In vain Nuggety and his approved companion protested against this apportionment of their duties; innumerable reasons were advanced to show how essential it was that they should remain, and ultimately they agreed to the inevitable. Mackay had spoken truly when he said that Nuggety Dick was a most accomplished miner; he had been stricken with the gold fever in his early youth, and had never recovered. It was almost a mania with him to discover new fields; his aptitude for locating the powerful talisman was nothing short of marvellous. But Emu Bill, though he chased up the golden gleam with hopeful persistency, really, like all restless natures, found his pleasure in the seeking rather than in the finding. He was a bushman every inch of him, and no more valuable associate for a risky journey into the heart of Australia could be found, as Mackay well knew. As for Never Never Dave, his name had been earned for him by his wide perambulations over the untrodden tracts; his worth as a bushman was known throughout the land.
"But what about me?" pleaded the Shadow. "I has no one to look after my claim, for I hasn't had no mate, but I reckon the old mine has done pretty well by me, an' I won't kick about leaving it."
"How much o' the stuff do ye think is left in your shaft?" demanded Mackay.
"About thirty tons, I reckon."
"Why, we'll go and help you to dig that out," cried Jack.
"And I'll run it through the vat in a couple of days," added Bob.
"You see, Shadow," said Mackay, quizzically, "we canna vera weel do without you."
"Then I'll be the sixth man?" cried the youth, delighted beyond measure.
"You will that if ye promise never to sing 'The Muskittie's Lament' without givin' due warning. You'd mak' us think the niggers were comin' for us every time ye tackled that high note."
"I reckon I'll get an accordion——" But the Shadow got no further.