She looked curiously at him, and said: “Don’t try to remember, and it will come to you in good time. But show us everything about your place before we go back, won’t you, please?”
He showed them his hut, where he lived, quite alone. It was supplied with bare necessaries, and with a counter, behind which were cups and a few bottles. In reference to this, Boldrick said: “Temperance drinks for the muleteers, tobacco and tea and sugar and postage stamps and things. They don’t gargle their throats with anything stronger than coffee at this tavern.”
Then he took them to the cave in which puma, bear, and wapiti skins were piled, together with a few stores and the kits of travellers who had left their belongings in Boldrick’s keeping till they should come again. After Mrs. Falchion and Ruth had seen all, they came out upon the mountain-side and waved their handkerchiefs to us, who were still watching from below. Then Boldrick hoisted a flag on his hut, which he used on gala occasions, to celebrate the event, and, not content with this, fired a ‘feu de joie’, managed in this way: He took two anvils used by the muleteers and expressmen to shoe their animals, and placed one on the other, putting powder between. Then Mrs. Falchion thrust a red-hot iron into the powder, and an explosion ensued. I was for a moment uneasy, but Mr. Devlin reassured me, and instantly a shrill whistle from the little mills answered the salute.
Just before they got into the cage, Mrs. Falchion turned to Boldrick, and said: “You have not been trying to remember where you heard my name before? Well, can you not recall it now?”
Boldrick shook his head. “Perhaps you will recall it before I see you again,” she said.
They started. As they did so, Mrs. Falchion said suddenly, looking at Boldrick keenly: “Were you ever in the South Seas?”
Boldrick stood for an instant open-mouthed, and then exclaimed loudly, as the cage swung down the incline: “By Jingo! No, ma’am, I was never there, but I had a pal who come from Samoa.”
She called back at him: “Tell me of him when we meet again. What was his name?”
They were too far down the cable now for Boldrick’s reply to reach them distinctly. The descent seemed even more adventurous than the ascent, and, in spite of myself, I could not help a thrill of keen excitement. But they were both smiling when the cage reached us, and both had a very fine colour.
“A delightful journey, a remarkable reception, and a very singular man is your Mr. Boldrick,” said Mrs. Falchion.