an't afford to spend a few years, if it's necessary, in hunting
through first one desert and then another. Can't you see what a chance
we shall have?"

"I must confess I do not," said the doctor.

"Well, I do, sir. We shall have those places all to ourselves.
There'll be no one to complain of our making footmarks over their
gardens and strawberry-patches."

"What about the Indians, Mr Griggs?" asked Bourne.

"The Injun? Yes, there's the Injun, but we shouldn't go as one. We
should be half-a-dozen, and if the 'foresaid Injun takes my advice he'll
stop at home and leave me alone. I ain't got more pluck in me than most
fellows have, but though I called 'Thaniel Griggs all the lazy coons I
could lay my tongue to, I've a great respect for that young man.
Selfish or not, I like him better than any fellow in this country, and I
should no more mind drawing a straight bead on the savage who tried to
kill him than I should mind putting my heel on a sleeping rattler's head
while I drew my knife and 'capitated him. There, now."

"Self-preservation's the first law of nature, friend Griggs," said
Wilton.

"Is it, now?" replied the American. "Then all I can say is that number
two and all the rest of her laws have got to be very good ones if they
come up to number first, sir. Oh, I shouldn't stop for no Injuns if I
made up my mind to go, sirree. I should chance that, practise up my
shooting, and never go a step without having my rifle charged in both
barrels."

"But can't you see that the chances are very much against any one
finding this place?"

"No, sir. It'll be a tight job, no doubt; but what one man could do,
going without the slightest idee where to go nor what there was to find,
surely half-a-dozen of us, counting the young nippers in, could do,
knowing that the gold's there waiting for us, and that we've only got to
find the right spot."

"Only!" said Bourne sadly.

"Yes, sir, only. There, if I talk much more I shall want to go back
home to see if there is one ripe orange on my plantation that I can
suck. So I'll just put my opinions down straight. Those is them--I
say, Squire Ned, that's bad grammar, ain't it?"

"Horrible," replied the boy, laughing.

"Never mind; you understood it. Look here, gentlemen, there's a fine
chance here for a fortune, and I say, have a try for it, and take me
with you to help, share and share alike. I'll work with you, fight for
you, and share all the trouble like a m