"I will wait for you, and in thinking what you have undertaken, and of
the persistence required to carry your work through, will try to catch
your own grand spirit, try to exalt myself by imitating your patience
and faith, and thus be more worthy of you when once more it is given me
to clasp your dear hands, and to gaze into your true eyes, which are my
light."

As Sedgwick read, his eyes became suffused until he could not see the
page before him because of his tears.

"See," he said to himself; "a man's love is selfish; it is a woman's life
and light, and yet my beautiful wife loses sight of herself, and all her
words are but an inspiration for me to go on and conquer if I can. Thank
God for the treasure that has been given me! And may God comfort her and
comfort brave and true Jordan!"

CHAPTER XX.

THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT MEET.

The ship was twenty-four days in reaching Melbourne. It caught a gale
crossing the stormy Bight, and for two days no progress was made. It was
all that the men in charge could do to hold the plunging craft up into
the face of the storm and meet the big seas as they rolled, furious, up
against her stem. But the winds were laid at last, the ship was put upon
her course and her natural speed resumed. On the afternoon of the
twenty-fourth day the ship passed between the heads of Port Philip, and
two hours later came to anchor before Sandridge, three miles below
Melbourne. Going ashore, Sedgwick cabled to his wife his arrival on his
way to San Francisco, "as first letters from Port Natal would explain,"
and added: "Hope to be with you in one hundred days. Write, care
Occidental Hotel, San Francisco." Then he took the night train for
Sidney, and arrived there the next night about nine o'clock.

Going to a hotel, he found that the first steamer for San Francisco would
sail on the next day but one.

He then sought his first sleep in a comfortable house, with modern
improvements, that he had found since he left London.

Next morning he went early and secured transportation on the steamer,
then returned and wrote a long letter to his girl-bride; then engaging a
rig took in as much of Sidney as he could. Next morning he cabled his
wife that he was just going to sea again, and boarded the steamer early.
The ship sailed promptly at midday, and as it passed out of the
beautiful harbor the islands and shores beyond were just putting on the
vestments of spring. Sedgwick had never before seen spring approaching in
October; never before had he heard the love-calls of mating birds at that
season, and apparently had never before realized so keenly that he was on
the other side of the world from those whom he loved and knew. After
dinner he went on deck. He knew no one on board, and he was nearer being
homesick than he had ever been before. It was a balmy night. The sea was
tumbling a little from the effects of a far-off storm, but the ship was
riding the waves superbly and making rapid progress, and the stars were
all out and sweeping grandly on in their never-ending, stately
processions.

In the midst of his thoughts, when he was fast giving way to a mighty
fit of the blues, he happened to glance upward. _Corona Australis_
was blazing with unwonted brilliancy, and, it seemed to him, the
constellation was making signs to him from its signal station in the
heavens. Instantly he thought of the night that he and Jordan had
particularly noticed it, and of what the great-hearted man had said. Then
he thought of his friend; how unselfishly he had turned his face away
from the ship that would have carried him to a pleasanter country, and
had voluntarily gone back into that profound wilderness to work out
a trust which would require months of time; and he said to himself: "What
a selfish creature I am to repine, when I have been so blessed; when in
England an angel is waiting for me; when in the depths of Africa a brave
soul by his every act is teaching me lessons of self-abnegation."

A moment later another thought came to him which was a delight, and that
was that with every revolution of the screw he was drawing nearer to his
Grace. When an hour later he retired to his state-room he hummed a song as
he went, and the throbbing of the machinery and the wash of the seas
against the ship's beam made his lullaby, as the long roll of the steamer
rocked him to sleep.

As before stated, Sedgwick had written his wife fully at Port Natal. Two
days after he left, the steamer from the North came in. It remained five
days, and then started North again. Its mails were eighteen days in
reaching London.

Grace was looking for a letter from Port Natal, when Sedgwick's cable
from Melbourne reached her. She could not quite comprehend the matter
until, a day later, his letter came, and the next day his second cable,
announcing that he was just about to sail for San Francisco. That day she
did what she had not done since she left school--got a map of the world
and studied it until she put her finger on a spot between Sidney and New
Zealand, and said: "He is there now," and bent and kissed the place on
the map.

That evening she went over from her home to call upon Jack and Rose.
There she found a gentleman who, with his wife and daughter, were going
to sail two days later for Australia, via New York and San Francisco.
Their names were Hobart. Grace had known them ever since her father had
moved to London. They were talking of their proposed journey, when the
young lady said gaily: "Mrs. Sedgwick, come along with us as far as New
York, or San Francisco at least." At this the father and mother together
seconded the invitation.

"Do you really mean it?" said Grace.

"Indeed we do," said all three.

"And when do you sail?" asked Grace.

"Early, day after to-morrow. That is, we leave here early and sail at
noon," said Mr. Hobart. "We have two full staterooms engaged. You can
room with Lottie"--the young lady's name--"and be companion for us all."

"I will be ready day after to-morrow morning," said Grace, seriously.

"Not in earnest?" said Rose.

"In sober earnest," said Grace.

"To New York?" said Browning.

"To New York, and may be farther," was the reply.

"As far as Ohio, I guess," said Jack.

"May be as far as Ohio," said Grace, and she smiled as she spoke.

The Hobarts were delighted, but Jack and Rose looked serious.

"It is a long way, Gracie," said Jack.

"A fearfully long way," said Rose.

"Suppose, Rose, that Jack was as far away, would you think it a long way
to go to see him?" asked Grace.

"O, Gracie! No, no," said Rose.

"When did you hear last from your husband?" asked Hobart.

"This afternoon," said Grace.

"And how long, Grace, before he will be in England?" asked Jack.

It was the first time any question had been asked of her more than the
question if she had heard, and if he was well.

"About one hundred days, I think," said Grace; "that is," she added, "if
I go and find him and bring him home."

Next day Grace made all her arrangements and was ready to leave early on
the following morning. Parting with her mother was her great sorrow, but
the mother approved of her going, and the good-byes were not so sad as
though they did not expect to be soon again reunited.

They made the voyage to New York in nine days. Remaining one day in that
city, they started West; stopped one day in Chicago, and reached San
Francisco seventeen days from Liverpool.

Hobart had been in San Francisco before, and wanted to stop at the Lick
House, but Grace insisted that her friends liked the Occidental best; so
they went to the Occidental.

Four days after reaching San Francisco, the Hobarts sailed for Australia.
They urged Grace to accompany them, but she declined, saying, with a
smile, that she believed for the present she preferred the solid earth to
the unstable sea. She saw her friends aboard the steamer; then returning
to the hotel, sent for the manager, Major H.; explained that she expected
her husband by the first steamer from Australia; that he did not expect
to find her; so she wished to surprise him, and desired the finest
apartments in the hotel, including a private dining-room; and requested
that when it was known that the ship was coming up the harbor, the rooms
should be elaborately dressed with flowers. She also stipulated that her
husband, on his coming, should be conducted to his apartments without any
knowledge that any one was waiting for him.

Major H., captivated by the little English lady, entered into the full
spirit of the programme and promised that he would personally attend to
the matter.

Grace was transferred to the new rooms, and thereafter had her meals
served in her own dining-room.

Three days later, about one p.m., a message came that the Australian
steamer had at noon been sighted outside the Heads, and was then entering
the Golden Gate.

The flowers were forthcoming; the apartments were swiftly decorated; then
Grace, with the utmost painstaking, robed herself in her richest costume
and seated herself in the private dining-room, with the sliding doors
slightly ajar so that she could look through into the parlor of the suite
without being seen.

The suspense was fearful to her for half an hour. Would he really come?
Separating in London, and he traveling east, would she by coming west
find him? Would he be well? Had he really escaped the African fever and
all the dangers that lurked in the weary stretches of treacherous
billows?

Those were a few of the questions she was asking herself, when, in the
hall, a well-known voice rang out which made her heart bound. It was
saying: "There must be an oversight somewhere. I surely ought to have had
some letters awaiting me."

The door opened, and the hearty voice of Major H. was heard by the
listener. "These are your apartments, Mr. Sedgwick," he said, "and
I trust you will find them pleasant."

Then the other occupant said: "But I do not care for any such rich rooms
as these; any little corner will suffice for me."

"Oh no," said the Major. "Try these quarters for a day or two, and if by
that time you wish to exchange them for others, we will see to it. We try
to please our Australian friends, for we hope for more and more of them
throughout all the years to come."

With that he closed the door.

"Australia!" Grace heard her husband say. "I'm no Australian; I'm a
full-blooded African, a regular Boer or Kaffir, and no mistake. But,
bless my soul, this is a fairy spot! A way-up place, surely! From
the depths of Africa and the society of Boers and Kaffirs to an enchanted
palace! This must be the bridal chamber of the establishment. I believe
they have made a mistake and think me the King of the Pearl and Opal
Islands. I wish dear old Jordan could see this. I wish, O God, I wish my
Grace, my queen, could see this, that I might first crown her with
flowers, and then fall down and worship her!"

She could bear the tension no longer. Pushing the doors back quickly, she
stood pale, but radiant, for an instant, before the astonished man; then
stretching out her divine arms, said, "O, my darling!"

CHAPTER XXI.

SHIPPING A QUARTZ MILL.

That evening Major H. met Sedgwick in the office, and, with a twinkle of
the eye, asked him if he was really anxious to take cheaper apartments.

The young man smiled and said he rather thought, as he would probably
only remain two or three months, it would not be worthwhile to change.

Next morning Sedgwick ordered a forty-stamp gold quartz mill complete,
with two rock-breakers, the batteries to be of five-stamp each and low
mortars, with a single pan for cleaning up--a free gold quartz mill.
Instead of one heavy engine, he ordered two, each of forty-horse power
to work on the same shaft, to be supplied by six thirty-horse-power
boilers to be set in two batteries. He ordered also one six-inch and one
four-inch steam pump, with the necessary boilers, and besides, a donkey
hoisting engine, good for an eight-hundred hoist. The order included
all the needed attachments, belting, retorts, duplicates of all parts
subject to breakage or wear, a forge, and shoes and dies enough to last
two years.

He stipulated, too, that the wood-work of the battery should be gotten
out, exactly framed and marked, and that all the pulleys, bolts, etc.,
should be included.

In two days the specifications were gotten ready, and the contract
signed, which included a clause that the whole should be ready in sixty
days, or less, from that date.

Then Sedgwick wrote fully to Jordan, giving him the account of what he
had done, and sending him a draft of the ground plan of the mill, and
full details as to the grading, hoping he would receive the letter and
have the rocks hauled, the battery blocks gotten out, and the grading
done.

This work under way, the exultant man devoted all his time to Grace,
except that every day, when in the city, he would make a run two or three
times to the foundry to mark the progress of the work.

Meanwhile, the happy pair visited every point of interest in and about
San Francisco. They frequented the theatres, drove to the Park and the
Cliff House, and both declared that San Francisco was the most delightful
spot on earth.

They were all the world to each other. In the happiness that filled their
hearts their eyes were softened, so that everything they looked at took
on roseate hues--the world had become a throne to them, over which had
been drawn a cover of cloth of gold.

Once they made a journey to Virginia City, and descended the Gould and
Curry shaft, and Sedgwick showed his bride where he and Jack first
discussed the probability of trying to make a little raise in stocks.
They went and looked at the lodging-house on the Divide where Jack and
Sedgwick roomed so long; visited the mills, saw crude bullion cast into
bars, and watched the procession of a miner's funeral, and in their
rambles Sedgwick stopped many a miner whom he had known, and presented
his bride.

Returning, they got off at Sacramento and waited over one day. There
Sedgwick ordered four seven-ton wagons, with four trail wagons of five
tons each, and four more of three tons each, and twelve sets of team
harness, a dozen of yokes and no end of chains; also a strong, covered
spring wagon with harness to match.

After forty days, Sedgwick was informed that everything would be ready in
ten days. His idea had been to charter a brig or bark, and send the
machinery to Port Natal by a sailing craft; but in crossing the bay in
visits to Oakland, Saucelito and San Rafael, he had noticed anchored, out
in the stream, a small iron bark-rigged steamer which carried the British
flag, and had read thereon the name "Pallas." One day he asked some men
on the wharf what ship it was and why it lay so long in the harbor.

The answer was that it was an English tramp steamer that some months
previously came in loaded with wines and brandies from Bordeaux.

