"Go back to your own work; go back to your own people."
The Boy listened and looked away.
"It's good to go pioneering, but it's good to go home. Oh-h—!" the face on the pillow was convulsed for that swift passing moment—"best of all to go home. And if you leave your home too long, your home leaves you."
"Home doesn't seem so important as it did when I came up here."
The Colonel fastened one hand feverishly on his pardner's arm.
"I've been afraid of that. It's magic; break away. Promise me you'll go back and stay. Lord, Lord!" he laughed feebly, "to think a fella should have to be urged to leave the North alone. Wonderful place, but there's Black Magic in it. Or who'd ever come—who'd ever stay?"
He looked anxiously into the Boy's set face.
"I'm not saying the time was wasted," he went on; "I reckon it was a good thing you came."
"Yes, it was a good thing I came."
"You've learned a thing or two."