The two shook hands solemnly and hastened back to the tent. Mutual introductions followed, then Blenship spoke. “I’ve sold the creek, boys,” he said, “and the colonel has driven a hard bargain with me, but I reckon we’ll all have to stand by it. In the first place he gets my rights in all the claims I’ve staked, and that’s most of the creek, for fifty thousand dollars. Ain’t that right, colonel?” The big man nodded. “Next he buys a controlling interest in discovery claim and the two above and below, belonging to you two boys, fifty-one per cent. of the five claims, for just a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, cash and notes, you to retain forty-nine per cent. interest in them all and to receive that proportion of the net earnings, the proper share of expenses being taken out. Reckon he’ll stick you bad on them expenses.”
“Look here,” said Captain Nickerson. “What’s all this?”
“Oh,” said Blenship, “I thought you knew.” The colonel was shaking his fist at Blenship, but he pretended not to notice it. “Show him the poke, man!” he said to Harry.
Harry drew the gold from its hiding-place and untied the neck of the sack once more. The big boatswain waited just long enough to see this gold, then he bolted from the tent. Outside they could hear him slapping his great leg with a noise like the report of a pistol and gurgling something about seven-time winners, but within they were too much interested in the story of the placer discoveries to heed.
CHAPTER XV
HOME AGAIN
The boys slept that night in clean linen on board the Maisie Adams, Captain Nickerson’s new ship. What a thump Harry’s heart gave when he saw the name on the stern and realized who it was that had come to rescue him! A thought that had been vaguely his for long, a desire that had been but a blush deep down in his heart, grew to a dominant purpose in a moment, then. Maisie’s clear gray eyes shone out of memory with a new light in them, and the thought of home-coming thrilled him with an ecstasy more potent than ever before.
The next day the final papers in the mining deal were passed on board Colonel Lane’s steamer, a splendid vessel, the T. H. Lane, named for himself. It is thus that the pioneer of the present day exploits the far regions of the earth. He comes with an army at his command, with every resource that steam and modern invention and unlimited capital can furnish, and at the nod of his head cities spring up, great industries flourish, almost in a day.
What pleased Captain Nickerson more than anything else in the adventures which Joe and Harry related to him was the story of the finding of the stores of whalebone at the village of Nunaria. His own father had been an officer in the unfortunate fleet, and the finding of the bone seemed to come to him as a fitting inheritance. But before he sailed north to make the discovery good he turned the vessel’s prow toward Nome, and there transferred the boys to one of the numerous steamers ready to sail for Seattle. The two should bear home the news of their own good fortune,—home to the waiting, anxious mothers in the east. And so they parted, and the boys, steaming south on a staunch vessel, gazed with tears in their eyes on the smoke of the Maisie Adams, which bore resolutely north again toward the straits and the fascinating, mysterious, dangerous region where they had been the captives of the frost for two long, eventful years. It may as well be said here that Captain Nickerson found the long lost bone without difficulty, and on his way south stopped at the little village of Point Lay, where he found Harluk and Kroo living frugally and contentedly. Before he sailed away he rewarded the gentle friends of the two boys with stores and supplies that made them far richer than they had ever dreamed of being.
Seattle and civilization in very truth came next. How the city had grown, and what a pleasure there was in its bustle, the roar of traffic, and the throngs of well-dressed, busy men and women in its streets. Here they stopped only long enough to replenish their wardrobes, bettered already somewhat by the “slop chest” of the Maisie Adams, but still far from what they should be, and to send two telegrams to the people at home. They followed the messages on the first train for the east, and now let us leave them, flying across country as fast as steam can carry them, and see how matters stand at Quincy Point.