The men also gave the information that, though a tramp steamer, it was
thought to be a very strong craft, fully bulk-headed, with first-class
machinery, and was commanded by the owner, a Scotchman named McGregor,
who, when not on his ship, stopped at the Occidental Hotel.

Sedgwick had already made his acquaintance at the hotel, so when he met
him that evening he asked him how long he expected to remain in the city.
McGregor replied that he was waiting to secure a cargo for his ship.

Then Sedgwick drew him out and learned that his steamer was of six
hundred tons, built with all care for a gentleman's yacht; that after
awhile the owner tired of his plaything and sold it to him at a mighty
discount on its first cost; and that he was seeing the world in it, and
trying at the same time to make the craft pay its own expenses. He said
also he had a picked crew and private surgeon, and added: "When I secure
a cargo, if you and the madam will become my guests, I will adopt you
both as long as you please to follow the seas."

Sedgwick declined with thanks, but said: "You want to see the world; how
would you like to make a run to the coast of Africa?"

"I would not object," he replied. "I have had the 'Pallas' overhauled
since we came into port. She is in first-class trim, good for a year if
no unusual misfortune overtakes her. I would as soon go to Africa as any
other place."

The result was the "Pallas" was chartered to carry out the machinery,
some mill-wrights, a couple of engineers, a couple of mill workers, an
assayer, and any miscellaneous freight that Sedgwick might desire to
send.

The ship was hauled into the wharf next day, and the loading of what was
ready was begun. Sedgwick got on board his wagons and trappings from
Sacramento. He ordered also a great quantity of drill steel, picks and
shovels, quicksilver, some giant powder and caps, some blankets,
mattresses, canned fruits, pickles, boots and brogans, and a whole world
of other supplies such as miners use.

In fifteen days the ship was loaded, and the craft put to sea, as was
understood and published, with a mixed cargo for Australia.

Sedgwick had insured the cargo; had paid the owner in advance the
freight, and McGregor estimated that, if prosperous, he could, running
slow to save coal, and stopping a week or ten days in Australia for coal
and fresh supplies, make Port Natal in eighty days.

In the meantime Sedgwick and his wife had made the acquaintance of an
English gentleman and his wife, named Forbes, who a few days previous had
started for England, but who had promised to visit some English friends
in Indianapolis, Indiana, until Sedgwick and Grace should overtake them,
that they might sail on the same ship from New York.

The day after the "Pallas" sailed, Sedgwick and his bride took the
overland train for the East.

CHAPTER XXII.

A LOST TRAIL DISCOVERED.

They reached Indianapolis in due time; stopped at a hotel, and Sedgwick
had no difficulty in finding the Forbeses. He was presented to their
friends, the Brunswicks, and Mrs. Brunswick insisted that Sedgwick should
go straight to the hotel and bring his wife to her house.

He thanked the old lady warmly, but begged to be excused, saying they
could visit without that.

"Very well," said the old lady, "but I will certainly have my way in
another thing. You must go right off and tell your wife that an old
English woman up the street says she must waive ceremony and come right
here for dinner."

This was agreed to, and Sedgwick proceeded to do the errand.

The Sedgwicks were shown into the drawing-room of the Brunswicks, and had
been for a few minutes conversing when the door opened and a lady
entered.

A glance was enough to show that she was exceedingly beautiful. She was
perhaps twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age, not too tall, rounded
into full maturity, with a most strong but winsome face. Her eyes were
blue, her hair a golden brown and glossy, and when she spoke, her teeth
were revealed, perfect and white.

She was presented to the strangers as Mrs. Hazleton.

Dinner was shortly after announced, and after dinner, when the gentlemen
had returned to the drawing-room, Mrs. Brunswick asked Mrs. Hazleton to
sing. She did not say "Mrs. Hazleton," but just "Margaret."

Without making any excuses she went to the piano and asked Mrs. Brunswick
if she desired any particular piece. She answered:

"No, my dear, sing anything you feel like singing; only have it
old-fashioned and sweet, rather than scientific."

Strangely enough, she struck a few wailing chords on the instrument, and
then with a pathos and tenderness most touching, sang the old song
beginning:

  "Could you come back to me, Douglas."

The effect was great on all the company, but to Sedgwick and his bride it
was intensely thrilling.

The eyes of Grace filled with tears, and Sedgwick, who was near,
unobserved by the rest, took and pressed her hand.

The company separated early, with an agreement for the ensuing day, which
was to fill it with rides, luncheon, a matinee for the ladies, and dinner
afterward.

So soon as Sedgwick and his bride were by themselves, Grace said: "Love,
did you ever hear anything half as sweet as that singing?"

"Yes," said Sedgwick, "I heard that same song once, more sacredly sung."

"O James!" Grace replied, and a celestial glow warmed her face.

"But that lady has a secret grief, certain," said Grace. "There was real
sorrow in her tones, and there is a sorrow in her face, despite its
superb serenity."

"Well, she is a widow," said Sedgwick.

"Yes, I know," was the answer; "but there is more than sorrow; she gives
me the idea that her thought is that something priceless has been lost
which she might have saved."

"Now I think, little one, that 'you have struck it,' as the miners say,"
said Sedgwick.

"How do you mean?" asked Grace.

"Some one who would have made her his wife and worshiped her has gone,
and she is miserable," said Sedgwick.

"What makes you say that, dearest?" asked Grace.

"Because," replied Sedgwick, "I know it, and I know where he has gone,
and she does not."

"Why, what do you know of her? Did you ever meet her before?" asked
Grace.

"No, I have never met her, but I have met some one who has," said
Sedgwick.

"O, tell me all about it!" said Grace.

"Why, child," Sedgwick said, "that is the lady who went to Texas and
taught school one season, who set the honest heart of Tom Jordan on fire,
and burned it half to ashes, made him sell his home because he was so
wretched, and finally, with my help, or through my fault, set him to
running a tunnel to a mine in Southern Africa, among the Boers and
Kaffirs."

"Do you believe that can be true?" asked Grace.

"I know it," said the confident man. "The description an the singing
tally, and the name is the same. Tom says her singing would make a lark,
out of envy, 'fall outer a tree'."

"Upon my soul!" said Grace, and then lapsed into silence.

"What are you thinking of, sweet?" asked Sedgwick, after a pause.

"I was thinking what accidents our lives hang upon," she said. "O, love,
suppose you had not fancied me at all, what would have become of me?"

"And suppose you had, when I did fancy you and you knew my heart was in
the dust at your feet, that the touch of the hem of your robe upon me
thrilled me like old wine; suppose then I had pleaded for your love, and
though you felt it was mine and intended to give it to me, still had
refused me; might you not be singing, Could you come back to me, Douglas,
in tones to break any one's heart who might hear you?"

Grace thought a moment, and then said: "There's more than all that
to this, love; you men do not know much when it comes to the hearts
of women. She had some other and good reason when she refused the
true-souled man."

"I believe now that you are right, my little sorceress," said Sedgwick,
"and I believe that the reason has since been removed, and her great
grief now is in thinking of Jordan's sorrow and than she cannot find
him."

"I will tell you what," said Grace; "I will get as near her to-morrow as
I can, and will try to coax her, hire her--if needs be--to accompany us
to England."

"A capital thought, my wise little wife!" said Sedgwick. "Then when you
gain her confidence, if you think it best, we will try and help her find
the great-hearted man."

"I believe you are an angel," said Grace.

"I know you are," said Sedgwick, and involuntarily they kissed each
other.

CHAPTER XXIII.

BACK TO ENGLAND.

Before the Sedgwicks left Indianapolis, Grace found her opportunity and
said: "Mrs. Hazleton, soon after we reach England my husband will go away
for four or five months. I shall be awfully lonesome. You have never been
across the sea. Take pity upon me and be my guest for a few months until
you weary of me."

The lady was startled by the proposition, waited a moment, and then said:

"I do not know how to thank you, but I came here to teach music. I have
several pupils, and have a contract to sing in the choir of one of the
churches. I need the little revenue that I receive, but if I could get
released from my obligations I would most gladly go, for I do covet a
change exceedingly."

"Then," said Grace, "if I can get that release, and will pay you as much
as you receive here, and all your expenses out and back, will you go?"

"Indeed, I will," she answered, "and will be grateful to you all my
life."

The arrangement was easily made, and the further arrangement that
Sedgwick and his bride should go to Ohio, visit Sedgwick's family for
three or four days; then should join the Forbeses and Mrs. Hazleton at a
certain hotel in New York, and all would embark on the steamer that would
sail on the next week Saturday--ten days from that day.

Then Sedgwick and Grace started for the Miami Valley.

What a welcome was there! The old house had been repaired, modernized,
refurnished and repainted. A new house had been built on the other farm.
It was in the first days of February. That year there was good sleighing,
and the whole town seemed to turn out to celebrate the occasion of Jim
Sedgwick's bringing home his bride. Four days passed in a whirl of
pleasure. The first morning after their arrival, Sedgwick asked his
brother for his trotting team, his new cutter, and the bells, to give
Grace her first sleigh-ride. The steppers were of the 2:30 class, the
roads good, and the fair English girl-wife was in ecstacies. They drove
past the Jasper farm on the hill, and Sedgwick told Grace that it was his
dream for years to accumulate $30,000 to release the mortgage from his
father's farm and to buy the Jasper farm.

"Then what would I have done?" asked Grace.

"Married some English banker, or may be some 'My Lord Fitzdoodle,'
probably," said Sedgwick.

"But, then, suppose a year later I had seen you, what would become of
me?" she said.

"We should have been very formal and polite, and then have gone our
several ways," said Sedgwick.

"Yes, because you are a man of principle, and I hope my pride of
womanhood would have sustained me, but my heart would have broken, for
with me it was a mad passion which absorbed my life before I had been in
your presence half an hour," said Grace; and then added: "I do not any
more wonder at the crimes which come of mismated marriages."

Then Sedgwick told her how, when he left her side the first time, he took
that ride and asked cabbie how much they would charge at Newgate to hang
him.

And they both laughed, but there were tears in the eyes of Grace even
while she smiled. But she rallied in a moment and said:

"Why not buy the place still? Except to leave my mother, I would be on
that farm with you as happy a wife as ever lived. I would rather live
upon that hill than in our great modern Babel, London."

Just then the cutter went in and out of a "Thank-ee-mom"--a hollow
between two snowdrifts--and Sedgwick bent and kissed his wife.

"Thanks," said Grace.

"That was a kiss on principle. That was a pure duty," said Sedgwick.
Then he explained how venerable was the custom, and elaborated upon the
respect due it because of its age and its usefulness to bashful lovers,
because a youth must kiss the girl who goes sleighing with him whenever
he comes to a "Thank-ee-mom" among the drifts.

"What a poor old country England is," said Grace.

"Why so?" asked Sedgwick.

"Why, had we but had snowdrifts and 'Thank-ee-moms,' I would have made
you kiss me three weeks sooner than you did," said Grace.

"Did you want me to kiss you sooner than I did?" asked Sedgwick.

"O, you blind darling!" said Grace. "When I read of your exploit before
the church in Devonshire, I told Jack and Rose that I would like to kiss
that man. Then he told me who the man was, and after all I had to wait so
long I began to fear he would never give me a chance to carry out my
desire."

"Is that true, Gracie?" asked Sedgwick.

"Indeed it is," she replied, and then she quickly continued, "Does it
drift badly along here?"

"Pretty badly," answered Sedgwick.

"Then, love," answered Grace, "buy the farm by all means and at all
hazards."

"I believe I will," said Sedgwick. "I believe we need it in our business.
If when we get back to England it shall be known that we have bought a
home in America, and are having a house built, it will take all
suspicions about a possible African enterprise away."

And that day he bought the farm, and the next one to it, and told his
brother he would send from England plans for a house to be built in the
spring.

Next day came the parting from the old home. Sedgwick promised to return
before many months and stay longer, and he and his wife started for New
York.

They rested over one train at Niagara, and took in its splendor as seen
in winter-time, and arrived in New York on Wednesday. Forbes had
purchased the tickets, and secured the rooms on the ship for the whole
party. Thursday and Friday were devoted to taking in as much as possible
of the great city. On Saturday they sailed.

