But Teddy preferred action, and went off like an arrow, while Dick raised his uncle's head and made him as comfortable as he could during the waiting time.
Help was soon forthcoming, and in a very short time the wanderer was lying in a comfortable bed at Mr. Dainton's house and fed and tended with affectionate care.
Presently he revived a little and tried to talk. "I've come back poorer than I went, though I did find a streak of gold. But I fell ill and the thieves stole all I had. I just managed to get down to a ship and I worked my passage home, though I felt I was only coming back to die. But I did want to get to the old place again and to see George's boy. He's the very image of what I used to be, and like his father too, only a taller build, I fancy."
"And as good as he is high," said Mrs. Dainton with a smile at her favourite.
But Dick could not laugh just then, his throat had such a lump in it.
The dream he had cherished so long of finding a "very own relation" had come true, but with such pain and disappointment if his uncle had only come back to die! But Mrs. Dainton's faith refused to listen to thoughts of dying, and her husband seconded all her efforts in the sick room.
And Paddy made a splendid nurse and cheerfully sat up at night in turn, and, as the patient began to mend, his bright talk and Irish yarns made him laugh and forget all the hardship and failures of the past.
But most of all the invalid liked to have Dick with him.
"You must take warning by me, lad, and stick to hard work. Don't try to get rich by taking short cuts that lead nowhere."
But as he grew stronger and was able to listen while Dick talked about machinery and showed his own drawings, the older man began to believe that Dick was well on the way to a Klondyke at home.