of them were surprised to discover that an hour
had slipped by when their companions came up on deck, and Nasmyth was
once more thoughtful before he went to sleep that night.

Next day the _Tillicum_ brought up off a little mining town, and
George, who went ashore, came back with several letters. Among the
letters was a note for Nasmyth from a man interested in land
exploitation. This man, with whom Nasmyth had been in communication,
was then in the mining town, and he suggested that Nasmyth should call
upon him at his hotel. Nasmyth showed Acton the letter.

"I understand these folks are straight?" the younger man remarked with
inquiry in his tone.

Acton smiled dryly. "Any way," he said, "they're as straight as most.
It's not a business that's conducive to unswerving rectitude. Hutton
has come up here to see you about the thing?"

"He says he has some other business."

"Well," replied Acton, "perhaps he has." Then he turned to Wisbech,
who sat close by. "I'll go ashore with Nasmyth. Will you come along?"

"No," said Wisbech; "I almost think I'll stay where I am. If Derrick
can hold out any reasonable prospect of making interest on the money,
it's quite possible I may put three or four thousand dollars into the
thing, but I go no further. It's his affair. He must handle it
himself."

Acton nodded. "That's sensible, in one way," he declared, and one
could have fancied there was a certain suggestiveness in the
qualification.

Wisbech appeared to notice it, for he looked hard at Acton. Then he
made an abrupt gesture.

"It's my nephew's affair," he said.

"Oh, yes!" returned Acton, significantly. "Any way, I'll go ashore
with him, as soon as George has the gig ready."

Acton and Nasmyth were rowed off together half an hour later, and they
walked up through the hot main street of the little colliery town. It
was not an attractive place, with rickety plank sidewalks raised
several feet above the street, towering telegraph-poles, wooden
stores, and square frame houses cracked by the weather, and mostly
destitute of any adornment or paint. Blazing sunshine beat down upon
the rutted street, and an unpleasant gritty dust blew along it.

There was evidently very little going on in the town that afternoon.
Here and there a man leaned heavy-eyed, as if unaccustomed to the
brightness, on the balustrade in front of a store, and raucous voices
rose from one or two second-rate saloons, but there were few other
signs of