'If it rests with me, mate, where you go I go. You've given me a bit of a jolt, old man.'
'You'll come, then?' cried Mike.
'Why, yes! What should keep me?'
The two men gripped hands, and a few minutes of, silence followed, during which Mike's pipe went out and Jim's book fell to the floor. Both were more moved than they cared to show.
'This makes things much more comfortable,' said Burton presently.
'Where do we go?'
'To Jim Crow, an' from there we may make tracks to Ballarat.
'To Ballarat!' The name epitomized all that Done knew of mining life and the aspirations of the diggers.
'Yes, Jim. If there's goin' to be fightin', we must be in it.'
'Mike,' said Jim, breaking the thoughtful silence that followed, 'what put into your head the mad idea that I would want to break with you? God, man, I'd be a desolate, helpless wastrel without you!'