_ CHAPTER LX. MIKE FINDS THE LARGE "NUGGET"
What trifles will sometimes change the destiny of a man!
Barney, after his wife had left him so unexpectedly, earnestly desired to give up mining and return to his first love,--the driving of cattle and teaming. We tried to persuade him to stick to his claim; but he was resolute, and declared that if we would not purchase his mine he would sell to the first adventurer who made an offer; and to prevent the man from sacrificing his property, we purchased on speculation, and paid him just the price he had given. Even after we came into possession, we did not know what to do with the mine, for we had no desire to work it ourselves; and, as a large portion of the allotted ground had been dug over, old miners were shy, and strangers did not bite readily at the temptations which we held out to them.
For a number of days the mine was neglected; and during that period it filled with water, and that was another good reason why it could not be sold; and jokes were cracked at our expense by friends, who lounged in the store purchasing trifling articles, in regard to our speculation, as they termed it. We took all in good part, until one day a man made an application to us for something to eat. We supplied his wants, and upon inquiry found that he was willing and anxious to go to work at a cheap rate. I proposed, partly in jest, and partly in earnest, that he should be employed baling out and cleaning out our mine. Fred assented, when we showed the man what we wanted done, and left him at work, not expecting that he would make much headway; but in this we were disappointed, for our employe made such diligent use of his time, that in the course of the afternoon the mine was free of water and dirt, and Mike announced that he could commence digging in the morning if he had a few "shores" and boards to prop up the places where excavations had been going on. These we readily granted, and began to take an interest in our claim that we had not felt before.
"Mike," I said, at supper time, addressing our new acquaintance, "we will give you one quarter of the gold which you find, and board you into the bargain, but we will not pay you wages."
Mike thought of the proposition for a moment, and announced his intention of accepting it without restriction, and at daylight the next morning he was at work many feet below the surface of the earth, picking away the dirt, and examining it carefully, as though he expected to find a nugget in every gravel stone that he met with. Once or twice in the course of the day, we walked over to the spot and lent a helping hand, for the purpose of freeing the place of water, and when night arrived, we had no need to ask questions in regard to the luck of Mike. His face proclaimed that he had found nothing; but I think that he was more disappointed on our account than on his own.
"No luck to-day, Mike?" said I.
"Divil a ha'penny of goold have I found sir; but there's no telling what may come on yet. I don't despair."
Neither did we; although we had but few hopes of ever getting our money back. The next morning Mike was promptly at his post, and we did not hear from him until about two o'clock; I was dozing on a lounge, Fred was asleep on the counter, and Mr. Critchet was mending stockings,--about the first work that he attempted to do,--when Mike rushed frantically into the store, threw himself upon his knees, and began talking, laughing, and crying at the same moment.
"Glory to God and all the saints!" he exclaimed, after he had recovered his breath, and then he began to laugh frantically, swaying his body back and forth, as though it was an impossibility to keep still.
"It's my opinion," said Fred, without rising from his recumbent position, "that you are a little out of your head, or else you have been drinking."
"Divil a bit of whiskey have I touched for two days; but I'll have a drop now for the purpose of drinking long lives to your honors. It's me head that is affected, and well it may be. O, it's little did I think that I should come to this. Glory to God--it's plazed the old woman and the childers will be."
He made a dive at the whiskey cask, and drank a pretty stiff nipper before he could compose himself. We did not interfere, because we did not know but that the fellow might have escaped from the mine while it was caving in,--accidents of that kind happening quite frequently,--and that fright had turned his brain.
"Now, Mike, be kind enough to tell us what has happened," I said, thinking that he had mystified us long enough.
"O, such news," he exclaimed, springing upon his feet, and executing a wild sort of shuffle that would have delighted the hearts of the 'finest pisantry' in the world, had they been present, to have seen his antics.
"Well, what is the news?" I demanded, while Fred, too indolent to speak, lay upon the counter, and laughed a sleepy sort of laugh, without changing his position.
"Murderation, who would have thought of it? It's a rich man ye will be, Mike, ye lucky divil. What will the old folks say, when they bear of it? Glory to St. Patrick, but won't the boys stare, and call me Mr. Mike!"
I began to have an inkling of the man's meaning. I sprang from my seat, caught Mike by his collar, and shook him for a few seconds, until I thought that his senses were returned before I put a question.
"Mike, you devil," I exclaimed, "you have found a nugget."
"Whoop!" he yelled, springing up, and striking his feet together with excess of joy, "I found the granddaddy of lumps."
"What's that?" cried Fred, starting from his recumbent position, and beginning to take an interest in the conversation.
"It's a lump as big as my head I've found," roared Mike, making another dive for the whiskey barrel, but we choked him off, and made him stick to his text.
"Do you mean that you have found a nugget of gold as large as your head?" demanded Fred, eagerly.
"To the divil wid yer nuggets--what do I know about nuggets? It's a lump of pure goold I've found; as big a lump as my head, and ten times as heavy."
