It looked as if he had done best at the task he most disliked--managing the humble store in the small wooden town.

One could not think of him as having failed there.

His wife and children loved him, though all but one had smiled when he talked about the lode.
His daughter, who knew him best, had inherited his confidence, and Thirlwell owned that this had some weight.

She was perhaps influenced by tender sentiment, but there was nothing romantic about Driscoll and Stormont, and it looked as if they shared her belief that the lode could be found.

Scott, too, thought it possible, and his judgment was often sound.