In the meantime they cut their trench, teaxiing into the earth in a race

against Settlement Day. They fired dynamite and as the last stones

dropped back out of the sky they were in again, coughing with the fumes,

to clear the loosened rock and start drilling the next set of holes. it

was summer, the days were long, and while it was light they worked. Some

evenings they lit the last fuses by lantern light.

Sand fell through the hour-glass faster than they had bargained for, the

money dribbled away and on the fifteenth of February Duff shaved

himself, changed his shirt and went to see Candy about another loan.

Sean watched him walk away down the slope. They had sold the horses a

week before, and he said a small prayer, the first for many years.

Duff came back in the late morning. He stood on the edge of the trench

and watched Sean tamping in the charges for the next cut. Sean's back

was shiny with sweat; each individual muscle standing out in relief,

swelling and subsiding as he moved. That's the stuff, laddie, keep at

It Sean looked up with dust-reddened eyes. How much?

he asked. Another fifty, and this is the last, or so she threatens.

Sean's eyes fastened on the package Duff held under his arm. What's

thatV He could see the stains seeping through the brown paper and the

saliva flooded out from under his tongue. Prime beef chops, no mealie

meal porridge for lunch today Duff grinned at him. Meat. Sean caressed

the word. Underdone, bleeding a little as you bite it, a trace of

garlic, just enough salt. And you beside me, singing in the wilderness,

agreed Duff. Cut out the poetry, light those fuses and let's go and

eat. An hour later they walked side by side along the bottom of their

trench, Mbejane and his Zulus crowding behind them. Sean belched. Ah,

pleasant memory, I'll never be able to look another plate of mealie meal

in the face again. They reached the end, where the freshly broken earth

and rock lay piled. Sean felt the thrill start in his hands, tingle up

his arms and squeeze his lungs. Then Duff's fingers were biting into

his shoulder; he could feel them trembling.

It looked like a snake, a fat grey python crawling down one wall of the

trench, disappearing under the heap of new rabble and out the other

side.

Duff moved first, he knelt and picked up a piece of the reef, a big grey

mottled lump of it and he kissed it.

It must be it, hey, Duff? It must be the Leader? It's the end of the

rainbow. No more mealie meal, Sean said softly and Duff laughed. Then

Sean laughed. Wildly, crazily, together they howled their triumph.

Let me hold it again, said Sean.

Duff passed it across to him. Hell, it's heavy There'snothing heavier,

agreed Duff. Must be all of fifty pounds. Sean held the bar in two

hands, it was the size of a cigar box. More! We've retrieved all our

losses in two days working. And some to spare, I'd say. Sean placed

the gold bar on the table between them. It shone with little yellow

smiles in the lantern light and Duff leaned forward and stroked it; its

surface felt knobbly from the rough casting.

I can't keep my hands off it, he confessed sheepishly. I can't either!

Sean reached out to touch it. We'll be able to pay Candy out for the

claims in another week or two Duff started. What you say? I said we'd

be able to pay Candy out. I thought I wasn't hearing things Duff patted

his arm indulgently. Listen to me, laddie, I'll try and put it simply.

How long have we got the option on these claims for? Three years.

Correct, now the next question. How many people on these fields have

any money?

Sean looked mystified. Well, we have now and and . . .

No one else, that is until Hradsky gets back, Duff finished for him.

What about the Heyns brothers?

They've cut open the Leader Reef. Certainly, but it won't do them any

good, not until their machinery arrives from England. Go on! Sean

wasn't quite sure where Duff was leading. Instead of paying Candy out

now we are going to use this, , he patted the gold bar, land all its

little brothers to buy up every likely claim we can lay, our hands on.

For a start there are Doc Sutherland's claims between us and the Jack

and Whistle. Then we are going to order a couple of big ten-stamp mills

and when those are spilling out gold we'll use it to buy land, finance

brick works, engineering shops, transport companies and the rest. I've

told you before there are more ways of making gold than digging for it

Sean was staring at him silently.

Have you got a head for heights? asked Duff.

Sean nodded. You're going to need it, because we are going up where the

eagles fly, you are about to be a party to the biggest financial killing

this country has ever seen. Sean lit one of Candy's cigars; his hand

was a little unsteady. Don't you think it would be best to, well, not

try and go too quickly. Hell, Duff, we've only been working the Leader

for two daysAnd we've made a thousand pounds, Duff interrupted him.

Listen to me, Sean, all my life I've been waiting for an opportunity

like this. We're the first in on this field, it's as wide open as the

legs of a whore. We're going to go in and take it. The next morning

Duff had the good fortune to find Doc Sutherland early enough to talk

business with him, before he began the day's drinking. Another hour

would have been too late. As it was Doc knocked over his glass and fell

out of his chair before he finally signed away twenty-five claims to

Sean and Duff. The ink was hardly dry on the agreement before Duff was

riding down to Fereira's Camp to look for Ted Reynecke who held the

claims on the other side of the Cousin Jock. Up on the Candy Deep Sean

nursed the mill and bit his nails. Within seven days Duff had bought

over one hundred claims and committed them to forty thousand pounds in

debts. Duff, you're going mad. Sean pleaded with him. We'll lose

everything again. How much have we pulled out of the Candy Deep so far?

Four thousand. Ten percent of what we owe in ten days, and with a

miserable little four-stamp mill at that. Hold on to your hat, laddie,

tomorrow I'm going to sign up for the forty claims on the other side of

the Jack and Whistle. I would have had them today but that damned Greek