"Precisely so. I may not be rich, but I can support a wife."

"As the young lady prefers some one else, I suppose we may as well go
home?"

"That's what I want to talk to you about, Jones. Very likely this Dewey
is dead; at any rate, he's a mere fortune-hunter. Now, although Florence
doesn't care to marry me now, if our marriage could be brought about she
would no doubt be reconciled to it after a while. Now, Jones, have you
anything to suggest?"

Orton Campbell threw himself back in his chair and eyed Jones. He had
formed a plan, but, if possible, he wanted the proposal to come from
Jones.

Jones was not over-scrupulous; he had never been so, and the months he
had spent in the mines in the company of adventurers of all kinds had
not improved him. Even law-abiding citizens often lost their regard for
law in California, and Jones had fewer scruples to overcome than most.

He suggested a plan which met with the approval of his employer, and
promised his co-operation on the understanding that if successful
Campbell should properly reward him.

It may be added that of the thousand dollars which he was to receive for
his information he had actually received but three hundred, Orton
Campbell having on various pretexts put off paying him. He received the
assurance that this also should be paid him without further delay as
soon as the plan referred to was successfully carried out.

CHAPTER XXIV.

MISS DOUGLAS RECEIVES A MESSAGE.

Florence Douglas felt somewhat uneasy after the visit of Orton Campbell.
Though he had no legal right to interfere with her, even as the
representative of his father, she knew the unscrupulous character of the
man, and that he would not have spent time and money in a visit to
California unless he had a strong hope of carrying her back with him.
Her chief fear was that he would carry out his father's threat and try
to have her pronounced of unsound mind, in which case he could have her
confined in an asylum.

"If I could only hear from Richard Dewey!" she fervently ejaculated. "If
he were here I would have nothing to fear."

Two days passed, and, considerably to her relief, she heard nothing from
Campbell. She began to hope that he had given up his purpose and made
arrangements to return to the East. She was determined to refuse him an
audience if he should call upon her again, either with or without
companions. That she might feel more secure, she took her landlady, Mrs.
Armst