The voyage was generally uneventful, except that one day they were
treated to a beautiful spectacle of rescuing a crew from a water-logged
craft. The wind was fresh, and there was an uneasy sea on, when a signal
of distress was noted off across the water. The steamer was headed for
it, and in half an hour came up to it. It was a little old lumber
schooner. The sea was washing its deck with every wave. In the meantime,
the second officer, with six seamen, had taken their places in a boat.
The boat had been swung out over the water. The sailors were standing by,
holding the tackle by which a boat is lowered; the commander was on the
bridge, and when in hailing distance of the craft he dropped his hand and
the engines stopped. He shouted through his trumpet, asking what was
wanted. "To come aboard," a voice came back. The commander dropped his
hand again, and down ran the boat and pulled away for the wreck. It would
mount a wave, and then sink out of sight of those on the ship's high
deck; then climb again. It returned in twenty minutes, and it was the
commander of the great ship that took the hand of the schooner's rough
skipper as the boat was hoisted, and for the remainder of the voyage the
shipwrecked skipper had a state-room by himself, and his seat at the
table was at the commander's right hand.

They reached Liverpool on the tenth day--Monday--and went up to London
the same afternoon.

Reaching the city, Sedgwick sent a message to Mrs. Hamlin to meet them at
the house of Jack and Rose, for he would not go to the Hamlin house.

Sedgwick, with his wife and Mrs. Hazleton, went at once to the home of
the Brownings.

Rose was wild with delight at their coming. She hugged Grace, kissed her
and cried over her; kissed Sedgwick, and welcomed Mrs. Hazleton so
cordially that the lady was sure it was sincere.

Then Mrs. Hamlin came, and the whole business had to be done over again,
the elder lady reproaching Grace and her husband for not coming to her,
and scolding even as she embraced them.

Then matters quieted down enough to talk. Rose explained that she was a
deserted wife; that Jack six weeks before had come home one night and
told her that he was going to sail for South America next day; that she
could not go along, but must be good and not be lonesome for six or eight
weeks.

Then she continued: "That is the kind of monsters these men are. They beg
and tease and protest until we women take pity on them and marry them,
and then when the woman's chances for getting a good man are all spoiled,
they rush off on the slightest provocation to America, or India, or
Australia, or China, or some other barbarous place, and all a woman can
do is to mope and threaten that next time she will know better."

And then she laughed, and then as suddenly cried and said: "Poor dear old
Jack! May the seas be merciful, and may the good ship bring him safely
back and be quick about it!"

And sure enough, a week later a step was heard outside, someone with a
night key opened the door, and Rose flew into Jack's arms and cried so
hysterically that it took Jack a long time to calm her.

Browning explained to Sedgwick that he had been earning a commission by
going out and reporting on a mine in Venezuela, just over the border from
British Guiana. He brought to Rose a world of tropical and marine
curiosities. He was in superb health and seemed to be in good spirits.

It was understood that Sedgwick would have to go away again in a month,
and it was his wish and that of Grace to find a house and have an
establishment of their own.

Jack and Rose insisted that during Sedgwick's absence Grace and Mrs.
Hazleton should be their guests, but Sedgwick said with a laugh: "O Mrs.
Browning, you and Jack are good, but you both know that no house is big
enough for two families." And quietly Jack and Rose and Mrs. Hamlin were
enjoined never in Mrs. Hazleton's presence to mention Jordan's name.

However, the difficulty was finally settled. The house Jack lived in was
a double house. The other half was occupied by a gentleman, his wife and
one child. The lady was delicate, and the doctors, baffled by her case,
ordered her--as usual--to try a change of climate. So Sedgwick hired the
house as Browning had his; the servants remained, and permission was
obtained to cut a doorway in the partition walls that divided the two
halls, so that Rose could visit Grace in the morning and Grace could
visit Rose in the evening.

Sedgwick and Browning were almost inseparable during the day-time.
Sedgwick assured Browning that things were working well, begging him not
to disturb either old man Hamlin, or Jenvie, or Stetson, but to "rig some
purchase" after he should be gone, to get the remaining shares in 'The
Wedge of Gold' from them, and also to be sure to keep the former owner of
that mine in the country, even if he had to raise his salary.

He told him also that he expected next time to be absent four or five
months.

One morning about thirty-five days after his arrival in London he
received a cable from McGregor announcing the arrival of the "Pallas" at
Melbourne and saying he would sail again in four days. Then Sedgwick made
his final preparations for departure. He sent full plans for a house to
his brother, with directions where to build. He obtained a promise from
Mrs. Hazleton that she would not desert Grace during his absence, and
from Jack that he would not try any prosecutions to obtain his money
from the old men until his return, explaining that he had made his
arrangements in America, and was then going to see that African mine and
work it if it would do.

His wife knew where he was going; the others except Jack, believed he
meant to return to the United States. He told them he had a little
business in Paris and would this time take a French steamer.

Grace worried more over the second parting than she had over the first.
She cried a good deal and was much distressed. But it was over at last,
and Sedgwick was gone. He did stop over a few hours in Paris, made an
arrangement which he desired to with the Bank of France, then speeded on
to Marseilles, caught the Imperial steamer, sailed over the same route as
before to Port Said, and there embarked on exactly the same steamer that
he and Jordan sailed for Port Natal in seven months before.

He was twenty days from London to Port Natal. Jordan was at D'Umber
waiting his coming, and the joy of the meeting was immeasurable. When
they became calm, Jordan said: "It war a good while, old friend, but I
knowed as how y'd cum."

CHAPTER XXIV.

DEALING IN MINING SHARES.

The presence of Sedgwick in London greatly excited and alarmed Jenvie,
Hamlin and Stetson. That mysterious American had returned, and all
confidently expected each day to be served with a notice of with a suit
or a warrant of arrest. But finally it leaked out that he had bought a
home in Ohio and ordered a house built, sending the plans from London,
and as day after day passed and no sign was given, they gained courage,
and when Sedgwick once more left England, as they supposed for America,
they grew jubilant again. The firm was now Jenvie, Hamlin & Stetson.
Their business was prospering, and they all realized that the way to make
money was to have money to use, and the prestige which the command of
large means gives.

About a week after Sedgwick's departure they were seated in their private
office one morning congratulating themselves, when the former owner of
'The Wedge of Gold' was announced.

"We cannot afford to snub the origin of our fortune," said Jenvie; "show
him in." This man's name was Emanuel. He was a Portugese. On this morning
he presented a seedy and dissipated appearance, as though he had been
enjoying his fortune too rapidly.

Once ushered in, he did not waste any time, but explained that he had
very little money left, and had called to see, in case the gentlemen did
not intend to develop 'The Wedge of Gold,' on what terms they would
transfer back to him the mine, or any interest they might possess, and
give him a chance to go over to Hamburg and try to work the capitalists
of that city to buy a mine down among their second cousins in Boerland.

"How much could you afford to give for the property?" asked Hamlin.

"I sell him for £2,000. I would, for one speculation, buy him back if you
could sell, and would give £1,000."

"But you always said it was a good mine," said Jenvie.

"Of course," he answered, "an excellent mine, but on ze best of ze mines
there vos always one selling and then one buying price."

"If we were to sell to you, would you work the property?" asked Jenvie.

"Most certainly," he replied; "I would work it as I did before--on ze
paper."

"We have sold the control," said Hamlin, "and have only left some shares
of stock."

"I understand," said the man; "Mr. Browning has the control and is
unloading the stock cheap. He three days ago tendered me some stock for
one shilling per share. I said, 'No, but give me one bond at three
pennies per share for four months, and I will consider ze matter, and try
to help you close out some unproductive property.' He would not comply,
but he thought it over very much, and asked me to call again. One broker,
Mr. Williams, offered to sell me plenty for four pennies, but would not
make one bond."

"We do not care to bond ours," said Jenvie, "but would sell for four
pennies."

"I will not give it," said Emanuel, rising to go. "I would give you three
pennies, but no more," and he started for the door.

The three consulted in private for a moment, and then Jenvie called to
Emanuel, who was half out of the door, that he might have the stock at
three pennies for cash, but begged him not to mention that he had
purchased it. Emanuel paid the money and took the stock, and then said:
"You ask me not to mention this business. Are you crazy? Suppose Mr.
Browning by and by bonds me ten thousand shares less than half he has
got, with this in my pocket who will then have ze control? I want you to
promise to say nothing about this sale for six months. In the meantime
I propose to become just so intimate with Mr. Browning as possible."

Then he winked and walked out, and the conspirators looked in each
other's faces and smiled.

Emanuel went directly to Browning and delivered him the stock, but he
lied about the price he had paid for it, telling Browning he had given
five pennies per share for it. But while Browning was sure the man had
lied, he was satisfied, for he then had all of the stock of "The Wedge of
Gold."

Browning had, as he told Sedgwick, gone to South America on a commission.
It was known in London that he was a miner who had made a success in
America. An Englishman who had a bond on a mine in Venezuela had hired
him to go over and make a report on it. He fulfilled the trust, but he
heard while there of another mine in a district ten miles away. He went
to see it and bought it for £2,000, hired a foreman and ten men; laid out
the work for them for six months ahead, and left £1,000 in a local bank
to pay them, with instructions to the foreman to send him a report and
sample by every steamer.

The first mine was sold on his report, and besides his commission of
£300, the happy man who had sold the mine called at his house one day
when Browning was out, and left an envelope directed to him. The envelope
contained a check for £3,000, and a note saying that the writer thought
he was entitled to one-tenth of the proceeds of the sale, and that
Browning must accept the money, for the writer intended that day to
leave England. Browning turned the money over to Rose as her fee "as
an expert."

A month later a steamer from Georgetown (British Guiana) brought news
that the Browning mine was developing superbly, and still a month later
the foreman estimated that he had five thousand tons of ore in sight
which would average as well as the samples sent. Browning had the samples
assayed, and they averaged £5 6s. in gold per ton.

He had a friend named Campbell, who was a broker: Campbell dropped in
upon him as he was looking over the assays, and he told him all about the
mine.

"What will you give me to sell that property for you, Browning?" asked
Campbell.

"Not a penny," said Browning, "but I will give you a bond on it for four
months for an even £100,000, and you may make as much above that as your
conscience will allow; you may, by Jove."

"Will you make me a report and map?" asked Campbell.

"I will write you a report, and make you a rough sketch," said Browning,
"but my drawing lessons were neglected when I was young, and I am not a
very reliable or finished map-maker."

The conversation closed with an agreement, and the bond and report were
in due time finished.

CHAPTER XXV.

A WEDGE OF GOLD INDEED.

Sedgwick and Jordan waited at Port Natal for the coming of the "Pallas."
Sedgwick explained what the ship would bring, and told Jordan about Grace
being in San Francisco to receive him, and how while the mill was being
built, he and his wife had raced around the country.

Jordan was delighted. "I told yo' she war a game girl," he said. "Think
of her traveling six thousand mile to jine ther man who hed run away from
her at ther meetin' house do'! But I'm mighty glad she did, all the same.
It confirms my estermation of ther lady."

Then he explained that he put on eight-hour shifts to run the tunnel, two
English miners on each shift to handle the drills and gads, and Boers and
Kaffirs to carry back the debris; that the rock was most favorable, and
rapid progress was made, averaging a little over ten feet per day; that
he offered bribes and bounties to the shift that should make most
progress; and that he had tapped the ledge and cross-cut it in four
months, "because," he added naively, "we lost all reckonin' o' time, 'nd
I'm afeerd we worked of er Sunday sometimes;" that the ore was quite up
to the average, or a little better than what was on the dump; that so
soon as the vein was struck he had started drifts up and down the ledge
and an upraise, and had, when he left, probably 1,000 tons of ore on the
dump, and that as the mine was further opened the daily output was
steadily increasing. He had, moreover, got the mill site graded, and the
wall that the battery was to be set in front of, built, comfortable
quarters put up, and the road through the cañon made so that it would be
good for heavy teams.

When he heard that Sedgwick had sent some heavy wagons, yokes, harness
and chains he was glad, saying: "I war afeerd you'd forget it," and at
once went about to select the stock and drivers for those wagons.

After they had waited eight days, the "Pallas" made the port.

Captain McGregor reported a prosperous voyage, and the next day the
discharging of cargo into lighters began and was rushed with all speed.
As soon as the wagons were landed, the work of setting them up began, and
the training of the teams was likewise inaugurated.

The first full loads were started for the mine in a week. The heavy
machinery was loaded on the imported wagons, native conveyances were
secured for the other freight, and in fourteen days everything was in
transit.

