"Who was it found the nugget?" Gleeson asked; and one of the men stepped forward, holding it out in his hand.
"Here it is--half an ouncer--good enough for stores for a month as we did it on Boulder Creek, salt horse once a day and flap-jack on Sundays," he said, with a laugh.
Gleeson and Walker looked at it critically and gave it back. Without a word they resumed the march through the bush. The ground sloped down in front of them, spa.r.s.ely timbered and well gra.s.sed, and in the distance they could see where it rose into a long rolling ridge. They were close at the foot of the rise before they noticed a small creek running over a gravelly bed and, beyond it, the framework of a tent and a lean-to covered with boughs.
Gleeson and Walker both uttered exclamations as they saw the bare forks and ridge-pole of the tent-frame, but the men behind did not pay any heed. They wanted no telling the creek was where the gold was to be found, and they scattered right and left as they rushed as fast as they could to the banks of the stream, each man, directly he came to the water, driving his pick into the ground and sitting on it. Two of them had met just by the ruins of the tent, and while one stuck his pick into the ground on one side of the stream, the other splashed through the water and performed the same operation on the other side, so close to where a hole had been dug that when he sat on his pick-handle, he dangled his legs over the edge of the hole.
"Here, that"s our claim. You"ll have to clear out of that," Gleeson shouted as he rushed up.
"That"s our shaft," Walker yelled as he rushed up to the man sitting over the hole.
A shout of derision came from the two men, and was echoed up and down the creek as each fossicker turned round to enjoy the spectacle of a "jump" at the outset of the field. Most of the men having stuck their picks in their claims, sat on them, and adorned them with various bits of rag to serve as banners of occupation. Being all neighbours from Boulder Creek, they could trust one another, and were satisfied to leave their patches under the protection of their "pegs," more especially as things were becoming decidedly lively round what was already referred to as the "reward" claim.
From shouting at one another, one side threatening and the other defying, Walker had made a feint at the man by the hole. He, having lived for many a year in the hope of one day pegging out his own patch of alluvial on a new rush, would have defied dynamite to move him now that he had his pick in the ground, now that he had performed all that the unwritten but eternal laws of the mining fraternity needed to give him sole and absolute rights over the few square yards of earth and all the precious mineral he could win from it. He took the feint seriously, and, being at a disadvantage in his sitting position, he threw up one leg to guard himself and equalize matters. The heavy boot he was wearing carried his foot farther than he intended, or Walker was nearer than _he_ intended, for the boot came into violent contact with the pit of his stomach, and he rolled over on the other man"s ground, gurgling and gasping.
Gleeson, only seeing him fall, thought an attack was imminent, and flashed out a revolver from his pocket. In a moment the attack was imminent, and in full swing. The Boulder Creekers had had many a quarrel and many a row amongst themselves, but never had a man drawn a revolver or a knife. Gleeson"s action decided his chances.
"A darned dirty I-talyan," Palmer Billy shouted; "_and_ on a white man"s claim. Roll in, diggers."
A dozen outraged and indignant diggers responded. The revolver was knocked up and out of Gleeson"s hand, and went spinning high into the air through a well-aimed blow from a spare pick-handle. It went off as it struck the ground, and the bullet whizzed over the heads of the men in the _melee_; but they were too busy to notice it. A couple of fists. .h.i.t one another in their haste to reach Gleeson"s eyes; several more went home on different parts of his body at the same moment; and thereafter, for the s.p.a.ce of a few minutes, the first arrivals on the new field, with the exception of Walker, who was knocked out, were a perspiring, swearing, struggling pile of humanity.
When they managed to extricate themselves, Palmer Billy was the last to rise from the ground. He had suffered somewhat in the scrimmage, and his nose was bleeding freely, but he looked round without malice upon his panting comrades as he said, slowly and savagely--
"A darned dirty I-talyan; _and_ on a white man"s claim."
Then it was that they had time to observe what had escaped their notice in the rough-and-tumble of the _melee_. As the men crowded round Gleeson, like bees round a sugar-bag, thirsting to wreak their vengeance upon him for introducing into the community weapons which were not possessed by all, they forgot the prostrate Walker, as well as Peters and Tony. That there were neither revolvers nor knives among the Creekers was more due to lack of means to purchase them than to moral superiority, or any religious qualms as to the shedding of another man"s blood. Revolvers were useless without ammunition, and ammunition cost money; knives which were useful in a fight, were also eligible for trading purposes as a medium of exchange for flour and tobacco: consequently both were absent from the movable property of the average fossicker of Boulder Creek. That they were in the possession of the men who had stumbled on payable gold within a day"s march of the creek was a further incentive to envy on the part of the Creekers; hence the haste of each man to vent his anger on Gleeson.
It was their very haste which defeated their object. Peters and Tony, standing back from the others, saw how it was going with Gleeson the moment he showed his revolver. As the mob closed in on him and bore him down by sheer force of numbers, Peters darted for the revolver when it struck the earth, and Tony, rushing to the rescue of Gleeson, saw how the crowd, in their hurry to reach their victim, were hitting and pushing one another, while he was struggling to escape between their legs. There were more on one side than the other, and to the weakest side Tony ran, succeeding, with Peters"s help, in extricating the struggling Gleeson while yet the mob meted out severe punishment on one another. By the time that they had separated and Palmer Billy had picked himself up, the four were grouped round the ruins of the deserted camp, each with a revolver in his hand. The picks that had been driven in the ground were lying on the other side of the creek.
The Creekers, convinced individually that they had effectually disposed of Gleeson, stood for a few moments, forgetful of the blows and bruises they had received in the scuffle, as they saw their victim standing unharmed before them. Palmer Billy moved a few steps towards the four, and the others, formed into an irregular line behind him, advanced at the same time.
