GOING BACK

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 725, 28 December 1933, Page 5

GOING BACK

("Post" Special Correspondent.)

ANCIENT PRiOSPECTOR IS CERTAIN OF HIS GOLD FIND ■ UNDAUNTED BY TORTURE

Mt. Isa, Saturday. After having lain injured for four days in the burtndng sun, tortured by the ravages of ants, Jerry O'Leary, 80, is going hack to the scene of his suffering. It is lonely country, 50 miles from Colton Hill Stlation, and O'Leary is a solitary old man. • Bu(t he is certain gold is there, and h'e says he is .going to get it. O'Leary was carting wash dirt to water when his dray collapsed, flingvr.\ ig him to the ground. Wjheii he recovered consciousness, he forind that the horse had ibolted and He was unable .to walk. •Beside him 'he found a, drum of water which foritunately for him had been jolted from the dray. As he turned- it- over, it rolled away into a gully. 'Painfully, O'Leary crawled after it. When he 'reached it he discovered that the bung Jhad fallen out and most. of the water had poured away. F-or four days tihe old- prospector starved. He raitioned his small supply of water. Weakened by starvationx, his injuries, and the bites of a swarm of ants, he despaired of living. On a piece of -stone, he scratch'ed "I'v© had a. rouglhi spin. I think this time it's the end of the chapter," ran his scrawl. . Forty miles from where O'Leary lay, hlacks' discover'ed his horses and tracked them baek. 'With great care they carried' him to Colton Hill fhomestead, whence he was taken to Mt. Isa Hospital. jHe has pi-actically recovered. Soon he will be on the gold trail again.