s, five pounds of powder
and ten pounds of lead. Dad's bought one of those new-kind patent
revolving pistols--you can shoot it six times and take out the cylinder
and put in another and shoot six times more! Guess there won't many
Injuns want to tackle _us_! And I've got a seven-shooter rifle, all my
own."

III

AN UNWELCOME COMPANION

According to an advertisement in the St. Louis papers the steamship
_Georgia_, from New York for the Isthmus of Panama, was to arrive at New
Orleans in three weeks. That would be just about the right date, decided
Mr. Adams, to allow him and Charley to make their preparations, and take
a steamboat down the Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans.

Now all was excitement, not only at the Adams home, but throughout St.
Louis and the whole eastern country. Charley bid good-bye to Billy and
Billy's father, when with their team and white-topped wagon they pulled
out, in their party, for Westport Landing, which is now Kansas City.
From Westport Landing they were to drive on to Council Grove, thirty
miles west, which was the big starting point for California. The papers
declared that already, in this April, 15,000 people had gathered along
the Missouri River border, all the way from Independence, Missouri, to
Council Bluffs of Iowa, prepared to start on their 2000-mile trip to the
new gold fields, as soon as the grass began to grow. Every boat, too, to
the Isthmus, was crowded--and so were the sailing vessels, bound around
Cape Horn!

The lowest cabin-fare, New York to San Francisco by the Isthmus, was
$395! Counting the steamboat trip down the Mississippi, the fare was
about the same from St. Louis. Whew! That seemed to Charley a lot of
money--but thanks to the stranger whom they had taken in, Charley and his
father had it, and could leave Mrs. Adams well provided for, besides,
with what Mr. Adams had in reserve. That was good. A number of men had
gone off and left their families to get along as best they could, but
this was not Mr. Adams's way.

Being an experienced campaigner, Charley's father knew just about what
kind of an outfit they would need; and of course, as Billy had said, the
papers all had published lists, for the information of the emigrants.

All the clothing should be of the toughest and hardiest material; by
accounts there would not be much chance to renew it, out at the mines,
unless a person was prepared to pay tremendous prices. You should have