The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-07-27
stubbed Els roe on a Nneget.
TFrom the Cornhill Magazine.l


This man had reached the very last
of his resources without finding a speck
of gold, and although men in such ex-
tremity are always kind and helpful
to each other he could not expect any
one to share such fast dwindling stores
with him. There was nothing for 1t,
therefore, but to turn back on the NOR
row. while a mouthful of food was still
left, and to retrace his steps as best he
might to the nearest port. He dWelt
with a good deal of rough pathos on
the despair of that last days fruitless
work which left him too weak and ex-
hausted to carry his heavy tools back
to the spot they called camp"
So he just flung them down and, as
he said, staggered" over the two or
three miles of scrub-covered desert
guided by the smoke of the camp fire
Next morning early, after a great deal
of sleep and very little food, he braced
himself up to go back and fetch his
tools, though he carefully explained
that he would not have taken the trou-
BILE to do this if he had not felt that his
pick and barrow were about his only
possessions and might fetch the price
of a meal or two when it came to the
last
1 have often wondered since if the i'm
preston of the divine mercy and good
ness which was so strong in that mans
mind just then has ever worn off. He
dwelt with self-accusing horror on how
he had rallied at his luck, at fate, at
everything, as he stumbled back that
hot morning over his tracks of the day
before The way seemed twice as long,
for, as he said, his heart was too
heavy to carry" At last he saw his
barrow and pick standing up on the fiat
plain a little way off and was YEARLY
dragging on toward them when he
caught his toe against a. stone deeply
imbedded in the sand and fell down
His voice sank to a sort of awestruck
whisper, as if he were almost at con-
fession, as he said: We'll, ma am, II
you'd believe me, cursed awful. L felt
,
To think that 1 should go and nearly
break my toe against the only stone in
the district. and with all those miles to
travel backi
$50 1 lay there like Jobs friend and
cursed God and wanted to die. After a
bit 1 felt like a passionate child who
kicks and breaks the thing which has
hurt him, and had to beat that stone
before could feel quiet. But it was too
firm in the sand for my hands to get it
up, so in my rage L set out quite brisk
~ with the pick to break that stone if
it took all my strength. 1t was pretty
deep set in the ground, I assure you,
ma'am, but at last I got it up and here
it is--solid gold and nearly as big as
baby's head. Now, ma am, ask you,
did 1 deserve this2'
He almost banged the rather dirty
looking lump down on the table before
me as he spoke and 1t certainly was a
wonderful sight and a still more Won
derful weight. He told me he had
searched about the neighborhood of
that nugget all day, but there was not
the faintest trace of any more gold.
So, as he had no time to lose on account
of the shortness of the food and water
supply, he had just started back to the
coast which he reached quite safely,
and came straight down to Perth in the
first steamer.
The principal bank had advanced
him $500 on his nugget but it would
probably prove to be worth twice as
much asked him what he was going
to do and was sorry to hear that he in
tended to go back to England at once
and set up a shop or farm-I forget
which-among his own people. Ofcourse
it was not for me to dissuade him, but
I felt it was a pity to lose such a good
sort of man out of the colony, for he
was not spending his money in cham
few successful gold finders did in those
first days.