"She is not likely to readily forget it, considering that Black Harry nearly beat her head in when he lost it in a deep water-hole on the creek where he was spearing fish. She and Moolong, that white-haired old native down at the camp, both say that it came from the head of a great valley which they call Whanga. They say it lies in the midst of the mountains that are beyond the ranges we can see from the Yarrun station. You know that Stevens, that shepherd we once had, said that he had seen great blue-peaked mountains from the ranges when he went into them searching for that missing flock we never found. Don't you remember?"
"Yes; and we thought he had never been to the ranges at all, and was only 'blowing.'"
"It seems he wasn't, for all of them down at the gunyahs" (huts) "tell me the same story. It is rather difficult to make out their meaning, as you know, but, as far as I can understand, they say that Black Harry found the nugget in a sort of deep hole in the basin of a waterfall at the end of this Whanga valley."
"Did they tell you if Black Harry said there were any more?" asked George, in an eager whisper.
"I asked them that, and old Moolong said Harry told them that there was no more, but that he believed it was a lie, and that he only had said so that he might be the only one with such an ornament. If he had found more he would have had to distribute them among the tribe, as you know, and he did not want any one else to have such a necklace."
"There is more. I feel sure that there is more. Why should there be only one piece?" said George, seizing hold of Alec's arm with his burning hand. "Can we find the place though? Oh! Alec, it is too terrible to think that the gold which can save Wandaroo is lying there and we unable to find it."
"But we can!" said Alec, in a thrilling whisper. "Murri, one of the two black boys I have engaged to go with us, went there once with a party of their tribe when he was quite a little chap. You know they never forget the road to a place they have once been to. He can take us to it straight enough if he will."
"Did that party find gold there?"
"No; a huge waterfall was pouring over the rocks, and the hole in which Black Harry had found the nugget was a foaming pool. They did not look anywhere else. They did not know the value that white men set upon gold; the nugget—'the heavy stone,' as they call it—was only a curious ornament to them, so they did not wait till the wet season was over, when probably the stream would be dried up."
"There hasn't been rain for months," said George meditatively, as though to himself.