"We'll try this," he said. "It's been built since I was here last year. Great Jimmy, but how the town has grown! I'm mighty near lost in it. I remember this old plaza, though. There's the City Hotel, across. There's the old custom-house, too; that adobe building, with the flagpole in front of it, where the flag was raised in Forty-six, by the Navy. Well, let's go in." They entered. The place was crowded. "Yes, sir; I can give you one room, with two beds in it, upstairs," informed the clerk at the counter. "It's positively all we have, and you're lucky to get that." "What's the tariff?" queried Mr. Adams. "Rates are twenty-five dollars a week, each, for bed; twenty dollars a week for board." Mr. Adams shook his head, and looked at Charley. "I'm afraid we'll have to try elsewhere," he said. "Let's go across the street." "City Hotel is full; you can't get even blanket room," declared the clerk. "The Fremont Hotel, down on the water-front, charges the same as we do, and supplies fleas for nothing. If you don't want the room, stand aside. Next!" "But aren't your rates pretty high?" queried Mr. Adams, puzzled. "High, my friend?" retorted the clerk. "Do you know where you are? You're in San Francisco, where people dig gold in the streets. And do you know what rent we pay, for this building? One hundred and ten thousand dollars a year, my friend. The Eldorado tent-building next to us rents at $40,000 the year; it measures exactly fifteen by twenty-five feet. Out here, gentlemen, a hole in the ground rents for at least $250 a month. Last April there were but thirty houses in the whole town, and now there are 500." "We don't want the room for a week. We'll take it for a night, though. We're on our way to the mines," said Mr. Adams. "So is everybody else," sharply answered the clerk. "For one night the room is five dollars apiece, and I'll be losing money at that." "All right. We've got a trunk out in front. Have it sent up, please." "Can't do it, sir. Every man is his own porter, in this town. The stairs are fairly wide. I'll show you up." The Mexicans had dropped the trunk on the long porch, and refused to carry it another inch. And when they were to be paid off, they insisted that the two dollars meant two dollars apiece! Bystanders gravely agreed that this was the correct price. "Whew!" sighed Mr. Adams, with a quizzical smile, after he had paid. "No wonder that twenty dollars a day is small wages, out here. What an enormous amount of money there must be in circulation! Grab an end, Charley. Come along, Grigsby. Let's inspect our quarters." XV THE SIGHTS OF SAN FRANCISCO Charley took one end of the trunk, his father the other, and piloted by the hotel man, with Mr. Grigsby, lugging the hand baggage, in their wake, they climbed two flimsy flights of stairs to the third floor! The hotel man led the way down a narrow hall of rough boards, and flung open a door.