The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1896-07-23
We campted at last in g. likely look.

AS~sS~AA
sheet 81 some sort of short grass Is
yellow as gold and as brittle as straw.
There was no time to lose, for do your
best you had to drink more or less,
and there wasn't sign either Of water
or of another party to be seen from the
ridge of our gully. 1t looked like race
between luck and thirst, and the thirst
/ were sure while the luck were doubtful.
I can't say liked the look of things, no
more didn't Tom, but Bill he was just
wild. Anyhow we'd come and we were
bound to give it trial. For three days
we worked in that gully early and late
and every hour the water got lower.
and we grew more and more thirsty.
Dry! Never in all my life had I known
what it meant before our threats
burned and ached, our eyes sunk in our
=, heads, our hands began to tremble, and,
work rs hard as We might our skin got
drier and hotter. We had found gold.
1t was no use trying to dig for it. but
we had fossicked about over good
part of the gully and there was gold
everywhere. But bless ye what was
the good? That night when we
knocked off there was only about \
quart and a half in the key. Hooked at
Tom, and Tom looked at NE, and
could see that it was settled. Its all
up, mate" says Tom, land pity, too,
for there's gold here and no mistake"
1 looked at Bill, but he said nothing.
ayes, Ton1," said I, Its all we'll do to
get back on the water that's left unless
we have the luck to fall in with some"
Bill looked from one of us to the other.
and at last he broke out: "Going back.
are you? Going back when here's gold
to make us rich, waiting for us?"
It'll have to wait then, mate" said
Tom. "Gold's good, but it amt quite
good enough" Bill looked from Tom
to me and then from me to Tom, and
his eyes shone like glowworms in the
dusk of the tent. "You mean it, do
you?" he said in sort of q hoarse
whisper: "Mean it?" An says Tom,
with sort of gurgling laugh seeing
as how his throat were dry: 'Mean it?
I should say so, mate, raythur!"
Bill looks round first at one and then
the other of us, and then without u
word he rises and filings himself out OF
the tent. I lifts the flap bit and sees
him marching down the gully a-throw-
ing his arms above his head in the
moonlight, for it were full moon that
night.
BILLS cranky, Tom," says I. "Looks
like it, mate" says Tom. swell, reck-
on he'll come to his bearin s by mornin'."
With that Tom coils hisself up OF his
blanket and goes to sleep, and after
minute or two does the same, being
Just about worn out with work and
want of water. It was daylight when
wakes and looks around. There were
Tom lying where he dropped overnight,
but I sees nothin' Of Bill. "Hillo," I
tries to say, butt couldn't say it rightly,
my throat was that dry. So 1stirs Tom
| up with my; foot. bill amt here,
Tom," I says. "No more he amt" says
Tom, sitting up, "the more water for
you and me, mate" We scrambled out
from under the tent and looks around.
The sun were just up, but there weren't
sign of Bill, look where we would.
'tThe DEVIL" says Tom sudden, look
ing hard at the tent, "he's been here,
sure enough, and left this wrote. Here,
Dick, you're scotland; wot's this wrote
on the tent?" turns round, and there,
sure enough, on the flap of the tentwere
wrote with something that looked like
chalk:
"You want to go back to Coolgardie
you can go. I've found what came
for, and it's mine now. Good-by-Bill."
read it out loud, and we stands and
stares first at the writing and then at
each other.
Hes mad, Tom," says I at last, land
he's gone without a drain of water
poor beggar."
MAD or not, I reckon he's come
across a nugget, and ne means to keep
it. Not if I knows it, mate, not by
chalks. Fair docs atween mates, is wot
says, an wot says sticks to-"
It were never much good arguing
with Tom. It wasn't much that he'd
say, but there was no turning him once
he took notion, and Tom was death
On getting hold of Bill and sharing the
nugget. At last gave in and risked it.
and started. It was easy to see the
way Bill had gone, for there were his
marks on the soft ground and sand,
not clear, but as like as not the first
steps that had ever been there since
first it was made. He couldn't have
gone far, Tom said, and we took the
drop of water that was left, and started.
I'd have given it up hours before, but
Tom held on like bulldog. Now and
again we sucked few drops of the wa
ter that was left and then we went on
again. Now and again we stopped and
sat down for bit when our legs trem-
bled too much, and then, without
word, we staggered up and went on
| again. At last we had drank it every
drop and still the sun poured down OF
our heads like white metal out of fur
mace. We staggered as we walked and
we could scarcely see for the light III
our faces. Our tongues had swelled
! up SO big that they seemed to fill our
mouths, and our Threats were so dry