41 Lure O Gold 1904

"
"
"
The Lure o 9
Gold
to find that dust.
but
Well, I hope you may be successful,
and he shook his head.
"What are you going to do with your dead man,
Mr. Nason ?
asked the Doctor.
He s
down there,
you know."
"I
guess I ll have to remove him temporarily from
the lower hold before we begin work," said the first
officer. "It would be paying him very small respect
to have all that clatter going on so near him."
"That s true," affirmed Doctor Quaritch, "and
then there are the men to consider, I suppose."
little
They talked awhile on this subject,
attraction for me that I strolled away.
which had so
While amidships, I became much interested in the
operations of some pantrymen who were trying to split
an enormous butcher s block so that it could go into
one of the furnaces.
The block was of eucalyptus, or
Australian gumwood. This wood is very fibrous, and
when dried a long time it is excessively hard to split,
being almost as tough as iron. The axe-blades that
fell
upon the smooth, hard top of the block rebounded
without making the slightest impression. The men
worked hard and perspired profusely, but could not
detach a piece of the wood as large as a man s arm
[180]