related, died of heart disease, so the only man left of the five who
had worked the lead was Archibald McIntosh. He had been too poor to
work it himself, and, having failed to induce any speculator to go
in with him to acquire the land, he had kept silent about it, only
staying up at Ballarat and guarding the claim lest someone else
should chance on it. Fortunately the place where it was situated had
not been renowned for gold in the early days, and it had passed into
the hands of a man who used it as pasture land, quite ignorant of
the wealth which lay beneath. When Mrs Villiers came up to Ballarat,
this man wanted to sell the land, as he was going to Europe; so,
acting under the urgent advice of McIntosh, she sold out of all the
investments which she had and purchased the whole tract of country
where the old miner assured her solemnly the Devil's Lead was to be
found.

Then she built a house near the mine, and taking her old nurse,
Selina Sprotts, and Archibald McIntosh to live with her, sank a
shaft in the place indicated by the latter. She also engaged miners,
and gave McIntosh full control over the mine, while she herself kept
the books, paid the accounts, and proved herself to be a first-class
woman of business. She had now been working the mine for two years,
but as yet had not been fortunate enough to strike the lead. The
gutter, however, proved remunerative enough to keep the mine going,
pay all the men, and support Mrs Villiers herself, so she was quite
content to wait till fortune should smile on her, and the long-
looked-for Devil's Lead turned up. People who had heard of her
taking the land were astonished at first, and disposed to scoff, but
they soon begun to admire the plucky way in which she fought down
her ill-luck for the first year of her venture. All at once matters
changed; she made a lucky speculation in the share market, and the