ight and left, got more than ten times that amount in the first three
days.

"I could go on for hours, Jim, telling you about the Australian
gold-fields, but I've said enough to show you that I meant what I said
when I suggested that it was a pity that you hadn't found gold. The
mining of every other metal needs a lot of capital to begin with--as
gold does, when you begin to work a reef--but, in nearly every gold
deposit, there are placers or pockets where a man can clean up
quickly."

Jim's face was glowing with a lively interest. His excitement had
grown as the mine-owner proceeded.

"And these here nuggets," he queried, "what makes 'em? Where do they
come from? We don't find anything like that over here!"

"No," agreed Owens, "you don't. Chunks like 'The Welcome Stranger'
which sold for $48,000 and which was found right in the road, the
wheel of a passing wagon having cut through the soft earth and exposed
it, are peculiar to Australia. Even South Africa, which is the largest
gold-producing country in the world, hasn't any nuggets like that.

"As for where nuggets come from, Jim, that's a bit of a puzzle. Some
say they grew in the earth, water heavily laden with gold, depositing
more and more of the metal in the one place; other scientists claim
that the nuggets were made in the days when the earth was all fire,
and that the nuggets have been there ever since. Neither theory
answers all the facts. It's truer to say that we don't know, yet, how
nuggets came to be, nor why Australia has most of them.

"Some day, Jim, if you're interested, I'll try to explain to you the
geology of gold. It's pretty complicated. I did a lot of study on it,
when I was a young chap. Somehow, I seemed to be one of the men who
didn't have any luck at the diggings. So I took to assay work
(ore-testing), out there in Australia, and made more with my little
assay outfit than most of the miners did with their claims."

Jim propped himself up on one elbow and stared fixedly at the
mine-owner.

"You know how to make an assay, yourself?"

"Roughly, yes. Of course, only for field work, you understand. I don't
pretend to be a mineralogical chemist."

"You can do it yet?"

"I suppose so. I haven't done any for years. This coal-mine business
has kept me busy. But I've still got my portable assay outfit up at
the house. I kept it for old-time's sake."

Jim's eyes glistened eagerly.

"You go to my cabin, Owens," he said, and it was notic