t as he gained the street. He turned round
instantly, and presented the revolver at Ned's breast, but the latter
caught his right arm in his powerful grasp and held it in the air.

"Be calm, my poor fellow," he said, "I mean you no harm; I only wish to
have a word of conversation with you. You are an Englishman, I
perceive."

The young man's head fell on his breast, and he groaned aloud.

"Come, come," said Ned, releasing his arm, "don't give way like that."

"I'm lost," said the youth, bitterly. "I have struggled against this
passion for gaming, but it has overcome me again and again. It is vain
to fight against it any longer."

"Not a bit of it, man," said Ned, in a cheering tone, as he drew the arm
of the young man within his own, and led him slowly along the street.
"You are excited just now by your disappointments. Let us walk together
a while, for I have something to say to you. I am quite a stranger
here, and it's a comfort to have a countryman to talk with."

The kind words, and earnest, hearty manner of our hero, had the effect
of soothing the agitated feelings of his new friend, and of winning his
confidence. In the course of half-an-hour, he drew from him a brief
account of his past history.

His name, he said, was Collins; he was the son of a clergyman, and had
received a good education. Five years before the period of which we now
write, he had left his home in England, and gone to sea, being at that
time sixteen years of age. For three years he served before the mast in
a South-Sea whale-ship, and then returned home to find his father and
mother dead. Having no near relations alive, and not a sixpence in the
world, he turned once more towards the sea, with a heavy heart and an
empty pocket, obtained a situation as second mate in a trading vessel
which was about to proceed to the Sandwich Islands. Encountering a
heavy gale on the western coast of South America, his vessel was so much
disabled as to be compelled to put into the harbour of San Francisco for
repairs. Here the first violent attack of the gold-fever had set in.
The rush of immigrants was so great, that goods of all kinds were
selling at fabulous prices, and the few bales that happened to be on
board the ship were disposed off for twenty times their value. The
captain was in ecstasies, and purposed sailing immediately to the
nearest civilised port for a cargo of miscellaneous goods; but the same
fate befell him which afterward