Therefore I am going to pay it to him--" At this the old negro's eyes grew wide as saucers.

He had never been possessed of a hundred dollars in his life.
"On condition," continued the young engineer, "that he immediately invests it in a mule, which he shall offer to our friend Cap'n Cod as a substitute for himself and Winn in the treadmill.

I shall receive my reward by being permitted to travel on the _Whatnot_ and study for the stage, while the Sheriff shall be rewarded by being allowed to name the mule." Although they all laughed at this scheme and considered, it a good joke, Billy Brackett was deeply in earnest beneath all his assumed frivolity.

He realized that finding the raft and taking possession of it were no longer one and the same thing.

The fact that it was in the hands of a gang of men who were at once shrewd and desperate rendered its recovery an affair requiring all the discretion and skill that he could command.