u lost by it?"

"Just this way. When we got back to civilisation and totted up,
allowing fairly for the time it took and the cost of travelling, and
what we might have done, say at work earning eight or ten dollars a week
each, we reckoned that we were out of pocket."

"Indeed?" said Brace, staring.

"Yes. Gold-hunting's gambling. One man out of five hundred--or say a
thousand--makes a pile: half of them don't make wages, and the other
half make themselves ill, if they don't lose their lives. So I call it
gambling."

"Don't gamble then," said Sir Humphrey, who had waded to where they
stood: and he looked on smiling. "Well, what fortune?"

"Nothing in mine," said Brace, "and--nothing in Briscoe's."

"Wrong," said the American: "you're new to the work, anyone can tell.
There's plenty here to pay well."

"What!" cried Brace. "Why, I can't see a bit of metal."

"Look again," said Briscoe, and, dipping his shallow bowl, he gave it a
clever twist to get rid of the water again and leave the fine sand
spread all round and over the bottom.

He held the bowl full in the sunshine, with the last drops of water
draining off.

"Now," he said, turning to Brace, "what can you see?"

"Nothing at all," said Brace.

"Nothing?"

"Well, there's a tiny speck, and something that looks just yellowish
right in the middle there. But you don't call that gold?"

"Well, it isn't silver," said Briscoe, laughing, "so I do call it gold."

"Absurd!" said Brace.

"Oh, no, it isn't. That's good gold, and if properly treated the sand
and gravel are rich enough to pay well."

"When I go gold-washing I shall want to be where you can find nuggets
and scales in plenty," said Brace.

"Ah, so I suppose," replied Briscoe. "You wouldn't be content with a
quartz reef with nothing in it visible, but which when powdered up and
treated gave a couple of ounces of pure gold for every ton of rock that
was broken out and crushed, would you?"

"Certainly not," replied Brace.

"Plenty make fortunes out of it, though, on such terms, and don't turn
up their noses at a reef if they can get one ounce of it of a ton. This
riverbed's rich, Sir Humphrey, and ready for explorers and prospectors.
But let's try that sand-bank yonder, farther out."

The trio had to wade through a channel knee-deep to get to the long
sand-spit, for the most part bare, but over a part of which an inch or
two of clear water trickled.

Here the same process was gone