oating, doubtless to assist in its
preservation. If such was the purpose of the treatment, it had
succeeded fairly well; but the outer or top layer of the cloth covering
the mouth of the jar had rotted and split here and there. The second
layer, however, was in a very fair state of preservation, and the other
two layers were perfect, proving on examination to be a coarse kind of
linen which had either been steeped in or painted over with a
composition which felt waxy to the touch, and imparted a yellowish tinge
to the fabric.

Ned's knife quickly severed the cord, which, however, was so rotten that
it came to pieces during the process of unwinding, and he then uncovered
the mouth of the jar and peered down into it. The vessel was full of a
coarse, dull, yellow glistening sand, a handful of which the young
fellow quickly removed and carried out into the daylight. He was back
again in a moment, exclaiming to Sibylla in a tone of exultant
astonishment:

"It is _gold-dust_, Miss Stanhope! gold-dust, and our fortunes are
made!"

"I am very glad indeed to hear it," answered Sibylla. "But are you
quite sure you are not mistaken? How do you know it is gold-dust?"

"I know by the look and weight of it," answered Ned. "I have seen too
much gold-dust in Australia to be deceived in such a matter. Look at it
and feel it for yourself--note the weight of a handful of it, and you
will be satisfied that I am right. I expect the contents of all these
jars are the same, but I will open one or two more just to satisfy
myself."

He did so, and found his conjecture to be correct--the additional three
which he opened were all full of gold-dust like the first.

"What shall we tackle next?" asked Ned. "That big bale looks as though
it ought to contain something valuable; I think I will pursue my
investigations in that direction."

The bale, which had an outer covering of wax-cloth of a much coarser
texture than that which closed the mouth of the jars, proved to be too
heavy for Ned to move unaided; so his knife was again brought into
requisition, and the cloth--which was still tough enough to offer a
slight resistance to the blade--was ripped open from end to end of the
bale. The orifice thus made disclosed to view a firmly packed mass of
several sorts of fabrics, neatly folded, and laid one upon the top of
the other. The first three or four layers consisted of fine linen cloth
dyed a deep rich purple hue. Then came severa