“If they are paying anything, I’ll accept them with pleasure.”
“They are paying something, and of course there’s a possibility of striking it rich in either one of them.”
“Gentlemen,” said Stockton earnestly, “you don’t know what you’ve done for me. I was at the end of my resources, and felt kind o’ reckless. You’ve made a new man of me.”
“We are glad to do you a service. Grant, can’t you get us some supper? After eating, we’ll go and show Mr. Stockton the claims, for we shall want to make an early start to-morrow morning. Mr. Stockton, our supper will be a plain one, but we shall be glad to have you join us in eating it.”
“You can’t be gladder than I am,” said Nahum quaintly. “I haven’t had anything to eat since mornin’, and then it was only a slice of bread and a glass of milk and water with the milk left out.”
Grant was in the cabin, making ready the evening meal. There was bread and butter, some cold meat, and cup of tea for each. Mr. Stockton ate as if he enjoyed every mouthful.
“You don’t ask me how I lost my money,” he said.
“You lost it, then; you didn’t spend it?”
“No; if I had got the worth of it I wouldn’t have cared so much, but to be cheated out of it by a mean scoundrel was a little too much.”
“Were you cheated out of it?”