o talk. You heard how he snubbed the reporter!"

"I know. I heard him. He's square, is Clem. But I ain't never yet
asked him what I said, down there in the mine. It's been eatin' me,
all the time I've been lyin' here. To think I kep' it quiet all these
years, an' then go blurt it out, jest 'cos I was hungry!"

"You haven't any reason to blame yourself for that, you were
unconscious. And, like you, I believe Clem is as straight as a
string."

"Ay," agreed Jim, "he shows color in every pan (specks of gold in
every handful of washed sand). I'd ha' gone West, judgin' from what he
said the other day, if it hadn't been for him."

"You certainly would."

"An' that makes us pards (partners) in a way, don't it?"

Jim paused, and then burst out again, "But I can't help wonderin'
jest how much I told!"

"You'll have to ask Clem that. You remember, he said nothing to the
reporter except that, in your delirium you were talking about gold."

"Gold! Did I say gold? Are you dead sure that I said gold?"

"That's what Clem told, anyway."

"Then I must sure ha' been dreamin'!" Jim's tone was both embarrassed
and evasive.

Owens saw, at once, by the prospector's manner that he was nervously
fearful of having betrayed himself and that he wanted to drop the
subject. This seemed a sure sign that the hinted discovery was true.

It was a ticklish moment. The mine-owner realized that if the matter
were dropped, now, he might never have another chance to get back to
it. Any attempt on his part to renew the subject would be sure to
arouse Jim's suspicion. If he were to be of any service to the old
prospector, he must seize the present opportunity.

"Too bad that it isn't gold then," he said, half commiseratingly.
"There's nothing in all the world that can make a man rich in a
minute, as gold can. I saw that, often enough, in Australia. That's
the land of nuggets, Jim, big ones! Most of them were found by sheer
luck, and it was poor men who found them, too, mostly.

"The Australian black-fellows--pretty much savages, those
fellows--knew gold, long before the white men came. They used to make
their javelin-heads of gold because it's the easiest metal to work,
when cold, and is found pure.

"So it was not so surprising, Jim, that one of the first big gold
finds was made by a black-fellow, a husky tattooed chap who owned no
property except a small apron of matting for his middle, a bunch of
feathers for his hair, a long-handled ston