“Consider!” he ejaculated. “I know. The first thing is to eat breakfast. Then we’ll lie down again until it’s time for supper.”
They did as he suggested, for there was meat enough to last until they found the cache. This they managed to do two days later. Somewhat to Weston’s astonishment they found, also, the horse still feeding on the strip of natural prairie; and, as the beast and the buried camp gear it could now carry back represented their whole worldly wealth, this was a source of gratification to both of them. The man without an occupation or a dollar in his pocket does not, as a rule, find life very easy.
They made the first settlement on the railroad safely; and Weston, hearing that a new sawmill had been started in a neighboring valley, set out the next morning in search of it, leaving Grenfell to dispose, of the camp gear and the horse. The manager of the sawmill was, however, marking trees in the bush, and, as Weston had to wait some time before he learned that no more hands were wanted, it was evening before he reached the little wooden hotel where he had left his comrade. It had a veranda in front of it, and he stopped when he reached the steps, for it was evident from the hoarse clamor and bursts of laughter which came out of the open windows that something quite unusual was going on. Then a man came down the steps chuckling, and Weston, who stopped him, inquired the cause of the commotion.
“Two or three of the boys we have no great use for are going out to-night to the copper vein the Dryhurst people are opening up,” said the stranger. “Your partner has been setting up the drinks for them.”
Weston was not pleased at this, but the other piece of information the man gave him was interesting.
“Are they taking on men?” he asked.
“Anybody who can shovel. Sent down to Vancouver for men a day or two ago.”
“Then,” said Weston, “why didn’t this hotel-keeper tell me, instead of sending me across to the sawmill?”
His informant laughed.
“Jake,” he said, “is most too mean to live. He strikes you a dollar for your breakfast and another for supper, though anybody else would give you a square meal for a quarter. Guess that may have something to do with it.”