Gold was The O’Melaghlin’s thought by day and his dream by night. Gold seeking, he persuaded himself, was not work—or at least it was not work for hire; and, besides, he would be a stranger in a strange land; and no one at home here in Antrim should ever be able to say that The O’Melaghlin had ever soiled his hands or blotted his ‘scutcheon with labor! He sold four acres of his land for little more than enough money to take himself and his wife, by way of Glasgow, to San Francisco. He was offered nearly twice as much money if he would sell the remaining acre with the ancient tower upon it. But at the proposal The O’Melaghlin grew furious and insolent. What! Sell the very donjon keep, the last stronghold of The O’Melaghlins of Arghalee? Many a time had the Saxons besieged the castle, and sometimes they had taken the outworks, but never the donjon keep. And now he would see their island scuttled in the midst and sunk between its four seas, like the rotten old craft that it was, before he would sell his tower and the last acre of ground on which it stood. Though why this jeremiad should have been uttered against “the Saxon,” when it was an Irishman and a near relative who wanted to buy his old owl roost, no one but The O’Melaghlin himself could have explained. His dream was to realize a fabulous fortune from the gold fields and come back and restore the tower, rebuild the castle and repurchase all the land sold by his forefathers for generations past. To do all this would require a vast fortune; but would he not make that fortune? Heaven and earth! Did not many a common bit of human clay without family or name of the least value make a large fortune in the gold fields? When, then, The O’Melaghlin stooped to seek the ore, would not the earth open wide her bosom of uncounted treasures and lavish gold upon him? The O’Melaghlin never doubted for an instant that she would. So in due time The O’Melaghlin and his wife sailed from Glasgow, bound for San Francisco. They went in the first cabin of the _Golden Glory_. Do you think The O’Melaghlin would take second place in any circumstances? No, he would die first! When they reached San Francisco he took a room for himself and wife at one of the very best hotels, which was also, of course, one of the most expensive in the city. He gave his name to the office clerk as: “The O’Melaghlin,” which that hurried and distracted individual incontinently put down as: T. O. Mannikin. CHAPTER XXXIV PARENTAGE OF MIKE AND JUDY The young pair had been in the city only a few days when, after diligent inquiries in all possible directions, O’Melaghlin heard a rumor of a rich new field of gold in the Black Rock Ridges, some fifty miles from the city, and of a party of adventurers about forming to start for that point. O’Melaghlin determined to join that expedition. His young wife, Moira, was much too delicate just at this time to accompany him.