ame. They've
chucked the pegs out, and there was no one there to stop 'em. It's their
claim."

A murmur, half-assenting, passed through the crowd, till it was checked
by the man who had stuck his pick in the ground by the deserted hole.

"My pegs was in," he exclaimed, "and if any one's took them out----"

"When you wasn't there," Palmer Billy interrupted, "why, them as shifted
the pegs jumps the claim."

He looked round for applause and support, and, receiving it, was
satisfied, until laughter mingled with the sounds of approval. The man
had profited by the judgment pronounced, and had dashed away to the
claim which Palmer Billy had pegged out for himself. He was in the act
of flinging away the pick which had been planted there when Palmer Billy
looked towards him. It was out of his hands and another one stuck in its
place by the time the indignant jurist and vocalist had reached the
spot. The remainder of the fossickers, also profiting by the judgment
and also by the example, scurried right and left to their respective
claims, and from the safety of their own ground proffered advice,
picturesque and soothing, to Palmer Billy, who was arguing and
gesticulating violently to the man who had jumped his claim.

Walker, still suffering from the kick he had received, took advantage of
the lull to sit down and abuse Gleeson.

"Call yourself a leader!" he grumbled. "Here's a pretty state of things!
If we ain't all killed in half an hour it won't be _your_ fault. I'm
full of your tricks, first losing our horses, then our----"

"If you don't like it, clear," Gleeson exclaimed, wheeling round
sharply. The treatment he had received at the hands of the fossickers
had not improved his temper, and there was trouble enough ahead from the
others without having it in his own camp.

"Clear?" Walker retorted. "Do you think I'm a jackeroo, or what? I'm on
my own claim. You and your mates can get off it as soon as you like."

"It's our claim; it belongs to the four of us," Gleeson answered
angrily.

"I pegged it out, and I was on it before you, and I'm not going any more
shares with you and your mates," Walker shouted; and the men on the
claims nearest caught the words, and withdrew their attention from the
wrangle between Palmer Billy and the jumper of his ground, in favour of
the squabble between the four discoverers of the field.

A wealth of suggestions came from every side, first to one set of
disputants, and then to the o