"How odd it will be, yet I have no hesitancy in going there, I assure you," and Celeste gazed into the face of the man before her with both interest and admiration.
"He is strangely handsome, a manly fellow, brave, intelligent, yet a dangerous foe, and I wonder what has brought such a man as he to this far-away land?" ran her thoughts.
"Miss Seldon, what I most wished to say to you I fear will deeply pain you," said Doctor Dick, after a pause.
"Let me hear it, sir, for I am becoming accustomed to being pained of late," and Celeste was perfectly calm.
"I was told by Harding, the driver, that you were on your way to Last Chance, to look up a friend who had come here on a mission for you, and who you had feared was in trouble?"
"Yes, and my fears were realized when I learned that the coach in which he was a passenger had been held up, I believe that is what you call it, by road-agents, and Mr. Brandon was so severely wounded in the head that his brain was turned."
"Yes, but that is not all, Miss Seldon."
"Ah! what else is there to tell?"
"He was under my care for a long while, and I did all that I could to restore his reason, except to perform an operation for his relief, which I feared to risk."
"So Mr. Harding told me."