“Oh, boy!” cried Dalton. “Will I go? This thing, without the guns and the sheep, would bring me, but the two together—well! I’m with you, boy, all the way!”
“We may go up north into the Athabasca,” continued Paul. “I told you about my brother and sister up there. I may bring them back with me.”
“Well, I’ll be darned!” said Dalton. “Anything else in view? What about Alaska? And the Pole? But, ‘lead on, Macduff,’ I’m with you all the way and back. By the way, how much money have you for this mortgage business?”
“I was going to ask you about that. I’ve about five thousand dollars cash and, without counting up, I guess about twenty thousand invested.”
“A lot more than that,” said Dalton, “if my figuring is right.”
“I intend,” continued Paul, “to pay all I can on this mortgage.”
“Look at this, Paul,” said Dalton, flourishing a paper under his eyes.
“What does this mean?” asked Paul, after he had read it, gazing blankly at his friend.
“It means, boy, that from the sale of certain chattels, five thousand dollars was realised and deposited by Colonel Pelham to your credit some six years ago, which, with interest, amounts now to just about six thousand dollars.”
Paul continued to gape at him. “Six thousand dollars! If I had only known! But,” he added quickly, “I’m glad I didn’t know. If I had there would have been no firm, Tussock, Gaspard and Dalton, and I should not have found two of the best friends a man ever had. We’ll turn this in too on the mortgage. We ought to be able to almost clean it up.”