are doing badly; in that case, why
should you not let me lend you a hand? There's no disgrace in being
unlucky. Here men are unlucky one week, and make a rich strike on the
week following, and then they can lend a hand to others, just as a hand
may have been lent to them when they wanted it. I think by your accent
that you are an Englishman, and an educated one, just as I am myself.
Why on earth don't you let me be a friend to you?"

The man did not reply; but Frank could guess by the random way in which
he was doing his work, that a struggle was going on.

"He would not hear of it," he said at last.

"Then don't let him hear of it," Frank said promptly. "If he has any
mistaken ideas about taking help from a stranger, the sort of ideas one
would naturally have at home, and is ill and wants something, we must
help him in spite of himself. If, as I suspect, he needs other matters
as well as medicine, you should provide him, even if it be necessary to
carry out a little harmless deception."

"I would not tell him a lie," the man said, almost fiercely.

"No, there's no occasion for that," Frank went on. "You can tell him
that you have come across that nugget in the claim," and Frank tossed
into the hole a nugget for which he had half an hour before given a
digger ten dollars from his own store.

For a moment the man stood irresolute, and then burst into a passion of
tears. Frank saw that he had gained the day, and saying, "I will come
round for a chat to-morrow afternoon. That's my camp up there--that tent
just on the ridge. I have really medicines, if you think they will be
of any use," strolled away to his supper. He glanced round when he had
gone a little distance, and saw the digger running at full speed towards
the solitary tent.

The next evening the young man dropped his shovel as he approached him,
and came to meet him.

"I did not thank you last night," he began.

"Nonsense," Frank said, interrupting; "there is no occasion whatever for
thanks. Why, it's the custom here, whenever any one is taken ill, or is
unfortunate, and has to move on, a few friends, or, as it often happens,
a few strangers, will each chip in a pinch of gold dust to help him on.
It's the rule here that we stand by each other, and being both
Englishmen, it is natural we should lend each other a hand. How is your
mate?"

"He is a good deal better, thanks to the food I was able to get for him;
for, as you guessed, we have been nearly st