these
diggin's? 'Twouldn't buy a cup of coffee. But say, if you really want
to make easy money, instead o' spendin' it, I've got a little
investment worth your attention."

"What is it?"

"Best water lot in the city."

A score of voices interrupted, and the Adams party found themselves
almost mobbed.

"Don't listen to him. Hear me!"

"If you want a water lot----"

"No, no; I've got 'em all skinned."

"Wait a minute, now."

"The most valuable proposition in California."

"A water lot is what you ought to have. As soon as the city builds
out----"

And so forth, and so forth. It was most bewildering.

"Where is your lot, sir?" demanded Mr. Adams.

"Right under the red skiff yonder," directed the first miner. "Level
and sightly, as you can see as soon as the tide's full out. Straight
in line for the extension of Clay Street. Can't be beat."

"What's your price?" asked Mr. Grigsby, with a wink at Charley.

"You can have that fine lot for only $10,000 cash. It's worth $15,000."

Mr. Adams threw back his head and laughed, and laughed. Even Mr.
Grigsby guffawed. And Charley was indignant. These San Franciscans
must think them awful green, to offer them "lots" away out in the
bay--and at $10,000!

"Come on, boys!" bade his father. "I'm afraid, gentlemen, that your
real estate doesn't appeal. It might make a good navy yard, but not
the kind of a yard that I could use for my family."

"You'll see the day when you'll wish you'd taken some of those lots,
strangers," warned the man, after them.

And so they did--although that seemed ridiculous. The "water lots" are
now almost in the centre of the business district of great San
Francisco, and worth ten times ten thousand dollars.

It was an amazing town that they traversed, carrying their hand baggage
and followed by a couple of Mexicans who for the promise of two dollars
had deigned to pick up the trunk. Few of the buildings seemed
finished, and all looked as if they had just been put up, in a great
hurry. They were made from canvas rudely tacked on warped boards, of
rusty sheet-iron and tin, of brown clay or "adobe," of newly-sawed
rough lumber, of pieces of boxes and flattened cans, and one was even
built of empty boxes piled up for walls, with a canvas roof. But all
these stores were full of goods, many not yet unpacked, and of buyers,
and every third or fourth store was a saloon and gambling house, fuller
still. As for the streets, the