much she trusted him; and Vandeloup knew that whatever he did those
calm dark eyes were on him, and that the least slip or neglect on
his part would bring Madame Midas to his side with her quiet voice
and inflexible will to put him right again.

Consequently the Frenchman was careful not to digress or to take too
much upon himself, but did his work promptly and carefully, and soon
became quite indispensable to the work of the mine. In addition to
this he had made himself very popular with the men, and as the
months rolled on was looked upon quite as a fixture in the Pactolus
claim.

As for Pierre Lemaire, he did his work well, ate and slept, and kept
his eye on his companion in case he should leave him in the lurch;
but no one would have guessed that the two men, so different in
appearance, were bound together by a guilty secret, or were, morally
speaking, both on the same level as convicts from a French prison.

A whole month had elapsed since Madame had engaged M. Vandeloup and
his friend, but as yet the Devil's Lead had not been found. Madame,
however, was strong in her belief that it would soon be discovered,
for her luck--the luck of Madame Midas--was getting quite a proverb
in Ballarat.

One bright morning Vandeloup was in the office running up endless
columns of figures, and Madame, dressed in her underground garments,
was making ready to go below, just having stepped in to see Gaston.

'By the way, M. Vandeloup,' she said in English, for it was only in
the evenings they spoke French, 'I am expecting a young lady this