“Here it is, then: what’s the good of our going grubbing on just to be able to say we’re richer still? ‘Enough’s as good as a feast,’ so what’s the good of being greedy? Why not let some one else have a turn, and let’s all go home?”
“What do you say, Bel?”
“Ay! And you, Dal?”
“Ay!”
“The ‘Ays’ have it, then,” cried Tregelly.
“Well done, my sons. Hooroar! We’re homeward bou-wou-wound!” he roared in his big bass voice. “Hooroar! We’re homeward bound!”
Business matters are settled quickly in a goldfield, and the next day it was known in the now crowded ravine, where every inch of ground was taken up, that the big company of which the judge was the head had bought the three adventurers’ claim, known far and near as Redbeard’s, for a tremendous sum. But all the same, heads were shaken by the wise ones of the settlement, who one and all agreed that the company had got it cheap, and they wished that they had had the chance.
“You’re one of the buyers, aren’t you, Norton, and your lot who came up first are the rest?”
“That’s right,” said Norton, smiling. “Hah!” said the man. “Kissing goes by favour.”
“Of course,” said Norton. “But then, you see, we were all old friends.”