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Once Harry drew a small flask from his pocket, poured a little spirit into a pannikin, and gave it to the old man. 'Hair off his dog, you know, he said. And two or three times Con made an effort to induce his father to take a whiff of smoke, but old Peetree shook his head disgustedly, and returned to his mutterings and the picking of imaginary tarantulas off his sleeves.
He had rejoined Harry Peetree at Blanket Flat, and continued working there; but his strength returned slowly, and the joy of life had fled from his heart again, leaving him more miserable than he had been as a youth in his native village.
The mates had brought one tent to serve them, pending the arrival of their other belongings. It had been resolved that the five men should work on shares during their stay at Simpson's Ranges, and Mike and Peetree senior secured the land to which the party was entitled under its licenses.
Meantime, Harry Peetree, who had remained in Ballarat to try and discover the whereabouts of Jim and Mike, hunted the Kyleys out, and learned the truth. He left a message for Jim, and then followed his father and brother, who had made for Simpson's Ranges again immediately after their escape from the stockade.
'That's a first name for it, he said. 'Hanged if we don't have it painted up! 'A sign of some kind is necessary. But isn't the old man likely to suffocate with that bung in? 'Not he; there's heaps o' breathin' in the cask. That bung's just to gag him awhile. That evening after tea the two sons, with old Peetree under guard between them, joined the mates at their fire.
She made a charming picture, with the firelight on her face and gleaming in her hair, and the men watched her for some minutes in quiet admiration, Josh Peetree being particularly moved by the glamour of domesticity her presence threw over the camp, and throughout the evening ejaculated a fervent 'My colonial! every time his eyes encountered the girl. 'Hello! said Aurora.
'We were workin' in here a bit for a change this afternoon after Peetree hunted us, an' I broke through. 'What's in there? asked Jacker in an awed voice. 'Look, said Dick. Jacker backed away; the other three kept a respectful distance and stared silently. 'It's on'y another drive, Dick explained. 'It must come from the Red Hand, I think.
The conversation turned upon the characteristics of the lead at Jim Crow, and drifted to the inevitable subject, the development of the agitation for the emancipation of the miners and the doings and sayings of the insurgent party at Ballarat, and every now and again Peetree senior would whisper ambiguously: 'There ain't such a thing ez a drop of gin? No, of course not.
'Once he takes to smoke he's comin' round, said Con Peetree, making a vain attempt to induce the old man to draw at his pipe. 'There ain't a finer ole tough walkin' when he's off the licker, said the elder proudly, 'an' not a better miner-ever lived. Done watched the group with keen delight.
He had gone to the tent to light the fire, boil the billy, and prepare the mid-day meal, and was carrying water from a convenient spring, when, in passing the tent of their nearest neighbours, twin brothers named Peetree, the first prospectors of Jim Crow, he was startled by a furious yell, more like the howl of a madman than the cry of a sentient creature. Jim turned and looked about.
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