ho had strayed out to California,
and going at once to the mines had been lucky enough to get
possession of a very remunerative claim. He wrote to Travis that he
had already realized two thousand dollars from it, and expected to
make his fortune within six months.

Two thousand dollars! This seemed to Travis a very large sum, and
quite dazzled his imagination. He was at once inflamed with the
desire to go out to California and try his luck. In his present
situation he only received thirty dollars a month, which was
probably all that his services were worth, but went a very little
way towards gratifying his expensive tastes. Accordingly he
determined to take the next steamer to the land of gold, if he
could possibly manage to get money enough to pay the passage.

The price of a steerage passage at that time was seventy-five
dollars,--not a large sum, certainly,--but it might as well have
been seventy-five hundred for any chance James Travis had of raising
the amount at present. His available funds consisted of precisely
two dollars and a quarter; of which sum, one dollar and a half was
due to his washerwoman. This, however, would not have troubled
Travis much, and he would conveniently have forgotten all about it;
but, even leaving this debt unpaid, the sum at his command would not
help him materially towards paying his passage money.

Travis applied for help to two or three of his companions; but they
were all of that kind who never keep an account with savings banks,
but carry all their spare cash about with them. One of these friends
offered to lend him thirty-seven cents, and another a dollar; but
neither of these offers seemed to encourage him much. He was about
giving up his project in despair, when he learned, accidentally, as
we have already said, the extent of Dick's savings.

One hundred and seventeen dollars! Why, that would not only pay his
passage, but carry him up to the mines, after he had arrived in San
Francisco. He could not help thinking it over, and the result of
this thinking was that he determined to borrow it of Dick without
leave. Knowing that neither of the boys were in their room in the
daytime, he came back in the course of the morning, and, being
admitted by Mrs. Mooney herself, said, by way of accounting for his
presence, that he had a cold, and had come back for a handkerchief.
The landlady suspected nothing, and, returning at once to her work
in the kitchen, left the coast clear.

Tr