R. K. Hervey

“ Brady,” said Steele, “there isn’t a better hound in these colonies, but I don’t mean to part with him just yet, thank you.”
“Why, you half-starved miserable old skeleton, what good is he to you? Any cur will serve your turn. I wonder you can manage to keep a rat out of your scurvy earnings.”
“That’s my business, Mr. Brady; but I tell you once more that I don’t mean to sell him. Besides, if I did, he’s a queer customer, and would never make friends with any one but me.” ”

“ Watchman uttered a low, savage growl, and as the drunken trooper stooped to lay hold of him by the collar, sprang straight at his throat. Over went Brady backwards, with the dog on the top of him. We all rushed to the rescue, and after a good deal of trouble managed to compel the infuriated animal to relax its hold. Brady’s stock had saved him from much damage, but the minute he regained his legs, he snatched the knife out of my mate’s belt and rushed at the dog again. ”

“ You remember that all the gold out of Nuggety Gully was precisely such as that we have at home, rough and shotty, whilst that out of Chinaman’s, and nine-tenths of that out of the flat, was smooth and water-worn. This leads me to think that, even if there was some slight communication between the two leads, there must have been another channel down which the greater part of the Nuggety gold took its way, otherwise, as it was much the richer of the gullies, the rough gold must have largely preponderated over the water-worn in the flat, while the very opposite was the case. ”

“ I didn’t live on the flat, for the fellows who congregated about there were such a rowdy lot that my mate and I preferred taking up our abode at the head of one of the small gullies in the neighbourhood. Only one other person lived near us, and that was an old fellow named Steele, who occupied a log-hut about a couple of hundred yards from our tent. He had been on the diggings ever since the first, and had never been known to work with a mate; in fact, from his lonely habits he was known far and wide as “the Hatter.” ”

“ However, my mate had unfortunately taken a little more than was good for him, and obstinately refused to stir, and as I did not choose to leave him when in that state I had to sit down again. Brady did his best to quarrel with some one, but as he was pretty well known to us all, every one was careful not to give him a chance. However, as bad luck would have it, who should enter the store to make some purchases but the Hatter, accompanied by his dog.
“Hallo, Hatter!” shouted Brady, “what will you take for that animal of yours? I want a good kangarooer, and he seems one of the right sort.” ”

“ The dirt was well watered and stirred about until all the clay was gone, and then the gravel that remained was emptied into the wash-pan. Now came the anxious moment. All heads were thrust forward to watch. ”

“ What is left wouldn’t keep a Chinaman. We haven’t got a pound in the world; and Sydney Bill, who is the only store-keeper left who will give us tick, talks of going up to the Avoca next week. He had a letter from there to-day, to say that things were pretty brisk, so he called me in this evening, as I was passing, to tell me the news, and when he heard of our bad luck, shouted any amount of old tom, to keep up our spirits, like a good fellow, as he is.”
“Yes, he is a true digger,” said Jackson. “Make it easily, spend it quickly, is his motto ”

“ I got about three tubs of stuff out of it, which yielded what you see on the table, and pretty mad our Scotch friends would be, to be sure, if they knew that they had left behind them untouched the best bit in their hole.”
“Why, really, I think,” said I, “that our luck must be going to take a turn. So let’s have a try at your Nuggety Gully lead, and welcome. But, as I haven’t been in a bed these ten nights, I will just recruit myself beforehand with a good dose of sleep.” ”

“ When he first began at it some few trials of the stuff were made by others, but as they never could manage to hit upon anything payable, he was soon left in undisturbed possession of his hill-side, out of which it was generally imagined that he contrived to extract a bare livelihood and no more. ”