“That’s right, sir.”
“How long had he been out here, then?” asked Ned eagerly.
“Can’t say, squire; but a many, many years, for he was pretty nigh worn out, warn’t he, doctor?”
“By privation principally,” said Bourne thoughtfully.
“Privation had had a good deal to do with it certainly,” said the doctor; “but Griggs is right, he was nearly worn out.”
“With his long fight?” said Wilton.
“Principally from old age. He must have been very far past seventy.”
“What?” cried Bourne.
“Oh yes, he was very old,” replied the doctor quietly.
“Ay, he seemed so,” said Griggs. “Old enough to be a hundred; not that he was. I’ll say eighty. Well, he might easily have been wandering about in his gold hunt for twenty or thirty or forty years.”