he river;
"but oughtn't we to mark this place down so that it should be ready for
the next gold-seekers?"

"It wants no marking down," replied Briscoe: "the place will tell its
own tale to anyone hunting for it."

And he tossed the sand out of the pans, gave them a rinse, and stepped
ashore.

In another hour the excellent meal prepared by Dan had been enjoyed, and
the regular preparations were made for passing the night on board; but
in a very short time everyone had come to the conclusion that it would
be impossible to sleep in the neighbourhood of the sand-spits, on
account of the myriads of tiny sandflies, whose poisonous bites were
raising itching bumps and threatening to close the eyes of all who were
exposed to them.

"It's getting too late to drift down the river a little way," said
Lynton, "and, besides, it wouldn't be safe."

"And we should only be getting out of Scylla into Charybdis," said Sir
Humphrey.

"I should like to be buried in sand up to my nose," cried Brace, whose
face was getting terribly swelled.

"Strikes me," said Briscoe, "that we'd better go ashore and sleep there
after making up a good smother on the fire with green stuff that will
smoke well. There's plenty about."

This was agreed to unanimously after an announcement from the mate that,
if they were to spend the night ashore, a proper watch would have to be
set and kept.

After the necessary preparations had been made in the dry,
slightly-raised clearing in the middle of which the fire had been
lighted, the party covered themselves with their blankets and rejoiced
in the success of the plan, for the smoke rose and in the moist night
air hung low, spreading itself out in a thin layer a few feet from the
ground; and beneath this canopy the weary party lay down to sleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

THE CREW DOWN WITH THE GOLDEN FIT.

The gold had got into Brace's head so much that, though he fell off fast
asleep directly, it was only to begin dreaming of the sand and gravel
beneath the swiftly-flowing shallow water, the ruddy pebbles seeming to
change when he turned them over with his foot as he stood ankle-deep,
for they grew yellower and glistened, till upon stooping to pick one up
he saw that all he had supposed to be stones were really nuggets of
gold.

He was about to stoop and pick up all he could gather, when he suddenly
felt a sharp pain in his right ankle, and to his horror found that a
tremendous shoal of the tiny