The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-24

gings began to pour in and next morning the whole gully was One immense quar- " with claims so close to each other that there was hardly room to walk between holes.
 Two weeks afterward the old diggngs were more populous than before. Ticket of-leave men. aristocrats scholars, out casts shoudered each other. Men who had been beggars in England found thou- sands and men who had been rinh in Eng land became their servants. Widest of all changes was that of Tom Robinson. This man, who had been a thief in Eng land, became the captain of the camp, and under him were 40 of the best men, sworn to put down thieving.
 Scarcely had ther eign of law and order thus been established before an old friend arrived-Isaac Levi, with an armed guard, who opened a banking establish ment and gave the miners Bank of Eng land notes for their dust
 . Under Tom Robinson's iron rule thieving and cheating stopped through | out the diggings-in all except one re- | speet. Again and again attempts were
 
 l the realization was forced on tn em that some mysterious enemy was centering 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 f2000, and again left the place 1 secretly to try curious region where a perfect river of quartz was said to | lie between black cliffs. After a week of heart-breaking search and semi starvation they reach ed it and mirac- I ulous fortune came to them.
 They had not been searching an hour when they saw an outcropping of gold. I At first they thought it was a large nugget. They dug and the further they i dug the larger it became. When at last they unearthed it the two men nearly went mad. They had found not a nugget but lump of quartz and ] pounds
 Some days later the camp ceased work to go mad in it's turn when the two staggered in with a pole on their 1 shoulders on which was slung the won | derful find.
 George Fielding would not wait an- other day. He could think of nothing 1 but to take ship and hurry home to l Susan. Fortunately for them they found soldiers at the diggins. These had been sent to guard property and 1 to furnish escorts for the miners gold on it's way to Sydney.
 There was better news than that The | authorities, having learned of Ton Robinson's effective government of the camp. had sent him a full pardon.
 The old Jew had gone suddenly lie | had left letter behind warning George that a plot was matching in Englan1 against Susan and himself q have left two swift horses for you" he wrote. l Lose not 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"
 l Isaac Levi had not counseled speed n vain. After that first letter in which George told Susan that they had found gold. no more reached her. But rumor started, grew and became loud news George Fielding had found vast wealth in Australia and had married a rich girl | there.
 Meantime in John Meadows desk there grew little pile of intercepted letters. Meantime, too, old MT. Merton 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 d part of the sums that he had lent Susan's l father tor speculat tions advised by him. self, all of which turned out ill.
 Month after month passed No letter from George reached Susan. MT. Merton vas becoming desperate. Still Susan would not waver in her faith. At last Meadows showed her letter that told in 1 detail of Georges marriage She said 10 word, but went to her room in silent an- | guish.
 l The following week, beset by her fathers prayers, sne agreed to marry John Mead l cws.
 and now the act of John Meadows in driving Isaac Levi from his house was to bring it's results
 Isaac having taken a ship that left ahead of the one carrying George and Tom, had returned to Farnborough and had taken the house next to his old one, in which Meadows now lived That whole row of old houses had once been inhabited
 by men of Lewis tribe Bound together by many ties, they had established a sys- tenn of communication by means of tubes.
 Before Levi left the house to Meadows he
 had arranged the mouth of one of these tubes so that, sitting in the next house,
 he could head all that passed.
 1 The day before the wedding he sat wait
 ing to hear of Georges arrival in England.
 He had refrained from exposing Meadow s
 plots because his passionate hatred was
 too great to be satisfied with aught less
 than to snatch the prize from his enemy
 at the last moment when it would seem
 most secure within his grasp.
 While he sat, smoking and ponderirg,
 he saw a bearded haggard man, whom he
 recognized as Crawley, enter the house
 next door, Placing his ear to the tube he
 heard Crawley tell his master the story of Il the first success and then of the success
 sve failures of the plots to rob George.
 ",rhey exchanged their lump of gold for
 f3s0O and with the other dust and the
 money they had already obtained from l Levi, they sailed with a70O0," said Craw-