Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-09-17

l 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 known
what 1t meant before our threats
burned and ached, our eyes sunk in our
heads, our hands began to tremble, and
work as hard as we might our skin got
drier and hotter. We had found gold.
1t was no use trying to dig for il, but
we had fossicl<ed about over u good
part of the gully and there was gold
everywhere. But bless We what was
the good? That night when we
knocked off there was only about 4
quart and half in the lSeg. Hooked at
Tom, and Tom looked at me, and l
could see that 1t was settled. Its all
up, mate" says Tom, "and pity, too,
for there's gold here and no mistake"
l looked at Bill, but he said nothing.
"Yes, Tom," said I, cts 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: "GoiHg 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. Colds 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 il, do
you?" he said in a sort of hoarse
whisper: "Mean it?" An snys Tom,
with u sort of gurgling laugh sesing
as how his throat were dry: "Mean 1t?
| should say so, mate, raythur!"
Bill looks round first at one and then
the other of us, and then without
word he rises and filings himself out of
the tent. l lifts the flap bit and sees
him marching down the gully a-throw-
ing his arms above his head in the
moonlight, for 1t were full moon that
night.
"Bill's cranky, Tom," says I. Looks
like 1t, mate" says Tom. "Well, reck-
on he'll come to his bearin's by mornin'."
With that Tom coils hisself up on 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. 1t was daylight when I
wakes and looks around. There were
Tom lying where he dropped overnight,
but l sees nothin' of Bill. "IIillo," 7
tries to say, but couldn't say it rightly,
my throat was that dry. So stirs Tom
with Hpin o;r,f
Tom," l 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.
"The devil" says Tom sudden, look
ing hard at the tent, "he's been here,
sure enough, and left this wrote. Here,
Dick, you're a scollard; wot's this wrote
on the tent?" l turns round, and there,
sure enough, on the flap of the tent twere
wrote with something that looked like
chalk
"You want to go back to Coolgarde
you can go. I've found what came
for, and it's mine now. Good-by-Bill."
read it out loud, and we stands ana
stares first ut the writing and then at
euch other.
Hes mad, Tom," says at last, land
he's gone without drain of water
poor beggar."
"Mad or not, l reckon he's come
across nugget, and he means to keep
1t. Not if l knows it, mate, not by
chalks. Fair docs atween mates, is wot
| says, an wot says ! sticks to-"
1t were never much good arguing
with Tom. 1t wasn't much that he'd
say, but there was no turning him once
he took a notion, and Tom was death
ON getting hold of Bill and sharing the
nugget. At last gave in and risked il
and started. 1t 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 1t up hours before, but
Tom held on like a 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 sup poured down or
our heads like white metal out of fur
nace' We staggered as we walked and
we could scarcely see for the light In
our faces. Our tongues had swelled
up SO big that they seemed to fill our
mouths, and our throats were SO dry
they made a kind of whistling sound
when we tried to speak.
Hour after hour, and every hour like
a month, and still we struggled on.
we couldn't go back, and we couldn't
say whatwe expected togetby goingfor-
ward, but painfully. mechanically, dog-
gedly, we staggered on. We had been
trying for hours, or for what seemed
like hours, to get to the top of low
range that seemed as if it went away