'We have been a pretty goodish long 'un already, Captain.'
'Nothing to what we are going to set out on now, Jacob. We have got a fortnight or three weeks on board a steamer, and then we start across the plains.'
'How long shall we be in crossing them, sir?'
'Four or five months, Jacob.'
'My eye!' the lad exclaimed. 'Them must be something like plains; and what is there the other side of them?'
'There is a country where they find gold, Jacob.'
'What! sovs?' the boy exclaimed.
'The stuff sovereigns are made of.'
'But you ain't going to look for that, sir.'
'No, lad; I am going after these people. They were here that evening when we came in, and as they started in a hurry half-an-hour after we landed, I cannot help thinking they saw me. It seems they had another man with them when they were here, and I expect they came here to join him. I don't know whether he left with them; my own opinion is he did not, but when Truscott saw me he hurried off at once to his hotel and started, leaving the other man to prevent my following them. Probably he started by the boat in the morning after them, believing the negro he had hired had done his work. At any rate I have made up my mind to follow them. I was determined to do so before; but if I hadn't been, this would have decided me. They have got a long start, but we will come up to them sooner or later.'