"My boy," said the latter, extending his hand, "we hate to spare you from the old home, but I don't know
where I would have got a man to take your place; with you up there I feel just as safe as though I were there myself."
"Much obliged, Mr. Underwood," Darrell replied, looking straight into the elder man's eyes; "I think you'll find me worthy of any trust you may repose in me—at the camp or elsewhere."
"Every time, my boy, every time!" exclaimed the old gentleman, wringing his hand.
Mrs. Dean's usually placid face was stern from her effort to repress her feelings, but there was a glance of mother-love in her eyes and a slight quivering of her lips as she bade him a quiet good-by.
But it was Kate's pale, sweet face that nearly broke his own composure as he turned to her, last of all. Their hands clasped and they looked silently into each other's eyes for an instant.
"Good-by, John; God bless you!" she said, in tones audible only to his ear.
"God bless and help you, Kathie!" he replied, and turned quickly to Trix waiting at his side.
"Look at Duke," said Kate, a moment later, as Darrell sprang into the saddle; "he doesn't know what to make of it that you haven't bade him good-by."
Duke, who had shown considerable excitement over the unusual proceedings, had bounded to Kate's side as Darrell approached her, expecting his usual recognition; not having received it, he sat regarding Darrell with an evident sense of personal injury quite pathetic.