“They offered all the gold they found, so the histories say: thousands of pounds for hundreds of years: believe some of what you see and a tenth of what you hear: it is still likely that they brought a lot of gold here, and here it is still.”
“That will be a find.”
“Well, what do you say to giving me a hand to get it? I’ve cleared this space by the help of the Indians, but I’m not going to have these Indians looking for the gold: not likely. That is the white man’s perk: none of my brown brothers in this for me: no fear: the hunting parties would go wearing gold till the Barboes learned of it: news soon spreads in this forest. Then we should have the Government in. As you can see, it’s more than a one man’s job in there, but I reckon that two could shift the stuff and find the altar. And we’d need two to get the gold melted down and into Santa Barb’. They buy it there, pesos for weight, at the Assay Office. I tell you, the Ballarat field is just footle to it. This is Tom Tiddler’s ground, that the kids play.”
“It sounds pretty thrilling,” Hi said.
“Thrilling? I guess it is thrilling: p.d. thrilling.”
“I’m awfully keen on getting to Anselmo first,” Hi said.
“I know you are,” the man said, “I know you are. But what is Anselmo beside what I offer you here? We should shift our traps to here for a couple of weeks, and after that what would Anselmo be? Why, you would be able to buy Anselmo: buy it ten times over and all that’s in it: miss and mister. And I’d be a lord at home and have a bloody deer-park.”
“Yes, I know,” Hi said. “I say, it sounds exciting. But have you any picks and crow-bars?”
“Yes, in a stone trough there: out of the way of the ants.”
“I suppose we could get done in a couple of weeks?”