operations in mines and mining stocks were generally successful. It
was n't long until I was a rich, a very rich, man, and a prominent one,
too. There is a street named for me in San Francisco. That is, it
bears the name I was known by while I was sheriff and while I lived in
the city. I married and built a fine residence, and altogether I was
as prosperous and had as bright a future as any man in California.

"But one day, after I had been living in San Francisco five or six
years, I made a deal that wasn't a success, and half my fortune went in
less than a week. And at the same time I discovered that my wife was
not all I had thought her. She had evil tendencies that I had not
suspected, and bad companions of whom I had known nothing; and together
they had taken her at a flying pace down the road to destruction. And
when the end came, at the same time that I had my first financial blow,
the surprise was overwhelming. It was an end so shameful and to me so
humiliating that I could not bear at first to go out among men and meet
my friends. It was a critical time and my affairs needed my closest
attention. But I was too broken down and overcome by the disgrace to
attempt to do anything. And when I did go back everything was ruined.

"I did n't care very much, for my greatest desire just then was to get
away from everybody I had known. I wanted to put behind me and forget
everything that would remind me of my wife, and her ruin, and my
disaster.

"So I started out alone with a prospector's outfit, and finally brought
up here. I 've been here now, I guess, about ten years, and it's very
likely that I 'll stay here all the rest of my life. I 've got a
prospect hole over on the other side of that hill that may amount to
something some time. But I don't care whether it does or not. I like