"An' that makes us pards (partners) in a way, don't it?"
Jim paused, and then burst out again, "But I can't help wonderin' jest how much I told!"
"You'll have to ask Clem that. You remember, he said nothing to the reporter except that, in your delirium you were talking about gold."
"Gold! Did I say gold? Are you dead sure that I said gold?"
"That's what Clem told, anyway."
"Then I must sure ha' been dreamin'!" Jim's tone was both embarrassed and evasive.
Owens saw, at once, by the prospector's manner that he was nervously fearful of having betrayed himself and that he wanted to drop the subject. This seemed a sure sign that the hinted discovery was true.
It was a ticklish moment. The mine-owner realized that if the matter were dropped, now, he might never have another chance to get back to it. Any attempt on his part to renew the subject would be sure to arouse Jim's suspicion. If he were to be of any service to the old prospector, he must seize the present opportunity.
"Too bad that it isn't gold then," he said, half commiseratingly. "There's nothing in all the world that can make a man rich in a minute, as gold can. I saw that, often enough, in Australia. That's the land of nuggets, Jim, big ones! Most of them were found by sheer luck, and it was poor men who found them, too, mostly.
"The Australian black-fellows—pretty much savages, those fellows—knew gold, long before the white men came. They used to make their javelin-heads of gold because it's the easiest metal to work, when cold, and is found pure.