In the meantime another mail had arrived from England, bringing letters
from Grace to Sedgwick. One had news of special interest. It told that
the confidence of Mrs. Hazleton had been partly gained; that she had
learned much of the lady's life; how she was left an orphan at thirteen
in New Jersey; how at seventeen when at school she had run away and
married a wild youth; how they left at once for the West; how the wild
boy settled down, and with a few hundred dollars which he had when they
were married he had made a few thousand and was doing well when he
suddenly sickened and died; how then his relatives came forward and made
a contest for his property, setting up that she had never been married;
that the showing was so fearful against her that the court in Iowa
refused her any support from the estate, and in her shame and confusion
she went away to Texas and taught school for six months to earn money
enough to make her defense; that there she met an unlettered and
sensitive man, but at the same time one of the clearest-brained, most
generous and noble-hearted men in the world, but in whom, from the fact
he was so sensitive and generous, she could not confide, lest she might
not be able to vindicate herself; and if she failed, she feared she would
not only lose his confidence, but that it would make him believe there
was no truth in the world. How with the money she earned, she was able to
go to New Jersey, to find in the papers of the old clergyman who had
married her (and who had in the meantime died), not only a full record of
the marriage, but the marriage certificate with the names of the
witnesses attached, which certificate had never been called for. By it,
too, she was able to find the witnesses of the marriage, and one of those
witnesses had known her all her life. So when the case came on for
hearing she was so completely vindicated that her neighbors who had
turned on her a cold shoulder came back with every outward demonstration
of joy over her triumph. But she hated the place; converted all she had
into money; bought a lot in a cemetery outside that State and had her
husband's remains moved there, because she thought his sleep would be
vexed in a community so mean; and then wrote to her friend in Texas,
merely asking if he was well, and if she might explain something to him.

In ten days the letter came back with the endorsement on it by the
postmaster that her friend had sold his property at a sacrifice and
disappeared, his nearest friends did not know where. Grace's letter added
that she was worrying under the fear that perhaps if she had not gone to
Texas the true man would never have made the sacrifice.

Grace declared that she was in love with the lady; that she was a
fine scholar, a finished elocutionist, a marvelous musician, and the
comfort of her life in her husband's absence. The letter closed with an
injunction that Sedgwick must bring Jordan safely home with him, and not
be too long about it.

How Sedgwick wanted to show that letter to Jordan! But he realized that
if Mrs. Hazleton loved him it was for her to tell him so.

He racked his brain to invent a necessity for Jordan's return to London,
but a little thought convinced him that all such expedients would be in
vain, because Jordan had, as he said, "enlisted fo' the wah," and
Sedgwick realized that if on any pretext he sent him away, the suspicion
might arise in Jordan's mind that the object was a selfish one, now that
the labor and anxiety of making the enterprise a success had well-nigh
passed.

So he decided that the thing to do was to hurry the work in hand to
culmination. The rainy season was pretty well over, and the material for
the mill was pushed forward with reasonable dispatch. It was all on the
ground, set up, and in motion in fifty days.

Sedgwick found on reaching the mine that Jordan had built the needed
houses, and had the mill as nearly completed as it could be before the
machinery was set in place.

The ore crushed easily, and the mill reduced two tons and a half per
stamp readily in every twenty-four hours, in thirty days crushing 3,000
tons. It yielded in the mill $35 per ton, and at the end of thirty days
there were bars of the value of $100,000 ready for shipment. Then
Sedgwick said: "Come, Tom, our work is finished here, at least for the
present; let us seek civilization."

"Agreed, old friend," said Jordan. "I'll get my trophies together and be
ready ter start in ther morning."

"And what are your trophies?" asked Sedgwick.

"Why, didn't I tell yer?" was the reply. "It got kinder lonesome while
yo' war away, so I went on a hunt. I've got ther finest pair o' leopard
skins yo' ever seen, some elephant tusks, 'nd I migh'er brought a sarpent
skin that war a daisy, but I drew ther line on snakes. But he war
twenty-three feet long, and ther look outer his eyes war not reassurin'
by a blamed sight. I migh'er got a giraff skin, too, but she hed her baby
with her, and I'm not breakin' up no giraffe families."

It was understood that they were to leave in the morning; were to go in
the covered spring wagon, and were to carry the gold.

One of the English miners was made superintendent of the mine. The
mill-men from San Francisco agreed to look after the mill for a year,
and the civil engineer undertook to see to the books, to attend to the
finances and send an express to the coast once a week.

So Sedgwick and Jordan, with one Boer, started early in the morning. It
was in the last week in May; the weather was cold for that region, for it
was the beginning of winter.

They drove out of the narrow valley, through the cañon, out upon the open
table-land and down to the house or dug-out which they had first found
when in search of a way out. They rested there, ate some luncheon, fed
their horses, and after an hour and a half started on.

They had brought with them their repeating rifles and revolvers. Before
getting into the wagon, Jordan had rolled up and fastened the curtains of
the wagon, examined closely the guns, and then gave a long, sweeping look
all around the horizon.

"What are you looking for, Jordan?" asked Sedgwick.

"Nuthin' much," he answered. "Only, Jim, have yer gun whar yo' can reach
it quick if wanted."

"Why?" asked Sedgwick.

"Nuthin," said Jordan. "Only I never seen this place afore thet thar war
not a dozen cut-throat-lookin' scoundrels 'round, and they mighter mean
mischief, knowin' as how we have ther treasure aboard."

They had driven on for perhaps a mile, when the road ran down close to
the stream. All at once half a dozen shots rang out of the willows, and
the Boer sprang from the wagon and ran for the bush.

Sedgwick was driving. Jordan in a second caught his gun, and springing
over the seat, said:

"Drive on quick, Jim, and in ther meantime I'll try ter entertain ther
varmints."

A Boer stepped out of the willows and raised his gun. He never fired it,
but threw up his hands and fell on his face. A shot from Jordan's gun had
changed his calculations.

Three or four more shots were fired from the bush, but they did no harm.

Sedgwick had urged the team into a run, and they had just begun to hope
the ambuscade had been passed, when three more Boers sprang out of the
willows nearly opposite them and fired.

Jordan killed two of them in a moment, but the third one fired again, and
the bullet struck Jordan's left arm, disabling it and making a bad wound.

"Can you drive, think?" asked Sedgwick.

Jordan thought he could, and took the reins; Sedgwick picked up his gun.

Three more Boers just then appeared by the willows opposite. Sedgwick
could shoot as rapidly and as accurately as Jordan, and he cleared the
field in a moment.

The road bent away from the stream soon after, back upon the table-land,
and they were safe. They stopped, and Sedgwick bound up Jordan's arm. The
bone was not broken, and no great blood-vessel was seriously injured, but
he had received a nasty flesh wound through the muscles of his fore-arm.

As they proceeded on their journey, Jordan said: "That black guard as I
first got a crack at hed been working for us two months. He war at his
work yesterday. He put up this business, but how we sprised him! Ther
devil that jumped from the wagon when ther scrimmage begun war his
runnin' pard. Wur it not lucky neither hoss war hit?"

They reached Port Natal in six days without further incident; but despite
all the care that Sedgwick could give it, Jordan's arm was badly inflamed
and very painful when they reached the seashore.

No regular steamer was in port, but the "Pallas" was seen at anchor out
in the roadstead.

Sedgwick engaged a boat, and with Jordan pulled out to the steamer.

McGregor was delighted at their coming, took them on board and said:
"Now, boys, we will have a night of it."

But Sedgwick said: "First, Captain, I want your surgeon to look at
Jordan's arm."

"Why, of course," said McGregor. The doctor was called. He examined the
arm, then tested the man's temperature, and finally said:

"The wound is nothing in itself. Under normal conditions it would heal in
a fortnight, but Mr. Jordan's system is run down. He has a low fever on
him now, and needs immediate treatment and careful nursing."

This was a new situation, and one that troubled Sedgwick exceedingly. He
was silent for a few seconds, and then looking up, said:

"Captain McGregor, where do you go next?"

"I was just going to pull out for Calcutta, Hong Kong, Yokohama and San
Francisco," he replied.

"And when do you sail?" asked Sedgwick.

"I intended to put to sea to-morrow," was the answer; "everything is
ready."

"Can I induce you for love and money to make the run at full speed to
Naples or Marseilles?" asked Sedgwick.

"Not for money, but for love, yes," was the reply.

"And can I have a room for Jordan right now?" was the next question.

"You shall have the bridal chamber of my ship," said McGregor.

"Thanks, Captain," said Sedgwick, "and now let us get the dear old boy to
bed."

Jordan insisted that he was not ill, but before they could get him
undressed he was seized with a chill, and they worked upon him an hour
before he rallied, grew warm and fell asleep.

In the meantime the night had come down, so Sedgwick got a little supper
and then went back to his friend. The captain, steward, indeed all hands,
were all attention, for they knew all about both men.

Next morning Jordan was comfortable, but the fever was having its way.
Sedgwick went ashore, got his own and Jordan's baggage and the bullion,
and when he returned the ship was at once got under way for her northern
voyage.

The attentions of Sedgwick to his sick friend were simply incessant. The
ship's surgeon was also assiduous in his care. Captain McGregor was all
the time most solicitous. As they approached the equator, they fixed for
Jordan a bed on deck where the air, even if it was hot, was better in
motion over him than in the stifling state-room.

The ship rounded the great cape in ten days, and reached the Red Sea on
the twelfth day. Then the surgeon motioned Sedgwick aside, and said: "The
case of your friend makes me very anxious. His wound is not of itself
serious. He has a little fever, but it would not be of a dangerous type
in an ordinary patient. In this case the sick man acts like one who has
lost hope, and under the sorrow of his loss his nerve power has ceased to
exert its force, and the man is liable to die simply because he will make
no effort to live."

"I know," said Sedgwick, "and I have been dreading such a report as you
have made me, for the last seven days. If you can keep his life from
going out until we can reach Naples, I believe we can then find a tonic
that will save him."

"I will try," was the answer, "but he is growing weaker every day, and I
am afraid. However, the temperature is growing cooler and it gives us a
better chance."

Sedgwick tried by talking, by reading, and by drawing rosy pictures of
what they would do in England and America, to rouse Jordan, but without
much success.

He lay patient and still on his couch, and to all inquiries would answer:
"I'm perfectly comfortable, dear friend. Do not worry about me;
everything is as it should be."

Then Sedgwick tried another experiment. He told the sick man that he must
exert himself to be better; that sickness was often influenced by the
will of the patient, and added that the real work of trying to undo the
wrong perpetrated upon Browning would have to be done when they reached
England, and that he should then need the best counsel and help of his
friend.

Jordan listened and said: "I'll do the best I ken, Jim, but it will be
all right, I'm shor."

So the hours went by, and Captain McGregor told the engineer to crowd on
all steam, and to bribe the fireman to give the ship all the speed
possible.

At Suez, Sedgwick went ashore and cabled his wife that he was on the
"Pallas;" to come at once to Naples; to induce Jack and Rose to come
also, and, if she thought best, to bring Mrs. Hazleton, for Jordan was
ill, and he feared nothing but the cheer of friendly faces would arouse
him and give him the strength to live. He added that she must use her
woman's wits as to what she would tell Mrs. H., and that to outsiders it
must all seem but as running over to the continent for a few days'
outing.

When Grace Sedgwick, very early one morning, received and read that
message, she held it for many minutes, lost in thought. She had grown
very near to Mrs. Hazleton, but except when she had drawn from her the
story of her life, she had never probed in the least to see if in her
heart she was nursing a vast regret.

But she had noticed some things that led her to believe that the lady had
an anxiety which she was trying to conceal. She was always ready to visit
any point of interest that would naturally attract a stranger, or to
attend any public assemblage that a stranger might be lured to. Again,
she always approached such places with vivacity, and returned from them
in silence.

As Mrs. Sedgwick sat with the dispatch doubled up in her closed hand,
Mrs. Hazleton came into the room. Touching a chair by her side, Grace
said: "Come and sit by me, Margaret. I want to talk with you."

She complied, merely saying: "What do you want to talk about, love?"

"Are you happy?" asked Grace.

"Indeed, yes. Why do you ask?" was the reply. "Have you not been making
my life a bed of roses ever since your blessed eyes first rested on me?"

Grace looked at her intently for a moment, then said: "Is there some one
whom you wish exceedingly to see?"

A rosy flush swept like a wave over her face, which was followed by a
quick pallor. But she recovered herself almost instantly, and said: "Why,
Mrs. Sedgwick, do you ask me so strange a question?"

