Chinkie's Flat and Other Stories

pecting party which had done fairly well on the rivers debouching into

d leaving his station deeply mortgaged to the bank, which promptly foreclosed, and Mrs. Grainger found herself and two daughters dependent upon her only son, a boy of fifteen, for a living. He, however, was equal to the occasion. Leaving his mother and sisters in lodgings in Melbourne, he made his way to New South Wales with a mob of travelling cattle, earning his pound a week and rations. At Sydney he worked on the wharves as a lumper, and then joined in the wild rush to the famous Tambaroora diggings,

e great gulf, sometimes doing well, sometimes not getting enough gold to pay for the food they ate, but

their horses having died from eating "poison plant." Too weak to travel by land, they determined to build a raft and reach the mouth of the river, where there was a small cattle station.

heir lives from spear wounds, and all the others were wounded. Fortunately for the survivors, Grainger had his revolver in his belt, and this saved them, for he at once

d of a month one of Grainger's mates died of his wounds, and the other bade him goodbye and went off in a pearling lugger to Thursday Island, the leader sickened of Cape York Peninsula, and turned his face southwards once more, in the hope that fortune would be more kind to hi

passed ere he and the black boy reached the Cloncurry. Here, however, he found nothing to tempt him-the field was overcrowded, and every day brought fresh arri

ome green of the she-oaks fringing Connolly's Creek and soughing to the wind. The quietness and verdancy of the creek pleased him,

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

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 scientifi

g so, and there's every chance of saving a good deal of gold, if I o

ng 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 fai

ers, Grainger, and the black boy, "Jacky," who had accompanied him on his arduous journey from the Batavia River. At Grainger's request they all met at the

't think I shall lose it if you will agree to give some of the reefs a thorough good trial. As I told you, I won't ask you for a penny if the stone I crush for you turns out no good; but it is my belief-and I know what I am talking about-that there are a thousand tons of surface stuff lying around t

bullocking. But the battery is very old, and we have the idea that old Taeping wa

han 50 per cent, of the gold from the surface stuff he put through, and

cally asserted their intention of remaining on the field, assisting Grainger in rep

n the way of screens, grinding pans, quicksilver, and other gear. I'm almost convinced that with new, fine screens we shall get good results out of the stone, and if we

e of yacker, mister," sa

orses, and I'll ride down to the Bay.{*} I daresay I can get all that we want

of Townsville, then

uated on the shore

ried numberless prospects from all parts of the heaps of tailings. At the end of a week the miners began to raise some very likely-looking stone! and Grainger, finding some jars of muriatic acid among the stores belonging to the battery, made some

y, the black boy, was seen coming along the track at a fast canter. He had been out lookin

?" asked the men, as the

along road. Altogether thirty-one. Close to