he
night, that the doctor had made a remark to Bourne, and then both had
stared hard at Chris and Ned, a proceeding which brought the blood into
the young men's faces and made Chris ask what they are to laugh at.

"You," said the doctor. "Why, when we rode away on our search you
looked a mere boy; you are coming back to the old home both of you men
grown, if you weren't so lathy and thin."

"Nobody will know them, eh, Wilton?"

"That's for certain. They will grin at you."

"I wouldn't advise them to," said Griggs slowly. "Chris has grown very
hot and peppery, and Ned here has done so much fighting that he always
seems to be, as the Irish say, spoiling for another go in. So they'd
better not laugh, for we want to settle down again as friends."

They had been journeying on since then, getting nearer and nearer to the
old settlement; but the change seemed wonderful, and they talked it
over.

"Why," said the doctor, "it isn't only the boys that have grown, but
everything here."

"Yes, wonderfully," said Bourne; "overgrown, one ought to say."

"They don't seem to have used the tracks much," put in Griggs. "It's
hard work to make sure whether we're going right."

"Oh, we're going right enough," said Chris. "I remember every hill and
dale. Look yonder; that's where the plantations are. But how they have
altered!"

"Yes," said the doctor, "the place does seem changed; but from the state
of the tracks I'm afraid that very little has been done in the way of
developing the fruit trade. Hullo! Why are you turning off here,
boys?"

"Because it was just under those big fir-trees, father, that we took and
buried that poor old prospector. Ned and I want to see the board we cut
and nailed on the biggest trunk."

"To be sure, yes," said Bourne; "let's go and see."

The mules were halted, and began to graze, while the party rode through
the lush saplings and bushes that had sprung up so that it was hard work
to get through, till they passed under the spreading branches of the
trees, where the undergrowth became thin and sparse.

"There's the old board," cried Chris suddenly, and the party drew rein
at last by the side of the heaped-up pile of stones with which they had
marked the wanderer's grave.

No one spoke for a few minutes, but they sat there thinking deeply of
the old man's coming, his death, and his legacy to the doctor, who broke
the silence at length with a bitter sigh.

"Poor old dreamer!" he sai