of
a couple of ounces. Next they had "fossicked" with sheath-knives in the
crevices of the rocks, and had quickly got something more than half a
cupful of gold, in shape and size like pumpkin seeds. The day following,
they continued to "pan off" the sands in front of their tent; each dish
yielding a handsome return. But as Benjamin found this process difficult
in his unskilful hands, he directed his attention to looking for new
patches. Wading about in the shallows with a dish in one hand and a
shovel in the other, he overturned loose bits of rock which he found
lying on the sand. Sometimes he would find an ounce or two, sometimes
nothing at all; but upon turning over a flat slab of rock, to raise
which needed all his strength, he gave a whoop of delight, for a yellow
mass lay glittering in the rippling waters. With a single scoop of his
shovel he had won 80 ozs. of gold.

This rich spot was where the water was but two feet deep, and above it
and below it gold could be seen shining amongst the sand and gravel.
When the cream of the claim, so to speak, had been skimmed off with the
tin dish, the men began to set up sluice boxes, by means of which they
might work the whole of their ground systematically.

In constructing these boxes they received every help from Moonlight, who
lent them tools, and aided them in cutting out the slabs. Left mateless
during Scarlett's visit to Timber Town, the veteran miner frequently
exchanged his lonely camp for the more congenial quarters of Tresco and
the Prospector.

It was during one of the foregatherings round the camp-fire, when Night
had spread her sable mantle over the sleeping earth, and only the
wakeful wood-hen and the hoarsely-hooting owl stirred the silence
of the leafy solitude, that Moonlight was "swapping" yarns with the
Prospector. As the flames shot up lurid tongues which almost licked the
overhanging boughs, and the men sat, smoking their black tobacco, and
drinking from tin pannikins tea too strong for the urban stomach, Bill
the Prospector expectorated into the flames, and said:

"The biggest streak o' luck I ever had--barring this present field, you
understand--was at the Diamond Gully rush. There weren't no diamonds,
but I got over 100 ounces in three days. Gold was more plentiful than
flour, and in the police camp there was two safes full of gold belonging
to the Bank, which was a twelve by eight tent, in charge of a young
feller named Henery. A more trusting yo