"Yourself," said Jeffson, with a peculiar smile. "I intend to keep payment of it all off your nugget, for you see it _is_ a fact that we ain't in very flourishing circumstances at present; and I knew you would thank me for not deserting your friend in his distress." "You did quite right," said Frank earnestly; "and I thank you with all my heart for your kindness to poor Meyer, as well as your correct estimate of me." Frank did not forget that his own resources were at a low ebb just then, and that he had been counting on the nugget for the payment of his expenses to the coast, and his passage to England, but he made no mention of the fact. His comrade, Joe Graddy, however, could not so easily swallow his disappointment in silence. "Well," said he, turning his quid from one cheek to the other--for Joe was guilty of the bad habit of chewing tobacco,--"well, it's not for the likes o' me to put my opinion contrairy to yourn, an' in coorse it's all very right that our poor messmate should have been looked arter, an I'm very glad he wos. Notwithstandin', I'm bound for to say it _is_ raither okard as it stands, for we're pretty nigh cleaned out, an' have got to make for the coast in the rainy season, w'ich, it appears to me, is very like settin' sail in a heavy gale without ballast." "Come, Joe," interposed Frank, "we're not quite so hard up as that comes to. There is a little ballast left,--sufficient, if we only turn to, and wash out a little more gold, to take us home." "Sorry to hear you're in such a fix," said Jeffson, still regarding his friends with a peculiar smile on his cadaverous countenance; "but I think I can get ye out of it. See here," he added, leading them to another grave not far distant from that of Meyer; "can you guess who lies under the sod there? He was a friend of yours; though perhaps you would scarcely have acknowledged him had he been alive. You remember Bradling--" "What! our old travelling companion!" exclaimed Frank. "The same." "Why, I saved his life only a few days ago." "I know it," said Jeffson, "He came here late one night, all covered with blood; and, flinging himself down on a bench in my store, said that he was done for. And so he was, I guess,--all riddled with bullets, none of which, however, had given him a mortal wound; but he had lost so much blood by the way that he had no chance of recovering. I did my best for him, poor fellow, but he sank rapidly. Before he died he told me how you had saved him from being scragged, and said that he wanted to make you his heir." "Poor fellow," said Frank with a sad smile, "it was a kind expression of gratitude that I did not expect of him, considering his reputation." "I s'pose," said Joe Graddy, with a sarcastic laugh, "that you'll be goin' to set up your carriage an' four, an' make me your coachman, mayhap?" "I think I may promise that with safety," replied Frank.