this arrangement the hut could be moved from place to place, sometimes
to the fields, with their mines of undiscovered treasure; sometimes to
the sea, burdened with legacies of the mighty deep.

CHARLEY was smoking a pipe, and thinking of that fair home in San
Francisco, the very centre of civilisation, where the hotels were
admirable, the stores well stocked, and house property at a premium.

"I did not discover a single ruby yesterday," he murmured, and then
he looked at the wooden spade of a child--"I found only there a young
'un's toy. But it has softened my heart, and taught me that human
nature is human nature."

He paused to wipe away with a sunburnt hand a furtive tear.

"CHARLEY, my lad," he exclaimed, "this is unmanly. What would DARE
DEATH DICK or THUNDER TIM say to such a show of water?"

He took the spade, and was about to throw it with violence to the
ground, when his better nature triumphed, and he placed it, almost
with reverence, on the bench beside him.

He was disturbed by a tap on the outer door--the door that faced the
sea.

"Who's there?" he shouted, as he held in one hand a revolver, and in
the other a bowie-knife of the usual fashion.

"Are you ready?"