mainly gathering in a crowd on Uncle Billy's claim, that still
retained the old partners' names in "The Fall and Foster." To add to the
excitement, there was the quickly repeated report of a revolver, to all
appearance aimlessly exploded in the air by some one on the outskirts
of the assemblage. As the crowd opened, Uncle Billy appeared, pale,
hysterical, breathless, and staggering a little under the back-slapping
and hand-shaking of the whole camp. For Uncle Billy had "struck it
rich"--had just discovered a "pocket," roughly estimated to be worth
fifteen thousand dollars!

Although in that supreme moment he missed the face of his old partner,
he could not help seeing the unaffected delight and happiness shining
in the eyes of all who surrounded him. It was characteristic of that
sanguine but uncertain life that success and good fortune brought no
jealousy nor envy to the unfortunate, but was rather a promise
and prophecy of the fulfillment of their own hopes. The gold was
there--Nature but yielded up her secret. There was no prescribed limit
to her bounty. So strong was this conviction that a long-suffering but
still hopeful miner, in the enthusiasm of the moment, stooped down and
patted a large boulder with the apostrophic "Good old gal!"

Then followed a night of jubilee, a next morning of hurried consultation
with a mining expert and speculator lured to the camp by the good
tidings; and then the very next night--to the utter astonishment of
Cedar Camp--Uncle Billy, with a draft for twenty thousand dollars in his
pocket, started for San Francisco, and took leave of his claim and the
camp forever!

*****

When Uncle Billy landed at the wharves of San Francisco he was a little
bewildered. The Golden Gate beyond was obliterated by the incoming
sea-fog, which had also roofed in the whole city, and lights already
glittered along the gray streets that climbed the grayer sand-hills.
As a Western man, brought up by inland rivers, he was fascinated and
thrilled by the tall-masted seagoing ships, and he felt a strange sense
of the remoter mysterious ocean, which he had never seen. But he was
impressed and startled by smartly dressed men and women, the passing of
carriages, and a sudden conviction that he was strange and foreign to
what he saw. It had been his cherished intention to call upon his old
partner in his working clothes, and then clap down on the table before
him a draft for ten thousand dollars as HIS share of t