"Stop where you are, or----" Gleeson cried, as he raised the revolver and covered Palmer Billy.
There was silence amongst the Creekers, for the situation had changed since the moment when they yelled for revenge in unison with Palmer Billy. "The darned dirty I-talyan" was alone and practically unprepared then--he was back with his mates now; and while they were armed, the Creekers were not. Palmer Billy sized up the situation quickly and shrewdly. He turned slowly to his comrades, with one arm extended and pointing to the four.
"What sort!" he exclaimed hilariously. "They"ve jumped the jumpers!
We"re bluffed at our own game, boys; bluffed at our own game. They"ve chucked the pegs out, and there was no one there to stop "em. It"s their claim."
A murmur, half-a.s.senting, pa.s.sed through the crowd, till it was checked by the man who had stuck his pick in the ground by the deserted hole.
"My pegs was in," he exclaimed, "and if any one"s took them out----"
"When you wasn"t there," Palmer Billy interrupted, "why, them as shifted the pegs jumps the claim."
He looked round for applause and support, and, receiving it, was satisfied, until laughter mingled with the sounds of approval. The man had profited by the judgment p.r.o.nounced, and had dashed away to the claim which Palmer Billy had pegged out for himself. He was in the act of flinging away the pick which had been planted there when Palmer Billy looked towards him. It was out of his hands and another one stuck in its place by the time the indignant jurist and vocalist had reached the spot. The remainder of the fossickers, also profiting by the judgment and also by the example, scurried right and left to their respective claims, and from the safety of their own ground proffered advice, picturesque and soothing, to Palmer Billy, who was arguing and gesticulating violently to the man who had jumped his claim.
Walker, still suffering from the kick he had received, took advantage of the lull to sit down and abuse Gleeson.
"Call yourself a leader!" he grumbled. "Here"s a pretty state of things!
If we ain"t all killed in half an hour it won"t be _your_ fault. I"m full of your tricks, first losing our horses, then our----"
"If you don"t like it, clear," Gleeson exclaimed, wheeling round sharply. The treatment he had received at the hands of the fossickers had not improved his temper, and there was trouble enough ahead from the others without having it in his own camp.
"Clear?" Walker retorted. "Do you think I"m a jackeroo, or what? I"m on my own claim. You and your mates can get off it as soon as you like."
"It"s our claim; it belongs to the four of us," Gleeson answered angrily.
"I pegged it out, and I was on it before you, and I"m not going any more shares with you and your mates," Walker shouted; and the men on the claims nearest caught the words, and withdrew their attention from the wrangle between Palmer Billy and the jumper of his ground, in favour of the squabble between the four discoverers of the field.
A wealth of suggestions came from every side, first to one set of disputants, and then to the other, until the arrival of another party added to the confusion.
Gathering the nature of the babel, the new-comers quietly pa.s.sed up and down the creek, pegging out their claims on either side of those already occupied before they turned their attention to the disputes, yelling out their views and opinions until the noise of the shouting reached other approaching parties and hastened their advance.
"It seems to me it"s no use fooling round like this," Peters exclaimed, when for a moment there was silence between Gleeson and Walker. "If he wants the claim, let him have it, and we"ll shove along up the creek.
Come on, Tony, my lad; there"s no points in this game."
He slung his swag over his shoulder, and Tony did the same. Their action was greeted with derisive cheers from the men scattered along the banks of the creek. Palmer Billy, beaten in the matter of words, came to meet them as they started up the rise beyond the creek.
"There"s no luck where there ain"t no "armony," he said, with aggressive earnestness in his voice. "If me and my accordion gets the shove-along, we takes it; and as for them hungry gully-sc.r.a.pers--darned dirty I-talyans, _I_ call them--why, let "em rake the creek by theirselves; there"s water in it, and some of that won"t hurt some of them, either outside or in. Misters, if you likes "armony, I"m with you; if you don"t----"
Gleeson, seeing the other two set out up the rise, hurried after them, his departure also being greeted with a burst of derisive cheers. He came up with them in time to interrupt Palmer Billy"s sentence.
Recognizing the leader of the recent attack on himself, Gleeson looked at him angrily.
"Darned dirty I-talyans, _I_ call "em," Palmer Billy said, as his eyes met those of Gleeson. "It"s no white man"s field, no place for us to stay--only fit for I-talyans and such-like coloured labour."
Gleeson turned away to Peters.
"Which route are you taking?" he asked.
"Over the rise," Peters answered.
"It"s good enough," Gleeson replied.
"Oh, good enough? You bet, mister; this is a miner or I"m a rouse-about," Palmer Billy put in, with a nod towards Peters. "A white man, mister, if I make no error, and, as such, a mate of mine."
"See here," Gleeson exclaimed angrily, facing him.
"That"s all right, mister," Palmer Billy interrupted quickly. "I understand how it was. You never meant to lose me my claim, seeing you"re a white man and me another, and these here, too. But you didn"t know them darned dirty I-talyans as I did, mister; so, as the song has it, "kick at troubles when they come, boys," and we"ll set up a four-handed camp of our own, and take the shine out of everywhere.
You"ve got the tucker and I"ve got the "armony, and we"ve all got the savee of white men and the grit of miners. Come along, boys; there"s no malice on my side."
He set off as he spoke, and Peters looked round at Gleeson.
"It"s an improvement on Walker," he said. "What do you say, Tony?"
"I"m on," Tony answered.
"Then it"s good enough," Gleeson replied; and the three followed after Palmer Billy up the rise.