CHAPTER IX.
ON THE PLAINS.
THINK now that you can spare me, Mr. Willcox," Frank said, just a month after the day of landing. "The store has got into swing now; the two negroes know their work well, and everything is going on smoothly; therefore, if you have no objection, I shall see about making a start."
"I shall be sorry to lose you," Mr. Willcox said; "but, as you say, the place will run itself now. I shall go down by the next steamer, and send up two more storekeepers and a clerk from my office there. This is going to be a big thing. Well, lad, here's the money you gave me to take care of, and the two hundred dollars due to you. I will give orders to Simpson that you are to take everything you can require for your journey from the store, and mind don't stint yourself; you have done right-down good service here, and I feel very much indebted to you for the way you have stuck to me at this pinch. I wish you every luck, lad, and I hope some day that rascally affair at home will be cleared up, and that you can go back again cleared of that ugly charge. Anyhow, it is well for you to make your way out here. It will be a satisfaction for you, if you do go back, to have shown that you were dependent on no one, but that you could fight your own way, and make your living by the aid of your own hands and your own brain. And now look here, if at any time you get sick of gold-digging, as you very well may, and want to turn your hand to anything else—and in a country like that, mind you, with a population pouring in from all parts, there will be big opportunities,—if you want capital to start you, just you send a letter to David Willcox, New Orleans, and tell me you have drawn on me for five thousand dollars. I am a rich man, lad, and have no children of my own; I have some nephews and nieces who will get my money some day, but I can do what I like with it, and you will be heartily welcome to the sum I mention. I have taken a fancy to you, and it will be a real pleasure to me to help you. If you do well you can some day send the money back, if you like; if you don't do well, there's an end of it. Don't let it trouble you for a moment, for it certainly won't trouble me, and be sure you don't hesitate to draw it when you want it. Remember, I shan't regard it as an obligation, but it will be a real genuine pleasure to me to cash that order."
Frank thanked Mr. Willcox very heartily for his kind offer, of which he promised to avail himself should an opportunity arise, and in any case to write to him occasionally to tell him how he was getting on. Then he strolled out to examine the great gathering round the settlement, which hitherto he had had no time to do, having been at work from daybreak until late at night. As he wandered among the motley throng of emigrants, he was struck with the hopefulness which everywhere prevailed, and could not but feel that many of them were doomed to disappointment. Many of them were storekeepers, men who had never done a day's work in their life; some were aged men, encumbered with wives and large families, and Frank wondered how these would ever survive the terrible journey across the plains, even if they escaped all molestation from the marauding Indians. He paused for a moment near four men who were seated round a fire cooking their meals.
All were sturdy, sunburnt men, who looked inured to hardship and work. The fact that all were animated by a common impulse rendered every one friendly and communicative, and Frank was at once invited to sit down.
"Of course you are going through, young fellow?"
"Yes," Frank said, "I am going to try."
"Got a horse, I suppose?"