“Then he was presuming,” his father said. “Talking about the Rocky Mountains it reminds me that I was talking with Archie on my way home on the train and I was telling him about this idiotic thing that Mr. Temple had planned for you and this Rushmore man, and he thought, as I do, that it’s a perfectly ridiculous idea for two such young boys as you and Artie Van Arlen to go in that wild country, accompanied only by this perfect stranger whom even Mr. Temple knows little about. Archie remarked that he thought perhaps he might take a longer vacation next summer and visit the Rockies himself. A nice, steady young man like that is well deserving of some recreation when he works as faithfully as he does the year round. “Now,” Mr. Martin continued, “if a sensible person like Captroop was to accompany you, why I might make allowances!” “That would be better than missing it altogether, Wes,” his sister Doris remarked. “It wouldn’t be fair to Artie though, after him saving my life like he did,” Westy chokingly remarked. “It would be more fair to the boy not to ask him, after what has just happened, and allow him to take any more risks in your interests. You can go if you decide wisely and ask Archie; he can look out for you best. Think it over!” That night as Westy lay in his bed the thoughts flashed like code messages in his brain and he wondered.... CHAPTER XIII—WESTY MAKES A DECISION Two weeks had passed by and still Artie was unable to return to school. His foot was slow in mending and he still limped about painfully. “I ought to be able to get out by spring at least,” he called cheerfully to Westy, who was on his way home from school. “Aw, don’t get discouraged, Art,” Westy returned feelingly, as he walked up to the Van Arlen residence and seated himself alongside of Artie in the porch swing. “You’ll be out before Thanksgiving, I bet.” “Gee, I hope so anyway!” Artie doubtfully exclaimed. “Still, I’d be worse off if I was dead.” “Now you’re saying something!” Westy put in, feeling a pang of conscience, for before he had reached Artie’s home he was wondering how he would tell him of the proposition his father had put up to him. It wouldn’t be sporting to tell him now, he thought. It would be better not to tell him at all--that is not until his foot was entirely better and by that time perhaps he would have considered the matter thoroughly and decide to the contrary. Not that Westy had contemplated anything definite as yet. Oh, no! But he had pondered it over until he couldn’t think of anything else and was at his wit’s end between wanting to go and the debt he owed to Artie. He thought as he neared home that it was a bit of luck that Artie had not brought up the subject. That night, Mr. Martin again broached the conversation along those lines.