"Money down," said the seller; "these here fellers 'll witness it's all
reg'lar."
The money was paid in notes, and the purchasers were about to commence
possession by taking the tin-dish out of his hand.
"Wait till he's emptied. I promised yer the dish, but not the stuff in
it," and turning out the dirt into a small tub the two worthies
departed, carrying the tub away with them.
Not a grain of gold did the buyers find in the pit next morning.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2. - This day found the four hard at work at an early
hour, and words will not describe our delight when they hit upon a
"pocket" full of the precious metal. The "pocket was situated in a dark
corner of the hole, and William was the one whose fossicking-knife
first brought its hidden beauties to light. Nugget after nugget did
that dirty soil give up; by evening they had taken out five
pounds weight of gold. Foolish Richard! we all regretted his absence at
this discovery.
As the next day was the Sabbath, thirty-six hours of suspense must
elapse before we could know whether this was but a passing kindness
from the fickle goddess, or the herald of continued good fortune.
This night, for the first time, we were really in dread of an attack,
though we had kept our success quite secret, not even mentioning it to
our shipmates; nor did we intend to do so until Monday morning, when
our first business would be to mark out three more claims round the
lucky spot, and send our gold down to the escort-office for security.
For the present we were obliged to content ourselves with "planting"
it - that is, burying it in the ground; and not a footstep passed in our
neighbourhood without our imagining ourselves robbed of the precious
treasure, and as it was Saturday night - the noisiest and most riotous at
the diggings - our panics were neither few nor far between.
