“The question is what all this is leading to,” he observed with inquiry in his tone.
Gordon rose. “I’ll go along and talk to the boys,” he announced. “I won’t be back for an hour or two.”
Nasmyth glanced at Wisbech before he turned to his comrade.
“I would sooner you stayed where you are,” he said. Then he answered Wisbech. “In the first place, if we are reasonably fortunate, it should lead to the acquisition of about a couple of hundred dollars.”
“Still,” said Wisbech, “that will not go very far. What will be the next thing when you have got the money?”
“In a general way, I should endeavour to earn a few more dollars by pulling out fir-stumps for somebody or clearing land.”
Wisbech nodded. “No doubt they’re useful occupations, but one would scarcely fancy them likely to prove very remunerative,” he said. “You have, it seems to me, reached an age when you have to choose. Are you content to go on as you are doing now?”
Nasmyth’s face flushed as he saw the smile in Gordon’s eyes, for it was evident that Wisbech and Laura Waynefleet held much the same views concerning him. They appeared to fancy that he required a lot of what might be termed judicious prodding. This was in one sense not exactly flattering, but he did not immediately mention his great project for drying out the valley. He would not hasten to remove a wrong impression concerning himself.
“Well,” resumed Wisbech, seeing he did not answer, “if you care to go back and take up your profession in England again, I think I can contrive to give you a fair start. You needn’t be diffident. I can afford it, and the thing is more or less my duty.”