ey'd been seen by somebody, my son. There'd been a
poor fellow done for up the country, and some gold carried off. They
got the credit of it; but give a dog a bad name and--you know the rest.
I should say they're all dead by now."

"But why didn't you send for us?" said Abel.

"Why didn't you send for me?"

"Well," said Dallas drily, "it was out of good fellowship. We were
afraid it would be more than you could bear to get so rich. But where
are your comrades?"

"Gone home," said Tregelly, in a tone of voice that the two young men
took to mean, "Don't ask questions!"

"But you've found a lot?" said Dallas.

"Well, yes, my sons; we managed to scrape a good deal together, some
here and some there, for we changed about and travelled over a good deal
of ground."

"And you have sent it home?"

"Nay-y-ay! I've got it here on the sledge."

"Oh!" said Abel, looking at the shabby kit their visitor had left close
to the door of the hut.

"I've got a bit in a bag; but, you see, it costs all you can scrape
together to live wherever I've been; so I thought I'd look you two up,
as my mates had gone, so as to be company for a poor little lonely chap.
Will you have me?"

"Of course."

"Any chance of picking up a decent claim here?"

"Plenty, such as we have," replied Dallas. "You'll be able to do as
well as we've done, and the others about here."

"That means the lumps of gold are not too big to lift?"

"That's it," said Dallas. "I've been thinking that if we were here next
summer, we ought to get a lot of ants and train them to carry the grains
for us."

"Ah, I see, my sons. I say, one might almost have made as much by
stopping at home, eh?"

"Here, don't you come here to begin croaking," cried Dallas. "Abel here
can do that enough for a dozen."

"Can he?" cried Tregelly. "Oh, you mustn't do that, my son. There's
plenty of gold if we can only find it. I saw a chap with a gashly lump
as big as a baby's fist. We'll do it yet. So you haven't done much
good, then?"

"If we had we should have sent word for you to come."

"And I should have sent or come for you, my sons. Look here, we'd
better make a change, and explore higher up towards the mountains."

"Too late this year," said Dallas decisively.

"Oh, yes; too late this season, my sons. We mustn't get too far from
the supplies. Means--you know what! famine and that sort o' thing."

"Yes, we know," said Abel bitterly.

"We'll do it when t