we are. About a year ago, as I remember
it, our assets were a bundle of newspapers and less than a hundred
dollars. Haven't even got a newspaper now, but I reckon among us we
could just about scrape up the hundred dollars."

"I've got nearer twenty-seven hundred in my belt," I pointed out.

An embarrassed silence fell for a moment; then Talbot spoke up, picking
his words very carefully.

"We've talked that over, Frank," said he, "and we've come to the
conclusion that you must keep that and go home, just as you planned to
do. You're the only man of us who has managed to keep what he has made.
Johnny falls overboard and leaves his in the bottom of the Sacramento;
Yank gets himself busted in a road-agent row; I--I--well, I blow soap
bubbles! You've kept at it, steady and strong and reliable, and you
deserve your good luck. You shouldn't lose the fruits of your labour
because we, each in our manner, have been assorted fools."

I listened to this speech with growing indignation; and at its
conclusion I rose up full of what I considered righteous anger. My
temper is very slow to rouse, but when once it wakes, it takes
possession of me.

"Look here, you fellows!" I cried, very red in the face, they tell me.
"You answer me a few questions. Are we or are we not partners? Are we or
are we not friends? Do you or do you not consider me a low-lived,
white-livered, mangy, good-for-nothing yellow pup? Why, confound your
pusillanimous souls, what do you mean by talking to me in that fashion?
For just about two cents I'd bust your fool necks for you--every one of
you!" I glared vindictively at them. "Do you suppose I'd make any such
proposition to any of you--to ask you to sneak off like a whipped cur
leaving me to take the----"

"Hold on, Frank," interposed Talbot soothingly. "I didn't mean----"

"Didn't you?" I cried. "Well, what in hell did you mean? Weren't you
trying to make me out a quitter?" I had succeeded in working loose my
heavy gold belt, and I dashed it on the table in front of them. "There!
Now you send for some gold scales, right now, and you divide that up!
Right here! Damn it all, boys," I ended, with what to a cynical
bystander would have seemed rather a funny slump into the pathetic, "I
thought we were all real friends! You've hurt my feelings!"

It was very young, and very ridiculous--and perhaps (I can say it from
the vantage of fifty years) just a little touching. At any rate, when I
had finished, my comr