ld take the ground entirely from under
his feet, and leave him in a condition that he felt disinclined
to contemplate so long as there might be a chance to avert such a
calamity. He accordingly improved the first opportunity that offered,
and cast himself at the feet of Dora--literally, mind you, on the lee
side of a sage bush--and lisped his love. On this sacred ground let
us tread as lightly as may be. Suffice it that Posey's suit prospered,
and that presently a little programme came to be agreed upon between
the contracting parties to this effect: They would go on for the
present precisely as if nothing had happened--Dora to seek her father
and Posey to seek his fortune. As soon, however, as Dora should have
succeeded in restoring the doctor to health, or had haply buried him,
Posey should be notified, and they would thereupon be married. Then
Dora would open a school somewhere, wherever she might chance to
find the indispensable children, while Posey, accompanied by his
newly-fledged father-in-law, if perchance that worthy individual
should be spared, would launch into the mines and conquer Fortune at
the point of the pick.

Time flew fast with the lovers after this, and they were quite
startled one day when Savage informed them that they were upon the
very borders of the promised land.

That evening, an hour before sunset, the train was halted for the
night at a point whence the travel-worn adventurers could look down
for the first time into the Sacramento Valley, and render thanks in
their various ways that the end of their tedious pilgrimage was almost
reached. As Dora Hanchett and Posey stood together upon a green knoll,
following with their eyes the winding trail that their feet were to
descend on the morrow, they descried, toiling slowly toward them, one
of those returning bands of unsuccessful and discouraged veterans--the
reflux of the great wave of immigration constantly pouring into the
golden valley--which they had frequently met in the course of their
long journey. As the cavalcade drew nearer, Dora's attention fixed
itself upon a curious figure that brought up the rear. Mounted upon a
loose aggregation of bones and ears that purported to be a mule, this
mysterious figure gradually approached, while Dora watched it as
if fascinated. On and on it came, and still she gazed, spell-bound.
Opposite her it paused. There was no longer any doubt: it was He.
Clad in the mangled remains of the original great-coa