"You don't think the sneakin' thief will try to jump this here circus?" ejaculated Nuggety Dick.
"You may just bet your boots the same individual'll no work himsel' if he can find it already done for him," came the answer. "I shouldna wonder a bit if we have some trouble. What are you grinning at, you young baboon?" he demanded, turning to the Shadow, who appeared to find much cause for merriment in the doubtful state of things.
The Shadow subsided at once. "Man boss," he complained reproachfully, "does ye think we is a gentle little Sunday-school party, just waiting to be swallowed?"
Mackay snorted in disgust. "If it werena for these laddies," he said to himself, "I would dearly enjoy a scrimmage; but I seem to have become mair cautious since they've been wi' me. It's no richt that they should see the wickedness o' human nature in its worst aspect a' at aince."
"I see them coming!" cried Bob, who was scanning the horizon closely, and a dim sand cloud in the far eastward distance was sure enough evidence that the rush would ere long be in their midst. Soon the various outlines of horsemen and buggies could be traced amid the enveloping dust; quickly the frenzied gold-seekers drew near, and wild halloos mingled with the cracking of whips, and the laboured plunging of horses' hoofs on the ironshot sand plain. Ahead of the main party, mounted on a powerful bay horse, which he was cruelly spurring on to its last effort, rode Macguire, a tall, awkward brute of a man, whose heavy countenance as he came near, bore the exulting leer of the professional braggart and bully. At a mad gallop he forced his jaded beast right up to Nuggety Dick's shaft, then halted with a vicious jerk on the curb rein, and surveyed the awaiting group with a triumphant grin.
"So you thought you were goin' to run this show yourselves," he sneered from his position in the saddle.
"I guess you've struck it plumb first shot," calmly returned Emu Bill, rolling his quid in his mouth with evident relish, and ejecting a streak of tobacco juice which came dangerously near to finding a resting-place on the new-comer's boots.
Macguire snarled, and looked round to see if his satellites were near at hand, and, noting their close proximity, he jumped from his horse, threw the reins carelessly over a mulga sapling, and examined the stacked wash on the surface with unconcealed joy.
"An' who was the discoverer o' this bonanza?" he demanded, aggressively, addressing every one in general.
Nuggety Dick gave a snort of annoyance. "For a mean impertinent swab ye beat anything I've ever met," said he, in his politest tones. "An' if ye doesn't take yer miserable carcase clear o' my pegs instanter, ye'll find what ye're lookin' for in about two shakes o' a muskittie's eyelid."