s,' answered Jim, his cheeks warming a little. 'She is with Mrs.
Macdougal at Boobyalla, just beyond Jim Crow, and is well and cheerful.'

'Good agin!' Ryan sighed heavily as he resumed his swag. 'It's th' on'y
thing I'm lamentin' here, th' mighty scarcity iv fine wimmin,' he said.

'They'll be bringing them out by the ship-load presently, old man.'

'Th' sooner th' quicker. Manewhoile I haven't seen th' taste iv one fer
sivin munts. So long to you! We'll be meetin' on the new rush?'

'Yes. So long and good luck!'

Phil hastened on to overtake his mates, and Jim, looking after him,
wondered that he had ever been anything but good friends with this man,
whose lovable, ugly face radiated geniality as a diamond reflects light.

Simpson's Ranges at first sight was a repetition of the other fields Jim
had seen. The scene was one of intense excitement. No experience prepared
the ordinary miner to take the possibilities of a new field in a
philosophical spirit. The impetuosity, the bustling hurry, and the
clamour that had so impressed him at Forest Creek were repeated here.
Everywhere over a space of some fifty acres tents were being unfurled and
carts and waggons unloaded in the midst of chaotic disorder. The feverish
eagerness of new arrivals to peg out their claims on a rich lead
accounted for much of the tumult. Those already in possession of golden
holes were working like fiends to exhaust their present claims, and
secure others before the land was pegged out all along the lead and the
whizzing of windlasses and the monotonous cries of the workers added the
usual character to the prevailing clamour.

Storekeepers who had dumped their stocks down in the open air were
desperately busy, serving profane customers, or running up hasty
structures over their goods. Newcomers were pouring in like visitors to a
fair, shouting as they came, and of all the people Jim could see, Mike
Burton and the Peetrees alone were prepared to take things calmly. For
his own part, he had again proof of his susceptibility to the humours of
the crowd; the excitement of the scene communicated itself to him; he
wanted to add to the noise and the movement without acknowledging any
sensible reason for doing so.

'Me an' Mike 'll get up the lead an' spike a claim while you boys rig the
tent,' said Josh.

The mates had brought one tent to serve them, pending the arrival of
their other belongings. It had been resolved that the five men should
work