"No! but there ain't another man to be found ez could do it.

It cost already two hundred thousand; it'll cost five hundred thousand afore it's done; and every cent of it is got out of the yearth beneath it, or HEZ got to be out of it.

'Tain't ev'ry man, Miss Carr, ez hev got the pluck to pledge not only what he's got, but what he reckons to git." "But suppose he don't get it ?" said Christie, slightly contracting her brows.
"Then there's the flume to show for it," said Dick.
"But of what use is the flume, if there isn't any more gold ?" continued Christie, almost angrily.
"That's good from YOU, miss," said Dick, giving way to a fit of hilarity.

"That's good for a fash'nable young lady--own daughter of Philip Carr.

She sez, says she," continued Dick, appealing to the sedate pines for appreciation of Christie's rare humor, "'Wot's the use of a flume, when gold ain't there ?' I must tell that to the boys." "And what's the use of the gold in the ground when the flume isn't there to work it out ?" said Jessie to her sister, with a cautioning glance towards Dick.
But Dick did not notice the look that passed between the sisters.