"I had not intended to do anything dishonest, that even now I can affirm. I had intended to invest it, but in my muddled state put off doing so, and had gone on paying the interest as if it had been invested as ordered. When I knew that I had not enough in the bank to replace it, I went into foolish speculations to regain what I had lost; but until the crash came I had never fairly realised that I had not only ruined myself but was a swindler. I shall never forget the morning when James, who had been up all night going through my papers with my head-clerk, came down and told me what he had discovered. I was still stupid from what I had drunk overnight, but that sobered me. I need not tell you what pa.s.sed between my son and me. I swore never to touch liquor again.

He sold out of consols five thousand pounds which he had inherited from his mother, and handed it over to the man I had defrauded, giving him his personal bond that he would repay the rest of the money, should he live; and on those terms my client agreed to abstain from prosecuting me, and to maintain an absolute silence as to the affair.

"Then Jim broke off his engagement, and took pa.s.sages for us in a sailing ship for Panama, and so on to San Francisco. I need not tell you the struggle it was to keep to my promise; but when Jim had given up everything for me, the least I could do was to fight hard for his sake.

My thoughts were always fixed on California, my only hopes that I might live to see the rest of the debt repaid, and the boy's money replaced, so that he could buy a business and marry the woman he loved. I dreamt of it over and over again, and, as I told you, three times I dreamt of the exact spot where we are now sitting.

"Somehow, in my dreams, I knew that if I dug straight down under the old tree that formed the centre of the dream I should find gold. This became a fixed idea with me, and when we reached the gold-fields I never stopped long in camp, so bent was I upon finding the tree of my dreams.

Jim bore with me wonderfully. I knew he did not believe in my dream, but he was always ready to go where I wanted. I think now he thought that I was going out of my mind, or feared that if he thwarted me I might take to drink again. However, at last we found the tree--at least I was positive it was the tree of my dreams. James tried to dissuade me from digging in a place which looked so unpromising; but nothing would deter me save death, and you see the result. We shall go back; the debt will be cleared off, Jim will marry his sweetheart, and I shall live with him to the end of my days. He is a grand fellow is Jim, though I dare say it didn't strike you so when you first knew him."

"He is a grand fellow," Frank agreed heartily, "and I am truly glad, Mr.

Adams, that all has turned out so well."

"And now, can you tell me something of yourself, Frank? It is to you we owe it that things have turned out well; and if, as I rather guess, you have got into some sc.r.a.pe at home, I can only say that my son and myself will be very glad to share our fortune with you, and to take one-third of it each."

"I thank you greatly, sir, for your generous offer, but it would be of no use to me. I have, as you suspect, got into a sc.r.a.pe at home, but it is from no fault of my own. I have been wrongfully suspected of committing a crime; and until that charge is in some way or other cleared up, and the slur on my name wiped off, I would not return to England if I had a hundred thousand pounds."

"And can nothing be done? Would it be any use whatever to set to work on any line you can suggest? I would make it my own business, and follow up any clue you could give me."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Adams; thank you with all my heart: but nothing can be done, there is nothing to follow. It was not a question of a crime so committed that many outside persons would be interested in it, or that it could be explained in a variety of ways. So far as the case went it was absolutely conclusive, so conclusive that I myself, knowing that I was innocent, could see no flaw in the evidence against myself, nor for months afterwards could I perceive any possible explanation save in my own guilt. Since then I have seen that there is an alternative. It is one so painful to contemplate that I do not allow myself to think of it, nor does it seem to me that even were I myself upon the spot, with all the detective force of England to aid me, I could succeed in proving that alternative to be the true one except by the confession of the person in question.

"If he were capable of planning and carrying out the scheme which brought about my disgrace, he certainly is not one who would under any conceivable circ.u.mstances confess what he has done. Therefore, there is nothing whatever to be done in the matter. Years and years hence, if I make a fortune out here, I may go home and say to those whose esteem and affection I have lost, 'I have no more evidence now than I had when I left England to support my simple declaration that I was innocent, but at least I have nothing to gain by lying now. I have made a fortune, and would not touch one penny of the inheritance which would once have been mine. I simply come before you again solemnly to declare that I was innocent, wholly and conclusively as appearances were against me.' It may be that the word of a prosperous man will be believed though that of a disgraced schoolboy was more than doubted."

"And is there no one to whom I could carry the a.s.surance of your innocence?" Mr. Adams asked. "Some one may still be believing in you in spite of appearances. It might gladden some one's heart were I to bear them from your lips this fresh a.s.surance; were I to tell them how you have saved me when all hope seemed lost; were I to tell them how all here speak well of you, and how absolutely I am convinced that some hideous mistake must have been made."

Frank sat for some time silent.

"Yes," he said, at last. "I have a little cousin, a girl, she was like my sister; I hope--I think that, in spite of everything, she may still have believed me innocent. Will you see her and tell her you have seen me? Say no more until you see by her manner whether she believes me to be a rascal or not. If she does, give her no clue to the part of the world where you have come across me; simply say that I wished her to know that I was alive and well. If you see that she still, in spite of everything, believes that I am innocent, then tell her that I affirm on my honour and word that I am innocent, though I see no way whatever of ever proving it; that I do not wish her to tell my uncle she heard from me; that I do not wish her to say one word to him, for that, much as I value his affection, I would not for the world seem to be trying to regain the place he thinks I have forfeited, until I can appear before him as a rich man whom nothing could induce to touch one penny of his money, and who values only his good-will and esteem. That is her name and address."

