Chapter Twelve.
We get into hot Water.
We were on shore next day, and, by the captain’s advice, went to a kind of hotel, where they undertook, not very willingly, to accommodate us, the captain having promised to help us in getting a ship for the Fraser River. But though day after day passed, and we went to him again and again, he was always too busy about his cargo being discharged, or seeing other people, to attend to us, and at last we sat one day on some timber on a wharf, talking about our affairs rather despondently.
“We seem to be regularly stuck fast, Esau,” I said; “and one feels so helpless out in a strange place like this.”
“Yes,” he said; “and the money goes so fast.”
“Yes,” I said, “the money goes so fast. We must get away from here soon.”
“Couldn’t walk up to what-its-name, could we?”
“Walk? Nonsense! Many, many hundreds of miles through a wild country, and over mountains and rivers.”
“Well, I shouldn’t mind that, lad. It would all be new.”