nd there, as if fishing in the grass.

"Well, I don't mind," he said. "Turn farmer, eh?--and plant trees, and
cut trees down, and build a house. All right. It will be good enough,
and you and me will go and shoot and fish. I shall like it. Shall we
have old Quong?"

"I suppose so, if he'll stay. There, let's go on fishing, and take back
some trout for Mr Raydon's tea. I do feel so idle and helpless. Do
you think he ever feels that we are staying too long?"

"Dunno," said Esau. "I should if I was him."

These words made me feel very low-spirited, and that night I broached
the subject to Mr Raydon, apologising for being there so helpless and
weak, and ending by asking him if I had not better go down to the mouth
of the river again.

He looked at me searchingly.

"Tired of this place?" he said.

"Oh no," I replied. "I have been very happy here."

"Then why do you talk of going?"

"Because I feel as if I must be a burden to you."

"Indeed! Well, suppose I say go, and you make your way back along the
river very slowly, for you are in a miserably weak state?"

"Yes, sir; but I am getting better now."

"Yes, I know; but suppose, as soon as you are gone, my sister and her
husband appear, what am I to say to them?"

"I had not thought of that," I replied.

"But you see I had. But come, Mayne, be frank with me. You have some
other reason for wanting to go."

He looked at me so searchingly that I coloured, for I could feel my
cheeks burning.

"No, sir," I said; "no other reason."

"Not gold-hunting?"

"No; indeed, no."

"But you and Dean have been talking about your discovery a good deal."

"I--I think not, sir," I said, hesitatingly. "We have talked about it."

"And what a pity it is for a fortune to be lying there untouched?"

"Dean thought something of the kind, sir. I did not."

"Ha!" he said, as he again fixed me with his eyes. "No, Mayne, you must
not think of going away. You have not exhausted my stock of hospitality
yet."

Perhaps it was fancy, I said to myself, but it certainly seemed to me
during the next few days, whenever I went out for a good long stroll
with Esau, some one seemed to be watching us.

One day it was Grey who encountered us somewhere on the mountain-side;
another day it was one of the men; and again, on another, Mr Raydon
himself, whose presence was announced by the great dog, who came
bounding up, to be followed in a few minutes by his master.

He did