o were having a last carouse--for the "benefit" of the landlord---ere
they bade goodbye to Chinkie's Flat on the following evening. Among them
were two men who had become possessed of the "Ever Victorious" battery,
left to them by the recently deceased "Taeping," who had succumbed to
alleged rum and bad whiskey. They jocularly offered Grainger the
entire plant for twenty-five pounds and his horses. He made a laughing
rejoinder and said he would take a look at the machine in the morning.
He meant to have a long spell, he said, and Chinkie's Flat would suit
him better than Townsville or Port Denison to pull up, as hotels there
were expensive and he had not much money. Then, as was customary, he
returned the drink he had accepted from them by shouting for all hands,
and was at once voted "a good sort."

In the morning he walked down to the deserted battery, examined it
carefully, and found that although it was in very bad order, and
deficient especially in screens--the one greatest essential--it was
still capable of a great deal of work. Then he washed off a dish or two
of tailings from one of the many heaps about, and although he had no
acid, nor any other means of making a proper test in such a short time,
his scientific knowledge acquired on the big gold-fields of the
southern colonies and New Zealand showed him that there was a very
heavy percentage of gold still to be won from the tailings by simple and
inexpensive treatment.

"I'll buy the thing," he said to himself; "I can't lose much by doing
so, and there's every chance of saving a good deal of gold, if I once
get some fine screens, and that will only take six weeks or so."

By noon the "deal" was completed, and in exchange fer twenty-five
pounds in cash, six horses and their saddlery, Grainger, amid much
good-humoured chaff from the vendors, took possession of the "Ever
Victorious" crushing mill, together with some thousands of tons of
tailings, but when he announced his intention of putting the plant in
order and crushing for the "public" generally, as well as for himself,
six men who yet had some faith in the field and believed that some
of the many reefs would pay to work, elected to stay, especially when
Grainger said that if their crushings turned out "duffers" he would
charge them nothing for using the battery.

At one o'clock that day there were but eight Europeans and one black
boy left on the once noisy Chinkie's Flat--the landlord of "The Digger's
B