of gold to the Kangaroo Bank. It is understood that the precious
metal came from a new gold-field on Bush Robin Creek, which lies
somewhere Eastward of the Dividing Range. From accounts received, it
would appear that a field of unequalled richness has been opened up, and
that a phenomenal rush to the new E