"Do you mean to tell me that that wicked man actually ran away with all the gold you had worked for so hard?" exclaimed Aunt Gertrude indignantly.
"Looks that way, ma'am!"
"The scoundrel! I just wish I had him here for a minute. I'd tell him a few things!"
"I'd tell him a few things myself," said Wilson mildly. "Still, it was a great many years ago and there's no use thinkin' about it now. The gold's gone and I'm an old man."
"It's a shame!" said Mrs. Hardy.
"I guess I couldn't have been much use as a prospector, or I'd have been able to hold on to what I got," observed Wilson. "I've come to the conclusion that a man gets pretty much what he deserves in this world. If he ain't smart enough to hold on to what he's got, he deserves to lose it."
"Didn't you make anything out of your mining days at all?" put in Frank.
"Oh—a few dollars here and a few dollars there. Enough to keep me in grub and with a place to sleep. Once in a while I'd make some extra money, but it never lasted long somehow. I got a claim out in Montana yet, so far as that goes."
"Is it worth anything?"
Jadbury Wilson shrugged and stroked his beard.