"If there is nothing private in it, Herbert."

"There is nothing private from you, Mr. Melville."

It may be explained that Deer Creek had already obtained such prominence that the post-office department had established an office there, and learning this, Herbert had requested his mother to address him at that place.

He drew the letter from his pocket and read it aloud.

We quote the essential portions.

"'I am very glad to hear that you have made the long journey in safety, and are now in health.'"

Herbert had not mentioned in his home letter the stage-coach adventure, for he knew that it would disturb his mother to think that he had been exposed to such a risk.

"It will do no good, you know," he said to Mr. Melville, and his friend had agreed with him.

"'It is very satisfactory to me,' continued Herbert, reading from the letter, 'that you are under the charge of Mr. Melville, who seems to me an excellent, conscientious young man, from whom you can learn only good.'"

"Your mother thinks very kindly of me," said Melville, evidently pleased.

"She is right, too, Mr. Melville," said Herbert, with emphasis.

"'It will no doubt be improving to you, my dear Herbert, to travel under such pleasant auspices, for a boy can learn from observation as well as from books. I miss you very much, but since the separation is for your advantage, I can submit to it cheerfully.

"'You ask me about my relations with Mr. Graham. I am still in the post office, and thus far nearly the whole work devolves upon me. Except in one respect, I am well treated. Mr. G-. is, as you know, very penurious, and grudges every cent that he has to pay out. When he paid me last Sat.u.r.day night the small sum for which I agreed to a.s.sist him, he had much to say about his large expenses, fuel, lights, etc., and asked me if I wouldn't agree to work for two dollars a week, instead of three. I confess, I was almost struck dumb by such an exhibition of meanness, and told him that it would be quite impossible. Since then he has spent some of the time himself in the office, and asked me various questions about the proper way of preparing the mail, etc., and I think it is his intention, if possible, to get along without me. I don't know, if he absolutely insists upon it, but it would be better to accept the reduction than to give up altogether. Two dollars a week will count in my small household.'

"Did you ever hear of such meanness, Mr. Melville?" demanded Herbert, indignantly. "Here is Mr. Graham making, I am sure, two thousand dollars a year clear profit, and yet anxious to reduce mother from three to two dollars a week."

"It is certainly a very small business, Herbert. I think some men become meaner by indulgence of their defect."

"I shall write mother to give up the place sooner than submit to such a reduction. Three dollars a week is small enough in all conscience."

"I approve the advice, Herbert. If Mr. Graham were really cramped for money, and doing a poor business, it would be different. As it is, it seems to me he has no excuse for his extreme penuriousness."

"How pleasant it would be to pay a flying visit to Wayneboro," said Herbert, thoughtfully. "One never appreciates home until he has left it."

"That pleasure must be left for the future. It will keep."

"Very true, and when I do go home I want to go well fixed."

Herbert had already caught the popular Western phrase for a man well to do.

"We must depend on the Blazing Star Mine for that," said Melville, smiling. My young readers may like to know that, while Herbert was prospering financially, he did not neglect the cultivation of his mind. Among the books left by Mr. Falkland were a number of standard histories, some elementary books in French, including a dictionary, a treatise on natural philosophy, and a German grammar and reader.

"Do you know anything of French or German, Mr. Melville?" inquired our hero, when they made their first examination of the library.

"Yes, Herbert, I am a tolerable scholar in each."

"I wish I were."

"Would you like to study them?"

"Yes, very much."

"Then I will make you a proposal. You are likely to have considerable time at your disposal. If you will study either, or both, I will be your teacher."

"I should like nothing better," said Herbert, eagerly.

"Moreover, if you wish to study philosophy, I will aid you, though we are not in a position to ill.u.s.trate the subject by experiments."

Herbert was a sensible boy. Moreover, he was fond of study, and he saw at once how advantageous this proposal was. He secured a private tutor for nothing, and, as he soon found, an excellent one. Though Mr. Melville had never been a teacher, he had an unusual apt.i.tude for teaching, and it is hard to decide whether he or Herbert enjoyed more the hours which they now regularly pa.s.sed in the relation of teacher and pupil.

It must be said, also, that while George Melville evinced an apt.i.tude for teaching, Herbert showed an equal apt.i.tude for learning. The tasks which he voluntarily undertook most boys would have found irksome, but he only found them a source of pleasure, and had the satisfaction, after a very short time, to find himself able to read ordinary French and German prose with comparative ease.

"I never had a better pupil," said George Melville.

"I believe I am the first you ever had," said Herbert, laughing.

"That is true. I spoke as if I were a veteran teacher."

"Then I won't be too much elated by the compliment."

CHAPTER x.x.xIV. TWO OLD ACQUAINTANCES REAPPEAR.

In the rude hotel kept by the outlaw, whom we have introduced under the name of Brown, there sat two men, to neither of whom will my readers need an introduction. They have already appeared in our story.

One was Brown himself, the other Col. Warner, or, as we may as well confess, Jerry Lane, known throughout the West as an unscrupulous robber and chief of a band of road agents, whose depredations had been characterized by audacity and success.

Brown was ostensibly an innkeeper, but this business, honest enough in itself, only veiled the man's real trade, in which he defied alike the laws of honesty and of his country. The other was by turns a gentleman of property, a merchant, a cattle owner, or a speculator, in all of which characters he acted excellently, and succeeded in making the acquaintance of men whom he designed to rob.

The two men wore a sober look. In their business, as in those more legitimate, there are good times and dull times, and of late they had not succeeded.

"I want some money, captain," said Brown, sullenly, laying down a black pipe, which he had been smoking.

"So do I, Brown," answered Warner, as we will continue to call him.

"It's a dry time with me."

"You don't understand me, captain," continued Brown. "I want you to give me some money."

"First you must tell me where I am to get it," answered Warner, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Do you mean to say you have no money?" asked Brown, frowning.

"How should I have?"