together she overcame her
hysteria, and attempted to speak calmly.

"I shall be better in a minute... empty it out on the table, please...
Banks says it is another outcrop of the old Canton Reef."

Harrington picked up the saddle-pouch, and putting it on the table,
turned up the lamp, and unfastened the straps; it was filled with pieces
of rough weather-worn quartz thickly impregnated with gold. The largest
piece contained more gold than quartz, and an involuntary cry of
astonishment and admiration burst from his lips as he held it to the
light.

Nellie's eyes sparkled with joy. "Isn't it lovely! I can't talk, my lips
are so dry."

Harrington dashed outside to the verandah filled a glass from the canvas
water-bag hanging from a beam overhead, and gave it to the exhausted
girl.

"Now don't you attempt to speak for five minutes."

"No, I won't," she said, with a faint smile, as she drank off the cold
water--and then at once began to tell him of her discovery.

"Sandy and I found the two cows and calves a mile this side of the
Canton Reef in a gully, but before we could head them off they had got
away into the ironbark ridges. Sandy told me to wait, and galloped after
them. I followed him to the top of the first ridge, and then pulled up,
and there, right under my horse's feet I saw a small 'blow' of quartz
sticking up out of the baked ground, and I saw the gold in it quite
plainly. Of course I was wildly excited, and jumped off. The stone was
quite loose and crumbly, and I actually pulled some pieces away with my
hands, and when I saw the thick yellow gold running all through it I sat
down and cried. Then I became so frightened that Sandy might not find
me again, for it would be dark in another hour, and so I ran up and down
along the ridge, listening for the sound of his stockwhip. And then I
went back towards the outcrop of the reef again, and half-way down I
picked up that big lump--it was half buried in the ground.... And
oh, Mr. Harrington, all that ridge is covered with it... I could have
brought away as much again, but Sandy had no saddle-pouch... and I was
dying to come home and tell you."

She breathed pantingly for a few minutes.

"It was nearly dark when Sandy came back. He had run the cattle on to a
camp about three miles away.... I don't know which pleased me most,
to get the cows so that poor Mable and Harry can have some milk in the
morning, or the gold.... Banks met us half-way from the Seven-m