Читать книгу The Last Chance: A Tale of the Golden West онлайн

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The lady’s colloquy with the miner was short, but material to the issue. ‘I have come in to-day,’ she said, ‘on purpose to see you about this speculation. Mr.Banneret believes in you, as a straight, reliable man! So do I, from what I have seen and heard. But this is a neck or nothing venture. We have little to spare as it is, and if we lose this five hundred pounds we shall be ruined—and you know that the oldest miners are deceived sometimes. It is a long way off, too.’

‘If it wasn’t a long way off, it wouldn’t be what it is, ma’am. I’ve been mining these thirty year, and never see a reef like it afore. Of course it’s not too late to go back on it, though I’d rather you had it than any one else I know—you helped me afore, you see, when I had my tent burnt, and I’d like to do you good.’

‘How did you come to know of it?’

ssss1‘Well, it was this way. You know, ma’am, us diggers often write and lay one another on to good things. An old mate of mine had been campin’ out and prospectin’ round there, for more’n a year, livin’ hard, eatin’ lizards, pigface, what not—nigh perished for want of water, until he come across this here reef. Well, he goes back to Southern Cross, where he gets laid up with rheumatic fever, and close up dies—ain’t right yet. Well, he wires and lays me on, and I’m to give him an eighth share, when it’s floated—as floated it will be—and for a price that’ll astonish some people. I can’t say more, ma’am, now, and every word of it’s God’s truth.’