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
hit 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 space 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 c