We could hardly believe the news Mike imparted to us was true; but his eagerness convinced us that he had stumbled upon something, although we feared it was a lump of quartz, with a few streaks of gold running through it, such as was often found in Ballarat, and which, for the want of a good quartz-crushing machine, was thrown aside as being worthless.
"Come and see for yourselves," yelled Mike, almost out of patience at our obstinacy in not placing implicit reliance upon his word in regard to the matter.
"Will ye come and look at the beautiful piece of goold wid me? and thin perhaps ye'll belave without further words. But remember--one quarter is mine."
We told Mike that we would stick to our word, and that he should have his share even if he had found a lump as large as his body. The assertion satisfied him, that we intended to deal honestly by him; and leaving Mr. Critchet to tend the store, we walked towards our claim, the purchase of which, on our part, had excited the ridicule of more than one of our friends.
On our way, Mike related the manner in which he found his treasure. He said that he had worked steadily for an hour or two, and had not found the first sign of gold, and that he stopped for a while to rest and smoke his pipe, and also to trim his lamp; that he fell asleep, and slept for an hour or two, and dreamed that he was sitting on a nugget of gold that was as large as his father's mud cabin in Ireland, and that he was wondering how he could get it up the shaft, when he was awakened by a drop of water which trickled from the ground overhead, striking him on his nose.
He started up, and thought how pleasant it would be if his dream would only come true; and rather by accident than design he let the point of his pick fall into the earth where he had been sitting. The dirt gave way, and he thought by the dim light of his lamp, that he saw something glisten.
Once more he struck the ground, threw aside a little dirt, and then he imagined that his dream had come true, for the bright gleam of gold was before him.
"Me heart was in me mouth," Mike continued, "and I did not pretend to use me spade or me pick for fear that the goold would vanish from me sight. I threw myself upon me knees, and dug with me fingers, and hardly dared to breathe for fear that I should lose it; and when I had freed it from the dirt, and attempted to lift it up, O! didn't it seem good to have it howld back, as though it didn't like being dragged from its bed so early in the morning!
"I worked it clear of the soil; and then me heart was too full to stay there any longer. I had to run to the store and ease me heart. But mind, honeys! Fair play in the division, ye know. Mind the honor of an Irish gentleman, who is too modest to spake for himself."
Mike's idea of modesty was about on a par with the natives of Australia, who think they are in full dress when the only article of wearing apparel that they can boast of is a hat, or a cast-off stocking, thrown on the roadside by some blister-footed adventurer on his way to the mines.
We pacified the man a second time; and by this period we were at the shaft, and ready to descend. Fred insisted upon going first, and after him the Irishman, while I hailed a passing patrolman, and got him to extend the same favor to myself, when I got ready to be lowered in the bucket.
"Well, Fred," I shouted, "have we been hoaxed or not? Is it a blarney stone or a lump of gold that Mike has found?"
"Pull up," yelled Fred, and I heard some heavy substance thrown into the bucket.
"I'll see you hanged first," I retorted. "You are not going to make me draw up a fifty pound piece of quartz, and then laugh at me for my labor."
"Pull up quick," cried Fred, in an eager voice; and I heard a howl from the Irishman at my obstinacy.
"In the name of the saints, up wid it, good master Jim," pleaded Mike; but I rather hesitated, strengthened in the view which I took in the matter by the policeman.
"It's little gold that was ever taken from this claim, sir," he said, "although it has paid one or two proprietors by speculation. The soil is not of the right kind for large nuggets."
"How big is it?" I asked, addressing those who were some thirty feet below me.
"About as large as your head," was Fred's reply.
"Is it solid?" I demanded.
"It looks to be! But don't stand there asking questions, when you can satisfy yourself. Round up the bucket."
I began to think that the Irishman's dream was true, and that the whiskey had not taken possession of his senses.
Fred was not in the habit of indulging in practical jokes; and I finally concluded that I might as well satisfy myself whether a stone or a lump of gold was in the bucket. I wound up the windlass, while the policeman peeked down the long, dark shaft, eagerly watching for the bucket, to see what it contained.
"Do you see any thing?" I asked, when I thought that it was near enough to get a glimpse of its contents.
Before I could repeat the question, the eyes of the patrolman glared as though starting from their sockets, and his face flushed scarlet.
"Up with it, in the name of goodness," my companion shouted, leaning over the shaft, and grasping the rope that held the bucket in one hand, and attempting to pull it up, regardless of the rough windlass that I was working at.
"Can you see it?" I demanded, resting from my labor for a moment, and glancing down the shaft.
"Don't stop, sir," cried the policeman; "up with it, or the devil may carry it off before our eyes."
I did not feel so superstitious; and in spite of the warning managed to get a glimpse of the lump that had almost turned the brains of the Irishman and Fred.
At the first glance, I almost let go my hold of the windlass, I was so overpowered. My eyes appeared to blur over, and my brain grew dizzy. I did not seem to possess the strength of an infant, and for a moment I paused, and tried to rally my senses.
My heart beat so wildly that I thought it would burst, for the single glance that I had cast towards the bucket revealed to me a sight that would have driven half the miners of Ballarat crazy, and the remaining portion frantic with delight, provided, of course, they had seen and owned what I saw. _