'All right, my grandmother's cat! You'll be findin' quartz reefs in a
gum-tree next.'

'You ask Jacker an' Ted,' put in Dick resentfully, hurt to find his
well-intentioned efforts so ungraciously received.

'Ask Jacker, is it? If Jacker comes playin' any of your monkey tricks
with me, my lad, I'll make him smell mischief, I tell you.'

'But hang it all, Mack! you might as well come an' see. I own the chances
o' finding a shallow reef in that locality look blue, but you know there
was talk o' something of the kind years ago.'

'Yes, talk by fellers that didn't know a quartz lode from a load o'
bricks or a stone wall. Get out, I'm sleepy.'

'Show him the specimen,' said Dick.

Harry handed it over.

'The boy says this is from his show. How's that?' he said.

McKnight took the stone indifferently, cast his eye over it, and then sat
up with a jerk. He moistened the stone here and there, glared again in a
strained silence, and one leg shot out of bed. He weighed the specimen in
his hand, and the second leg followed. Then McKnight fell to dressing
himself; he literally jumped into his clothes, and as he buttoned his
vest all askew, he gasped: