ht of the rough, bark-roofed shed with
uncovered sides, which contained the battery plant, and Fraser's
equally unpretentious dwelling, which, with three or four miners' huts
constituted the camp. A bright, brawling little mountain stream, with
high banks lined with the graceful whispering she-oaks, gave a pleasant
and refreshing appearance to the scene, and the clash and rattle of the
heavy stampers as they crushed the golden quartz, echoed and re-echoed
among the rugged tree clad range.

A big, broad-shouldered man of about sixty years of age, who was engaged
in thrusting a log of ironbark wood into the boiler furnace, turned
as he heard Forde's loud _coo-e-e!_ and came towards them. He was
bareheaded, and clad in a coarse flannel singlet, and dirty moleskin
pants, with knee-boots; and his perspiring face was streaked with oil
and grease from the engine. Taking a piece of cotton-waste from his
belt, he wiped his hands leisurely as the three travellers dismounted.

"Father," said Kate, "I couldn't find the horses. But I 'found' Mr
Forde, and this is Mr Gerrard, who is going to Kaburie, and who has
promised to camp here to-night."

"Glad to see you," and the big man shook hands with Gerrard; "how are
you, Forde? Get along up to the house, Kate, and I'll follow you soon.
Give Forde and Mr Gerrard towels. I daresay they'll be glad of a bathe
in the creek before supper. You know where the whisky is, parson. Help
yourself and Mr Gerrard."

"How is she going, father?" asked Kate.

"Oh! just the same, about half an ounce or so."

("She", in miners' parlance, was the stone then being crushed--a
crushing is always a "she." Sometimes "she" is a "bully-boy with a glass
eye; going four ounces to the ton." Sometimes "she" is a "rank duffer."
Sometimes "she" is "just paying and no more.")

Simple as was the girl's question, Gerrard noted the grey shadow of
disappointment in her dark eyes, as her father replied to it, and a
quick sympathy for her sprung up in his heart. And to Fraser himself he
had taken an instantaneous liking. Those big, light-grey Scotsman's eyes
with their heavy brows of white overshadowing, and the rough, but genial
voice reminded him of his brother-in-law Westonley.

"I'll give the old man a lift," he said to himself, as he walked beside
Kate to the house.

"What are you thinking of, Mr Fraser?" asked Kate, "I really believe you
are talking to yourself."

"Was I?" he laughed, "it is a habit of mine