THE PROFESSOR'S YARN. 345
tongue. I tramped along in voiceless misery whilst the cattle question
was up; when I could endure it no longer, I used to deftly insert a
scientific topic into the conversation; then my eye fired and his
faded; my tongue fluttered, his stopped; life was a joy to me, and a
sadness to him.
One day he said, a little hesitatingly, and with somewhat of diffi-
dence—
'Triangle, would yon mind coming down to my state-room a
minute, and have a little talk on a certain matter! *
I went with him at once. Arrived there, he put his head out,
glanced up and down the saloon warily, then closed the door and
locked it. We sat down on the sofa, and he said—
* I'm a-going to make a little proposition to you, and if it strikes
you favourable, it'll be a middling good thing for both of us. You
ain't a-going out to GaHfbrny for fun, nuther am I—it's business, ain't
that so f Well, you can do me a good turn, and so can I you, if we
see fit. Fve raked and scraped and saved, a considerable many years,
and I've got it all here.* He unlocked an old hair trunk, tumbled a
chaos of shabby clothes aside, and drew a short stout bag into view
for a moment, then buried it again and relocked the trunk. Dropping
his voice to a cautious low tone, he continued, 'She's all there—a
round ten thousand dollars in yellow-boys ; now this is my little idea:
What I don't know about raising cattle, ain't worth knowing. There's
mints of money in it, in Californy. Well, I know, and you know,
that all along a line that's being surveyed, there's little dabs of land
that they call " gores," that fall to the surveyor free gratis for nothing.
All you've got to do, on your side, is to survey in such a way that the
" gores "will fall on good fat land, then you turn 'em over to me, I
stock 'em with cattle, in rolls the cash, I plank out your share of
the dollars regular, light along and------*
I was sorry to wither his blooming enthusiasm, but it could not
be helped. I interrupted, and said severely—
-1 am not that kind of a surveyor. Let us change the subject,
Mr. Backus.'
It was pitiful to see his confusion and hear his awkward and
shamefaced apologies. I was as much distressed as he was—especially
as he seemed so far from having suspected that there was anything