Grace arose, then bending down, took her hand, laid the dispatch upon the
palm, closed the fingers gently over it and said:

"My dear, there is a paper for you to read. I am going to Rose for a
few minutes. When I return, you may tell me anything you please, or
nothing at all, as you please; only let me tell you first that before
my husband went to Nevada, he went to another State, lived there with
a great-hearted man for a year, and that man was with him when he left me
at the church door on my wedding day, and they have been together since,
except when my husband left him to go to America to buy machinery and
came back this way to join him again." Then she suddenly bent and kissed
her friend and was gone.

She went through to Rose's side of the house, found her, and asked where
Mr. Browning was.

"He is in the library," said Rose; "he has not yet gone out this
morning."

"Then come with me," said Grace. Once in the library, she said: "I have
news from my James this morning. He cabled me from Suez. He is coming
home, and he wants us to meet him at Naples. Mr. Jordan has been with
him--is coming with him, is ill, I fear very ill, and he wants us to meet
him, I believe chiefly on that dear man's account. I shall leave this
afternoon; can you go with me?"

"I can," said Jack.

"I can," said Rose.

"I am so glad," said Grace. "And say, there must be nothing said to the
servants, except that we have run over to the continent on a lark, for a
few days. And now good-bye until we are ready."

With that she returned to her own sitting room. Mrs. Hazleton was gone,
and it was a full half hour before she returned. When she did, she was
very pale. A look of anxiety was on her face, but a radiant new light was
in her eyes.

She came straight up to Grace, and in a low voice said: "When do you
start?"

"To-day," said Grace; "by the first Dover train."

"O, thanks; pray God we be not too late," was the answer; and then the
poor woman sank into a chair, covered her face with her hands, and broke
into sobs that were almost hysterical.

Grace stood by her for a few minutes, then knelt down, put one arm around
her, drew her toward her, gently drew down the hands and laid her cheek
against the tear-dripping cheek of her friend, and said: "Now you must be
brave, dear Margaret; it's going to be all well. I feel it in every fibre
of my being. My husband is with him. He will supply him with the vitality
to live until the vision of your face above his pillow will bring the
stimulus that he needs."

The true woman recovered herself at length, and said: "O Mrs. Sedgwick,
how did you discover my secret, and the great-hearted man whom I have
sought for and prayed for so long?"

"It was not I," said Grace. "It was my husband. He lived with Mr.
Jordan a year in Texas. After he had made his little fortune in Nevada,
he--thanks be to God--came home with Jack. He met his old friend here,
who frankly told him how he loved you, and why he had sold his home and
turned wanderer. Just then Jack had been induced by his step-father
and mine, and the knave Stetson, to invest part of his fortune in a gold
mine in South Africa; and by a deception, nearly all that was left of his
fortune was lured away into the same channel. Jack was well-nigh frantic.
Rose had been waiting for him for four years and a half, so my husband
insisted upon their marriage and determined to go and see if anything
could be made out of the wreck, and asked me to wait until his return.
I agreed, only stipulating that we, too, should be married before he
went. I left him at the church. My husband was a silver miner; Mr. Jordan
was a gold miner--I do not know the difference, only the gold miner can
test gold ore--and they together went to Africa. They found the mine
good, and found a new road to it, over which the machinery could be
transported. Then my husband sailed via Australia for San Francisco to
buy the machinery; Mr. Jordan remained to open the mine. My husband
cabled me from Australia, and the next day I received his letter from
South Africa, telling me that he would be two months in San Francisco,
and then would come by London on his way back to the South Land. I took
the first ship and reached San Francisco before his ship came in from
Australia; then when I knew the ship was coming up the bay, I had the
apartments dressed in flowers, robed myself in attire such as I had meant
should be my wedding garments, and waited his coming."

Then she paused a moment as the memory of that meeting swept over her,
while the arms of her friend stole around her.

Continuing, she said: "When ready to start for England, we, as you know,
made arrangements to stop a day or two with our friends in Indiana. When
you were presented, my husband recognized you instantly by the name and
description given of you by his friend. When you sang that first song, he
guessed your secret and told me his thought, and helped me to work the
stratagem to lure you here. When he reached Port Natal, he tried to
invent some plausible reason to induce Mr. Jordan to come here, but he
could not; and so has hurried to get the mill working, and now both are
on the way, and I must meet them. Jack and Rose are going with me; will
you?"

The arms of Margaret Hazleton were clinging to Grace, and the tears were
raining down her face. So soon as she could speak, she said:

"And so, while I thought you were my best friend, you have really been my
guardian angel. I came with you because I hoped to find the noble man who
had self-exiled himself, and all the time when I thought I was disguising
my heart, your clear eyes have been reading it. I remember now in Texas
the boys were always talking of a famous Jim who had lived with them, but
I never dreamed that he was your husband.

"My gratitude to you and your grand husband is bankrupt, but now no
matter. The first thing to do is to be on our way--only, do Mr. and Mrs.
Browning also know my secret?"

"Not at all," said Grace. "Until just now they did not even know that Mr.
Jordan was with my husband, but I will tell Rose all that may be
necessary."

All left that day, in due time reached Naples, and engaged ample quarters
before the "Pallas" entered the bay.

CHAPTER XXVI.

FEVER VISIONS.

As the "Pallas" passed out of the canal upon the broad-breasted
Mediterranean, Jordan noticed the change in the motion of the ship, and
said to Sedgwick: "Jim, old friend, we is back agin on ther waters whar
men first learned ter be sailors, aren't we?"

"Yes," said Sedgwick, "and in three days more I hope to gladden your eyes
with the faces of some dear friends."

"Yo's mighty kind, old friend," said the sick man; "but, Jim, I wanter
tell yo', if we should be diserpinted, yo'll find inside my trunk a
little trunk, and in thet yo'll find things all fixed ter tell yer what
ter do. I 'ranged it when yo' war away, not knowin' what mount be.
Remember one thing mo': everything's all right 'nd goin' ter be right.
I'll get well 'nd help yo' ef I ken; ef I don't, yo'll make it easy,
nuff, without me."

"Indeed I cannot," said Sedgwick. "You must brace up and get well, for I
tell you, dear old Tom, that I can see better than you, and I have worked
out a plan which is going to be a delight for you."

"Maybe so, Jim," said the sick man, and dozed off into a troubled sleep.
The surgeon had been giving the patient some powerful medicine, and told
Sedgwick it might make him flighty, but not to permit that to alarm him;
that he thought he could promise to hold the life in his friend for a few
days more.

Jordan awoke after an hour's sleep, and said: "Jim, I had a mighty quar
dream, sho. I seen all ther fleets ez hez ever sailed on these waters,
havin' er grand review. It war ther ghosts ev ther ships, I reckon, but
they looked mighty real. I seen ther fleets ev Tyre with ther sails like
calico mustangs; I seen ther Persian fleets thet ther Greeks done up et
Mycale 'nd Salamis; I seen ther fitin' ships uv Rome, 'nd Carthage, 'nd
Egypt, 'nd Venice, down ter Nelson's fite on ther Nile. O, but it war a
grand persession! Thar war calls in a hundred tongues; thar war responses
in a hundred mo'; thar war decks filled with armed men, with helmets,
spears 'nd shields; thar war singin' 'nd prayin' 'nd trumpet calls; thar
war ther rattle ev arms, ther ring ev steel, 'nd ther harsh blast ev
war-horns, 'nd ther sounds changed from age to age, until thar came at
last ther roar uv hevy guns in regelar broadsides. All ther echoes uv all
ther battles uv all ther centeries war in my ears. It war grand; grander
nor Chatternooga. Thar sea gave up its ded fur me, so fur ez this water
goes. History held befo' me all its pages, 'nd they wuz all 'luminated.
Ez thet picter swept befo' my eyes, 'nd all thar clamors filled my ears,
it war more thrillin' then anything yo' ever dreamed of. I ken har ther
calls, 'nd ther replies, 'nd ther beatin' uv oars, tho' thar oars war
broken, 'nd ther calls growed still two 'nd three thousand year ago. It
war beautiful, Jim, even ef it war all 'lusion ter ther eyes 'nd ears. Do
yo' remember, yo' read me once 'Ther Midnight Review?' Why, Jim, thet war
nuthin'. This uv mine war ther review ev all thar ages, er movin' picter
uv ther world since befo' civilerzation begun."

Then the sick man dozed off into sleep again, and Sedgwick bathed his
face, and hung over him as a mother watches when the life of her child
wavers between this world and the next.

After awhile Jordan awoke again. This time there was an eager, joyous
look in his wan face, and he searched the room around with a most
expectant gaze.

Sedgwick bent over him, and said softly: "What is it, old friend?"

"Why, Jim, old man," said he, "that war most singler. I hearn _her_ voice
a-prayin', hearn it jest ez plain 'nd natral ez ever I hearn it afore,
prayin' thet I might git well. O, Jim, it war music, sho' nuff! and
ef eny angels war a-listenin', they'd intercede fur me jest outer
courtesy."

"She was praying, dear friend," said Sedgwick. "I knew it, and her prayer
is going to be answered. Her soul is trying to call to your soul to rouse
itself, and you must heed the call."

"I'll try," said the sick man. "But don't worry, old friend; no matter
what comes, it'll be all right. And, say, Jim, open my grip and put ther
handkerchief you will see with dots upon it here next my heart."

For the twenty-four hours prior to reaching Naples Jordan was delirious
most of the time, and did not sleep at all. Finally the surgeon
administered a powerful opiate, and when the ship came to anchor in the
beautiful bay, the invalid was in a profound sleep.

Browning was on the lookout for the ship, and was soon upon its deck. He
and Sedgwick clasped hands, and the first words of Sedgwick were: "Jack,
are all well, and who is here?"

"All well," said Jack; "and your wife, my wife, and Mrs. Hazleton are
waiting at the hotel for you. And how is your friend?"

"Desperately ill, but I have hopes of him now," said Sedgwick.

The surgeon was appealed to, and he said it would be better to take
Jordan ashore while yet he slept.

"I must first send a message that we are coming, and that he is asleep
under opiates, or we shall frighten those who are watching for us," said
Sedgwick.

Captain McGregor volunteered to deliver the message as he was going
ashore for a few minutes to report to the port officials that he brought
no cargo to be discharged, except the baggage of two passengers. Sedgwick
thanked him, took his arm, led him aside, and said to him: "Captain, when
you find my wife, tell her privately that she must keep the other ladies
from seeing us as we carry Jordan to the house. It would disturb and
perhaps alarm them, for he is not only wan and poor, but the sleep upon
him looks like the twin brother of Death."

"I will see to it all," said the captain, and at once went ashore.

Grace saw him and recognized him as he alighted at the hotel, and ran to
the parlor to meet him alone. He explained to her the situation, and she
undertook to see that the injunction should be carried out.

"How long before they will come?" asked Grace.

"Perhaps thirty minutes," was the answer.

"Then excuse me, captain," said Grace, "but come back later. I want to
thank you for all your kindness, and have a visit with you. But now I
must see to my two charges, that no mistake be made."

McGregor promised to return, shook hands, called Grace a "trump," and
strode away.

So soon as he had gone, Grace rang, and when a servant came she sent for
the manager of the hotel. To him she explained that in a few minutes a
sick man would be brought to the house; that his illness was not at all
contagious; that No. ---- of her apartments must be prepared for him, and
he must be carried there at once.

He asked if she was sure there was no danger to guests from the sick man,
and she answered that he must know that no sick man could be landed
without a permit from the port surgeon.

He bowed and promised that her wishes should be carried out.

Then she went to find Mrs. Browning, and told her to propose to Mrs.
Hazleton to go for a drive to kill time, and to be sure to drive in the
opposite direction from the bay; to hurry up and to be absent for an
hour or an hour and a quarter. She had before explained to Rose the real
situation.

Rose complied. As the two ladies came from their rooms attired for the
ride, Rose said:

"Grace, come and join us; we are going to see Naples a little."

But Grace excused herself for that day, promising to go next morning.

She saw them driven away, and then took up her watch for the expected
visitors.

She did not wait long. Four sailors were carrying the sick man; while
Jack, the ship's surgeon, and Sedgwick were walking near. The manager met
them and directed the way to the room set aside for Jordan. Grace waited
in the upper hall for the procession. Sedgwick sprang to her, but she put
a finger on her lips, caught his hand, then circled his neck with her
arms, swiftly kissed him, and then whispered: "O darling, we must see now
to our poor dear sick friend," and tore herself away from him.

