That very evening Tom engaged passage to New York, and two days later he sailed out of the Golden Gate.
"I don't know how long I shall be gone, John," he said. "You need send me no remittances, for I have money enough with me. You will hear from me as soon as I have reached home, and transacted my business with Squire Hudson."
"You will come out here again, Tom, won't you?"
"Yes, and before long. I have been so busily occupied making money that I have seen almost nothing of San Francisco."
Tom did not journey alone. Ferguson, having thriven beyond his expectations, decided to sail to New York, and thence to Scotland, on a visit to his relatives, though he thought it probable he should come back within a year. Dick Russell also was now in a position to study law at home, and gave up the business of gold-mining forever.
"I owe all my present prosperity to you two," he said. "But for you I should have blown my brains out five months since."
"We owe our prosperity to you also," said Tom. "You guided us to the mines from which we gathered a golden harvest."
"We have worked together, and been mutual helpers," said Ferguson. "God has favored us all, and to Him be the thanks!"