“What are you doing?”

“I am digging for gold.”[gold.”]

“Where?”

“At Howe’s Gulch.”

“Have you succeeded?”

“So poorly that I am thinking of giving it up and going elsewhere. In Sacramento I worked in a restaurant, and made a good deal more money than I have made at the mines. I am twenty dollars poorer than when I came here.”

“Are you alone?”

“No, I have a friend with me—a young man whose acquaintance I made in crossing the plains.”

“Is he a true friend—a loyal friend?”

“Yes.”