at me foolishly. "Now don't
be a stupid dog," I said; "do what I tell you immediately. Whatever it
is, bring it out, Sir."

Jowler knew that I would be obeyed whenever I called him "Sir;" so he
ducked his great head under the water, and tugged with his teeth at the
object. His back corded up, and his tail grew rigid with the intensity
of his labor, but the task was quite beyond him. He could not even
stir the mighty mass at which he struggled, but he bit off a little
projecting corner, and came to me with it in his mouth. Then he laid his
dripping jaws on my lap, and his ears fell back, and his tail hung down
with utter sense of failure.

I patted his broad intelligent forehead, and wiped his black eyes with
his ears, and took from his lips what he offered to me. Then I saw
that his grinders were framed with gold, as if he had been to a dentist
regardless of expense, and into my hand he dropped a lump of solid
glittering virgin ore. He had not the smallest idea of having done any
thing worthy of human applause; and he put out his long red tongue and
licked his teeth to get rid of uneatable dross, and gave me a quiet
nudge to ask what more I wanted of him.

CHAPTER XI

ROVERS

From Jowler I wanted nothing more. Such matters were too grand for
him. He had beaten the dog of Hercules, who had only brought the purple
dye--a thing requiring skill and art and taste to give it value. But
gold does well without all these, and better in their absence. From
handling many little nuggets, and hearkening to Suan Isco's tales of
treachery, theft, and murder done by white men for the sake of this, I
knew that here I had found enough to cost the lives of fifty men.

At present, however, I was not possessed with dread so much as I was
with joy, and even a secret exultation, at the power placed in my hands.
For I was too young to moralize or attempt philosophy. Here I had a
knowledge which the wisest of mankind might envy, much as they despise
it when they have no chance of getting it. I looked at my father's
grave, in the shadow of the quiet peach-trees, and I could not help
crying as I thought that this was come too late for him. Then I called
off Jowler, who wished (like a man) to have another tug at it; and home
I ran to tell my news, but failing of breath, had time to think.

It was lucky enough that this was so, for there might have been the
greatest mischief; and sadly excited as I was, the trouble I had seen
so much