"I wouldn't work for Sam Sturgis for a hundred dollars a month!" said Ben emphatically.
"Then you don't like him?"
"He is very big-feeling," said Ben, using a boy's word, "and likes to boss all the rest of the boys. He thinks he is far above us all."
"He ought to come out here. California takes the airs out of a man if he has any. We are all on an equality here, and the best man wins-I mean the man of the most pluck-for success doesn't depend on moral excellence exactly. Well, old friend, are you going to settle down among us again?"
It was to Bradley this question was addressed.
"I don't know. I'm here on a little matter of business, along of this boy. Is Richard Dewey here now?"
"Dewey? No. He had poor luck, and he dusted a month ago."
Ben and his companion exchanged glances of disappointment.
"Where did he go?" asked Bradley, who was evidently getting discouraged.
"He was going to the mountains," he said. "He had been studying up something about minerals, and he had an idea that he'd find a rich ledge among the Sierras that would pay better than this surface-mining."