"That's good enough for us," responded the sprightly battery owner, and he turned to his awaiting companion. "Up she goes, Jim," said he.
They sought a suitable site some little way off, where the chances of striking water at no great depth promised favourably, and before the day was done Golden Flat battery was almost ready to begin work.
"They'll get a bit o' a shock when they tackle the miradgy clayey stuff," Mackay murmured, as he watched the enterprising builders, "but I don't suppose they'd believe me if I told them about it. Anyhow, we can realize now on what we've got on the surface. For the rest, we must trust to Bob's discovery."
It would be difficult to imagine the metamorphosis the quiet Flat underwent in that short week. Tents scattered everywhere, and the air was never free from the shattering roar of exploding gelignite, which indicated how earnestly the new-comers were endeavouring to bottom on their claims.
During this strenuous period in the life of the Flat, work at the Golden Promise mine proceeded surely and steadily, and the wash-dirt was accumulating in great piles at the shaft head. In view of the watchful eyes of a section of the community given to legitimate claim jumping, the Shadow had gone back to his own workings, where, by the occasional assistance of Emu Bill, he succeeded in excavating his ground to excellent purpose. Bob now took his old place in the subterranean chamber of the mine, though Mackay was loth indeed to permit it.
"I would rather see ye riggin' up the process on a big scale," he said. "Still, it's maybe just as well to keep it quiet for a bit, until we see what happens when the loafing gang next us bottoms on the mirage."
Bob thought so too. His sympathies were all indeed with the hard-working miners who were battling away so persistently at the remote ends of the Flat; but to confer a benefit on the men who would so meanly have stolen his own and companions' holdings! It was scarcely natural that he should view such an idea with any favour, especially when there were many honest toilers around who might have a chance to secure a portion of the ground held by the gang should they decide to abandon it, for their pegs confined a nine-man allotment, an area which, with the claims of their own party, practically covered the known auriferous ground of the Flat.
"If the beggars once bottomed on that deceptive compound," said he, grimly, to himself, "I don't think they would wait much longer. The gold that vanisheth would be too much for them."
But Macguire's satellites in no way hurried the sinking of their many shafts, indeed, it soon became apparent that they were rather retarding operations for a purpose. Jack was one of the first to notice this odd dilatoriness.
"They've had three misfires in the shaft next to us to-day," said he, as Mackay and Bob emerged from their labours one evening. Jack had been on windlass duty, and so from his high post could not fail to observe the progress made during the day on the mines in his near vicinity.