"We'll divide the honours, Nuggety, my man," he answered magnanimously; and with one accord they all made their way to the tree behind Nuggety's tent to gaze at the symbol which justified Mackay's claim. There it was, cut deeply into the hard wood, and almost obliterated with enclustering moss, "J. M. 1898."
Bob examined the letters with something akin to awe. Jack laughed gleefully; the others crowding round seemed ill at ease. Mackay guessed their thoughts intuitively.
"My claim has lapsed, boys," he said quietly.
"Not by a single peg," protested Nuggety Dick. "We don't need no Government to tell us what to do. We know the ground is yours by the all-fired right o' discovery, a right which touches us right down on our most tender feelings."
"We've just struck it rich, but we'll git all the same," said Never Never Dave; and a sympathetic murmur of approval greeted his words. The bushman's code of honour is Spartan in its simplicity.
Again Mackay smiled, and all trace of hardness had gone out of his voice when he made answer.
"Boys, ye have spoken as I knew ye would speak, and it does my heart good to look at you all again, and feel that the same old sympathies are with us still. But the true discoverer of Golden Flat was the leader of the expedition who piloted his party so well until the end, and I ken he wouldna have me turn you away. No, boys, there's room enough for us all; my mates an' me will peg out claims at the end o' the lead; the chances o' strikin' the wash are a' equal." He paused, and gazed sadly at the half-obliterated inscription on the tree, unheedful of the deep appreciation with which his words were received. "If it's my good fortune to make a rise on Golden Flat," he continued, with grave solemnity, "I mean to devote it a' on an expedition into the Never Never. I want to see again that mountain which kept me back. I want to have a word with the tribe that lives behind it...."
"I'll be with you, Mac," quietly spoke Emu Bill.
"And me, fur a dead cert!" said Nuggety Dick.
"Put Never Never Dave's name on the programme," grunted that worthy.