“The journey is an expensive one. If you need two or three hundred dollars I will loan it to you cheerfully.”

“Thank you very much, but I have more money saved up than I shall require.”

“I see you are careful and provident. Well, Chester, I wish you every success.”

“I am sure of that, Mr. Fairchild. By the way, I hear that your old bookkeeper is in Oregon or Washington.”

“Who told you?”

“Felix. Have you any message for him if I happen to meet him?”

“Say that I have no intention of prosecuting him. If he is ever able I shall be glad to have him return the money he took from me. As to punishment, I am sure he has been punished enough by his enforced flight and sense of wrongdoing.”

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A GREAT SURPRISE.