ous figure down into the bunker, he had rolled down the inclined
heap of coals to the bottom, where half an hour later he was discovered
by the half-drunken coal trimmers, who at once summoned the chief
engineer, and Adlam was carried to his cabin, Swires opening the door
with the duplicate key he was allowed to possess. There was nothing in
the cabin to give rise to any suspicion--everything was in the usual
order; and it was naturally concluded that the purser had fallen down
into the bunkers in the darkness, and had struck his head, or that a
heavy piece of fallen coal had inflicted the terrible blow. No doctor
was available, and for many days he hovered between life and death,
unable to speak. It was only after the steamer arrived at Somerset that
medical assistance was obtained, and that Captain MacAlister opened the
safe, and found it rifled of all the cash it had contained--the bundle
of unsigned notes Adlam had given to the bank manager within an hour
after the steamer's arrival at Cooktown. Poor Adlam, still unconscious,
was sent to Brisbane. The disappearance of Swires led to the belief that
he was the perpetrator of the robbery, but Adlam, still unable to speak,
could not give any information on the subject. Gerrard and Fraser,
however, told the captain all they knew of Captain Forreste and his
friends, and in due time they were arrested at one of the mining camps
and brought back to Cooktown, charged with being concerned in the
affair. But there was not a tittle of evidence against them, and they
were discharged.

Another matter which had pleased Gerrard was that he had heard that
Randolph Aulain with a party of three, was working the head waters of
the little creek running into the Batavia, on which both he and Gerrard
had found gold, and that they had washed out some thousands of ounces.
But Aulain's expectation of being able to secure the usual Government
reward for the discovery of a payable and permanent gold-field was not
realised; the Mining Warden had reported adversely upon it as regarded
the latter essential qualification. Gerrard felt some surprise that
Aulain had not come to see him, for the "place with a hunking big
boulder standing in the middle of a deep pool," was only eighty miles
from Ocho Rios. But then, upon second thoughts, he concluded that the
_auri sacra fames_ had seized his friend too thoroughly in its grip--as
it always does the amateur digger, especially when he strikes upon
very