" On the fourth day he was gone
till dinner-time alone; on the fifth we made a long
picnic drive to the fresh field of enterprise; and the
sixth was passed entirely in the preparation of
prospectuses. The pioneer of M'Bride City was already
upright and self-reliant as of yore; the fire rekindled
in his eye, the ring restored to his voice; a charger
sniffing battle and saying "ha-ha" among the spears.
On the seventh morning we signed a deed of partnership,
for Jim would not accept a dollar of my money
otherwise; and having once more engaged myself--or that
mortal part of me, my purse--among the wheels of his
machinery, I returned alone to San Francisco and took
quarters in the Palace Hotel.
The same night I had Nares to dinner. His sun-burnt
face, his queer and personal strain of talk, recalled
days that were scarce over and that seemed already
distant. Through the music of the band outside, and
the chink and clatter of the dining-room, it seemed to
me as if I heard the foaming of the surf and the voices
of the sea-birds about Midway Island.
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