Carroll, accordingly, prepared the meal, and when they had finished it they lay on deck smoking with a content which was not altogether accounted for by a satisfied appetite. They had spent several anxious months, during which they had come very near the end of their slender resources, arranging for the exploitation of the mine, and now at last the work was over. Vane had that day made his final plans for the construction of a road and wharf by which the ore could be economically shipped for reduction, or as the alternative to this, for the erection of a small smelting plant. They had bought the sloop as a convenient means of conveyance and shelter, since they could live in some comfort on board. Now they could take their ease for a while, which was a very unusual thing to both of them. "I suppose you're bent on sailing this craft back?" Carroll said at length, "We could hire a couple of Siwash to take her home while we rode across the island and got the cars to Victoria. Besides, there's that steamboat coming down the coast to-night." "Either way would cost a good deal extra, Vane pointed out. "That's true," Carroll agreed with an amused look, "You could charge it to the Company." Vane laughed. "You and I have a big stake in the concern, and I haven't got used to spending money unnecessarily yet. I've been mighty glad to earn 2.50 by working from sun-up until dark, though I didn't always get it afterwards. So have you." "How are you going to dispose of your dollars, then? You have a balance in cash, as well as the shares." "It has occurred to me that I might spend a few months in the Old Country. Have you ever been over?" "I was across some time ago, but if you would sooner I went with you, I'll come along. We could start as soon as we've arranged the few matters left open in Vancouver." Vane was glad to hear it. He knew little about Carroll's antecedents, but the latter was obviously a man of education, and they had been comrades for the last three years. During that time they had learnt to trust each other, and to bear with each other's idiosyncrasies. Filling his pipe again as he lay in the fading sunlight, Vane looked back on the nine years he had passed in Canada; and allowing for the periods of exposure to cold and wet, and the almost ceaseless toil, he admitted that he might have spent them more unpleasantly.