Jordan was put in bed still sleeping. Then Sedgwick, the surgeon and
sailors came out. Sedgwick feed the sailors generously, though they did
not want to accept anything. He then presented Surgeon Craig to his wife.

Grace greeted him and said: "Doctor, when the sick man awakens, will
there be any danger to him if some one very dear to him shall be sitting
by his couch?"

"None at all," was the answer. "That is the medicine that he needs. If we
could find the right friend, I believe it would cure him; if we cannot, I
fear the result, for it is a sorrow more than the fever, I believe, that
is killing him."

Half an hour later the ladies returned. Grace had Sedgwick take Browning
from the sick room; then explained to Mrs. Hazleton that Mr. Jordan was
in the house very ill and sleeping, but that if she were strong enough
she ought to be at his bedside when he awoke; asked her if she could bear
the ordeal, and if she thought she could, whether she would prefer to be
alone or to have her with her.

"I am strong enough," was the answer, "and I would rather no one would be
near."

Then Grace led her to the door and said: "Margaret, be brave, and keep in
thought that you are going to restore your friend to health; and see,
this room is next to mine. I shall be waiting there; if you need me, tap
softly upon the partition door." Then she opened noiselessly the door,
kissed her friend, waited until she passed into the room, closed the
door, and then ran to her husband, climbed upon his knees, embraced and
kissed him, and cried with joy.

It was two hours before any sign came from the adjoining room. Then the
door was softly opened; Mrs. Hazleton came in without speaking, grasped
Sedgwick's hand, pointed to the room where Jordan lay, and said in a
whisper: "He wants you." And as Sedgwick passed from the apartment, the
over-wrought woman fell upon her knees, buried her face in the lap of
Grace, and said: "Dear friend, help me to thank God."

Later Sedgwick reported that as he approached the bed, Jordan smiled, and
in a feeble voice said: "Jim, old friend, I'ze mighty weak, but don't
mind it; I shall pull through easy now. But if I don't, I'll be even;
ther world's been thet kind ter me thet I'll keep thankin' God ter all
eternity."

Then in his weakness he wept, but controlling himself at last, he
continued: "I'ze too powerful weak ter make much noise, but if yo' think
a loud invercation is heard sooner nor a weak one, thank God fur me in
your loudest key."

Sedgwick took up his watch by Jordan for the night. He slept much of the
night, and smiles stole over his face as he slept, but he was awfully
prostrated with weakness.

After that, a regular order was prescribed. Sedgwick watched at night,
and the others took turns by day.

Three nights after their arrival, the fever left Jordan. The doctor had
anticipated it, and had told Sedgwick he would remain with him. The fever
left him so utterly prostrated that it was all the doctor and Sedgwick
could do to keep life in him for two or three hours. But the faintness
finally passed, and the patient dropped into a peaceful sleep; and the
doctor, with a sigh of relief, said: "The crisis is passed, Sedgwick. He
is going to pull through."

But it was a wearisome rally. It was several days before the anxiety was
over. It was a week after the coming of Sedgwick before Sedgwick
explained to Browning what he had done; how Jordan was an old gold miner;
and that the reason he had not told Browning much of what he was doing
was because Jordan was the one to test the ore, and was anxious to go;
he, Sedgwick, thought it was a shame to separate Jack and Rose; then he
thought also if Jack knew he had gone to Africa he would worry over it.
Then he told him of the mill, and finally that he had with him $100,000
in bullion, the result of the first month's run of the mill; had fixed
matters so that the mill would be running right along, and that there was
ore enough in the stopes to insure steady crushing for at least four or
five years to come.

"And what now?" asked Jack.

"Now your work must come in," said Sedgwick. "You and your wife must go
to England as soon as Tom is a little better. In your own way, make
arrangements to have announced, so that Hamlin, Jenvie and Stetson will
see it, that there is a good deal of movement in 'The Wedge of Gold';
have substantially the same report, only differently worded, as that
contained in the prospectus which you were caught on; let it be known
through what brokers the stock is being handled, and have copies of the
reports in their hands, only fix the price at £1 per share. If the old
men please to buy, let them have some of the stock. If they do not, we
will try to make them sorry that they did not buy when they could. By the
way, have you still your hand on Emanuel, and can you depend upon him?"

"I think I can," said Jack.

"Well, then," said Sedgwick, "if no news of the mill has been received in
England, and the conspirators think you are merely trying to unload some
of your stock on the old report, may be if they can be handled right,
they may be induced to sell some of the stock short. If they can, perhaps
we can get back some of the money from them."

"I understand," said Jack, "and I believe I can work it."

"Especially if, when I get to England with the bullion, we can call a
meeting and declare a dividend," said Sedgwick.

"I see," said Browning. "But, old boy, I wish you had let me help you
work this thing out. I do, by Jove."

Just then Grace and Rose came out on the veranda, where the old friends
were talking.

Rose bent over and put her arms around Jack's neck, and said: "Dear old
Jack, do you know what day this is?"

"Why, little one?" asked Jack.

"O, you stupid!" said Rose.

"What is to-day?" asked Sedgwick.

"Another stupid!" said Rose. "Two beautiful and accomplished ladies go to
church and give respectability to two of the wild tribe of the West, by
marrying them, and they forget it in a little year."

"It was this day year, on my soul," said Jack. "It was, by Jove."

"Come here, sweet," said Sedgwick to Grace. Then taking her in his arms
he kissed her, and said: "My days have been turned into nights of late,
else I would not have forgotten. Are you glad you are married, Grace?"

"Very glad," Grace whispered. "Are you glad?"

"Very," said Sedgwick, "even as is the ransomed soul when the symphonies
of Summer Land first give their enchantment to the spirit ear."

"I will tell you why I forgot, Rose," said Jack. "My life did not count
until you became a part of myself. I am really but a year old, and you do
not chide one-year-old kids for being forgetful."

"What glorified prevaricators these men are, Grace, are they not?" said
Rose.

"O, Rose!" said Grace. "The mission of woman is to suffer and be devoted
in her suffering, and how could we carry out our mission if all men were
good, and had good memories, and did not run away to Africa and Venezuela
and Australia, and come home with fevers, and--and--." Then she kissed
Sedgwick, and jumping up caught Rose by the arm, and said: "Let us punish
them by running away from them."

As they walked away Sedgwick watched them, and when they turned a corner
of the veranda, said: "Jack, would you give the year's happiness just
past for all the gold in Africa?"

"No, indeed," was the reply; "but you had the strength to leave your
bride on your marriage day for a chance of gaining a little of that
gold."

"O, no, old friend," said Sedgwick. "We had enough money left, but there
was a principle at stake. I went to vindicate that principle if I could."

"Pardon me, Jim," said Jack. "But you were stronger than I could have
been. I could not have left my bride then. I had waited so long, that to
have parted then would have broken her heart and would have destroyed
me."

"I realized all that, Jack," said his friend; "so did Grace, and we both
sympathized with you both, and decided that the cup of bitterness must be
turned from you."

"Of course," said Jack. "What you did was jolly grand; what you have
done has been so splendid that I cannot express my thoughts of it yet;
I can't, by Jove! And Gracie's part through all has been superb. I think,
too, your sick friend has been pure gold through it all."

"Pure diamonds rather," said Sedgwick. "O Jack, you do not half
comprehend the grandeur of that sterling man. When his heart was slowly
shriveling up in his breast, he forgot himself and his sorrow to cheer
me, and when it was necessary to go for the machinery, he insisted that I
should go, and he, of his own accord, went back to the depths of that
South Land wilderness and worked uncomplainingly for months. No grander
man ever lived."

CHAPTER XXVII.

SELLING STOCK SHORT.

After a few days more Jack and Rose returned to England.

Soon after their return, one of the morning papers had an announcement
that the banking house of Campbell & Co. (Limited), No. ---- street, was
promoting the "Wedge of Gold," a mining property in Southern Africa, near
the border of the Transvaal, which was believed to be a most promising
property.

The same day Emanuel dropped into the house of Jenvie, Hamlin & Stetson.
He was seedy-looking, and seemed a good deal run down both in purse and
spirits.

"What do you think of the 'Wedge of Gold' announcement?" asked Jenvie.

"What is it?" asked Emanuel. He was shown the paper.

"What do I think?" he said. "I think may be the young man needs a little
money. The mails came in from Port Natal yesterday. Is there any news
from the mine?"

"None at all that we can find," said Jenvie.

"I have no idea," said the Portuguese, "but if it is more than three
shillings per share, it is one good chance for a bear to sell it short
and hug himself for his own act."

With this he went out. The three men were silent for a good five minutes.
Then Jenvie rang the bell, and when it was answered he said to the
messenger: "Go to Campbell & Co.'s; find out the price of 'Wedge of Gold'
stock, and ask what data the house has from the property."

The clerk returned in half an hour, and reported that it was held at £1,
and he produced a statement of the property.

This was eagerly run over by the three. "Why," said Jenvie, as he
completed reading it, "this is but a rehash of the statement of a year
ago; the same depth is given, all the details just as they were. Jack
must be making a desperate play for money."

"One pound per share!" said Hamlin. "Why, the man must be after some
other Nevada miner who has more money than judgment."

"The 'Wedge of Gold' was our good fortune," said Stetson. "Through it
we got a real start. We made a good bit out of it, which we have since
doubled. Let us try another venture in the stock."

"What! Buy it at £1 per share?" asked Hamlin.

"No, no," said Jenvie. "Let us sell 20,000 shares to be delivered in
three months at ten shillings. We can send Emanuel and get it at four or
five shillings."

After weighing the matter in every way they decided to increase the
amount and sell 30,000 shares.

The offer was taken, the money paid, and the contract to deliver the
30,000 shares in three months was signed by Jenvie, Hamlin & Co. Then
each, unknown to the other, sold 10,000 shares more short.

The fact was wired to Sedgwick at once. He showed Grace the dispatch and
said: "My enchantress, that will leave your mother's husband and Rose's
mother's husband bankrupt if we wish it; what shall we do?"

"How will it do so?" asked Grace.

"In three months that stock will be worth £5 per share," said Sedgwick.
"See what it will require to produce 60,000 shares to fulfill their
contract."

"What did they obtain from Jack?" asked Grace.

"Almost £90,000," said Sedgwick.

"Well," said Grace, "I know very little of business, but it seems to me
if they would make that good with the year's interest, it would be about
right, inasmuch as it is a family matter."

"You little bunch of wisdom and justice!" said Sedgwick. "To make them do
just that thing was what I started to Africa for."

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CONVALESCENT.

The "Pallas" had been in port twenty days before Jordan began to sit
up, a few minutes at a time. He was still very weak, but his face was
transfigured by an almost divine light. It was reflected radiance from
the eyes of Margaret Hazleton.

The doctor had thrown away his medicine, telling Jordan that all he
needed was good nursing and as much food as his stomach could assimilate.

It was a happy little company. Jordan and Mrs. Hazleton, Sedgwick and his
wife, the doctor and Captain McGregor--for the ship had been left with
the first officer, and the captain had turned nurse to relieve Sedgwick.

A week later Jordan could sit up most of the day, and Captain McGregor
had begun to absent himself two or three hours every afternoon. About
this time Browning's dispatch was received.

Sedgwick was needed in London. What was best to do?

He prepared a statement of the mine, signed it and got Jordan to sign it,
and he shipped the bullion to a well-known Paris banking house.

Nothing held him back except Jordan's illness. He was growing anxious,
and his wife, who watched his every mood, quickly discovered it. So soon
as she did, she went to him, put an arm around one of his, and said.

"What is it, love? What is it that is troubling you?"

He explained that he ought to be in London, but Jordan was yet too weak
to travel, and he could not leave him--not for twenty mines.

Grace thought the matter over for two or three minutes, and then said
cheerfully:

"I have it, husband! We will get a nurse for the dear man. I will remain,
and Margaret and myself and the nurse can see to him, and will follow you
when he can travel."

Sedgwick looked at her fondly for a moment, and then said:

"You are a great little woman, sure enough; but you are such a one that
I would rather remain than go without you."

She put her hands upon his lips, and said:

"Duty, love. Hist, we must always be brave and self-forgetful enough to
do our duty. I am going now to see Margaret." She walked a few steps,
then turned back and said:

"Why would it not be the right thing for Mr. Jordan and Margaret to be
married before you leave?"

