t Billy, for the
moment--in fact, he hadn't recognized him.

But the remainder of the emigrant train had drawn near, bunching as it
halted, and on foot Billy was hurrying through the crowd, followed by
his father. Charley gave a shrill whoop of joy, and with a run he and
Billy grabbed one another and hugged and danced. Then they drew off to
shake hands; then Charley shook hands with Mr. Walker--and Mr. Adams
shook hands with Billy and his father; then Charley and Billy
grinningly sized one another up.

"You look like a sure-'nough miner," said Billy.

"And you look like a sure-'nough overlander," said Charley.

"What have you got? Have you found much gold? Are these the regular
diggin's? How long've you been here? Have you made your pile? Were
you seasick any? Did it storm at sea? What's the name of this place?
Where's the Sacramento? Did you stay in San Francisco? How much gold
can I dig in a day?" propounded Billy, all at once.

"I've found some gold--I've panned out half a sackful. We haven't been
here long. Wasn't seasick a bit--scarcely. These are the Shirt-tail
diggin's," replied Charley. "What kind of time did you have? Did you
kill any Injuns? Do you have to go on? Why don't you stop now and
mine? Is this all your crowd? Did you have a lot of fun? Do you want
me to show you how to pan?"

"Gee, we had some fun, but we had an awful time, mostly," declared
Billy, soberly. And he looked it. His flannel shirt was torn and
faded, his trousers were patched with buckskin, his boots were scuffed
through and resoled with rawhide, the knife in his belt had been ground
down to half a blade, and his rifle was scarred and the stock spliced
with rawhide at the grasp. Besides that, his face and hands were brown
as brown, and scratched, he was thin as a rail, but his eyes were
bright and steady and he evidently was as hard as nails. "We broke our
wagon and lost our horses--they just fell down and died in their
tracks--and had to leave half our outfit out in the desert. But our
company's first in; there are about 200 of us--and there are about
30,000 following, strung out all the way from here to the Rocky
Mountains, I guess. That's a tough trail, across the desert from Fort
Hall; but we made it, though the Digger Injuns 'most got our scalps,
once. Part of the crowd's coming in by way of Oregon; and that's a
harder trail still, we hear. Some of our own company, branched off,
other side of the S