rdine," said Bray to himself emphatically, "but I suspect
she'll catch it from her folks for this. I ought to have gone away at
once, like a gentleman, hang it!"

He was even angrily debating with himself whether he ought not to follow
her to protect her from her gesticulating relations as they all trailed
up the hill with her, when he reflected that it would only make matters
worse. And with it came the dreadful reflection that as yet he had
not carried the water to his expecting and thirsty comrades. He
had forgotten them for these lazy, snobbish, purse-proud San
Franciscans--for Bray had the miner's supreme contempt for the moneyed
trading classes. What would the boys think of him! He flung himself over
the bank, and hastened recklessly down the trail to the spring. But here
again he lingered--the place had become suddenly hallowed. How deserted
it looked without her! He gazed eagerly around on the ledge for any
trace that she had left--a bow, a bit of ribbon, or even a hairpin that
had fallen from her.

As the young man slowly filled the pail he caught sight of his own
reflection in the spring. It certainly was not that of an Adonis!
He laughed honestly; his sense of humor had saved him from many an
extravagance, and mitigated many a disappointment before this. Well! She
was a plucky, handsome girl--even if she was not for him, and he might
never set eyes on her again. Yet it was a hard pull up that trail once
more, carrying an insensible pail of water in the hand that had once
sustained a lovely girl! He remembered her reply to his badinage,
"Of course not--if it were only a pail," and found a dozen pretty
interpretations of it. Yet he was not in love! No! He was too poor and
too level headed for that! And he was unaffectedly and materially tired,
too, when he reached the road again, and rested, leaving the spring and
its little idyl behind.

By this time the sun had left the burning ledge of the Eureka Company,
and the stage road was also in shadow, so that his return through its
heavy dust was less difficult. And when he at last reached the camp, he
found to his relief that his prolonged absence had been overlooked by
his thirsty companions in a larger excitement and disappointment; for
it appeared that a well-known San Francisco capitalist, whom the
foreman had persuaded to visit their claim with a view to advance and
investment, had actually come over from Red Dog for that purpose, and
had got as far as the