Is his only weakness and with Max to talk for him he's overcome that.

Beneath that monumental skull is a brain as quick and merciless as a

guillotine. Now that he's arrived on this goldfield there's going to be

some action; we'll have to gallop to keep up with him. Sean thought for

a few seconds, then, Talking about action, Duff, now that we've lost the

Greek's claims and won't have to use all our ready money satisfying him,

let's give some thought to ordering new machinery to work the claims we

have got.

Duff grinned at him. I sent a telegram to London last week. There'll

be a pair of brand new ten-stamp mills on the water to us before the end

of the month. Good God, why didn't you tell me? You were worried

enough as it was, I didn't want to break your heart Sean opened his

mouth to blast Duff out of the saddle, Duff winked at him before he

could talk and Sean's lips trembled. He felt the laughter in his

throat, he tried to stop it but it swamped him. How much is it going to

cost us? he howled through his mirth. If you ask that question once

more, I'll strangle you, Duff laughed back at him. Rest content in the

knowledge that if we're going to have enough to honour the bills of

lading when those mills arrive at Port Natal, we'll have to run a

mountain of Leader Reef through our little rig during the next few

weeks. What about the payments on the new claims? That's my

department, I'll worry about that And so their partnership crystallized;

their relationship was established over the weeks that followed. Duff

with his magic tongue and his charming, lopsided grin was the one who

negotiated, who poured the oil on the storm waters churned up by

Impatient creditors. He was the storehouse of mining knowledge which

Sean tapped daily, he was the conceiver of schemes, some wild, others

brilliant. But his fleeting nervous energy was not designed to bring

them to fruition. He lost interest quickly and it was Sean who finally

rejected the least likely Charleywood brain children and adopted the

others that were more deserving; once he had made himself stepfather to

them he reared them as though they were his own. Duff was the theorist,

Sean the practician. Sean could see why Duff had never found success

before, but at the same time he recognized that without him he would be

helpless. He watched with profound admiration the way that Duff used

the barely sufficient flow of gold from the Candy Deep to keep the mill

running, pay the tradesmen, meet the claim monies as they fell due and

still save enough for the new machinery. He was a man juggling with

live coals: hold one too long and it burns, let one fall and all fall.

And Duff, deep-down-uncertain Duff, had a wall to put his back against.

His speech never showed it but his eyes did when he looked at Sean.

Sometimes he felt small next to Sean's big body and bigger

determination, but it was a good feeling: like being on a friendly

mountain.

They put up new buildings around the mill: storerooms, a smelting house

and cabins for Sean and Curtis.

Duff was sleeping at the Hotel again. The location for the Natives

sprawled haphazard down the back slope of the ridge, retreating a little

each week as the white mountain of the mine dump grew and pushed it

back. The whole valley was changing. Hradsky's new mills arrived and

stood up along the ridge, tall and proud until their own dumps dwarfed

them. Johannesburg, at first a mere pattern of surveyors pegs, sucked

the scattered encampments onto her grassy chequerboard and arranged them