“Then I suppose you’ll be leaving pretty soon?”
“Just as soon as we can.”
Both Lenning and Blunt fell silent. They hated to think that Merriwell, Clancy, and Ballard were presently to leave Ophir, and for good.
Frank and his chums had made many friends during their stay in southern Arizona, and, for Blunt and Lenning, at least, their going would leave a big gap in the little mining town.
“I hate to think of it, pard,” said the cowboy presently, in a subdued tone.
“Same here,” added Lenning, with just the barest shake in his voice.
“You and your pards, Chip,” proceeded Blunt, “have done a whole lot for athletics in this section of the Southwest. You blew in here, I remember, with pretty nearly everybody down on you, but you started right in and cleaned up on the unpopular sentiment. I reckon there won’t be anybody but will hate to see you pull up stakes.”
Frank was conscious of many regrets himself. Never would he forget the clear, beautiful days, the happy friendships, or the exciting experiences which he had encountered in that far-away corner of the Southwest.
“We’ve had a good time here, fellows,” said he, “but we didn’t come to Ophir to camp down indefinitely. We have stayed a whole lot longer than we intended. Clancy, Ballard, and I are on a roughing-it trip. The trip was originally planned for six months, you know, but it may be longer than that. You see, we’re missing school, and dad is a stickler about having me keep up my studies along with the athletics. Professor Borrodaile rather helped us over that part of the difficulty. He has become our private tutor, and when we do get back to Farnham Hall, we’ll be up with the rest of our class. Besides that, we’re having a whole lot of fun that we shouldn’t have had otherwise. I’m sorry to leave Ophir, but we’ve got to move—that’s all.”
Again silence settled over the three boys. Barzy and Jode, no doubt, were thinking of what they owed Chip Merriwell. They owed him a good deal, too, for Frank was a true chip off the old block and had passed around many of the teachings which had been handed down to him by his illustrious father.