When that old boss of mine went down with the steamer, he
carried a powerful heft of gold with him, and if anybody finds his
carcass, it'll be the most vallyable one they ever come across.'
'Jingo! if I'd know'd that, I'd taken a hunt for him myself.'
'Howsumever, that's neither yar nor thar. You both done me a good turn
when I got into trouble on the river, and I mud' up my mind to do what
I could toward payin' it back the first chance I got. I didn't say
nothin' of it when we was on our way, 'cause I was afeard it would
make you too crazy to go back ag'in: but if you'll come back this way
next spring I'll make the trip with you.'
'Why not go naow?' eagerly inquired Hopkins.
'It's too late in the season. I don't want to be thar when thar's too
much snow onto the ground, and then I must stay yar till I git well
over that whack I got on the boat.'
It is hardly necessary to say that the offer of the kind-hearted
trapper was accepted with the utmost enthusiasm. Mickey and Ethan were
more anxious to go out upon the prairies than they had been a year and
a half before, when they started so full of fife and hope for that
vast wilderness, and had come back with such discouragement and
disgust.
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