as one march of fifty miles
without water.

Two in the company had even crossed Mexico, and had been lost, until
they emerged from the mountains and sighted the desert of southern
California. All in all, thought Charley (and his father agreed) people
were taking astounding risks to get to California.

There was the trip clear around Cape Horn, by boat; and the trip across
the Isthmus; and trips across Mexico, from Vera Cruz and other points;
and the Gila River trail, through the dry desert; and several trails,
further north, more crowded and almost as perilous. Why, the whole
West and Southwest must be divided off every few hundred miles by
regular processions of gold seekers! He hoped, did Charley, that Billy
Walker would get through all right.

The army officer proved to be a young lieutenant--Lieutenant William T.
Sherman, Third Artillery, now Adjutant General of the Division of the
Pacific, with headquarters at San Francisco, whither he was returning.
Mr. Adams managed to strike up a conversation with him, for the
lieutenant was affable, especially with anyone like Mr. Adams, who had
been a soldier under General Scott.

"Have you any news for us gold seekers, Lieutenant?" invited Mr. Adams.

"From where, sir?"

"From San Francisco and the gold fields."

"News!" exclaimed the lieutenant, smiling with his steady gray eyes.
He had a long, rather stern face, of russet complexion, but he was
pleasant. "There's news every hour. This crowd you've taken aboard is
only a sample of the people who are pouring in by thousands."

"Gold is plentiful?"

"It exceeds any reports, sir."

"How about other business? What is the chance in San Francisco?"

"San Francisco is growing at the rate of thirty houses and a hundred
people a day. All kinds of supplies are in demand, and all kinds of
labor and professions. The chief trouble is to get them. The harbor
is full of vessels without crews, stores are without clerks and houses
without servants, and the army almost without soldiers. You are aware,
I suppose, that this very steamer, the first steamship into the harbor,
last February, was immediately deserted by every sailor, who all put
out to the mines. She was held at anchor for a week or two, trying to
ship a crew so as to make the return trip to Panama. Whole companies
of soldiers have followed the example of the sailors. Colonel Mason,
when he was military governor of California, found himself obliged to
coo