his
shoulders, and his spirits became at times almost exuberant.

At first he had looked to Frank almost a middle-aged man, although his
face and figure showed that he could not be many years his own senior;
now he looked almost like a schoolboy, so full was he of life and
spirits. The old man had taken much to Frank, and although during the
latter part of the time he had talked but little, he liked him to come
into the tent every evening to smoke a pipe and chat with his son. He
had several times endeavoured to draw from Frank his reason for leaving
England and coming out to California at an age when many lads are still
at school; but he had obtained no reply to his hints, for Frank did not
care to enter upon the story of that incident at Westminster.

The evening when the claims had been worked out, and the last cradle
washed out, the old man asked Frank to bring Abe and his companions to
the tent after they had had their supper. The tent showed little signs
of the altered circumstances of its owners; a few more articles of cheap
crockery and a couple of folding chairs were the only additions that had
been made. Some boxes had been brought in now to serve as seats, and on
one in the centre were placed half a dozen bottles of champagne, which
the young man proceeded to open.

"My friends," the elder said, "I am going away to-morrow, and I trust
that your claims will turn out every bit as rich as ours has done."

"Even if they don't turn out as rich," Frank said, "there is no fear of
their not turning out well. We consider we have made a capital bargain
with you; we have been paid by you for our work in sinking the shaft,
and now it will be easy for us to work our claims. It was a lucky day
for us when we made that contract to sink your shaft."

"I am glad you think so, and very glad that you are likely to share my
luck; still, I feel greatly indebted to you. It was a bargain, of
course, but it was a bargain in which you were taking all the risk.
There is, as you say, every probability of your claims turning out well;
but there's no certainty in gold-mining, and at any rate we cannot go
away with a fortune without feeling that, to some small extent at least,
you will participate in it. Therefore I here hand you over each a bag
with a hundred ounces of gold, so that, come what may, your time and
labour here will not have been thrown away. You will not, I hope, pain
me by refusing," he said, seeing that the men looke