The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-24
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1 slept with their bag of gold dust un- l derneath their blankets. Startled from sleep, they leaped up and rushed out to see nothing. When they returned their | gold was gone.
 The two robbed men rushed wildly | out into the night, but found no trace | of the thieves. They sat down on the ground and bowed their heads, fearing to speak lest they should sob. So they sat till dawn. stonily word less. Then George sprang up, gripped 1 Robinson by the hand. held 1t for l moment and turned to the claim. Again they found gold but each day it dwindled. They had gathered the best of the deposit for the thieves.
 Tom Robinson ceased digging for day and stole away from camp to prospect. He returned quietly and told George that they would pack up that | night and go secretly ten miles south, 1 where he had found surface gold.
 The next day they pitched camp in a gully. When they stopped digging at night they had dust worth several hun dred pounds. Work. work" said Rob | inson. The whole camp will be down on us in 6 few days. A single day | may be worth $500 to us. After the rest come we will go back to the old diggings and take up the best of the claims they desert. for this place will I l at it,"
 They did not get another whole day. | Before nightfall men from the old dig gings began to pour in and next morn ing the whole gully was one immense | quarry, with claims so close to each | other that there was hardly room to walk between holes.
 Two weeks afterward tn c old diggings were more populous than before. Tick et-of-leave men. aristocrats, scholars. outcasts shouldered each other. Men who had been beggars in England found thousands and men who had been | rich fin England became their servants | Widest of all changes was that of Tom Robinson.
 This man, who had been a thief in England, became the captain of the camp; and under him were forty of the best men, sworn to put down thiev- Ing.
 Scarcely had the reign of law and order been thus established before an | old friend arrived-Isaac Levi, with an armed guard who opened banking establishment and gave the miners Bank of England notes for their dust.
 Under Tom Robinson's iron rule. tfieving and cheating stopped through | out the diEgings-in all except one re- spect. Again and again attempts were made to rob the two friends Finally the realization was forced on them that some mysterious enemy was eentering all efforts on them. Frantic work all day and broken rest at night told on their nerves and bodies till they could bear 1t no longer.
 They exchanged their dust for notes with Isaac Levi realizing a little less than f2,000. and again left the place secretly to try curious region where a perfect river of quartz was said to lie between black cliffs. After a week alra- starvation they reached 1t and mi raculous fortune came to them.
 They had not been searching an hour when they saw an outcropping of vir- gin gold. At first they thought it was a large nugget. They dug and the further they dug the larger It became. When at last they unearthed 1t the two men nearly went mad. They had found not a nugget but a lump of quartz and pure gold that weighed hundred pounds!
 Some days later the camp ceased work to go mad in its turn when the two staggered in with a pole on their shoulders on which was slung the won- derful find.
 George Fielding would not wait am other day. He could think of nothing but to take ship and hurry home to Susan Fortunately for them they found soldiers at the diggings These | furnish escorts for the miners gold on its way to Sydney.
 There was better news than that. The authorities having learned of Tom Rob- ison's effective government of the camp, had sent him a full pardon.
 The old Jew had gone suddenly. He had left a letter behind warning George that a plot was matching in England against Susan and himself. q have left two swift horses for you" he wrote Lose not q moment All my own peo- pie are dead and the old Jew loves you and Susannah. Ride after me as soon as you get this"
 Isaac Levi had not counseled speed Tin vain. After that first letter in which George told Susan that they had found gold. no more reached here. But rumor started. grew and became loud news George Fielding had found vast wealth in Australia and had married 8 rich girl there.
 Meantime in John Meadows desk there grew little pile of Intercepted letters. Meantime. tool old Mir. Mer- ton was getting more and more deeply into his debt until at last he was ruined man should John Meadows choose to press him for even part of the sums that he had lent Susan's father for speculations advised by him self all of whi ich turned out i'll. Month after month passed. No let ter from George reached Susan. MT. Merton was becoming desperate. Still Susan would not waver in her faith At last Meadows showed her a letter that told in detail of Georges mar riage. She said no word but went to her room in silent anguish.
 The following week beset by her fathers prayers sne agreed to marry ! John Meadows.