"That doesn't tell me much."
"It ain't intended to."
"Then why," said Owens, showing irritation, "did you show me the ore at all?"
Jim looked at him under lowered eyelids.
"Have you ever been a prospector, honest?"
The owner of the coal mine put his hand in his breast pocket.
"I thought this might interest you," he said, "so I brought it along. That's me!"
He put his finger on one of the figures in the picture that he handed to the prospector. It showed a young fellow, bearded, in the typical Australian digger's rig-out, panning gold. The photograph was an old one, evidently, and there was no doubt that it was a resemblance of Owens in his youth.
"Ay, it's you," said Jim.
For some minutes there was silence. The mine-owner let the prospector think the matter out in his own way. Finally, with an air of desperate determination, Jim began: