"This report in the newspapers that great nuggets of gold are to be found in California," replied Mark Radley. He pointed to the sheet he had been perusing. "Here is an account of a miner picking up ten thousand dollars' worth of nuggets in two days, and another account of a gold hunter washing out six thousand dollars' worth of dust in a week. I declare it's enough to make a fellow's mouth water just to think about it!" "Beats working in a musty law office all to bits, eh?" was Carl Felmore's remark, and he uttered a short laugh. "I'll wager the reports are false, Mark," he added. "Why, if there was so much gold in California the Spaniards out there would have gotten it long before Uncle Sam took possession of the country." "Here are names and dates," answered Mark, with a serious shake of his head. "If the reports are false, I don't see how they got those." "Even if the reports are true, I don't think I'd care to go away out to California for the gold," resumed Carl, who was a bit of a coward. "Why, it's three thousand miles from Philadelphia, and you'd have to either go out on horseback most of the way, or take a steamer or a sailboat to the Isthmus of Panama and then up the gold coast, or else go clear around Cape Horn! You don't catch me making such a trip as that!" "It would just suit me," cried Mark, enthusiastically. "I'd take a trip to the moon if I could get there. I'd like the sport----" "Never mind taking a trip to the moon, young man!" broke in a harsh voice at Mark's back. "Just get to work and leave California alone. Have you finished that copying I gave you yesterday?" "Not yet, Mr. Powers," answered Mark. "But I'll have it done in half an hour." "Good-by, Mark," came from Carl Felmore, and he slipped out of the office without another word. "I don't want that Felmore boy hanging around here," cried Jadell Powers, wrathfully. "After this he must keep away." "He brought over some legal papers for Cross & Barwick," answered Mark, quietly. He saw that his step-father was not in an agreeable frame of mind. "Oh! Well, he needn't hang around, even so," grumbled Jadell Powers, but in a more subdued tone of voice. "Hurry up with those papers. I must get to court by ten o'clock and it's now half-past nine." "I'll hurry all I can," answered Mark. "You were out late last night," went on the lawyer, after a moment of silence. "Only until ten o'clock. I went to a concert given by the college boys." "Humph! A fine way to waste your money." "It was my own money," answered Mark, with spirit. "Nevertheless, you had no need to throw it away, young man. But don't talk now--get through with those papers," and the lawyer turned away, and departed for a nearby court.