“Why, Uncle Dick!” exclaimed Walter.
The old sailor laughed long and loudly. “It is a fact,” said he. “I was at work one morning at the mouth of my shaft in the Bendigo mines, and this man-hunter stepped up and asked me if I had a license. I told him I had, but it was in the pocket of my vest, and that was at the bottom of the mine. Do you suppose he would let me go down after it? No, sir. He arrested me at once, and was marching me off, when I offered him an ounce of gold, worth about seventeen dollars and a half, if he would go back and let me show him my license. He took the gold, but didn’t go back with me, and neither did he trouble me afterward. If he had taken me before the commissioner I should have been lucky if I had got off with a fine of five pounds. Stand by, Mr. Baldwin. Here comes the tug, and we are going into the docks now. After that, boys, we’ll take a run out into the country. I have an acquaintance a few miles away, who is getting rich, raising sheep. The last time I saw him he was glad to break stones on the road in Melbourne for a pound a day. That would be considered a good deal of money now, but it didn’t go far during the time of the gold excitement. Everything was so dear that the man who earned less than that stood a good chance of starving.”
We pass over the events of the next few days, as they have nothing to do with our story. The schooner having been hauled into the docks, the Club set out in company with the trappers to explore the town, and during the day chanced to fall in with the consul’s clerk, who, with two other young Englishmen of the same stamp as himself, was on his way to visit the schooner. He presented his card, and introduced Frank to his companions, and he and they were in turn introduced to the Club and to the trappers. This being arranged to the satisfaction of both parties, they adjourned to a restaurant—an Englishman always wants something to eat—and Frank thought he could have enjoyed the splendid dinner that was served up, had it not been for the presence of the liquors that were introduced. The Englishmen drank freely, and pressed their guests to follow their example; but the Club were proof against temptation, and astonished their hosts by telling them that they did not know wine from brandy, and that they had never smoked a cigar. They remained in their room at the restaurant until it began to grow dark, for the Englishmen had many questions to ask, and besides they were determined to force a story out of Dick Lewis; but the trapper was shy in the presence of strangers, and could not be induced to open his mouth. Being disappointed in this, the clerk and his companions, with a laudable desire to increase their store of knowledge, set themselves at work to learn everything that was to be learned regarding the United States and their inhabitants; but whether or not they gained any really useful information is a question. The following conversation, which took place that night in the cabin of the Stranger, would seem to indicate that they did not. Walter was relating to Uncle Dick the various amusing incidents that had happened at the restaurant, occasioned by the Englishmen’s astounding ignorance of everything that related to America and its people, when Frank suddenly inquired:
“Archie, what in the world possessed you to tell that clerk that the Rocky Mountains were a hundred miles from New York, and that grizzly bears and panthers had been known to come into Broadway, and carry off men from behind the counters of their stores?”
“Why, did he believe it?” asked Archie, in reply. “Could he fool me that way about his own country? Just before that Eugene had been telling him that wild Indians had often been seen in the streets of New York, and I had to back him up. Wild Indians, and bears, and panthers go together, don’t they? I told him that he could find bears in Wall Street any day, and so he can; and if they haven’t been known to take men, not only from behind the counters of their stores, but right out of house and home, then I have read the history of speculations in Wall Street to little purpose.”
Uncle Dick laughed until the cabin rang again.
“But the idea of the Rocky Mountains being only a hundred miles from New York,” said Frank.
“I didn’t tell him so,” answered Archie, quickly. “I said that they were at least that distance away; and so they are. I had to make my statements correspond with Eugene’s, didn’t I? Just before that he had been telling Fowler that the whole of America was about as large as Ireland—”
“Hold on,” interrupted Eugene. “Didn’t I tell him that it was fully as large as Ireland?”
“That’s a fact,” said Archie, accepting the correction; “so you did. Well, now, the United States and the British possessions in America cover about six million square miles, and of these the Rocky Mountains cover nine hundred and eighty thousand, or nearly one-sixth of the surface of the whole country. When I came to build my mountains, I had to build them in proportion to the size of the country they were supposed to stand in, didn’t I?”