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The first nights two of the 'boys' slept in the house to watch, 'cause mother was afraid we might lose it again. Then, since 'Forty-niner' got home only he has slept here, and he generally 'bunks' on the lounge in this very office. That's what it is, what it must be. My mother has worried about Antonio, and has taken the money and the piece of copper away and put them somewhere else.
Well, laddies, we're all back in here together again, and auntie wants you to tell Mr. Ma'sh where you got that candy; who give it to you; what for; where you saw that sneaky snake, Antonio Bernal; what you've done with the staff wand; and all the rest of it? 'Forty-niner' is a man and a gentleman "
"You ought to be interested in this. Your grandfather was a forty-niner." I looked at him searchingly. I ought to be interested! I, who cherished every memory of pioneer days! I, who had bitten my lips a dozen times that afternoon, and was glorying in the tact and strength of mind which had avoided this period of our history!
Prince stood looking on, unmoved. He was not Sobrante raised and seemed to feel it; or so Jessica fancied, as she left off petting Nimrod and passed to Prince's side, to stroke his head also, and to murmur words of praise for good behavior in bringing Ephraim safely home. Then "Forty-niner" led the beast away, while Jessica sped after Ninian, who had been greeted almost grasped by Aunt Sally.
The McCarthy farm, lying some four miles east of Caxton, had once contained a thousand acres of good corn-growing land. Lem McCarthy, the father of the family, had inherited it from a brother, a gold miner, a forty-niner, a sport owning fast horses, who planned to breed race horses on the Iowa land.
Old "Forty-niner" left his guest's side and hurried to the spot where a trainman held the spirited animal, stroking its neck and speaking soothingly to it, to calm its excitement; and no sooner had the ranchman's hand supplanted the trainman's than Nimrod ceased to prance, and with a little final shiver, stood stock-still, uttering a low whinny of delight. "That's the talk, you beauty!
It turned out that the ancient village of Cruces was a mere two-mile stroll from the canal, a thatch-roofed native town of some thirty dwellings on the rocky shore of an inner curve of the Chagres, where travelers from Balboa to the last "Forty-niner" disembarked from their thirty-six mile ride up the river and struck on along the ten-mile road through the jungle to Panama the famous Cruces trail.
I did think I could have done better myself. But when I found how tight money was in this city, and a man like Douglas B. Longhurst a forty-niner, the man that stood at bay in a corn patch for five hours against the San Diablo squatters weakening on the operation, I tell you, Loudon, I began to despair; and I may have made mistakes, no doubt there are thousands who could have done better but I give you a loyal hand on it, I did my best."
My grandfather was a Forty-Niner." "Did he get rich?" asked Polly, interestedly. "Not so's you'd notice it. Spent all he had and died trying to get home." "Oh!" "Hard luck, wasn't it? My folks went to Detroit when I was a little codger and they both died there. I was adopted by an uncle an uncle who was the whitest man God ever made," declared Scott, solemnly. "Why was he I mean, how was he?"
If 'Forty-niner' would join it Hello! what's up? What in the name of all things!" Suddenly, out of the moonlit distance before them, appeared a strange vision. A horse and his rider, as spotlessly white and gleaming as the snow on the distant mountaintops, moving toward them as swift as the wind and in supernatural silence.
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