“I trust we’ll be friends” said Calvert. “Hope I didn’t offend you. Meant it in the best of faith. I’m coming round to see you, and whenever you have leisure you must look upon my quarters yonder as your own.”
I rode back wondering whether the work had suffered during my absence, though I knew my partners would not complain, and when I reached camp Harry said:
“I hardly thought we’d set up as packers, but in the meantime all is fish that comes to our net. I’m getting quite a mercenary character. You had a long journey—how much did you get?”
“Nothing,” I answered, “except a gift of five dollars for the Vancouver hospital. It was Miss Carrington.”
Harry made no articulate comment at first, though his whistle, which from any one else would have been impertinence, was eloquent, while some moments elapsed before he spoke.
“Then it’s Colonel Carrington who is running the Day Spring mine. I’ve heard the free prospectors talking about the new Syndicate. They opine there’s nothing in it, and that somebody is going to be hard hit.”