And Frank wrote on the leaf of his pocket-book, "Alice Hardy, 354 Eaton Square."

"I do not think you will have to deliver the message; it is hardly possible that she should not, as my uncle has done, believe me to be guilty. Still, I do cling to the possibility of it. That is why I hesitate in giving you the commission, for if it fails I shall lose my last pleasant thought of home. If you find she has believed in me, write to me at Sacramento, to the care of Woolfe & Company, of whom I always get my stores. There is no saying where I may be in four or five months'

time, for it will take that before I can hear from you. It may be, in that case, she too will write. If she does not believe in me, do not write at all; I shall understand your silence; and, above all, unless you find she believes in me, say no more than that I am alive and well, and give no clue whatever to the part of the world where we have met."

"I will discharge your commission," Mr. Adams said. "But do not be impatient for an answer; I may not find a steamer going down to Panama for some time, and may have to go thence to New York, and thence take a steamer to Europe. I may find on my arrival that the young lady is absent from home, perhaps travelling with her father, and there may be delays."

"My uncle is not her father," Frank said; "she is a ward of his. But I will not be impatient; not for six months will I give up such hope as I have."

"There is one more thing before I say good night," Mr. Adams said. "I have been in great need, and know how hard it is to struggle when luck is against one, and I should like to give a small sum as a sort of thank-offering for the success which has attended me. In a mining camp there must be many whom a little might enable to tide on until luck turns. Will you be my almoner? Here is a bag with a hundred ounces of gold, the last we got to-day from our claim. Will you take it, and from time to time give help in the way of half a sack of flour and other provisions to men who may be down in the world from a run of ill-luck, and not from any fault of their own."

"I will gladly do so," Frank replied; "such a fund as this would enable me to gladden the hearts of scores of men. You can rely upon it, sir, that I will take care to see that it is laid out in accordance with your instructions."

After leaving the tent, Frank found James Adams sitting down on a log a short distance away.

"I would not disturb you," the latter said, "as I thought perhaps you were having a chat with my father--indeed he told me he should like to have a talk with you alone; but I want myself to tell you how conscious I am that I owe my happiness to you. Has my father told you how I am situated, and that I am going home to claim the dearest girl in the world, if, as I hope and believe, I shall find she has waited for me?"

"Your father has told me more," Frank said; "he has told me how n.o.bly you devoted your life to his, and why, and I am truly glad that so much good has come of our meeting. More than that first little help I must disclaim, for it was Abe and not I who believed in your father's dreams, which I confess I had no shadow of belief in, though they have, so unaccountably to me, been verified."

"Nothing you can say, Frank, will minimise what you have done for us.

You saved my father's life. If it had not been for you his dream would never have been carried into effect, and he would now be lying in the graveyard on the top of the hill, and I should be working hopelessly as a day labourer. I only want to say, that if at any time you want a friend, you can rely upon James Adams up to the last penny he has in the world."

The next morning Mr. Adams and his son started for San Francisco, and Frank and his party began to work their claims from the bottom of the shaft. Although they paid well, they proved far less rich than they had expected; they got good returns from the gravel, but found no pockets in the bed rock, which was perfectly smooth and even. They found that on either side of the Adams' claims the wall of rock behind swept round; this, no doubt, had caused an eddy at this spot, which had worked out the hole in the bed rock, and caused the deposit of so large a quant.i.ty of gold here; and, singularly enough, Mr. Adams' dream had led him to take up the exact spot under which alone the gold had been so largely deposited. The party had taken on several hands, and six weeks sufficed to clear out the paying stuff in their claims, and it was found that, after paying all their expenses, there remained eight hundred ounces of gold; a handsome result, but still very far below what they had reason to expect from the richness of the stuff in the claims lying in the centre of their ground.

This, however, added to the five hundred ounces they had received from Mr. Adams, gave them a total of about a thousand pounds each. They held a consultation on the night of the final clean-up. Two of the party were disposed to return east with their money, but they finally came round to Abe's view.

"A thousand pounds is a nice sum--I don't say it ain't--for less than six months' work; still, to my mind, now we are here, with the chance of doing just as well if we go on, I think it would be a fool's trick to give it up. Five thousand dollars will buy a good farm east, but one could work it with a good deal more comfort and sartainty if one had another five thousand lying in the bank ready to draw upon in case of bad times. We ain't fools; we don't mean to gamble or drink away what we have made; it will just lie in the bank at Sacramento until we want to draw it. If we work another year we may double it, but we can't make it less; we have got our horses still, and I vote we go back to our work as it was before, three of us digging and two carrying. We know that way we can pay our expenses, however bad our luck may be, so thar ain't nothing to loose in sticking to it for a bit longer, and thar may be a lot to gain."

