CHAPTER XIV--The Discovery of Silver in Nevada. The Stage Road. Hank Monk. Road Agents. The Parson. The Stool Pigeon. Spirits. The Boys Who Captured the Thief. A Young Dick Turpin. The Irishman and the Road Agent. CHAPTER XV--Where are the Pioneers? The Overland Stage. Pony Express. The Sound of War. A Wet Winter. The Hotel on the Road. The Railroad. CHAPTER XVI--The Forty-niner. Syd at the North Pole. The Homes of the Old-timers. The Remains of the Cabins of the Forty-niners. Panning out the Old Cabins. CHAPTER XVII--Meeting of the Old Timers. The Buckeye Tunnel. The Best as It is. Bozer Who Got Skunked. The Hydraulic Miner. Mike’s Explanation. CHAPTER XVIII--Why are so Many of the Old-timers so Poor? The Uncertainty of Mining. Tex and Barton Lee. Tex and the Hound. Tex on Board the Steamer. Tex at Golgona. CHAPTER XIX--Tennessee’s Letter from Tex. The War in Chili Gulch. Sam Brown and the Chap with the Mild Blue Eyes. Sam Brown and the Policeman. Old Kentuck and Sleepy Ben. CHAPTER XX--Yank Visits the Old Mining Camp. Yank Seated Upon the Boulder. The First Loaf of Bread. The Bean-pot Comet. How Julius Sailed Up the River. Jeff’s Plum Duff. The Stone Statue. The Old Miner Who was Robbed on Board the Steamer. The Cœur d’Alene Mines. Coasting. CHAPTER XXI--Their Names Unknown. The Types of Men in the Mines. Pike Illustration of Missouri Character. Bob the Fiddler. The Power of Music Illustrated. John Kelley the Musician. Joe Bowers. Jeff Visits Pioneer Hall. Old Miners in San Francisco. CHAPTER XXII--Pioneer Hall. Old Mike Explains. Something Wrong. The Business of Mining. Mike’s Philosophy. Yank at the Bay. The Expressman and the Broom Pedler. Lucky Bill and the Gamblers. Sam Plunket the Arkansas Beauty. CHAPTER XXIII--Bill Burnes Lynching the Colored Man. Dick Arnold. The Mining Regions. The Old-timers Disperse. The Phantoms of the Forty-niners. Forty Years have Passed. The Argonaut’s Soliloquy. The Great Changes. The Flight of Time. The Number of Pioneers Now Living. CHAPTER XXIV--“Good Morning, William.” The Return. Great Changes. THE ARGONAUTS OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER I. THE NEWS--LOOKING FORWARD--THE START. In the winter of ’48 I resided in New Bedford, Mass. I had a chum. What boy has not? My chum’s name was Bill. He had been absent from New Bedford for a few months, and on meeting him, a few days after his return, I greeted him with: [Illustration: “HELLO, BILL!”] “Hello, Bill! Have you heard the news?” “No; what is it?” “Well; while you were away, the news came that a man in California, named Marshall, has made the discovery that there’s lots of GOLD out there. He found a big chunk of it where he was at work.” “You don’t say so! What’s he going to do with it; did he say?”