Spinifex and Sand

t Lake

ng the map of the Elder Exploring Expedition, they saw that Mr. Wells had marked the country north of Lake Darlot as "probably au

ntry, where they soon found gold in the the reefs. Here they worked for some time with but little encouragement, until after Christmas, whe

for the treacherous thieves, having tasted the white man's food, conceived the bold idea of raiding the camp, killing its occupants, and annexing their provisions. At midnight the prospectors were attacked, Cable and Janet being speared as they lay in their blankets

ter found between would be dried up, were great! Only one man unwounded and one suffering the most awful tortures of pain; and nobody with the smallest medical skill, within God knows how many miles! Death seemed certain, but while life remained they were not the men to give in, and they thought

afterwards transpired, fired by Rogers, Parks, and Lockhart as they worked on their reef), and as soon as the horses returned, the

ld, strangely enough, close to the track from Roger's camp to the reef he was working. This nugget was the first-fruit of a plentiful harvest, and presently they went down to the coast where poor Cable could be properly attended to in hosp

or gold. Being out for a syndicate, who naturally wanted something big in the way of a r

gold. Quite simple! Any fool can prospect; all he wants is a little luck, and the strange inner urgings that make him examine a certain quartz reef or blow that others have passed, perhaps dozens of times, without happening to

ff by a post at each corner, and our notices posted on a conspicuous tree,

nt demand for water made it necessary for Jim to camp a

s often disputed by some who, with small regard for the truth, said that it was they who had sunk the wells! Jim, however, was not the man to be bluffed, and, in spite of lameness from sciatica in