'Well, it was this way. You know, ma'am, us diggers often write and lay one another on to good things. An old mate of mine had been campin' out and prospectin' round there, for more'n a year, livin' hard, eatin' lizards, pigface, what not -nigh perished for want of water, until he come across this here reef. Well, he goes back to Southern Cross, where he gets laid up with rheumatic fever, and close up dies—ain't right yet. Well, he wires and lays me on, and I'm to give him an eighth share, when it's floated-as floated it will be and for a price that'll astonish some people. I can't say more, ma'am, now, and every word of it's God's truth.'

'I think you've said enough,' said the lady, bending her gaze upon him with a searching glance, which he returned steadfastly and half wistfully. Whatever Mr. Banneret has promised, of course he will perform. You may trust my husband to carry it out, and I feel more satisfied now I have heard you explain matters.'

'If we can't trust the Commissioner, ma'am, we can't trust nobody-that's what all of us miners says; there's not a man on the field that don't say the same. So I'll wish you good-bye, ma'am, and my sarvice to you.'

'Good-bye, and I hope it will bring good fortune to all of us.'

That afternoon, about half-past four o'clock, the Commissioner closed his office earlier than usual. As they were speeding along the homeward road, winding between yawning shafts and over the insecure bridges spanning the water-races, which

gurgled and bubbled beneath the horses' feet, Mrs. Banneret thus addressed her husband: Had a good day, my dear?'

Very fair, all things considered. Long Small Debts Court. Big police case. Inquest on poor fellow killed in Happy Valley. Deputation from the "Great Intended"-want the base line swung. Report urgently required in the last jumping case. Got through them all except the last-they can wait a week. I must go on the ground.'

'Not a bad day's work either, for an overpaid, under-worked Civil servant, as the Radical papers call you; and now I'll bring in my report, which is urgent-immediate, and can't "wait a week," whatever else can.'

'Go ahead, my dear !' said her husband, lighting his pipe, and steadying the impatient horses to a ten-mile trot. I'm all attention.'

'In the first place, I had a short talk with old Waters which impressed me. He thoroughly believes in the find, and I believe in him. So do you. If his tale is true, our fortune is made; and though the risk is great, the speculation is no more imprudent than some we know of that ended triumphantly.'

'Of course, there was Lindsay, district Surveyor, just as hard worked and no better paid than I am, took early shares in Rocky Hill, went home with £200,000 or more! Desmond went in with the "first robbers" in Valley Gorge-came out with over £100,000. Very cautious men both of them, too. Nearly not going in. Higgleson declined-swears now, when he thinks of it.

'Well, my dear, these are truths—stranger than fiction, as the eminent person says. Shows that all mining ventures are not swindles; and now for my proposal. You haven't had leave of absence lately?

'Not for four years. Leave obtainable, but no visible means, if I had gone.'

"Quite so-couldn't be better put.

But now the case is different. You have the five hundred pounds to come and go on-Oh! I may say here that I called at the Bank and asked Mr. Bright to show me the specimens. They made They made my mouth. water. What necklaces and rings-pearls and diamonds I saw in the future-if the reef "went down," as old Waters said. How the shares would go up! That wasn't the only thing I saw. I saw schools and colleges travel, society for the children, a house in town-a carriage (which my soul loveth), all these I saw in those pretty white and fawn-coloured stones with their threads and veins of gold-pure gold running through and through them. Mr. Bright thinks well of the affair too, I can see.'

'Yes, he does-and he ought to be a judge. How many a ton of that same quartz, more or less auriferous, has he handled in his time! Many a pound has he lost over it too.'

'Well, we can't all win, of course; but I'm with you in this, my dear, heart and soul-and if it breaks down, and we have to live on dry bread for a couple of years, you shall never hear a whimper from me.'

'I know that, my dear. Pluck enough for

half-a-dozen men-let alone women. What about this leave? Do you mean- -?'

fagged now and Urgent private You'll have the

'Of course I do; apply at once for three months' leave. Pressure of work, and so on. I've noticed you do look rather then-though I never said so. affairs also. Then go with him. spending of the cash. He can't object to that. I'm surprised you didn't see it yourself. He might drink, or be drugged, and lose it all. Where should we be then? Depend upon it, that's the thing to do. It makes all safe, once for all.'

'I see your point. I might have thought of it, as you say; but they'll have to send a man in my place. Every one wouldn't do. However, there's sure to be some goldfields official knocking about who'd like the change. In for a penny, etc. I'll write to-night. But how will you get on?'

'Have your pay put into my private account while you're away. I'll manage somehow. The five hundred pounds ought to frank you there, and do all the taking up and so on-with care.'

'Yes, and careful enough we shall have to be; there'll be no more when that's gone. It's the "last chance" in every sense of the word.'

'I shall be lonely enough while you're away, my dear; but we have had to do without each other before-and must again. You'll write regularlya letter will always cheer me up. I shan't suffer for want of employment, that's one thing.'

The Commissioner got his leave of absence on the ground of 'urgent private affairs'—which was

:

only just, as he had been hard at it for several years, without change or respite, in one of the most difficult, anxious, wearing occupations in the Civil Service that of Warden, and Police Magistrate, on a large alluvial goldfield. To rule over an excitable population, varying from ten to twenty thousand; to hear and decide the interminable mining lawsuits arising from the production of tons of gold-literally tons, won, held, and distributed under a code of mining laws, of a sufficiently complicated nature, and appearing to the unlearned a mass of confused, contradictory regulations, was no sinecure. The amounts, too, in question were often incredibly large, so that a mistake in law, or an error in judgment, magnified by the local press, assumed gigantic proportions in the eye of the public. In the police department of jurisdiction, murders and robberies, though not alarmingly frequent, were occasionally matters of by no means a quantité négligeable. Excitable public meetings were common, and, as an outlet for smouldering popular feeling, answered a good purpose.

But, on the whole, Barrawong was an appointment which a gentleman with prejudices in favour of a quiet life would have found singularly

unsuitable.

As for Jack, he fell in with the proposition warmly and loyally from its first mention. Distrustful, from past experience, of his will-power in the way of resistance in the grip of terrible drink temptation, to which, in the past, he had succumbed full many a time and oft, he was not