e a lot to
gain."

This view prevailed, and in a short time the party moved off to another
place; for Cedar Camp was getting deserted, the other claims taken up on
the flat had paid their way, but little more, and the men were off to
new discoveries, of which they had heard glowing accounts.

For the next two months no marked success attended the labours of Frank
and his comrades, they paid their expenses, and that was all. Frank
enjoyed the life; he was in no hurry to get rich, and it gave him great
pleasure to be able occasionally to give a helping hand to miners whose
luck was bad, from the fund with which Mr. Adams had intrusted him. The
work was hard, but he scarcely felt it, for his muscles were now like
steel, and his frame had widened out until he was as broad and strong as
any of his companions, and few would have recognised in him the lad who
had shipped on board the _Mississippi_ fifteen months before.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIX.

STRIKING IT RICH.

TWICE the party of gold-diggers shifted their location, each time
following a rush to some freshly-discovered locality; but no stroke of
good fortune attended them. At the end of each week a few ounces of gold
remained to be added to the pile after the payment of expenses, but so
far the earnings of the carriers far exceeded those of the diggers. One
day, as Abe and Frank were just starting on their way down to
Sacramento, they met three men coming along, each leading two laden
horses. As the two teams met there was a shout of recognition.

"Hello, Abe! I have been asking for you of every one since we got here
six months ago, but no one seemed to know your party."

"We have been asking for you too," Abe said. "It seems curious that we
should be here so long and never run agin each other; but there are such
a lot of mining camps, and every one works too hard to spend much time
thinking about his neighbours. I expected we should run across each
other one of these days. And how goes it with you? How's every one?"

"We are broke up a bit," John Little said. "It wasn't to be expected as
we should hang together long after we once got out here; one thought one
place best, and another another; but I and my two mates here, and long
Simpson, and Alick, and Jones, we have stuck together."

"And where are you now?" Abe inquired.

"Well, I will tell you, Abe, and I wouldn't tell any one else; but I
said to you, 'If we ever makes a strike you are in it.'