until the next day's breakfast is ready. Carroll, accordingly, prepared
the meal; and when they had finished it they lay on deck smoking with a
content not altogether accounted for by a satisfied appetite. They had
spent several anxious months, during which they had come very near the
end of their slender resources, arranging for the exploitation of the
mine, and now at last the work was over. Vane had that day made his final
plans for the construction of a road and a wharf by which the ore could
be economically shipped for reduction, or, as an alternative to this, for
the erection of a small smelting plant. They had bought the sloop as a
convenient means of conveyance and shelter, as they could live in some
comfort on board; and now they could take their ease for a while, which
was a very unusual thing to both of them.

"I suppose you're bent on sailing this craft back?" Carroll remarked at
length. "We could hire a couple of Siwash to take her home while we rode
across the island and got the train to Victoria. Besides, there's that
steamboat coming down the coast to-night."

"Either way would cost a good deal extra."

"That's true," Carroll agreed with an amused expression; "but you could
charge it to the company."

Vane laughed.

"You and I have a big stake in the concern; and I haven't got used to
spending money unnecessarily yet, I've been mighty glad to earn a couple
dollars by working from sunup until dark, though I didn't always get it
afterward. So have you."