And here the miner stood up and gazed with a far-off, dreamy look, as if beyond the place in which he stood—beyond other lands and seas—as he named a desert region as yet scarce heard of, from which even the reckless prospector often turned away, the haunt of the thirst demon and the fever fiend.
‘Westhampton!’ said the pair simultaneously. ‘Why, you don’t mean to say you’ve been _there_! Whatever made you think of it? Why, it’s thousands of miles from here.’
‘I _was_ there, anyhow—and now I’m back here. There was a voyage to take—I had money enough for that, and I saved as much as would take me back. I had to walk over a hundred mile to get there, and double as much to come back. What I went through, no one will ever know. But I got back to the ship. Then I started to walk from the coast, and here I am; but there wasn’t much to spare, was there, Commissioner?’
‘My time’s up,’ he replied, looking at his watch. ‘Court morning, and there’s always some one waiting to see me. I must go now, but you tell Mrs. Banneret all about it. She’ll be in the claim too, you know’; and the man of many duties and responsibilities walked forth to receive a report from the police of a mining accident, with loss of life; to fix the date for hearing an exhaustive action for trespass; to issue warrants—sign summonses and Miners’ Rights; to report upon complaints made against himself to the Secretary for Mines; to sit in a bankruptcy meeting—as also to act as general adviser, father confessor, and guardian of minors in pressing cases of the most delicate social and financial nature.
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.’