Dean Wolcott said he did not believe he was the lonesome kind. He was enjoying the five-hour drive enormously. The scenery was oddly satisfying to him--now along a rocky and precipitous coast, now on a bleakly barren hillside, and the sea shone with the colors of an abalone shell; it made him think a little of Italy. And--just as he had adjusted his mind to rigor and stern plainness--the road turned inland to lush and lavish beauty--redwood trees mounting nobly, deep carpeting of ferns, streams, wild flowers, enchanting sudden vistas of the distant sea. They toiled gaspingly up the Serra grade and rushed down the other side with hurtling speed; they stopped at every ranch gate with mail and papers and parcel post and held leisurely converse with unhurried men and women; they left the Little Sur country behind and forged on through changing loveliness, now in the muted sunshine, now in green shadow. The stage driver looked at his watch. “Going to make it by five, like I told you we would,” he said with satisfaction. “Look--there’s Pfeiffer’s!” They made a last sharp turn and swung into the yard. “And there’s the doc’, come to meet you!” Dr. Gurney Mayfield was clambering out of an ancient surrey and he secured a weary-looking, putty-colored horse to the fence before he hurried over to meet the newcomer. “Well, _well_, my dear boy, but it’s good to see you--_here_!” he twinkled at him. “Pardon my not coming right over but I had to tie Sam; he may look as if he had the sleeping sickness but he’d be off for camp the minute my back was turned. Now, let’s have a look at you, Dean!” His keen eyes went competently over him. “Feel as fit as you look?” “Absolutely.” “Ready for the rough stuff?” “Quite.” “Good!-- You’re going to have plenty of it. Well, did you enjoy the work, the training?” “Enormously, Doctor! It’s made me as hard as nails; exactly what I needed.” He was crisp and brisk and confident; his color was wholesome, emphasized just now by a flush of sunburn after his long day’s ride, and his eyes were steady. “You have been no end kind, Doctor; I was amazed at your being able to fix it up for me here.”