"Good luck to Golden Flat—and to its discoverer!" replied they all, standing up and drinking the toast heartily.
Shortly afterwards the three new-comers set off to peg out their claims on the golden channel, and erect their tent. The others would have accompanied them in a body to assist in the work, but Mackay, while thanking them, firmly refused their services.
"I want to initiate my partners into the rules o' the business," he explained, "an' the best way to teach them is by showing the way and watching them do it. No, no, boys, you had better go and burrow in your shafts, we'll engineer our own funeral."
The slight depression which indicated the presence of the golden channel below, ran in a north and southerly direction, and could be traced without difficulty for fully five hundred yards, after which it merged into the open plain, but the line of workings did not extend much more than halfway down this length.
"These old water-courses," said Bob, who had been thinking deeply, "must have belonged to a very ancient period, when the whole aspect of the country was different."
"And how so?" queried Mackay.
"Because," returned Bob, hesitatingly, "there are no mountains here now, no water-sheds at all, and the gold must have been carried by a flow of water from somewhere. The whole country must have been sunk under the sea, then, after a long time, upheaved again higher than it was before. The volcanic disturbances must have destroyed all its original features."
"Do you ken, Bob, my lad," said Mackay, earnestly, "I like to hear you speak like that. It shows ye've got some pro-fundity o' thought, an' I quite agree wi' your argument."
A cry of delight from Jack broke in on their geological discussion. That very eager youth had unconsciously adopted the tactics of the experienced prospector by eyeing the ground closely as he walked, and his keenness had not gone unrewarded, for he now displayed a dull yellow specimen between his finger and thumb.