leave change for my gold
slug with."

"Recket keeps the El Dorado, next door in the tent. He impressed me as a
very quiet, direct, square sort of a fellow. The best type of
professional gambler, in matters of this sort, generally is.

"'I am looking for a man,' said I, 'who has a little idle money, some
time, no gold-mining fever, plenty of nerve, and a broad mind. Can you
tell me who he is?'

"He thought a minute and then answered direct, as I knew he would.

"'Sam Brannan,' he said.

"'Tell me about him.'

"'To take up your points,' said Recket, checking off his fingers, 'he
came out with a shipload of Mormons as their head, and he collected
tithes from them for over a year; that's your idle money. He has all the
time the Lord stuck into one day at a clip; that's your "some time." He
has been here in the city since '48 which would seem to show he doesn't
care much for mining. He collected the tithes from those Mormons, and
sent word to Brigham Young that if he wanted the money to come and get
it. That's for your nerve. As for being broad minded--well, when a
delegation of the Mormons, all ready for a scrap, came to him solemnly
to say that they were going to refuse to pay him the tithes any more,
even if he was the California head of the church, he laughed them off
the place for having been so green as to pay them as long as they had.'

"I found Sam Brannan, finally, at the bar in Dennison's Exchange."

"What was he like?" asked Johnny eagerly. "I'll bet I heard his name
fifty times to-day."

"He is a thickset, jolly looking, curly headed fellow, with a thick
neck, a bulldog jaw, and a big voice," replied Talbot. "Of course he
tried to bully me, but when that didn't work, he came down to business.
We entered into an agreement.

"Brannan was to furnish the money, and take half the profits, provided
he liked the idea. When we had settled it all, I told him my scheme. He
thought it over a while and came in. Then we rowed off and paid the
captains of the ships. It was necessary now to get them warped in at
high tide, of course, but Sam Brannan said he'd see to that--he has some
sort of a pull with the natives, enough to get a day's labour, anyway."

"Warp them in?" I echoed.

"Certainly. You couldn't expect the merchants to lighter their stuff off
in boats always. We'll beach these ships at high tide, and then run some
sort of light causeway out to them. There's no surf, and the bottom is
soft. It'll cost u