"I believe it would," said Sedgwick, "only that I have planned that we
would give them a great wedding in London."

"So had I," said Grace, "and we will."

Just as they were talking, Captain McGregor came from the direction of
the harbor.

"I have news for you," he said. "I have sold the 'Pallas.' She will sail
to-morrow, and now I propose to remain with you, and go with you to
London when you go."

"You have sold the dear ship?" said Sedgwick. "And what of the doctor and
the crew?"

"They will sail in her. The doctor will be up to make his adieus
to-night. They wanted to charter the craft for a long voyage. I would not
go, but offered to sell, and they bought, and re-engaged the officers,
the surgeon and the crew."

"Let us go on board," said Sedgwick. "I want to bid those good men
good-bye."

"So do I," said the captain. "I will be grateful if you will go with me."

"Wait a moment until I run down to the bank," said Sedgwick. "While I am
gone, Grace, get your hat and wrap; and by the way, captain, how many
men and officers are there?"

The captain replied: "Six officers, the surgeon and steward, three
waiters, twelve seamen and sixteen men in the firing department."

The company soon set out, and went on board the "Pallas."

All hands were called on deck. Captain McGregor made them a little
speech; told them that his chief regret in giving up the ship was in
parting with them, and wished them all happiness and prosperity. They
gave him three cheers, and all shook hands with him, wishing him long
life and asking God's blessing for him.

Then Sedgwick stepped forward, and said:

"My Dear Friends:--That I was able to bring one whom I love
better than a brother to where he could find the strength to get well,
I owe to you. He is yet too weak to be moved, or he would be here by my
side to thank you. I was much absorbed on the voyage, but I saw how you,
officers and seamen, worked to take advantage of every puff of wind and
every current of the sea. I know how you others were working in the hell
of the fire-room, and I shall be grateful to you as long as I live. I
wish you all health, happiness and prosperity in the future.

"You, with your grand captain, carried the machinery to Africa, which has
made me a good deal of money. You brought home my friend when he was
making an unequal fight for life. I want each of you to have a little
souvenir of my gratitude."

With that he undid a package which he had been holding in his hand. It
contained a bunch of envelopes. He handed one to each of the officers and
men.

Those for the mates and engineers each contained bank notes of the value
of £200. Those of the men each contained £50. The doctor's contained
£1,000.

The men whispered eagerly among themselves for a moment; then the third
mate said:

"Mr. Sedgwick, the lads want me to ask you how they can best thank you.
They are not much talkers, and this gift of yours has about beached their
tongues."

Sedgwick smiled and said: "No thanks are needed, but I want to tell you
that this is all due to the dearest woman in the world," putting his arm
around Grace. "If you will each come and shake the hand of my wife, all
the gratitude you feel will be receipted for."

They joyfully responded, and one old tar, more bold than the rest, said,
as he took the fair little hand of Grace in the grasp of his own knotted
hand: "Your mon is a mighty poor hand to save money, but he'll be richer
nor Rothschild as long as you are spared to him."

They gave their old captain and his friend three cheers as they passed
over the ship's side, and McGregor wiped his eyes all the way back to the
hotel.

Grace went at once to the sick-room. Jordan was half reclining in an
easy-chair. Margaret was sitting where he could see her, and was
evidently reading to him, when Grace entered.

Jordan spoke: "Take a cheer, madam. Maggie wur readin' 'nd it's mighty
comfortin'. It's like sipping old wine and hearin' music in thar next
room same time."

"Don't you mind him, Grace," said Margaret. "He is still very weak, and
all that he says is not as deep as it might be." But she smiled fondly at
him while she spoke.

"Don't yo' b'leve her, Mrs. Sedgwick," said Jordan. "We all has weak
spots in our hearts; she's mine."

Grace put one hand on Jordan's hand, the other on Margaret's cheek, and
said:

"Say all the pretty things of her that you please, Mr. Jordan, and do not
mind her, for her heart has been starving for those same words from your
lips for a long time."

Margaret was silent, but she smiled; and a great flush swept over her
face as she smiled.

"Everything war right, after all," said Jordan. "Hed I not lost her, I
mighter grown careless o' her like other men do sometimes uv those they
luv, but no matter, we has a understandin'."

And again the happy woman smiled and blushed.

Then Grace explained how much her husband was needed in England; that she
had determined to remain until Mr. Jordan could travel, and let her
husband go; that Captain McGregor had sold the "Pallas," and she thought
she would remain with them, and asked Jordan if he thought they, with a
nurse, could take care of him.

Before he could answer, Mrs. Hazleton interposed and said:

"All this sickness and sorrow came through me. Henceforth my life is to
be devoted to where it can do most good. We do not want any display. Why
can we not be married? Then I will be his nurse, and he will need no
other. You can go with your husband, and we will come when Tom is
stronger. What say you, love?"

"Do not answer, Mr. Jordan," said Grace. "We have fixed it for you to be
married where my husband and myself--where Jack and Rose--were married.
We will remain until you can travel."

"I'd be mighty glad ter call yo' 'wife' now, Maggie," said Jordan; "but I
don't reckon it's squar for a man ter take advantage of his nuss." Then
turning to Mrs. Sedgwick, he continued: "Tell Jim I'll be ready ter leave
ter-morrer evenin'."

So next day they started by easy stages for London. Sedgwick engaged a
special car to be stopped off at any point he might desire. They rested a
day in Milan, another in Paris, and there Sedgwick arranged to have the
bullion that might come from the 'Wedge of Gold' at all times at his
immediate disposal. They reached London in six days; Jordan had gained so
much that he walked to the carriage from the Dover depot, and with
Sedgwick's and McGregor's support, walked up the steps of Sedgwick's
house.

Rose had dinner waiting for them, and at dinner expressed the sentiments
of all by saying: "I believe this is just now the happiest house in all
England."

CHAPTER XXIX.

SPRINGING A TRAP.

Sedgwick found waiting for him advices from the mine, all of which were
favorable and the output for another month, less the expenses of mining
and milling, which amounted in the aggregate to something over $90,000,
had been forwarded to the Bank of France.

The Wedge of Gold Mining Company was reorganized. Browning was made
president; Sedgwick, treasurer; McGregor, secretary; and all three, with
Jordan, directors. A regular dividend of two shillings per share, and a
special dividend of as much more was declared, aggregating in all
£30,000. This was given to the _Times_ for publication, and attached
to it was the following note:

"The reporter of the _Times_ was able to obtain the following particulars
of this wonderful property from the secretary:

"'A forty-stamp mill has been in operation on the property since June
last. The mill yielded in June, above expenses, £17,000 and 15 shillings;
in July, £18,000 and 5 shillings. The ore already developed above the
tunnel level is sufficient to insure the running of the present works to
their full capacity for five years to come. The ore on the tunnel level
is equal to any in the mine, and the ore chute has been demonstrated by
exploration on the tunnel level to be at least 630 feet in length, with
an average width of 16 feet. The tunnel cuts the mine at a depth of 500
feet. The office of the company in London is No. ----, ---- Street. The
officers are John Browning, president; James Sedgwick, treasurer; Hugh
McGregor, secretary; and these, with Thomas Jordan, make up the directory
of the company.'"

When, next morning, Jenvie, Hamlin and Stetson read the above in the
_Times_, they were filled with consternation.

"I feared that man Sedgwick from the first," said Jenvie. "Our first
account of him, that 'he must be a prize-fighter,' was true. He has
knocked us out, and he has made no more noise about it than does a
bull-dog when he takes a pig by the ear."

"What are we to do?" asked Hamlin.

"We must take in enough stock to cover our shortage at once," said
Jenvie, "even if we have to pay £1 per share for it."

So a messenger was sent to the office of the broker through which the
stock had been shorted, to buy at any price up to £1.

He returned with the information that the stock could be had, but the
price was £6 per share.

Then the three men realized for the first time the trap which had been
set for them, and how fatal had been its spring. The messenger was at
once sent out again, this time to the office of the company. He found the
secretary, who referred him to the ---- Bank, from which the dividends
were to be paid. There he found stock for sale, but the price demanded
was £6 per share.

He returned home and made his report. The three men gazed at each other
with blank looks of despair.

"Thirty thousand shares at £6 will take all we have," said Hamlin.

"And I shorted 10,000 shares besides," said Jenvie.

"So did I," said Hamlin.

"So did I," said Stetson.

"It seems clear enough that we are absolutely ruined," said Hamlin.

"I wonder what has become of that Portuguese, Emanuel," said Hamlin.

At that moment he entered the office. He looked like the picture of
despair. He broke out with: "It is awful! I have just heard ze truth. It
was that American who did it. When you thought last year that he had gone
to America, he, with another American, had gone to Africa.

"They found ze mine. They found a way out from it by going in the
opposite direction from which they came. Sedgwick went by Australia
to San Francisco, and ordered a forty-stamp mill. The other American
remained, and opened the mine by a tunnel. Sedgwick came back this way,
and, left here to meet the mill at Port Natal.

"It has been running three months. Two months' proceeds are here, and pay
dividends of four shillings, and it is good for two shillings per month
for years; with machinery doubled, good for four shillings per month for
years to come. The stock has gone to £6; it will go to £10 so soon as it
is well understood. And I lost it all, because I had not the sense to
find that way out from ze mine. The road by the trail would have cost
£75,000 or £100,000, and I believed only impassable mountains were to ze
west."

"How did you find all this out?" asked Jenvie.

"From ze Secretary, McGregor. He was master of ze ship that carried the
machinery from San Francisco, and he brought ze Americans from Port
Natal. One was very sick with the fever, and came near dying. He had,
besides, one wound which he received with ze Boers coming out to the
coast from the mine. They are two devils. Ten or a dozen Boers attacked
them to get the first month's bullion, and they two killed five of them,
and drove ze rest away."

"I wish the Boers had killed them both," said Jenvie.

"They are hard men to kill," said Emanuel. "McGregor says, when ashore
one day at D'Umber, there was a chicken-shooting match. The chickens were
buried in the ground all but their heads, and the people were shooting at
ten paces when these men passed. They asked about it, and asked if they
might shoot with their own pistols; and when permission was given, they
drew their weapons and killed six chickens each in a minute, and were
laughing all the time as though it were nothing. They are devils, shure
enough."

"Do you think Browning knew all about this from the first?" asked Hamlin.

"Not at all," said Emanuel. "No one in London knew where the Americans
had gone, except his wife. Browning thought he had gone back to America.
His wife knew. She got a dispatch from Australia, and letters from Port
Natal ze same day, saying he was going to San Francisco to order
machinery, and would return this way and be with her in four months,
and then she left at once and beat him a week into San Francisco.

"And I am ruined. My little stock is all gone. A mine worth £2,000,000 I
sold for £2,000." And he went out.

"What can we do?" asked Jenvie. "I expect a notice every moment to call
at the broker's and settle."

"Can we not assign our property?" asked Hamlin.

"We could," said Jenvie, "but to-morrow we should all be looking through
the bars of a prison."

"And even Grace was in the conspiracy to rob us," said Hamlin, in an
injured tone.

"She is a brave, true woman, I think," said Jenvie, "and as it looks to
me, she is the only one to whom we can now appeal."

"May be so," said Hamlin. "Her husband worships her, I am told."

"Suppose we go to your house and persuade your wife to go and bring her
home where we can see her," said Jenvie.

This was agreed to, and with heavy hearts the three men entered a
carriage and were driven to the Hamlin house.

As they went up the steps, Grace Sedgwick herself opened the door. She
had been to see her mother, and was just going out.

"Come back, Grace," said her step-father; "we wish to see you
particularly."

She returned with them, and her step-father told her how they were
involved--in what danger they were, not only of absolute ruin, but of
a criminal prosecution, and begged her to see her husband and intercede
with him.

"My husband needs no entreaties to do what is right," said Grace.
"Suppose the case were reversed, what would you grant my husband?"

They all hung their heads. Grace looked at them and continued: "You
robbed dear, confiding Jack of his fortune, which he had honestly
acquired. You robbed him for the double purpose of making him a beggar,
and of breaking his heart, though one of you was his step-father, another
the step-father of the woman he loved better than his own life. It was
that which set Jack's nearest friend to be your Nemesis. Our troth had
just been plighted. It was like death to part us, but he who is my
husband said to me: 'There must be no scandal, if we can help it, but
this wrong must be righted. I must go to Africa, and if I can work out
the dear boy's deliverance, it must be done.' And I consented to it. He
moved secretly, but with the force and energy of his nature. He and the
friend who went with him have performed a great work. They have taken
what was unloaded upon Jack as worthless, and converted it into something
richer than a little kingdom. It seems, too, that in the blindness of
your avarice, you dared fate itself to make more money out of that wreck,
and now you are in the toils. Suppose my husband had done by you as you
have dealt with Jack, and you had him where you now are, what mercy would
you show him?"

