ounds for 'em? Him and another
man's joining, and they're going to put 'em in sales; and if they don't
make so much, we've got to pay them, and if they make more, Dingle's
going to pay us. What more do you want?"

"Nothing, my dear; I've done," said Mrs Dean in a resigned tone, such
as would have made a bystander think that the whole business was
settled. It was not, however, for the next day most likely the whole
argument would be gone through again about some trifle.

Meanwhile I had been helping Mr John, and here Mr Dingle's knowledge
came in very helpful, and he devoted every spare minute he had, working
so well, that he arranged with one of our well-known auctioneers to take
the furniture of the cottage, and triumphantly brought Mr John a cheque
for far more than he expected to receive.

One way and another, Mr John was well provided with funds, laughingly
telling me he had never been so rich before, as I went with him to his
landlord's to give up the key of the pleasant little house.

For during the rapidly passing days of that fortnight everything had
been settled, a passage had been secured for Mrs Dean in the same
vessel by which Mr and Mrs John were going, and it had been finally
decided that Esau and I were to go by quite a different route. For
while they were to go by swift steamer across to Quebec, and from there
through Canada with one or other of the waggon-trains right to Fort Elk,
on the upper waters of the Fraser, we lads were, after seeing the little
party off to Liverpool, to go on board the _Albatross_, a clipper ship
bound from London to the River Plate, and round by Cape Horn to San
Francisco, from which port we were to find our way north the best way we
could.

There would be no difficulty, we were told, for vessels often sailed
from the Golden Gate to the mouth of the Fraser, but our voyage would be
slow.

It would be rapid though compared to the land journey across the
prairies. Our trip would probably last five months, more if our stay at
San Francisco were long; but allowing for halts at the settlements, and
the deliberate way in which, for Mrs John's benefit, the journey was to
be made, their trip would extend to a year--probably more.

Mr John had gone through it all with me again and again, reading long
extracts from his brother-in-law's letter written expressly for their
guidance, till I knew them pretty well by heart. In these he was told
to hasten on to the high and mounta