letters had come to me from old comrades in Samoa and the Caroline
Islands, tempting me to return. And, of course, they did not tempt in
vain; for to us old hands who have toiled by reef and palm the isles of
the southern seas are for ever calling as the East called to Kipling's
soldier man. But another six months passed before I left North
Queensland and once more found myself sailing out of Sydney Heads on
board one of my old ships and in my old berth as supercargo, though,
alas! with a strange skipper who knew not Joseph, and with whom I and
every one else on board was in constant friction. However, that is
another story.

After bidding my mates farewell I returned to the Charters Towers
district and picked up a new mate--an old and experienced digger who had
found some patches of alluvial gold on the head waters of a tributary
of the Burdekin River and was returning there. My new mate was named
Gilfillan. He was a hardworking, blue-eyed Scotsman and had had many
and strange experiences in all parts of the world--had been one of
the civilian fighters in the Indian Mutiny, fur-seal hunting on the
Pribiloff Islands in an American schooner, and shooting buffaloes for
their hides in the Northern Territory of South Australia, where he had
twice been speared by the blacks.

On reaching the head waters of the creek on which Gilfillan had washed
out nearly a hundred ounces of gold some months previously, we found to
our disgust over fifty diggers in possession of the ground, which they
had practically worked out--some one had discovered Gilfillan's old
workings and the place was at once "rushed". My mate took matters very
philosophically--did not even swear--and we decided to make for the Don
River in the Port Denison district, where, it was rumoured, some rich
patches of alluvial gold had just been discovered.

We both had good horses and a pack horse, and as C------'s station lay
on our route and I had a standing invitation to pay him a visit (given
to me when he had met our party at Scares Creek), I suggested that we
should go there and spell for a few days. So there we went and C------
made us heartily welcome; and he also told us that the new rush on the
Don River had turned out a "rank duffer," and that we would only be
wearing ourselves and our horse-flesh out by going there. He pressed us
to stay for a week at least, and as we now had no fixed plans for the
future we were glad to do so. He was expecting a party of