A TALE OF THREE LIONS
Page: 8

unpleasantly at Harry--'yer won't 'oller in quite such a jolly sort 'o
way. And now I'll be saying good-night, for I don't like disturbing of
a family party. No, I ain't that sort of man, I ain't. Good-night to
yer, 'unter Quatermain--good-night to yer, my argified young one;' and
Mr. Tom turned away disappointed, and prowled off elsewhere, like a
human jackal, to see what he could thieve or kill.

"'Thank goodness!' I said, as I slipped off the lump of gold. 'Now,
then, do you get up, Harry, and see if that consummate villain has
gone.' Harry did so, and reported that he had vanished towards
Pilgrim's Rest, and then we set to work, and very carefully, but
trembling with excitement, with our hands hollowed out all the space
of ground into which I had struck the pick. Yes, as I hoped, there was
a regular nest of nuggets, twelve in all, running from the size of a
hazel-nut to that of a hen's egg, though of course the first one was
much larger than that. How they all came there nobody can say; it was
one of those extraordinary freaks, with stories of which, at any rate,
all people acquainted with alluvial gold-mining will be familiar. It
turned out afterwards that the American who sold me the claim had in
the same way made his pile--a much larger one than ours, by the way--
out of a single pocket, and then worked for six months without seeing
colour, after which he gave it up.

"At any rate, there the nuggets were, to the value, as it turned out
afterwards, of about twelve hundred and fifty pounds, so that after
all I took out of that hole four hundred and fifty pounds more than I
put into it. We got them all out and wrapped them up in a
handkerchief, and then, fearing to carry home so much treasure,
especially as we knew that Mr. Handspike Tom was on the prowl, made up
our minds to pass the night where we were--a necessity which,
disagreeable as it was, was wonderfully sweetened by the presence of
that handkerchief full of virgin gold--the interest of my lost half-
sovereign.

"Slowly the night wore away, for with the fear of Handspike Tom before
my eyes I did not dare to go to sleep, and at last the dawn came. I