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28 worth his salt. I'll discharge him and Larry can come on first thing in the morning."

So it was arranged; and at the livery stable where the turnout had been hired the boy left the three men, feeling lighter in heart than he had for a long while. A week's work would mean at least six to nine dollars in addition to the five given him, and who knew but that his newly made friends would put in a good word for him elsewhere, or Captain Ponsberry might even ask him to go on the Hong Kong trip. The more he thought of the trip, the more strongly did it appeal to him.

"I might just as well see all of the world I can while I am at it," he argued mentally. "It won't do me much good to go back to San Francisco right away; for I can't help Ben or Walter, and none of us can bring Uncle Job to terms until we are of age and can apply for a legal settlement of mother's estate. If I went to Hong Kong with Captain Ponsberry, and he promised to bring me back here or to San Francisco, I know he would do it."

As I have mentioned, the business streets of the thriving seaport city were practically deserted, but up at Emma Square, a few blocks off, the native brass band was giving its weekly evening concert.