But most of the time I idled the hours away alone.
No one aboard really attracted my companionship.

The lead miners were a rough set, boasting and quarrelsome, spending the greater part of their time at the bar.

They had several fights, in one of which a man was seriously stabbed, so that he had to be left in care of the post-surgeon at Madison.

After the first day Kirby withdrew all attention from me, and ceased in his endeavor to cultivate my acquaintance, convinced of my disinclination to indulge in cards.

This I did not regret, although Beaucaire rather interested me, but, as the gambler seldom permitted the Judge out of his sight, our intimacy grew very slowly.