he 'Ever Victorious' to spend this L400 in buying some fine screens, a
couple of grinding pans, and some other gold-saving machinery, so that
when I was not crushing stone for you men I could be running those
tailings through. But we can do better--now that the Chinamen are here."

Something like dismay was depicted on the men's faces when they heard
this, but no one interrupted as he went on--

"We can do much better. Instead of treating those tailings by simply
running them through the screens again and losing half the gold, we can
build a proper roasting farnaoe, and _then_ we can grind them, keeping
the stampers for crushing alone. This morning I had a long yarn with Ah
San, the boss Chinaman, and he is willing to let us have as many of his
men as we want for twenty-five shillings a week each, and indenture them
to me for six months--there's the labour we want, right to our hand.
It's cheap labour, I admit, but that is no concern of ours. The Chows,
so Ah San tells me, will be only too glad to get a six months' job at
twenty-five bob a week--of which he takes half."

"Aye," said Scott contemptuously, "they're only bloomin' slaves."

"To their boss, no doubt; but not to us. They will be well pleased to
work for us and earn what they consider good wages. I propose that we
get at least twenty of them and set them to work right away. There is
any amount of good clay here, I know, and we'll start them digging. I
know how to build a brick-kiln, and we'll get a proper bricklayer up
from the Bay, and I guarantee that by the time the new machinery is up
that the roasting furnace will be built."

"No need to get a bricklayer from the Bay and pay him about eight pound
a week," said a man named Arthur O'Hare; "I'm a bricklayer by trade."

"Bully for you," said Grainger; "will you take four pounds a week to put
up the furnace and chimney?"

"I'm willing, if my mates are."

"Well, boys, that's pretty well all I have to say. We'll build the
roasting furnace; the Chinamen will do all the bullocking{*} both at
that and the battery, and we'll put on half-a-dozen to help at the new
shaft. I'll boss the battery, drive the engine, and do the amalgamating,
and you men can go on roasting stone. Every Saturday we'll stop the
battery and clean her up, and at the end of every four weeks we'll send
the gold to the bank and go shares in the plunder. Now, tell me, what do
you think? Do you think it's a fair proposition?"

* "Bullo