CHAPTER XX.
THE AVENGER.
HUGH told the coachman to go back to the hacienda, and to return for him late in the afternoon, and then went in with Sim. The doctor smiled faintly as Hugh sat down beside him and asked how he was getting on.
"I am getting on, lad," he said. "I reckon I shall be there before long."
Hugh affected to misunderstand him.
"You must pick up strength," he said, "or we shall never carry out that expedition among the Apaches, you know."
"If you wait for that you will wait a long time," the doctor said quietly.
"I hope not," Hugh said cheerily. "By the way, Sim, you told me you would tell me some of your adventures in the early days of California. I am interested in that, because I had an uncle there. He was ten years or so out there."