"I know it, lad," said Captain Dornton, rising, and extending a brown,
weather-beaten hand which closed heartily on the young man's; "no need
to say that. And you've kept it even better than you know. Look here!"
He lifted the portmanteau to his lap and disclosed BEHIND the usual
small pouch or pocket in the lid a slit in the lining. "Between the
lining and the outer leather," he went on grimly, "I had two or three
bank notes that came to about a thousand dollars, and some papers, lad,
that, reckoning by and large, might be worth to me a million. When I got
that portmanteau back they were all there, gummed in, just as I had left
them. I didn't show up and come for them myself, for I was lying low at
the time, and--no offense, lad--I didn't know how you stood with a party
who was no particular friend of mine. An old shipmate whom I set to
watch that party quite accidentally run across your bows in the ferry
boat, and heard enough to make him follow in your wake here, where he
got the portmanteau. It's all right," he said, with a laugh, waving
aside with his brown hand Randolph's protesting gesture. "The old
bag's only got back to its rightful owner. It mayn't have been got in
shipshape 'Frisco style, but when a man's life is at stake, at least,
when it's a question of his being considered dead or alive, he's got to
take things as he finds 'em, and I found 'em d--- bad."
In a flash of recollection Randolph remembered the obtruding miner on
the ferry boat, the same figure on the wharf corner, and the advantage
taken of his absence with Miss Avondale. And Miss Avondale was the
"party" this man's shipmate was watching! He felt his face crimsoning,
yet he dared not question him further, nor yet defend her. Captain
Dornton noticed it, and with a friendly tact, which Randolph had not
expected of him, rising again, laid his hand gently on the young man's
shoulder.
"Look here, lad," he said, with his pleasant smile; "don't you worry
your head about the ways or doings of the Dornton family, or any of
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