gel's
absorbed all collateral facts or subsequent details. Prospectors from
adjoining camps thronged the settlement; the hillside for a mile on
either side of Johnson's claim was staked out and pre-empted; trade
received a sudden stimulus; and, in the excited rhetoric of the "Weekly
Record," "a new era had broken upon Angel's." "On Thursday last," added
that paper, "over five hundred dollars was taken in over the bar of the
Mansion House."

Of the fate of Johnson there was little doubt. He had been last seen
lying on a boulder on the river-bank by outside passengers of the
Wingdam night coach, and when Finn of Robinson's Ferry admitted to have
fired three shots from a revolver at a dark object struggling in the
water near the ferry, which he "suspicioned" to be a bear, the question
seemed to be settled. Whatever might have been the fallibility of
his judgment, of the accuracy of his aim there could be no doubt. The
general belief that Johnson, after possessing himself of the muleteer's
pistol, could have run amuck, gave a certain retributive justice to this
story, which rendered it acceptable to the camp.

It was also characteristic of Angel's that no feeling of envy or
opposition to the good fortune of Tommy Islington prevailed there. That
he was thoroughly cognizant, from the first, of Johnson's discovery,
that his attentions to him were interested, calculating, and speculative
was, however, the general belief of the majority,--a belief that,
singularly enough, awakened the first feelings of genuine respect for
Tommy ever shown by the camp. "He ain't no fool; Yuba Bill seed thet
from the first," said the barkeeper. It was Yuba Bill who applied for
the guardianship of Tommy after his accession to Johnson's claim, and on
whose bonds the richest men of Calaveras were represented. It was
Yuba Bill, also, when Tommy was sent East to finish his education,
accompanied him to San Francisco, and, before parting with his charge on
the steamer's deck, drew him aside, and said, "Ef at enny time you want
enny money, Tommy, over and 'bove your 'lowance, you kin write; but ef
you'll take my advice," he added, with a sudden huskiness mitigating
the severity of his voice, "you'll forget every derned ole spavined,
string-halted bummer as you ever met or knew at Angel's,--ev'ry one,
Tommy,--ev'ry one! And so--boy--take care of yourself--and--and God
bless ye, and pertikerly d--n me for a first-class A 1 fool." It was
Yuba Bill, also,