"Miss Seldon, I can tell you what you must know sooner or later about your father, who, let me say, was also my friend," said Doctor Dick.
It seemed hard that, in the joy of her release from captivity in the hands of the outlaws, Celeste Seldon should feel the blow of knowing that the unfortunate Bernard Brandon had been captured and she would have to pay a ransom for him, while she also had to suffer still further in learning what was her father's fate, as told her by Doctor Dick.
It had been a long time since she had seen her father, the last time when she was a little girl, and she remembered that he had left home under a cloud, and she had never expected to see him again.
With her mother dead, and her father a fugitive wanderer, she had been sent by her guardian, left so by the wishes of her parents, to a Northern school, and there had had no one upon whom to lean.
At the words and tone of Doctor Dick, she nerved herself to bear the worst; and asked calmly:
"What have you to tell me, Doctor Dick?"
"Of your father."
"You knew him?"
"Yes, for, though my senior in years, we were devoted friends."
"Have you seen him since coming West?"