"Simply can't do it. One reason is, the Cap'n's business. The other is, my own business."
"At any rate, partake of the food and wine. You can the better go on your journey."
Brown did as invited. After a moment he said: "Aren't some folks doin' more or less pull-hauling toward makin' California English territory?"
"It is true. Haven't you known it for some time?"
"Well, I should say not!" contemptuously.
"Your preferences are not English?"
"My family," emphatically, "has spilled too much blood fighting 'em, for that. Not," apologetically, "but what some pretty good Britishers exist; but if anybody gets this country, it's Uncle Sam."
"Have you spoken in this way to the Captain?"
"Haven't got round to it yet. You bet I do before this time to-morrow. Then I strike the long trail back to old Missouri, either on ship or on shank's mare."
"If you leave your present employment at any time, I wish you would apply to me before going farther. Well, here comes my daughter."