"I'm as glad as if some of the luck was mine. You say I've squared accounts, an' that's enough to make me feel mighty good. Of course, you'll have to hire breaker boys, an' I'd like a job at the new mine, 'cause it ain't likely things here'll be very pleasant for me."
"Fred an' me have figgered out a place for you, lad," the old miner replied, as he took Skip's hand in his. "Our mine won't be open for two or three months, an' durin' that time the firm are goin' to send you to school. When the store is opened—for, of course, we'll need one—you're to go into it, an' the day Skip Miller can take hold of the accounts he's goin' to have full charge."
The ex-captain of the regulators looked from one to the other in silence several seconds, and then he asked, in a hesitating way:
"You ain't makin' fun of a feller, eh?"
"Not a bit of it, lad, an' if you run over to Blacktown to-morrow an' ask Mr. Hunter he'll show that the money has been paid for your schooling."
Skip did not trust himself to reply, but after shaking each of his friends by the hand he hurriedly left the house, and Chunky, who entered a few moments later, said to Fred:
"I reckon Skip wishes he was you. I met him jest now, an' he was cryin' reg'lar tears, an' wouldn't stop to listen when I told him the fellers had chose me for captain."
Nothing was seen of either Mr. Wright or his cashier until nearly two weeks after the case had been ended, and then the former called at Mrs. Byram's cottage to offer his "congratulations."
"It is not well that there should be any hard feelings between us since we are to be neighbors," he said. "What I did was in the interests of the company which I represent, and any other course would have been impossible."
To this remark Fred made no reply; but he was willing to be on apparently friendly terms with the superintendent, which was more than can be said of the elder partners.