Something misty came into the eyes of the dark-haired lad.
“Merriwell,” he said, huskily, “I’d be an ungrateful churl not to appreciate such kindness!”
“It’s all right, old man; it’s what I’d wish another to do for me were I in your place.”
“It’s exactly what you would not accept from another. I know that. You put me in this position without my consent. Now I owe you all that money.”
“Forget it!”
“That’s easy to say, but it’s not easy to do. Now you are going back to college, and what’s to become of me? I am left!”
“I tell you that you are going with me.”
“No; I have no love for any of your Yale friends. Of course I was sorry that I failed to finish my course and graduate. It’s too late now. I tell you my mother has given me up. That makes it impossible for me to return to college. She was paying my way. Now there is no one to furnish me with money, and I am as bad off as you were when you lost your fortune.”
“Bart, I’ve been thinking of something lately. You know all about our discovery of the lost fortune in the Utah Desert.”
“I know all about your discovery of it, and I know no other person had a hand in it.”