"May I ride with you, Miss Seldon?" "Certainly, sir, if you desire." "I have something to talk to you about," said Doctor Dick, as he entered the coach and took the front seat. "I shall be glad to hear what you have to say, sir, and I desire now to thank you for your very great kindness toward me, while you risked your life in coming out here to serve me." "Do not speak of it, Miss Seldon, for the miners all chipped in and made up a purse for your ransom, while they are now anxiously awaiting your coming to give you a right royal welcome, for you will be the first lady who ever came to our camp." "Indeed! this will be an honor; but do you mean that there are none of my sex there?" "Not one, only rough men, but with noble hearts many of them, so that you will be made to feel at once at home." "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." "When his bodily health was restored he left my cabin and roamed about the camps up to a week ago, when he most mysteriously disappeared. We had all the miners out upon a search for him, did all in our power to find him, but in vain, and what his fate has been is only conjecture." "And what is that conjecture, Doctor Dick, for I believe you are so called?" "Yes, I am known to all solely as Doctor Dick; but let me answer your question by replying that we believe the poor fellow has lost his life by falling over a cliff." "Such is not the case, sir," was the reply that startled the doctor. "Mr. Brandon is now a captive of the road-agents." Doctor Dick gazed at Celeste Seldon in amazement. "Do you know this, Miss Seldon, or is it only conjecture on your part?" he asked, when he had recovered from his surprise.