Sadie and Horrie only just managed to reach the ladder and ascend it as the whole shaft came tumbling down. "Streth that was close" said a relieved Rabbit. "Now you know why I chickened out " Horrie and Sadie brushed off and downed a cooling bottle of water, then sat down and pondered over their lucky escape. Luckily Sadie had put the piece of lithium in her pocket before the cave in......
Crikey, that was scary and we were lucky, and our luck ain't over yet. Given it's Lithium here let me peg out an area for us to make a claim. Sadie and Rabbit, help me lay out a claim which I guess means more samples and tests for your report Sadie. From here I can use my satellite phone as a hot spot and make a claim over the internet, and fast being a licensed surveyor. Without all the bulldust, if we make our claim up to 20hectares or 55acres which we can do swiftly and cheaply. I'll put in some Survey markers in positions you two recomend and note their GPS locations. Also some reference 40cm steel rods hidden and buried to relocate our corner pegs of the mining claim for added security. It helps. A 400m by 500m rectangle or similar would do to make the 20hectares. I could then make the claim on line and put it up for auction to the big mining companies. If that's ok with you both. You probably know all about claims too Sadie and all the legalities involved.You too Rabbit. Would you help me too Rabbit with the Surveying? And your 6th sense. This is my battery powered Surveying pole. If you take that I'll get out and carry my trusty Theodolite and its tripod legs.' .
After we got our claim marked off and registered, we decided to go on to the other area that Horrie wanted to explore. On the way, we bumped in to the three aborigines again. They told us that there were some strange white men on down the road. They were heavily armed and looked dangerous. Since guns are outlawed in Aussieland, they must be outlaws of some kind.
"Only certain guns.. such as semi automatics missus". Rabbit then made the point that criminals can no doubt have automatic weapons smuggled into Australia without the law knowing..... "Horrie I will do whatever you need re the claim. How certain are you that is Lithium missus. I cant identify Lithium precisely but I do know Nickel when I see it.. and there are several flakes in that rock.....
Thanks for the help with the claim Sadie and Rabbit. It's all lodged now with even an email back acknowledging receipt of it and a $200 fee which I just paid on line. Done! Your report was good Sadie but pity we didn't get many more positive samples. Still there's some Lithium here and maybe one of the big miners might be interested? I'm like you Rabbit not knowing a lot about Geology. Nickel? I don't know what that means? Sadie put that in the report anyway. Rabbit's right about the gun laws Sadie, but you have to have a licence and hand guns are illegal. It could be they're just out hunting Roos and feral Boar? Anyway, here we are at the area I'm interested in after a slow drive throgh rough terrain. I suggest we make camp and tomorrow start with our metal detectors. Better take our own rifles and me my shot gun for poisonous snakes. I'll thaw out some Barramundi fish fillets for tonight's dinner as a treat. It'll be cold tonight with all the clear skies we've just had; I'll gather some firewood.
Towards Sunset the Desert Easterly wind that had brought the massive Red Dust Storm had carried it out to the Western horizon so transforming the light from the Sun setting to a dirty Red. Horrie got his dog Biff howling for effect, even encouraging Rabbit's dog Snorter to join in. Horrie had set up his theodolite with its powerful lenses and attached camera on top of a nearby hill. Sadie saw them first looking through the theodolite, on the top of a hill like us, were two people silhouetted by the sunset. Horrie went to max zoom and took pics of their backs. "They are about 1300m away" he said. We all had a good look and Rabbit said "reckon that shorter one on the left is a Sheila. Nice bum an' they're holding hands." "Bottom" said Horrie to Rabbit correcting his vernacular grinning. Sadie glared at the two silly blokes. Then the taller one turned our way with what looked like a big camera and holwed back sending Biff and Snorter into a barking frenzy. "Opps" said Horace.
A widely used component of the lithium-ion battery used widely in current electric vehicles is nickel Horrie. That is the reason I am excited if there are nickel deposits in our claim as mining companies will pay a pretty penny for both nickel and its partner cobalt to sell to the makers of electric cars. It is well known that Australia has huge deposits of both.. with much of it still underground. We could make a fortune if we also found some."
“It’s not just howling, Horrie and Rabbit.” “It’s a way of communicating over a distance,” said Sadie. With that, she rared back and gave three short howls and one long howl. “How..oul….. how..oul…. How..oul…. How...oooul.” “That means we’re friendly, come on over”, she said. The couple on the other hill howled back, “How..oul….. how..oul…. How..oul…. How...oooul.” “That means we’ll be right over.” And with that, they began to descend the hill. Horrie said, “Sadie, you better hide the rock. They may be friendly but it’s better not to take any chances. Greed can make people mighty unfriendly. If they ask, we’re out hunting for rabbits.”
Turns out they are a pair of German tourists a little lost. They drove over in a newish rental 4wd they'd scratched and put a few new dents in. Sadie came out from behind her rock and introductions were made. Sitting around our campfire drinking hot tea Horrie made out the best route to get back to Yalgoo on their GPS. They'd found the track up the spur by accident following our wheel tracks thought Horrie. Hans and Steffi looked a little anxious when they noticed our guns but we reassured them we are upstanding citizens out hunting rabbits. 'Any luck yet?' asked Steffi of Rabbit. 'and is that why you call yourself Rabbit?' Horrie and Sadie chuckled quietly.
By then, it was getting on toward bedtime. Hans and Steffi asked it they could camp with us here. Since it would be dangerous for them to continue after darkness, we agreed to let they stay. But Sadie was a little suspicious of them. “What were a couple of dags doing in the bush? It sounds furphy to me,” she thought. She motioned for Horrie and Rabbit to follow her just outside the camp. She told them her thoughts and added, “And why were they following us?” “I think one of us should stay awake and keep watch all night.”
I have seen claim jumpers before said Rabbit. These two dont look the type. Their accents are definitely German as I have came across plenty of German settled areas in my time.. several here in West Aussie as well as in South Aussie. PerhapsSteffi and Hans are on their way to visit distant relatives. Still Horrie and I will stay awake missus and keep watch in case anything untoward happens. If our visitors question me I'll say I am watching out for dingoes. I'll take first watch. Will wake you in four hours Horrie.....
The sun was high up in the sky when I woke up the next morning. Rabbit was asleep leaning against a big rock. Horrie was just beginning to stir in his sleeping bag. I looked around to see if our visitors were still asleep. They were gone! They must have slipped some kind of sleeping drug into our tea. I shouted for Rabbit and Horrie to get up! We searched the camp and found that they had taken my rock, most of our petrol, most of our food and water, some of our equipment, and my truck. They left their 4wd but the petrol tank was almost empty. Now what do we do?
Those bastards have cleaned us out!!!! No fool like an old fool. I had them completely wrong. They were bloody low lifes after all. I recall checking out our campsite perimeter, returning and sitting down by this rock.. Then nothing more. We still have the juice in the other two trucks.. hopefully ample to get us to some kinda civilization....
"Bugger, bugger, bugger!" said Horrie. "They had me fooled too. I'm phoning Sergeant Hugh from Yalgoo to head them off if possible. I'll phone Dale my Aboriginal friend you met to keep an eye out for them. At least they didn't find our Gold which is well hidden in my truck."