"

"You'll laugh if I tell you," chuckled the other. "One day in reading
about how some musty old professors are digging out all sorts of weighty
treasures belonging to bygone days over in. Egypt, I chanced to learn
how a certain Arab contracted to excavate a big stone weighing ever so
many tons, and which the learned savant could not see how they were ever
going to get out of the deep hole. Well, that Arab just kept filling up
the hole, and lifting the stone inch by inch. When he finished there
was no hole, but the great rock stood on level ground. And that, Steve,
they say is old-time mechanical engineering, which has never been beaten
in these modern days. The Pyramids were built in that simple way. Human
lives and labor counted for little in those old times."

"All I can say is, Max, it takes you to apply whatever you read to
working out your own problems. But however are we going to get this man
back to the cabin! Must we build a litter and carry him?"

Robert seemed to be suffering from something more than physical anguish.
A tortured mind can stab even more keenly than painful bodily wounds.
Lying there and facing possible death, Robert Chase had evidently seen a
great light. He beckoned to the boys to bend over him, and then in a
weak voice went on to say:

"I don't know just how badly I'm hurt, young fellows, but I do know that
I'm done with this miserable business. I've got just what I deserve, and
it may be the best thing that ever happened to me. During the time I lay
here and had my senses, I've made up my mind to ask my cousin Roland to
forgive me, and let me make amends for the evil I've tried to do. I know
now that it doesn't pay in the long run, for I've come near losing all
my self-respect. Yes, get me to the camp, if you can. I want to face the
music, and have it over with. Something seems to tell me that the boy
isn't the one to hold a grudge against a chap who's been punished
already for doing an evil deed."

That sort of talk pleased Max immensely. He saw that Robert Chase must
have been having a terrible conflict between his better nature and the
insatiate craving for wealth; and now that a wise Providence had stepped
in to nip all his plots in the bud, why things began to look very bright
all around.

It was found that with one of the boys on either side, Robert could
manage to walk fairly well, although they often had to stop and let him
rest.

It took them a full two hours to get back t