Then Sedgwick wrote fully to Jordan, giving him the account of what he had done, and sending him a draft of the ground plan of the mill, and full details as to the grading, hoping he would receive the letter and have the rocks hauled, the battery blocks gotten out, and the grading done.

This work under way, the exultant man devoted all his time to Grace, except that every day, when in the city, he would make a run two or three times to the foundry to mark the progress of the work.

Meanwhile, the happy pair visited every point of interest in and about San Francisco.  They frequented the theatres, drove to the Park and the Cliff House, and both declared that San Francisco was the most delightful spot on earth.

They were all the world to each other.  In the happiness that filled their hearts their eyes were softened, so that everything they looked at took on roseate hues—­the world had become a throne to them, over which had been drawn a cover of cloth of gold.

Once they made a journey to Virginia City, and descended the Gould and Curry shaft, and Sedgwick showed his bride where he and Jack first discussed the probability of trying to make a little raise in stocks.  They went and looked at the lodging-house on the Divide where Jack and Sedgwick roomed so long; visited the mills, saw crude bullion cast into bars, and watched the procession of a miner’s funeral, and in their rambles Sedgwick stopped many a miner whom he had known, and presented his bride.

Returning, they got off at Sacramento and waited over one day.  There Sedgwick ordered four seven-ton wagons, with four trail wagons of five tons each, and four more of three tons each, and twelve sets of team harness, a dozen of yokes and no end of chains; also a strong, covered spring wagon with harness to match.

After forty days, Sedgwick was informed that everything would be ready in ten days.  His idea had been to charter a brig or bark, and send the machinery to Port Natal by a sailing craft; but in crossing the bay in visits to Oakland, Saucelito and San Rafael, he had noticed anchored, out in the stream, a small iron bark-rigged steamer which carried the British flag, and had read thereon the name “Pallas.”  One day he asked some men on the wharf what ship it was and why it lay so long in the harbor.

The answer was that it was an English tramp steamer that some months previously came in loaded with wines and brandies from Bordeaux.

The men also gave the information that, though a tramp steamer, it was thought to be a very strong craft, fully bulk-headed, with first-class machinery, and was commanded by the owner, a Scotchman named McGregor, who, when not on his ship, stopped at the Occidental Hotel.

Sedgwick had already made his acquaintance at the hotel, so when he met him that evening he asked him how long he expected to remain in the city.  McGregor replied that he was waiting to secure a cargo for his ship.