"Remember, father, I went to Africa to find you."
"I shall never forget it, Dick. But you had others with you—your
Uncle Randolph, and Tom, and Sam, and Aleck."
"Well, I can take Tom and Sam with me again, if it comes to that."
"It is a wild country out there among the mining camps of the mountains."
"It's no wilder than in the heart of Africa."
Mr. Anderson Rover shook his head doubtfully. "And then if Baxter found out what you were trying to do he would—" He could not finish, but Dick understood.
"I shall be on my guard, father. I know what a scoundrel he is, and will give him no chance to get at me."
At that point the conversation was interrupted by the hired girl, who came to call Dick to a late supper. The lad was hungry, so he did not refuse. By the time he had finished, Mr. Rover had gone to bed, so his son also retired, without probing the Eclipse Mine affair any further. But it was a long time before Dick got to sleep, so full was his head of the suddenly proposed trip to the West.