ese others. He had no understanding whatever of
the meaning of wealth. And the greed of gold had left him quite
untouched. His was the virile, healthy enthusiasm for a quest for
something which was hidden there in the wonderful auriferous soil, a
quest that the heart of any live man is ever powerless to resist.

With him it would last till sundown, maybe, and after that the fever
would pass from his veins. Then the claims of the life that had always
been his would reassert themselves.

After a while the Padre's thoughts drifted to the pressing
considerations of the future. Several times he had heard the shouts of
men who had turned a nugget up in the gravel. And at each such cry he
had seen the rush of others, and the feverish manner in which they
took possession of the spot where the lucky individual was working and
hustled him out. It was in these rushes that he saw the danger lying
ahead.

Hitherto these men had been accustomed to the slow process of washing
"pay-dirt." It was not only slow, but unemotional. It had not the
power to stir the senses to a pitch of excitement like this veritable
Tom Tiddler's ground, pitchforked into their very laps by one of
Nature's freakish impulses.

With this thought came something very like regret at the apparent
richness of the find. Something must be done, and done without delay,
to regulate the situation. The place must be arranged in claims, and
definite regulations must be laid down and enforced by a council of
the majority. He felt instinctively that this would be the only way to
avert a state of anarchy too appalling to contemplate. It would be an
easy matter now, but a hopeless task to attempt later on. Yes, a big
trouble lay in those rushes, which seemed harmless enough at present.
And he knew that his must be the work of straightening out the
threatened tangle.

But for the moment the fever must be allowed to run riot. It must work
itself out with the physical effort of hard muscles. In the calm of
rest after labor counsel might be offered and listened to. But not
until then.

So that memorable day wore on to its close. The luck had come not in
the petty find such as these men had looked for, but in proportions of
prodigal generosity such as Nature sometimes loves to bestow upon
those whom she has hit the hardest. She had called to her aid those
strange powers of which she is mistress and hurled them headlong to do
her bidding. She had bestowed her august consent,