"Oh, there you are, Mr Denham," said the Colonel as we went up. "I was beginning to think you'd come to grief. I could have searched the place half-a-dozen times over by now. You've come to say there's no water, of course?" "No, sir; I've found plenty." "What!" cried the Colonel, whose whole manner changed in an instant. "You've found plenty?" "Yes, sir." "Splendid news, my dear boy. There, I forgive you for being long," he added good-humouredly. "The horses want a drink badly. Show the men where to lead them at once." "My news is not so good as that, sir. It's hard to get." "What! At the bottom of a well?" "Of a well-like place; and I think there's an ample supply." "See to getting ropes, Sergeant," said the Colonel, "and--we have no buckets with us?" "No, sir; but there's a couple of those zinc-lined nose-bags in the troop." "Capital. They'll do. Take what men you want, and set to work drawing water at once. You must try and clear out some hollow among the stones near the mouth of the well, so that the horses can be led to drink as fast as the men can haul the water up." I was in the party told off to help; and the first thing to be done was to find the nearest part of the court to the interior building where the mine-shaft was. It proved to be an easier task than we anticipated. What was better, we came upon a pile of stones in one corner, close up to the wall, which looked as if they had been heaped up there by hand for some reason or another; and they attracted me so that I drew Denham's attention to them, and told him what I thought. "You're right," he said. "Here, half-a-dozen of you, come and help." He was about to set the men to work to drag the stones away; but I proposed that the tethering raw-hide ropes of two of the horses should be attached to their saddles and the ends made fast to the great rough slabs of stone. This was done, and the horses set to draw, when one by one a dozen massive pieces were drawn aside, leaving a little opening, through which I dropped a stone, with the result that those who listened heard a deep-sounding _plosh_! and set up a cheer. Then other two slabs were dragged away, to lay bare a roughly squared hole six feet across, from which the water could be easily drawn up. "That communicates with our shaft, then?" said Denham to me in a questioning tone. "No doubt," I said. "I dare say there are tunnels running in several directions. Did you tell the Colonel about the gold?" "Not yet," he replied. "He thinks a good deal more about the water now than he would do about gold. But, I say, do you think it will be good drinking-water?" "Certainly," I said. "Gold isn't copper."