Ned, Pete Jackson, and myself, for fifteen thousand dollars in cash.
Ned had brought with him some specimens of the quartz which he had shown
to the intending purchasers, and some of which they had subjected to
assay, and the result of this had determined them to buy the claim if
everything could be satisfactorily arranged.

It did not take me long to decide, in fact, I fairly jumped at the
offer. The sum mentioned seemed a princely fortune at the time, and, in
fact, to one in my situation it really was so, for wealth is but
comparative, after all. The following morning the trade was arranged,
the necessary papers drawn up, and Ned left the same afternoon for the
mine in company with the buyers, to deliver the property and complete
the transaction. In a few days he returned, and I soon found myself in
possession of five thousand dollars in gold coin, the largest amount of
money I ever owned.

I now hurried the preparations for our departure, and a few days later
we joined an eastward bound train, and journeyed with it towards the
rising sun! With the details of our journey I will not weary the
reader, suffice it to say that we made the trip without trouble or
molestation of any sort, and reached St. Louis in safety. How strange it
all seemed, to walk about the streets of the great city of the West, and
as the residents fondly term it "the future great city of the world;"
everything seemed so unreal, after the long years of my captivity and
wild life among the mountains, that I used sometimes to fancy that it
was all but a dream and I would presently awake to find myself again in
the temple with Wakometkla, in that strange and far off land hidden
among the mighty mountains of the Sierra Madre.

We remained but a few days in the metropolis of the West, and then
journeyed to a point further eastward, where my wife had relatives
living, or at least supposed that some might yet be surviving. On our
arrival we found such to be the case, and a joyful reunion was the
result; we being received as two risen from the dead.

And now our cup of happiness was indeed full; reunited after so long a
separation and such bitter suffering we had returned at last to friends
and home!

In conclusion, I can only express my thanks to those kind readers who
have followed me patiently through all my wanderings, and listened to my
simple, yet I hope not uninteresting narrative of the hardships and
perils through which I have passed.

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