They were silent. They had not even self-respect to sustain them.

Grace waited a moment, and then went on: "But he is of different
material. There is no malice in his nature. He cares nothing for the
triumph which comes through revenge.

"He knew when you dared to sell that stock short, told me of it, and
asked what would be right. I replied that I thought if you would restore
to Jack what he had been robbed of, with interest on the money to date,
it would be fair; and his answer was that to compel you to do that very
thing was what caused him to leave me and go to Africa.

"In that you can get an idea of him. He had money enough for himself and
Jack both; he had no desire for revenge, but he was determined that you
should be made to do justice to his friend, whom you had so greatly
wronged, and that, if possible, it should be done without any noise."

"Do you think he would settle that way?" asked Jenvie.

"He has no settlement to make," said Grace; "but I think he would
recommend Jack to settle that way."

"And where could we meet Jack?" asked Jenvie.

"I do not know," said Grace, "nor is it necessary. I think the broker
with whom you dealt in the stocks has authority to settle. That was a
little trap set for you. There is not a share of the stock that is not in
the company's office at this moment."

"I did not mean to rob Jack," said Hamlin. "I wanted to break his
engagement with Rose, hoping he would turn to you."

"We all understood that from the first," said Grace, "but we had made
entirely different arrangements--arrangements worth two of that--which
suited us all around." And bowing, the young wife left the room.

The three men found, upon visiting the broker, that he had received
orders to settle with them on the terms outlined by Grace, and they
complied by turning over what money they had and some outside property.

It left them with fair fortunes. But the story got out through Emanuel;
their prestige was broken, and they closed up their business within a few
days, and disappeared from the business walks of London. Two months later
Jenvie died in a moment of apoplexy; the succeeding autumn Hamlin
succumbed to typhoid fever, and Stetson sailed away to lose himself
in the depths of Australia.

CHAPTER XXX.

GRAND OPERA.

Jordan improved rapidly, and soon began to take long drives to different
points of interest. After a month it was one evening proposed that they
should all attend the theater. It was agreed to, and it was left to
Jordan to decide where to go. Queerly enough, he selected a theater where
the opera of "Tannhauser" was to be performed.

"Did you ever attend a grand opera performance, Tom?" asked Sedgwick.

"No," was the response. "Thet's ther reason I wanter go."

He seemed greatly absorbed throughout the performance. The opera was
put on with every splendor possible, and the strange man sat almost
motionless through the mighty rendition, and was unusually silent all
the way home.

Arriving there, Grace said: "Mr. Jordan, give us your idea of the opera."

"I reckon yo' might laugh at me ef I should," said Jordan.

"No, we will not," said Grace; "for when it comes to that, we are none
of us quite up to the comprehension of the mystery of a grand opera--at
least, none but Margaret."

"Well," said Jordan, "mystery are a good word ter use thar. If yo' jest
occerpy yo'r eyes and ears, yo' hear mostly only a ocean roar uv singin',
a brayin' uv trumpets, a clashin' uv cymbals, a beatin' uv drums, with
ther soft strains uv viols, harps 'nd flutes, and not much music. Ef yo'
set yo'r mind workin' ter foller ther myths outer which ther story of the
opera war made, then ther tones become voices, 'nd ther music only tells
er story. But ef yo' give yo'r soul a chance, then it's different. Ther
music assumes forms of its own; it materializes, as Jim would say, and
each man as listens understands in his own way its language. It brings
ter ther human ear the tones uv ther ocean when it sobs agin ther sands;
it steals ther echo of the melodies thet the winds wakes when they
touches ther arms uv ther great pines on ther mountain tops and makes 'em
ther harps; it steals ther babble from the brooks; it calls back all ther
voices of the woods when within 'em ther matin' birds is all singin' in
chorus; it borrers ther thunder from ther storm; it sarches ther whole
world for melodies, 'nd blends 'em all for our use.

"Still, they all ter-night war, ter me, only compniments. Underneath all
wur a symphony which wur thet of a higher soul singin' ter my soul--may
be 'twere my mother's singin' ter my soul uv glories thet we hasn't yet
reached. It war a call fur men ter look higher ter whar thar is melodies
too solemn 'nd sweet fur ther dull ears uv poor mortality ter hear, ter
whar ez picters too fair fur our darkened eyes ter see, but which all
august is a-waitin' fur us.

"When I war sick, I thot one night I hearn Margery prayin' fur me; some
uv thet music ter-night seemed like a rehearsal uv thet prayer."

"Why, Mr. Jordan, that is better than the opera itself," said Grace; and
Margaret bent and kissed the brave man's hand, while he blushed like a
girl, and said, "Sho'."

CHAPTER XXXI.

MARRIAGE BELLS.

A month more rolled by, and Jordan became himself again. Grace and Rose
worked together to make such a wedding for him and Margaret as should be
a joy in their memories as long as life should last.

The day before the wedding, so soon as breakfast was over, Sedgwick went
out, telling Grace to tell Jack that he wanted to meet him and Tom at the
"Wedge of Gold" office at 1 p.m.

Grace went to deliver the message, but learned from Rose that her husband
had gone an hour before, leaving word for Sedgwick and Jordan to meet
him at the same place at 12:30 p.m.

They all met there at about the appointed time.

A meeting of the directors of the "Wedge of Gold" Company was called to
order, and a motion made and carried that another dividend of two
shillings per share should be declared.

Then Sedgwick arose and said he had an important matter to lay before the
company. He had received an offer of £7 per share for the property, and
the proposition had been guaranteed by the Baring Brothers, and asked
Browning what he thought it best to do.

Browning thought it best to sell.

"Then," said Sedgwick, "there will be no more work for us except to
resign as officers of the company, our resignations to take place with
the transfer of the property."

"There is yet another matter," said Browning. "How is the division of the
proceeds to be made?"

"That all rests with you, Jack," said Sedgwick; "only I think you should
pay me back what I advanced to put the property on its feet, and you
should keep in mind that this was made a success by our friend Jordan."

"Not to any great extent," said Jordan. "I war merely a hired man working
for my board and clothes, and you forget thet because uv it I made a
fortune sich ez no gold could buy. Treat me, please, ez tho' I war
already wealthy, _exceedingly_ wealthy!"

"It is all due to you two," said Jack. "When the old men made good their
robbery, I was even. All the rest is yours."

And they wrangled over the matter for a full hour.

Then McGregor spoke. "Let me help you out, my friends. You are offered
£1,050,000. It is enough for you all. Divide it into three parts, and
settle that way."

Then came another wrangle, but it was settled on that basis, except that
each agreed that Captain McGregor should receive fair compensation for
bringing Jordan home, and they estimated that to be worth £100,000. That,
Jordan insisted should be paid out of his share, and it took an hour to
talk him out of it.

Then it required another half hour for the three to bulldoze McGregor
into accepting it. The convincing argument was made by Jordan, who said:
"Supposin' you hedn't a-come, whar would I a-bin now?"

McGregor went out, and then Browning said:

"I have a little matter to speak of. I sold my Venezuela mine yesterday
for £100,000," and so saying he took a memorandum from his pocket, opened
it, and tossed to Sedgwick and Jordan each a certificate for one-third of
the amount, saying: "I feared the way you were behaving you would spend
all your money, so I went to work to make you a little stake, as the boys
in Nevada say."

Another wrangle then ensued, both Sedgwick and Jordan declaring that they
had had nothing in the world to do with making the money; but Jack was
obstinate and carried his point.

McGregor returned, and all went to Sedgwick's to dinner. About the time
the coffee was brought, a messenger rang at the door and left a package
for Mr. Jordan. It was brought in, and then Jordan said:

"Friends, in Africa I found a prospector ez war broke. I give him a
little outfit ter go down on the Vaal. He came back after a while and
divied with me, 'nd I want ter divy with yo'."

So saying, he opened the package. Exclamations of surprise arose on all
sides. Before their eyes was a great heap of diamonds. "I war thinkin',"
said Jordan, "thet inasmuch ez thar war seven uv us, ther right thing ter
do would be ter make seven heaps of ther stones," and the only change
they could make in his plans was that the division should be made by one
who knew their value. He had secretly had them cut since coming to
London. They were really worth £10,000.

Next day the wedding of Jordan and Mrs. Hazleton was celebrated with all
the pomp which Grace and Rose could give it. It was followed by a great
feast, and numberless rare presents. Jordan never showed off so well. The
marriage exalted and transformed him.

After the wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Jordan left for
a month's visit to Scotland.

CHAPTER XXXII.

FRUITION.

The syndicate that bought the "Wedge of Gold" put some of the stock on
the market. A few days later another shipment of bullion was received,
another dividend was declared, and the stock advanced to £10 per share.
The happy owners gave an entertainment in honor of the mine, and called
it "The Wedge of Gold Reception." Sedgwick and Browning with their wives
and Captain McGregor attended.

As they returned, the dawn was breaking in the East, and mighty London
with its five millions of people began to awaken. There were confused
murmurs, which swelled in volume every moment; these were interspersed
with distinct clamors, as one industry after another took up anew its
daily work. Then there was the whistle of trains; the deeper calls and
answers of boats on the river; the louder and louder hum of the awaking
millions, until with the coming of the full dawn the roar of the swelling
hosts became a full diapason.

"What a monster this great handiwork of man is, Sedgwick," said McGregor;
"I wonder if there is anything else like it in this whole world."

"I guess not," was Sedgwick's reply; "but, strangely enough, it reminds
me of something not at all like it, but which impressed me quite as much
as does this. As you say, this is man's handiwork. I saw another dawn
once which had little in it save God's handiwork.

"While mining in Virginia City, I determined one summer day to give up
work for a week and to make a visit to the high Sierras. One day's ride
takes you from the Comstock into the very fastnesses of the mountains.
There were five of us in the party. We went to Lake Tahoe, crossed the
lake, and kept on to a spring and stream of water beyond, a few miles.
We had a camping outfit, and determined to sleep in no house while
absent. We spread our beds in a little grassy glen; to the east there was
no forest, but on the north and south the trees were immense, and to the
west, a mile or two away, the mountains rose abruptly to a height which
held the snows in their arms all the summer long.

"The good-night hoot of an owl or some other sound awakened me just as
the first streaks of the dawn began to flush the face of the east.

"I sat up, and while my friends were sleeping around me, I watched
the transformation scene of that dawn. There were not many birds to
awake--our altitude was too high for them--and so the panorama moved
on almost in silence. But it was the more impressive because of its
stillness. The east grew warmer and warmer, and the solemn night began
to spread her black wings, under which she had brooded the world, in
preparation for flight. The shadows began to retreat from where they had
shrouded the nearest trees. The air grew softer; from it a noiseless
breeze just touched the great arms of the pines as though to waken them
and gave to them an almost imperceptible motion. The stars and planets
began to faint in the heavens. As the waves of light increased in the
east, the snow on the high mountains to the west took on the hue of the
opal, and when the last shadow fled away and the sun flashed gloriously
above the eastern horizon, and another day was born, I knew just how
the ancient Fire Worshipers felt when they bowed their heads in reverence
before the splendors of the rising sun."

It was a good while ago that the events out of which this story was woven
transpired.

Now, at different seasons of the year, these families, with two
gray-haired old ladies and a gray-haired old man with a sailor's rolling
walk, may be seen, sometimes in London, sometimes on a fair estate in
Devonshire, sometimes in a stately home in the Miami Valley, and again
down on the Brazos in Texas.

Around and among them are playing broods of little Jacks, Jims, Toms,
Roses, Graces, and Margarets, and older children are away at school. All
the children call the old ladies "Grandma" and the gray man with the
sailor's walk "Grand-uncle," and all who see them declare that no other
such a happy company can be found in all the world.

The place on the Brazos is superintended by a shrewd Irishman, while the
village physician, formerly a ship surgeon, is named Craig, and his
wife's name is Nora; and the people there say there is not in all Texas
another woman who is more of a lady or has a complexion so clear, a face
so fair, or such a wealth of hair, which in color is between flaxen and
gold.