"
"Don't recollect that," replied Dick, laughing. "George, I'll bet
you I'm gladder to see you than you are to see me. It seems so
long. You went into the army, didn't you?"
"I did. I'm here now with the Ninth Cavalry. But--never mind me.
What're you doing way down here? Say, I just noticed your togs.
Dick, you can't be going in for mining or ranching, not in this
God-forsaken desert?"
"On the square, George, I don't know any more why I'm here than--than
you know."
"Well, that beats me!" ejaculated Thorne, sitting back in his chair,
amaze and concern in his expression. "What the devil's wrong?
Your old man's got too much money for you ever to be up against it.
Dick, you couldn't have gone to the bad?"
A tide of emotion surged over Gale. How good it was to meet a
friend--some one to whom to talk! He had never appreciated his
loneliness until that moment.
"George, how I ever drifted down here I don't know. I didn't
exactly quarrel with the governor. But--damn it, Dad hurt
me--shamed me, and I dug out for the West. It was this way.
After leaving college I tried to please him by tackling one thing
after another that he set me to do. On the square, I had no head
for business. I made a mess of everything. The governor got sore.
He kept ramming the harpoon into me till I just couldn't stand it.
What little ability I possessed deserted me when I got my back up,
and there you are. Dad and I had a rather uncomfortable half hour.
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