This view prevailed, and in a short time the party moved off to another place; for Cedar Camp was getting deserted, the other claims taken up on the flat had paid their way, but little more, and the men were off to new discoveries, of which they had heard glowing accounts.

For the next two months no marked success attended the labours of Frank and his comrades, they paid their expenses, and that was all. Frank enjoyed the life; he was in no hurry to get rich, and it gave him great pleasure to be able occasionally to give a helping hand to miners whose luck was bad, from the fund with which Mr. Adams had intrusted him. The work was hard, but he scarcely felt it, for his muscles were now like steel, and his frame had widened out until he was as broad and strong as any of his companions, and few would have recognised in him the lad who had shipped on board the _Mississippi_ fifteen months before.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER XIX.

STRIKING IT RICH.

TWICE the party of gold-diggers shifted their location, each time following a rush to some freshly-discovered locality; but no stroke of good fortune attended them. At the end of each week a few ounces of gold remained to be added to the pile after the payment of expenses, but so far the earnings of the carriers far exceeded those of the diggers. One day, as Abe and Frank were just starting on their way down to Sacramento, they met three men coming along, each leading two laden horses. As the two teams met there was a shout of recognition.

"h.e.l.lo, Abe! I have been asking for you of every one since we got here six months ago, but no one seemed to know your party."

"We have been asking for you too," Abe said. "It seems curious that we should be here so long and never run agin each other; but there are such a lot of mining camps, and every one works too hard to spend much time thinking about his neighbours. I expected we should run across each other one of these days. And how goes it with you? How's every one?"

"We are broke up a bit," John Little said. "It wasn't to be expected as we should hang together long after we once got out here; one thought one place best, and another another; but I and my two mates here, and long Simpson, and Alick, and Jones, we have stuck together."

"And where are you now?" Abe inquired.

"Well, I will tell you, Abe, and I wouldn't tell any one else; but I said to you, 'If we ever makes a strike you are in it.' We have been prospecting up in the gulches of the North Yuba. We found as we couldn't get places worth working in the other camps, so we concluded it war best to find out a spot for ourselves; so we six have been a-grubbing and digging up among the mountains, and I tell you we have hit it hot. We three, washing with pans for four hours one morning, got out eight-and-twenty ounces of gold."

"That was something like," Abe said, in admiration.

"I reckon it war. Well, we covered the place up, and left our three mates to look arter it, telling them not to dig or make any sign until we came back. We sold the waggons and teams when we first got over, for they were no good to us in the mountains, and bought horses so as to keep ourselves supplied with provisions. We agreed before we began work we would come down to the town and get enough to last us, then we would move up quietly at night to our find, stake out our claims, and begin to work. Now if you and your four mates likes to join us, you are welcome."

"Well, that's a downright friendly offer, mate, and you bet we accept it. We had one capital stroke of luck, but since that worked out we haven't done much at digging, though Frank here and me has done very fair, trucking goods up from Sacramento. Where are your women?"

"Well," the other said, "we had some trouble about them. You see thar ain't many women up at the camps, they are rough places, and not fit for them. So we agreed that for the present it were best they should keep out of it. So we bought a little place with ten or twelve acres of ground, down at the foot of the hills, and there our wives and the kids are stopping. There's a big orchard, and they are raising vegetables, and when we goes down for supplies we brings up a load or two of fruit and vegetables, and rare prices they fetch, I can tell you, more nor enough to keep them all down there. But we have agreed to bring two of them up now to cook and wash, and leave the others to look arter the place and the kids. Simpson and Jones ain't married, you know. Women have a right to claims as well as men, and of course we shall take up for those we bring up, as well as for two big lads; so that will give us ten claims, besides the extra claims for discovery. So with your five claims we can get hold of a tidy bit of ground. We are going to take these stores up now, and leave them in charge of our friends in the gulch, who will keep them hid in the woods, and then we can go back and bring up the women and a cargo of vegetables."

"Well, in four days we will meet you here. I will take all the horses and load them up. We were going to bring up flour for the storekeeper, but now we will get stores for ourselves. We will bring as much as we can get along with. We can sell what we don't want, for there is sure to be a rush in a short time. Frank shall go back and tell the storekeeper we ain't a-coming with the flour."

This was arranged, and four days later Abe and his party arrived at the spot agreed on, and an hour or two later the cavalcade, with the three men, two women, and two boys of fifteen or sixteen years old, came up, and the united party started together. It was some fifty miles to the spot where the gold had been discovered. Sometimes they wound along in deep valleys, pa.s.sing several camps in full operation. At the last camp, which was a small one, a few questions were asked them as to their destination.

"We are just going a-prospecting for the mountain of gold," Abe replied, "and as we have got six months' stores aboard we mean to find it. We will send you down a few nuggets when we get up there."

"We shall have some of them after us in a day or two," John Little said; "every one suspects every one else; and they will make a pretty story of it, I guess, thinking as we shouldn't have brought the women up all this distance without having some place in our minds."

At last they arrived at their destination, the mouth of a little gorge running off the deep valley of the north Yuba. The gorge widened out into a narrow valley, and the party made its way among the pebbles and boulders at its bottom for a quarter of a mile, and then three men came out from among the trees and greeted them heartily.