ou
what passed between my son and me. I swore never to touch liquor again.
He sold out of consols five thousand pounds which he had inherited from
his mother, and handed it over to the man I had defrauded, giving him
his personal bond that he would repay the rest of the money, should he
live; and on those terms my client agreed to abstain from prosecuting
me, and to maintain an absolute silence as to the affair.

"Then Jim broke off his engagement, and took passages for us in a
sailing ship for Panama, and so on to San Francisco. I need not tell you
the struggle it was to keep to my promise; but when Jim had given up
everything for me, the least I could do was to fight hard for his sake.
My thoughts were always fixed on California, my only hopes that I might
live to see the rest of the debt repaid, and the boy's money replaced,
so that he could buy a business and marry the woman he loved. I dreamt
of it over and over again, and, as I told you, three times I dreamt of
the exact spot where we are now sitting.

"Somehow, in my dreams, I knew that if I dug straight down under the old
tree that formed the centre of the dream I should find gold. This became
a fixed idea with me, and when we reached the gold-fields I never
stopped long in camp, so bent was I upon finding the tree of my dreams.
Jim bore with me wonderfully. I knew he did not believe in my dream, but
he was always ready to go where I wanted. I think now he thought that I
was going out of my mind, or feared that if he thwarted me I might take
to drink again. However, at last we found the tree--at least I was
positive it was the tree of my dreams. James tried to dissuade me from
digging in a place which looked so unpromising; but nothing would deter
me save death, and you see the result. We shall go back; the debt will
be cleared off, Jim will marry his sweetheart, and I shall live with him
to the end of my days. He is a grand fellow is Jim, though I dare say it
didn't strike you so when you first knew him."

"He is a grand fellow," Frank agreed heartily, "and I am truly glad, Mr.
Adams, that all has turned out so well."

"And now, can you tell me something of yourself, Frank? It is to you we
owe it that things have turned out well; and if, as I rather guess, you
have got into some scrape at home, I can only say that my son and myself
will be very glad to share our fortune with you, and to take one-third
of it each."

"I thank you greatly, sir, for your gener