e
again."

"Do you mean this?" asked Jones, slowly.

"Of course I do. You have served my purpose, and been paid. I have
offered you more, and you have refused it. That ends everything."

"I understand you now, Orton Campbell."

"_Mr._ Campbell, if you please," interrupted Campbell, haughtily.

"_Mr._ Campbell, then; and I am sorry I didn't know you better before,
but it isn't too late yet."

"That's enough: you can go."

As Jones walked away Campbell asked himself, "What is the fellow going
to do, I wonder? I suppose he will try to annoy me. Never mind: I have
saved nine hundred dollars. That will more than cover all the damage he
can do me."

It was about the same hour that a party of three, dusty and shabby,
entered San Francisco, and made their way to a respectable but not
prominent hotel.

"We look like three tramps, Ben," said Bradley. "Anywhere but in San
Francisco I don't believe we could get lodged in any respectable hotel,
but they'll know at once that we are from the mines, and may have a good
store of gold-dust in spite of our looks."

"If my friends at home could see me now," said Ben, laughingly, "they
wouldn't think I had found my trip to California profitable. It would
give my friend Sam Sturgis a good deal of pleasure to think that I was a
penniless adventurer."

"He might be disappointed when he heard that you were worth not far from
a thousand dollars, Ben."

"He certainly would be. On the other hand, Uncle Job would be delighted.
I wish I could walk into his little cottage and tell him all about it."

"When you go home, Ben, you must have more money to carry than you have
now. A thousand dollars are all very well, but they are not quite
enough to start business on."

"A year ago I should have felt immensely rich on a thousand dollars,"
said Ben, thoughtfully.

"No doubt; but you are young enough to wait a little longer. After our
friend Dewey has seen his young lady and arranged matters we'll dust
back to our friends, the miners who came near giving us a ticket to the
next world, and see whether fortune won't favor us a little more."

"Agreed!" said Ben; "I shall be ready.--Shall you call on Miss Douglas
this evening, Mr. Dewey?" asked Ben.

"Yes," answered Dewey. "I cannot bear to feel that I am in the same city
and refrain from seeing her."

"Will she know you in your present rig?" suggested Bradley.

"I shall lose no time in buying a new outfit," said Dewey. "There must
be