‘It’s an amazing find,’ Father said. He was sitting in Jack’s hut with Henry and Frank and Eliza. ‘It’s real gold, all right. No one has prospected here or they would have found it. You say Jack was on this piece of land for two years. Do you think he knew about it?’

‘No,’ Frank said. ‘He’d have told us, sure.’

‘He wouldn’t have noticed it,’ said Henry. ‘He’d have been drawing the lizards, wouldn’t he? Jack wasn’t interested in finding gold.’

‘He did tell us where we could find Lola, though,’ Frank said. ‘I suppose that might have been a clue. But we’ll never know.’

‘What should we call our new mine?’ Eliza asked. ‘We have to give it a name.’

‘Lola’s Lead?’ suggested Frank.

‘You can’t call it after a snake,’ Eliza said.

‘Happy Jack’s Lead, then,’ said Frank. ‘It’ll keep his memory green.’

‘Jack would’ve liked that,’ Henry said. There was that scratchy feeling in his eyes again.

‘Well, Happy Jack’s Lead is ours to mine, and as soon as we have enough gold to pay for it, I’ll buy the licence to make it official,’ said Father. ‘No one-eyed ruffian will be jumping this claim, I promise.’

‘Just let him try,’ Henry said. ‘Lola doesn’t like claim-jumpers.’

‘Things are going to change on the diggings,’ Father continued. ‘I read in the Melbourne papers that the Government has promised to change the rules for buying a licence. What’s more, any miner who has a licence will have the right to vote. Can you imagine that? And there’ll be no more digger hunting. No more licence inspectors making life miserable for poor miners.’

‘Sure, wouldn’t Jack be over the moon?’ Frank said. ‘Especially about the vote. He wanted people to be equal, rich and poor.’

‘Yes,’ Henry said. ‘For Jack that would be worth a lot more than gold.’

‘Henry,’ Eliza said, ‘that snake is looking at me. Make it stop!’

Henry reached up to the rafters so that Lola could slide down and coil herself around his arm. ‘She won’t hurt you,’ he said. ‘I used to be scared of her, too, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. She’s the best pet you could have.’ He stretched out his arm to Eliza. ‘Go on, touch her. She won’t mind.’

Very slowly, Eliza stroked Lola with one finger. ‘She’s soft,’ she said. ‘It’s not how I thought she would be.’

‘Quite often things aren’t what you think they’ll be,’ said Father, moving slightly away from Lola and lighting his pipe. ‘Look what happened at Eureka. It was a disaster – twenty or more killed and who knows how many wounded. But much good will come of it.’

‘It was a magnificent defeat,’ Henry said, half to himself. It was something Jack had said once.

‘Do you think anybody will remember what happened?’ Frank asked. ‘Will they remember what we were fighting for?’

‘People died for it,’ Henry replied. ‘Jack died for it. They’ll remember.’