. He didn't believe he'd
got a tucker show, and sadly advised Mike to shepherd a hole down to the
left.

'We ain't in sight of her here,' he said.

Burton took a pinch of dirt from the side of the bucket at his feet,
rubbed it between his finger and thumb, and grinned at the digger.

'Take me for a Johnny Raw, don't you?' he said. 'This is good enough for
me. Quick, Jim, the pegs!'

The exclamation was drawn from him by the sight of three men running
along the lead in their direction.

As Burton hammered in his first peg, the newcomers started hammering a
peg for the same holding. Mike paced the twenty-four feet, and kicked the
stranger's peg out of the ground. Not a word was spoken. The intruding
digger, a stoutly-built, cheerful-looking Geordie, promptly struck at
Mike, and they fought. Done stood aside, nonplussed by the suddenness of
all this, and for a minute a hard give-and-take battle raged on the
claim. Jim discovered the Geordie's mate busying himself driving in a
peg. Seizing the man by the back of the neck, he dragged him to his feet,
and sent him spinning with a long swing. After which he gripped Mike's
opponent in the same way, and bowled him over and over.

'Now you get the pegs in, Mike,' said Jim. 'I'll attend to these.'

The Geordie arose and rushed at Jim with the vehemence of an old fighter,
but Done stopped him with a straight left, closed, and threw him. Mike
ceased hammering the peg to applaud.

'Neat and nice!' he cried. 'Would any other gentleman like a sample?'

'I'm quite satisfied,' said the Geordie, without a trace of ill-feeling.

'Then peg out the next,' continued Mike. 'It should be quite as good a
spec as this if your friend's on anything like a gutter.'

'Ay, ay, lad!' responded the Tynesider, who had a mouse on his cheek as
big as his thumb, and he set cheerfully to work to peg out two men's
ground further on. His bluff having failed, he cherished not the
slightest resentment, and two minutes later, to Jim's great amusement,
all concerned were indulging in affable conversation. The newcomers were
friends of the party in the working mine, where the lead had been cut, a
prospect from the headings promising so well that the holders had
hastened to acquaint the Geordie with the fact. The latter arrived too
late, however--first come, first served, being the law of the diggings,
and first peg in meant legal possession.

Two men's ground measured twelve feet by twenty-four feet. M