“Well, I finished the best part of my purchases,” Clay remarked, “and I thought I had better come down and spell you for a while. I’ll have time to finish up my list tomorrow, for there will be part of the time when it will take only two of us to work on the motors. I’ve had the dandiest luck in getting a new motor. It’s a daisy and will burn either gasoline or kerosene. They promised to deliver it down here early this afternoon. I took Ike with me when I went to see about getting transportation, and let me tell you, that boy’s some bargainer. I could never have got as cheap rates as he did out of the freight agent. We are to have a flat car for the Rambler and live on board of her until we reach Seattle. But I am keeping you back. Hurry up and get your things before dark if you can.”
Case was off like a shot and was soon uptown in the shopping district where he spent a happy afternoon making his purchases. With a grin at his own foolishness, he added to his list a large box of tallow candles. “Of course we will never have to eat such stuff, but they will bring back more than their value, I guess, trading with the Indians,” he argued in justification. It was nearly dusk when he finished his list and arrived at the Rambler to find that Alex had arrived only just ahead of him.
Alex was excitedly talking to Clay who was busily preparing their evening meal.
“What’s all the fuss about?” Case demanded.
“Nothing much,” Clay said, calmly. “Alex’s just a little excited, that’s all. We’ll compare experiences while we’re eating supper. Wash up and get ready. I’ve got fried fish and that’s best when eaten piping hot.”
It was not until the first pangs of his hunger was satisfied, that Alex gave vent to his grievance, and then it was in milder tones. “I guess I’m a little touchy,” he confessed, “but it made me sore the way Ike jumped on me this morning, and for nothing too. Just about a little item that appeared in the morning paper about our trip. It took me a long time to convince him that none of us could have put it in, and, by the time I had done it, I was mad myself, while Ike seemed pretty well upset.”
“He spoke about that item to me when I went to see him just before noon,” Clay remarked, “but all he said was that he wondered who could have given it to the paper. All I could tell him about it was that there had been a couple of fellows prowling around our boat last night and they might have overheard part of our conversation, though why they should give it to the newspapers was more than I could figure out.”
“Would you fellows like to own an interest in two rich gold mines?” Case asked when Clay had finished.
“Oh, no,” retorted Alex. “We wouldn’t take one as a gift. Money is the root of all evil and we don’t want to get evil, do we?”
“It would not be exactly a gift,” Case replied, ignoring the irony, and he proceeded to tell them of his morning visitor.