"Don't move, Jack," said the Shadow's voice from somewhere behind him. "There's a black snake trying to snuggle into your trousers pocket. I'll spifflicate him in a jiff;" and he promptly gripped the intruding reptile by the tail, swung it once round his head, then cracked it as one might the lash of a whip, breaking its back in an instant.
"I suppose I'll get accustomed to it," said Jack, with a shudder.
"I'll show you how to slaughter them yourself to-morrow," comforted the Shadow.
"I say, Mackay," said Nuggety Dick, from his distant corner, "ye haven't told us about your trip to the old country yet! How did ye take to it after your ten years' Australian experience?"
But Mackay would only commit himself to one statement. "It's a grand country, Nuggety," said he, with impressive earnestness; "but it belongs to too few folk." Which enigmatical reflection seemed to give his hearers some food for thought.
CHAPTER IV The Treasure of the Mine
During the week that followed, the work at Golden Flat proceeded apace. Sinking operations were being conducted all along the line of the auriferous wash from Never Never Dave's shaft down to the Golden Promise Claim, and red-coloured flags were almost daily making their appearance on the various windlass heads, indicating that the fortunate owners of the claims had bottomed on gold. Never Never Dave's excavation, as has been already mentioned, struck the pay gravel at the ten-foot level, and that easy-going individual was leisurely engaged scooping out the rich conglomerate-looking cement while his neighbours were yet industriously seeking for the golden channel. Nuggety Dick was the next to reach it; his ground was directly adjacent to Dave's, yet his shaft was down fifteen feet before the welcome red symbol showed at his workings, thus indicating the gradual dip of the ancient waterway. Before the week was out, however, every shaft had bottomed on the golden gravel excepting that which Mackay, Bob, and Jack were sinking. But this delay in reaching the longed-for stratum in no way disconcerted Mackay.