entailed, that she had a wild impulse to take the ring from her pocket
and display it on her own finger before him then and there. But the
conviction that he would in some way be equal to the occasion prevented
her. The dinner passed off with some constraint, no doubt emanating from
the conscious Kitty and Gunn. Nevertheless, when they had returned to
the drawing-room, Gabriel rubbed his hands expectantly.

"I prevailed on Sylvester this morning to promise to tell us some of his
experiences--something COMPLETE and satisfactory this time. Eh?"

Uncle Sylvester, warming his cold blood before the fire, looked
momentarily forgetful and--disappointing. Cousins Jane and Emma shrugged
their shoulders.

"Eh," said Uncle Sylvester absently, "er--er--oh yes! Well" (more
cheerfully), "about what, eh?"

"Let it be," said Marie pointedly, fixing her black magnetic eyes on the
wicked stranger, "let it be something about the DISCOVERY of gold, or a
buried TREASURE HOARD, or a robbery."

To her intense disgust Uncle Sylvester, far from being discomfited or
confused, actually looked pleased, and his gray eyes thawed slightly.

"Certainly," he said. "Well, then! Down on the San Joaquin River there
was an old chap--one of the earliest settlers--in fact, he'd come on
from Oregon before the gold discovery. His name, dear me!"--continued
Uncle Sylvester, with an effort of memory and apparently beginning
already to lose his interest in the story--"was--er--Flint."