The Great Crushing at Mount Sugar-Bag | Page 7

sides of the box, the stampers, and
dies were covered with a coating of amalgam some inches thick and as
hard as cement.
In five minutes Micky was galloping up to the camp with the glorious
news of Sugar-bag's resurrecion, leaving Fryer, Buller and Rody hard at
work digging out the amalgam with cold chisels and butcher knives.
By the time the boxes had been cleaned, and the quicksilver--or rather
amalgam--scooped up from the wells, and the whole lot placed in
various dishes and buckets, the excited population of Sugar-bag began
to appear upon the scene. Among them was Mr. Cohen, who advanced
to Rody with a smile.
"Vell, my boy, you've struck id and no misdake. I knew you vas a
good____"
"Oh, to balzes out o' this!" said Mr. Minogue, roughly. "I don't want
any of your dashed blarney. Ten days ago you wouldn't give poor
Harry Durham a fiver to take him to the bay, and here you come
crawling round me, now that our luck has changed. Go to the devil with
you! I can pay you your dirty seventy quid now and be hanged toy!"
And with this he pushed his way over to where Fryer and Buller were,
keeping guard over the white gleaming masses of precious amalgam.
"Going to retort it now, Rody?" said a digger.

"No; we can't. There isn't a retort big enough to hold a quarter oft he
hard stuff, let alone the quicksilver, which is as lumpy as porridge, as
you can see," and he lifted some in the palm of his hand out of a bucket.
We'll have to send over to Big Boulder for Jones' two big retorts."
"Boys," said a digger, solemnly, "so help me, I believe there's a
thousand ounces of gold going to come out of that there amalgam.
What do you think, Rody?"
"About eight hundred," he answered, modestly; and Ikey Cohen
metaphorically smote his breast and wished he had lent Durham all he
asked for.
Placing the amalgam in the big box Fryer kept for the purpose, Rody
was about to lock it, when some one make a remark--just the very
remark he wanted to hear and be heard by Isaac Cohen, who was still
hanging about him.
"Sometimes there's a lot of silver in these mullocky leaders. I heard that
at the Canton Reef, near Ravenswood, there was a terrible lot of it."
"Oh, shut up! What y'r gassin' about? There ain't no silver about this
field, I bet," called out two or three miners in a chorus.
Rody's face fell. "By jingo, boys, I don't know. Perhaps Joe is right. I've
seen Canton Reef gold, it's only worth about twenty-five bob an ounce
owing to the silver in it."
"Try a bit of amalgam on a shovel," suggested some one.
Rody lifted the cover of the box and took out a small enamelled cup
half full of hard amalgam--the contents of his trousers pockets
surreptitiously placed with the rest while cleaning up.
In a few minutes a fire was lit and a shovel with an ounce of amalgam
on it wa held over the flame. As the shovel grew red hot and the
quicksilver passed away in vapour there lay on the heated iron about
eight pennyweights of bright yellow, frosted gold.

"Right as rain!" was the unanimous opinion, and then every one went
away to get drunk at Cohen's pub in honour of the occasion.
"Vere are you going to, Mr. Minogue?" said Cohen, oilily, to Rody.
"To Big Boulder, to send another wire to Durham and tell him to come
back."
"My friend, you will be foolish. Now you and me vill talk pizness. I
vant to buy Mr. Durham out. If you will help me to ged his inderest in
the crushing sheap I will call my ackound square and give you--vell, I
will give you £200 for yourself."
Rody appeared to hesitate. At last he said, "Well, I'll do it. I'll write him
that the stuff is going about two ounces, and that you want to buy him
out. I'll tell him to take what you offer. But at the same time I won't see
him done too bad. Give him £200 as well."
"No, I vill give him £150."
"All right. I'll wire to him at once. The steamer goes to-morrow,"
"And I rides in with you to Big Boulder and sends him a delegram,
too," said Ikey joyfully.
In another hour the two messages were in Harry Durham's hand. He
read them and smiled.
"Rody's managed it all right."
At five in the afternoon Mr. Cohen received an answer--
"Will sell you my interest in the Claribel crushing, now going through,
for £150 if money is wired to Bank New South Wales before noon
to-morrow."
Mr.