"Most considerate, I'm sure. What have you been up to, to make you so thoughtful of the old man?
"They have run up against the Great Puzzle, sir, as we knew they must sooner or later," said Eager. "They came in to me at ten o'clock last night to ask if I could enlighten them, and I have told them all we know."
"So!" And he absorbed his snuff and stared intently at the boys. . . . "And how do you feel about it?"
"We feel bad, sir," said Jack. "But apparently there is no way out of the tangle."
"We've been trying to find one for the last twenty years," said the old man grimly. "How did it come to you?"
"Ah! I'm surprised at Deseret," he said, when he had heard the story. "He's old enough to know how to hold his tongue."
"How are things shaping? Have they made up their minds to fight?" he asked. And Eager, at all events, knew how that great question bore upon the smaller.
"I think there is no doubt about it, sir," said Jack. "There is talk of some of our men going out almost at once."
"And you are both set on going?"
"Yes, sir"--very heartily from both of them.